Max Payne is a game that I always heard a lot about but never really knew anything about it. I didn't even know the developer behind it was Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind Alan Wake and Control. In 2023 I played through both the first Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2 for the first time and I loved them both a lot more than I thought I would (especially Alan Wake 2, which I would consider my game of the year of last year).
This got me very interested in checking out Remedy's past games like Control and of course, Max Payne. I waited until the winter steam sale and was able to get both Max Payne 1 and 2 for a total of $2.49. After playing just the first Max Payne game, I would say that was a damn good use out of two and a half dollars.
The thing that surprised me the most about Max Payne (which should be unsurprising considering what Remedy did with the Alan Wake games) was it's presentation of it's narrative. I had never known until I played the game for the first time that many of the game's story was played out in graphic novel styled cutscenes, which as a comic book fan myself I must say that is my type of stuff. It's wearing it's pulp noir influences on it's sleeve and while I had never dived too deep into that genre before (which has already changed because this game inspired me to branch out), I still very much could appreciate it.
The narrative, while nothing particularly mind-blowing, is entertaining from beginning to end and is really elevated by these graphic novel cutscenes as well as the performances. Everyone in this game is chewing up the scenery which makes every cutscene a joy to watch. James McAffrey (rest in peace) as Max Payne is probably one of my favorite performances in a video game to date. God bless Sam Lake because he knows how to write the most badass and poetic one liners that he makes it look effortless, and James McAffrey really sells the edgy and simultaneously cheeky dialogue that comes out of Max Payne throughout the game.
The combat is also a high point, with shooting action straight out of The Matrix with bullet time playing a major part in the moment-to-moment gameplay. The shooting feels very slick on PC and the weapons that you get throughout the game are all fun to use, I was using every weapon type consistently throughout the game as they all felt useful in different types of situations, which sometimes action games like these have a problem with making more than a couple of weapons viable.
I was looking at screenshots of Max Payne 2 and I'm honestly sad to see how different it looks graphically. This might be weird to say, but the cheap looking graphics of the original game are so charming to me and they really add to the pulp noir cheap B movie atmosphere with it's dirty low quality textures and the use of real life pictures for the face models. I'll truly miss it when I play through the second game.
Max Payne might be one of my favorite action games of all time. I love its combat, I love Sam Lake's writing and how meta it can get, I love the way it looks, and I think any fan of action shooters should play this game if you haven't already like I did.