The Spoon, revisited.
This time it was the 27th day of December - a Wednesday, and it was freezing.
It was the kind of cold that could make an Eskimo's teeth chatter like a well-used
telegraph machine. We were all shivering, but it was business as usual, and
business as usual meant not much business at all. We wondered if anything could
pry us from Old Man Winter's frigid grasp.
Then he walked in...again.
It was police officer (and publisher Rockstar's newest hit) Max Payne.
He stormed the massive GR compound as if he were the Allied Forces and we were
Normandy. He was spouting some crazed, insane babble about Valkyries, drugs
and being set up. None of it made any sense to me (yet it sounded vaguely familiar);
just the inane rantings of a desperate insomniac. But before I could escort
him to the door, he shoved me to one side and leapt into the CD tray of our
innocent Xbox. 
I wasn't gonna stand in his way. After all, the developers at Remedy say his
whole life was ripped apart in a New York minute - whatever the hell that means.
All we knew was he looked rough. Or maybe he just smelled something foul.
His face was contorted like
something hurt bad, the kind of pain that can only come from a diet of reheated
Nacho Belle Grandes and endless cups of 7-11 coffee. But even still, we couldn't
turn him away.
After our grueling adventure together on the PC, GR and Max were bonded
for life. Plus, the man was on another hell-bent, by-any-means-necessary (though
extremely short) mission to right wrongs. Max wanted revenge, cold and sweet,
but he needed our help...again.
No more than five minutes of gameplay had expired before I realized what Max
was babbling about when he stormed the GR office. Gorgeous and atmospheric story
boards ala comic book graphic
novels, complete with sequential panels and word balloons filled with pulp detective
dialogue, grace the segments between the intense action and graciously compliment
the game's gritty noir feel. Definitely a pretty way to present a story, which
ain't half bad.
The pictures describe the brutal murder of his wife and baby daughter, an intricate
setup for the murder of his partner and some new drug called Valkyr that is
plaguing the streets of New York. It's all connected somehow and has funneled
into a narrow, bullet-riddled mental causeway that is Max's singular
obsession...and now yours.
Once the initial graphic novel sequence passes, the first thing that immediately
draws attention is the mouth-watering visuals. The Xbox version is PC-perfect,
possessing nearly every bit of eye-candy that made the PC version drop jaws.
The adherence to realism and meticulous detail is simply amazing and the textures
are fantastic - they're vibrant without being too colorful to detract from the
game's dark, brooding atmosphere.
Plus, the level of destruction and incredible object interaction is enough
to make a grown man cry. For example, when a stray bullet bites into a wall,
the tiles crumble apart like a crisp Frito under the leaden heel of your neighborhood
game geek. And it's not just walls - paper, boxes, bottles, water coolers, glass
windows, wooden staircases - every surface and object reacts appropriately when
met with speeding hot lead. A true technical achievement.
While his visuals are outstanding, Max's gameplay is relatively status
quo for a third-person shooter. Most of your time is spent running and gunning
through virtual New York's realistically designed levels and buildings, dealing
hot projectile death with the game's multitude of weapons (from a baseball bat
to pistols to machine guns) and picking up ammo and painkillers from fallen
foes.
But where other games simply go through the paces, Max Payne offers
a new technical innovation that has to be seen to be believed. Welcome to the
John Woo-esque, Matrix inspired ballet that is shoot-dodging and
bullet time. These are two of the coolest and most stylistic features
to be introduced to the action genre since the polygon.
With a press of the left trigger or black button while standing still, time
is slowed down to a snail's pace for a few seconds, but moving the cursor and
aiming remains in real-time. The result is a beautifully executed tactical advantage
for you, Max, and the vendetta at hand. It gives you a few extra seconds to
dodge or target your foes. Move in any one of the four main directions (forward,
back, left and right) and press the left Trigger or the white button and Max
will perform the classic shootdodging maneuvers (jumping sideways and forwards
or flying backwards with guns blazing) that have made Hong Kong and now U.S.
action movies so popular.
A meter indicates
how much slow motion time you have and can be replenished by dispatching more
baddies. Both of these tricks are quite handy when faced with numerous enemies.
We just wish the odds were better stacked against Max in order to force you
to shootdodge and bullet time your way through more areas.
The end result is incredibly cool and leads to some of the most startlingly
cinematic sequences in town. Imagine entering a room with three bad guys, jumping
up on a table, then slowing time down as you leap sideways in the air, rotating
your body to unload a few shotgun shells into the bastards. Their bullets whiz
over your head (you actually SEE the bullets)....but yours find their mark.
The bullet-time ends, the dust clears, and the carnage has been wrought. Awesome.
I was concerned how the control would fare in these new console versions. Anyone
familiar with the first-person shooter genre on console systems (Half-Life,
Soldier of Fortune, Halo)
probably has a good idea how this goes. So it comes as little surprise that
the control in the Xbox version is not quite as simple as it's older PC sibling.
Payne is manipulated by the now standard dual analog stick control. Movement
is handled with the left while aiming and looking around is done with the right.
Aiming can be tricky and frustrating at times, though you'll certainly get the
hang of it. But it's just not as intuitive as the PC version.
The sound quality remains the same - not stellar. Often Max's voice
sounds like it's coming from some remote location other than the character.
Weird! Many of the guns don't have that bassy boom that commands your enemies'
attention. Max Payne could have learned a thing or two from the Xbox's
flagship newcomer Halo. On the flipside, the voice-acting is very good,
and, when coupled with the cool music, complements the dark atmosphere.
And then there are those annoying platformer elements. We don't want to spoil
anything, but man, is it lame. Frankly, we'd rather be shooting and dodging,
slowing down time and emptying clips into the well-modeled bad guys. The platform
bits seem thrown in to break the monotony, and it still feels like a waste of
game space.
Which isn't to say that more varied gameplay is a bad thing. In fact, it's
too bad Max doesn't offer more variety. There are no vehicles to hop
into and drive around New York or really anything else FUN to break from the
running and gunning (again, the platform parts aren't particularly pleasing).
It's just a straightforward third-person shooter...albeit overflowing with technological
brilliance.
Sadly, your adventure with Max will be over before you know it. It took
us between 10-13 hours to complete the whole game, which is a bummer when you
consider that the replay value is suspect. Completing the game leads to harder
difficulty settings, including the cool but tough 'New York Minute' mode, where
you have to motor through each level while a clock ticks down, killing bad guys
for extra time. It's pretty intense, but it's still just redoing the same levels
in the same order with the same sequences over and over again. And since there
is no multiplayer, you better get used to killing those NPC bad guys.
While not without its flaws, Max Payne is a must-have for any Xbox owner,
provided you didn't play the PC version and you aren't just itching to see Max
on your big screen TV. It looks simply unbelievable and the gameplay and control
is easy and intuitive. The bullet time alone makes it one of the premier action
games on the Xbox.
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