Max Payne (2001) (VG)

Writers:

Sam Lake (story)
Sam Lake (screenplay)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Max Payne. A man with nothing to lose.

Plot:

A troubled NYPD cop is framed for murder and finds himself being hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.

Plot Keywords:

Framed | Murder | Nypd | Corruption | New York

Awards:

1 win

Cast

James McCaffrey	...	DEA Agent Max Payne (voice)
Haviland Morris	...	Michelle Payne (voice)
Chris Phillips	...	DEA Agent Alex Balder / Mercenary / Killer Suit (voice)
Jane Gennaro	...	Nicole Horne / Valhalla Project Computer Voice (voice)
Adam Grupper	...	BB / Policeman / Mercenary (voice)
Peter Appel	...	Deputy Police Chief Jim Bravura / Boris Dime / Announcer (voice)
Tye Alexander	...	Joey Finito / Virgilio Finito / Mobster (voice) (as Tye Reign)
Joe Dallo	...	Vinnie Gognitti / Pilot / Chemist (voice)
Chelsea Altman	...	Kyra Silver (voice)
Joe Ragno	...	Angelo Punchinello / Mobster (voice)
Joanie Ellen	...	Candy Dawn (voice)
Ricky Ashley	...	Captain Baseballbat-Boy (voice)
Victoria Pontecorvo	...	Bicycle Helmet-Girl (voice)
Joe Maruzzo	...	Rico Muerte / Transit / Joe Salem (voice)
John Randolph Jones	...	Alfred Woden / Butler (voice)

Country:

USA | Finland

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Germany:18 | Ireland:15 | UK:15 | USA:M

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Remedy Entertainment

Trivia:

In Part 3, Chapter 4 ("Backstabbing Bastard" Playstation 2 level): At the entrance ramp to the car park (from where you start), there is a stack of barrels and an air conditioning unit that you can jump on to reach the roof of the garage. Shoot the off-color panel of the shed there and it will fall away. Inside, you can jump on a grate to fall into a room with the graffiti "R* Thanks", a radio you can "use" to hear audio from the production team, and a sniper rifle with ammo.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A .50 AE caliber Desert Eagle holds 7 rounds, not 12.

Quotes:

Max Payne: [narrating] There was no glory in this. I hadn't asked for this crap. Trouble had come to me, in big dark swarms. The good and the just, they were like gold dust in this city. I had no illusions. I was not one of them. I was no hero. Just me and the gun, and the crook. My options had decreased to a singular course.

Movie Connections:

References King Kong (1933)

Now here's what an action game should be. (* * * * out of * * * *)

Now here's what an action game should be. Max Payne is like a tribute to such Hollywood action icons, such as The Matrix (1999) and director John Woo. This is one of the best video games I have played in a long time. Never in a video game have I seen such good graphics, great dialogue, and intense action.

At best, a game like Max Payne runs like a television marathon series. The game is separated into three chapters with at least seven parts each, including the amazing graphic novels.

The game has a promising premise: DEA agent Max Payne is framed for the murder of his partner, Alex Balder, during a robbery in a New York subway station. With his partner dead, Payne is framed for the crime and the robbery. The case takes a bigger turn with the flow of a new drug in the city, and the possibility of a corrupt organization's involvement in supporting the drug (known as Valkyr). For Payne, it's going to be a long night in New York, during the city's snowstorm blizzard of the century.

Max Payne is a dark video game, and the title hero is also the narrator of the story, and while Payne doesn't seem confident in his storytelling, at times, he provides humor during the narration. The game shifts us to the events leading up to Payne being set up.

There is a sad and somewhat unpleasant sequence where Payne's wife and baby daughter are murdered by Valkyr junkies. And there is the possibility that the corrupt Aesir Corp. may be responsible for his family's death.

Payne must also battle a trail of mobsters, security agents, and black ops operatives, who all want him dead.

What makes Max Payne a great video game is the graphics, which uses New York locations we've probably never seen before, such as a run-down night club called Ragna Rock, and an old seaport.

There is even a great chase sequence where Payne chases a mobster from buildings to a construction site, and to the rooftops of New York apartment buildings (Not in that order).

Payne is also given a cache of weapons, such as handguns, grenade launchers, and machine guns. All enough to start a war. There is even a feature known as bullet time (reminiscent of the action styles seen in the John Woo movies), in which Max is able to slow down time and get a better advantage over his enemies. And if you're a hardcore John Woo fan, you'll notice that Payne is also able to do that familiar double handgun leap in the air.

And while Max Payne is such a good game, it does have its minimal flaws, which is its lack of character variety; the mobsters (who resemble Joe Pesci wise-guys), and agents all look essentially the same. The body count, and the amount of bullets used are ridiculously too high. And sometimes shooting someone point blank in the head doesn't work all the time. I guess it's trying to follow that great tradition of the John Woo Hong Kong movies in which there is always a high body count and a person is hit more than once.

Not all levels rely on handguns and automatic weapons. There is a moment that I like where Payne is unarmed and he must fight through a hallway full of thugs with a baseball bat.

There has been rumors that Max Payne is being made into a motion picture by Twentieth Century Fox that will fill in the gaps missing in both games. The video games, alone, are perfect. Max Payne creates a hero, who, if not plausible (he does endure mega doses of violence, and manages to live through the cold, stormy night), is at least persuading as a man determined to find the truth and clear his name.