Max Payne is a third-person shooter computer game developed by the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, produced by 3D Realms and published by Gathering of Developers in July, 2001 for Windows. Ports later in the year for the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 were published by Rockstar Games. A Macintosh port was published in 2002 by MacSoft in North America and Feral Interactive in the rest of the World. There were plans for a Dreamcast version of Max Payne, but it was cancelled.
A sequel to the highly popular shooter quickly followed in 2003 entitled Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
Contents [hide]
1 Overview
2 Gameplay
2.1 Bullet-time
2.2 Max Payne (Game Boy Advance)
3 Creation of Max Payne, the Character
4 Plot
4.1 Main Story
4.2 Prologue I
4.3 Main Story Continued
4.4 Prologue II
4.5 Main Story Continued
4.6 Main Story Ending
5 Max Payne as a character
6 Sequels and spin-off
6.1 Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
6.1.1 Gameplay
6.2 Max Payne 3
6.3 Max Payne: The Movie
7 Mythological references
7.1 Norse mythology
7.2 Other mythology
8 Trivia
9 External links
9.1 Official
9.2 Third-party and Community
9.3 Mods
[edit] Overview
The Max Payne series has a major cinematic influence: the Hong Kong action movie genre, particularly the work of director John Woo, which features a great deal of slow-motion violence and gunfights, almost resembling ballet. The series is also often perceived to have been greatly influenced by The Matrix, but in actuality, this is not the case. Although the first game was released two years after The Matrix came out, this is a coincidence; Max Payne was already in development long before The Matrix became a household name, and slow-motion was a major gameplay element from the beginning. While the movie certainly influenced public perception of the game, it did not have a great impact on the game itself, although calling the slow-motion effect "bullet time" was probably inspired by the term being used to describe the similar effect in The Matrix. Max Payne is also said to have influenced Dead to Rights.
As a result of the popularity of The Matrix, the game designers added many references to pay homage to the movie. The detonation of the subway/bank door is similar to the cartwheeling elevator door in the movie. The "Killer Suits" (Aesir Corporation operatives) resemble the Agents; there is even a scene where they fire their pistols like Agent Smith. The start of the "Nothing to Lose" level is similar to the famous lobby shootout scene in the film.
The games' stylish cinematography and choreography is combined with heavy film noir, pulp noir, and pulp fiction influences in characters and dialogue. Rather than rendered or digitized cinematic movies for cutscenes, the story is told instead with "graphic novels" which are similar to comics and pulp fiction. Accordingly, Max Payne is rife with artistically orchestrated, often strangely graceful gunplay. The games are dark and noir-style, following Max Payne, a troubled cop with internal and external conflicts in a dark, sinister New York City.
Within the games, there are mini-plots in the form of television shows that the player can follow. Several of the shows are based on other, real-life shows.
Max Payne focuses exclusively on the story and single-player experience, so it lacks multiplayer in contrast to other contemporary shooters. As a result, Max Payne ranks low on replayability with some reviewers suggesting that there are only 10-20 hours of gameplay from it.
A MAX-FX level editor was also included.
End-user modifications are very popular within Max Payne franchise due to the extensibility of the gameplay system. The most well-known are The Family, and several Kung-Fu modifications.
[edit] Gameplay
Camera rotating around one of the Finito brothers dying in bullet-time after being shot by Max.The prime emphasis of the series is on shooting. Almost all of the gameplay involves utilizing bullet-time to gun down foe after foe. Levels are generally straightforward, with almost no key-hunting. However, some levels do incorporate platforming elements and puzzle solving. Ammo is in constant supply, as all enemies drop some ammo when killed.
Survival is highly dependent on the use of bullet-time, but bullet-time is limited and can run out if over-used (although every enemy killed by the player earns a little more bullet-time). It can be difficult for many gamers to get through the later levels without quicksaving and quickloading multiple times. This problem was often compounded by the extremely long load times for each level.
The game's A.I. is heavily dependent on pre-scripted commands. Most of the apparently intelligent behavior exhibited by enemies, such as taking cover behind obstacles, retreating from the player, or throwing grenades, is 100% pre-scripted. Thus, when replaying a level, enemies perform exactly the same behaviors each time. The only enemies that would dodge and roll were the Mercenaries (operatives in black ski-masks) and Killer Suits.
Higher difficulty levels were extremely challenging, especially the time-limited "New York Minute" where the player had to reach checkpoints before time went out (killing enemies replenishes time). Upon completing the game on "Dead on Arrival", Max is transported to the "Final Battle" where the player then fights with 20 enemies in permanent bullet time. Upon completion of this task, the player could view a secret room with various photographs of New York locations used by the developer, Remedy, as well as a picture of the development team.
The original Max Payne at times can be a highly difficult game. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, Max is extremely fragile and dies after only 5 pistol bullets, 3 assault rifle bullets, or 1 dead-on shotgun blast. Contrary to most FPS games, most enemies are actually more durable than the player character, with later enemies being able to survive 2 or 3 times as much damage as Max.
[edit] Bullet-time
In bullet-time,everyone moves slower, making headshots and other gunplay easier.The gameplay of Max Payne revolves heavily around bullet-time. When triggered, bullet-time slows down the passage of time to such an extent that the movements of bullets can be seen by the naked eye - it is a form of slow motion. The player, although his movement is also slowed, is still able to aim and react in real time, providing a unique advantage over enemies. This makes avoiding being shot easier and enables Max to perform special moves, such as shootdodges where Max leaps sideways through the air while continuing to fire his weapon.
Occasionally, when the last character of a group is killed, the viewpoint switches to a third-person view of his falling body with the camera circling around it.
[edit] Max Payne (Game Boy Advance)
The Game Boy Advance version of the game was developed by Mobius Entertainment Ltd, now known as Rockstar Leeds. Since it was developed on a far less powerful platform, the GBA version differs greatly from the PC versions and its Xbox and PlayStation 2 ports: instead of a 3D shooter, the game is based on sprite graphics and is shown from an isometric perspective. The gameplay features have remained mostly the same, however, and is actually almost exactly like the original, aside of the perspective change. The story also remained the same as in PC and console versions, though some levels from the original are omitted. The game even includes quite a large part of the original's graphic novel sections, complete with voice-overs. |
