Max Payne (video game)
Max Payne is a 2001 third-person shooter game developed by Remedy Entertainment. It was originally released for Windows by Gathering of Developers in July 2001. The game centers on former NYPD detective Max Payne, who attempts to solve the murder of his family while investigating a mysterious new designer drug called "Valkyr". While doing so, Max becomes entangled in a large and complex conspiracy involving a major pharmaceutical company, organized crime, a secret society, and the U.S. military. The game features a gritty neo-noir style and uses graphic novel panels with voice-overs as its primary means of storytelling, drawing inspiration from hard-boiled detective novels by authors like Mickey Spillane. It contains many allusions to Norse mythology, particularly the myth of Ragnarök and several names. The gameplay is heavily influenced by the Hong Kong action cinema genre, particularly the work of director John Woo, and it was one of the first games to feature the bullet-time effect popularized by The Matrix.
Max Payne was ported by Rockstar Canada to the PlayStation 2 and by Neo Software to Xbox in December 2001. The Mac OS X version was developed by Westlake Interactive and published in July 2002 by MacSoft in North America and by Feral Interactive in other regions. A version of the game for the Game Boy Advance, featuring an isometric perspective but retaining most of the original's gameplay elements, was developed by Möbius Entertainment and published by Rockstar Games in December 2003. An enhanced port for mobile devices was developed by War Drum Studios and published by Rockstar in 2012 to coincide with the release of Rockstar's Max Payne 3. A Dreamcast version of the game was also planned, but it was canceled due to the discontinuation of the console in 2001. Max Payne was released for the Xbox 360 in 2009 as part of the Xbox Originals program, the PlayStation 3 as a PlayStation 2 Classic in 2012, the PlayStation 4 in 2016, and the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2021, due to the consoles' backward compatibility and emulation features.
Max Payne received positive reviews from critics, and is often considered one of the greatest games ever made. Praise was directed at the game's exciting gunplay and use of noir storytelling devices, while some criticized its linear level design and short length. The game sold 4 million units. It won a large number of accolades, including a BAFTA Award for Best PC Game of 2001. Its success launched the Max Payne franchise, including the sequels Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, developed again by Remedy and published by Rockstar in October 2003, and Max Payne 3, developed solely by Rockstar and released in May 2012. A loose film adaptation of the first game was released in October 2008. In 2022, it was announced that Remedy is developing remakes of Max Payne and Max Payne 2 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, with Rockstar publishing.
Gameplay
Max Payne is played from a third-person perspective, in which players assume the role of the game's titular character, navigating a variety of levels, in which the goal is mainly to survive, battle against various armed enemies, and reach a level's goal. The game's story is played out across three acts, each with a selection of levels that vary in environments, hazards and enemies and have a linear route that players must follow in from the start point in order to reach the goal. In some levels, the player must battle and defeat a boss character in order to complete the level.Players initially begin each act in the game's story with one or two weapons on hand, but gain access to a variety of other weapons as they progress through each level, such as handguns, assault rifles, shotguns, and grenades, with Max Payne capable of duel-wielding one-handed weapons for increased firepower at the expense of higher ammo consumption. Max's health is represented by a white figure on the HUD that slowly fills up red as he takes damage, where to replenish it, players must find and make use of painkillers scattered around the level or dropped by enemies. Alongside gun combat, players occasionally have to do some platforming and puzzle-solving in order to make progress in a level, with Max providing internal monologue that hint to players what they should be doing. At times, the game switches to a graphic novel-styled interlude in-between and during levels, in order to delve into the storyline, with the player able to revisit the novel to recall where they are in the story.
The game features two unique aspects of gameplay that impact how a player progresses in the game. The first is "Bullet Time" - an ability that when triggered - either when standing or diving to dodge gunfire - slows down time for a short brief period. Although Max and enemies will move slowly whilst active, players will be able to react to enemy gunfire quickly, while being provided more precise firefighting control in battles. Bullet Time is represented by an hourglass next to Max's health bar, which depletes when the ability is being used, and can only be replenished by killing enemies. The second aspect is the game's AI - while enemy behavior is scripted, the game's default difficulty, "Fugitive", is modified by the AI based on the player's performance in a level through each of its areas. If a player is doing well, the AI modifies the next area of the level to feature more enemies and fewer item pickups; if the player is doing poorly, more pickups are provided and enemies made less threatening.
The game story features several other difficulties levels: "Hard-Boiled", which increases damage taken while limiting health and ammo supplies; "Dead on Arrival", which limits the player to only seven saves per chapter; and "New York Minute", which forces the player to complete each chapter within an allotted time. Upon completing the game on "Dead on Arrival", the player unlocks "The Last Challenge", which gives the player a select amount of painkillers, weapons, and ammunition, and puts them in a firefight with perpetual bullet time against the "Killer Suit" hitmen seen during the later parts of the game's campaign.
Plot
is a former NYPD officer-turned-DEA agent whose wife Michelle and newborn daughter Rose were murdered by armed junkies that were high on a new designer drug called Valkyr. In 2001, three years after their deaths, Max works undercover within the Punchinello Crime Family, who control the trafficking of Valkyr. His DEA colleague, B.B., arranges a meeting between Max and his friend and former colleague, Alex Balder, in a subway station. While waiting for Alex, Max accidentally gets in a shootout with mobsters working for Punchinello underboss Jack Lupino, who are staging a bank robbery through an abandoned part of the subway. When Alex arrives, he is killed by an unseen assassin, who frames Max for the murder.Hunted by both the police and his former mob associates, who now know he is a cop, Max searches for Vinnie Gognitti, Lupino's right-hand man, in New York's underworld in the hopes that he will lead him to Lupino. Along the way, he breaks up a Valkyr drug deal and discovers that Russian mobster Vladimir Lem has started a war with the Punchinello family. After catching Gognitti, Max interrogates him and learns Lupino is at his nightclub. Max kills Lupino before running into Mona Sax, a contract assassin and the sister-in-law of Don Angelo Punchinello. Mona, seeking revenge against Punchinello for abusing her sister and not wanting Max to get in her way, gives him a drink laced with Valkyr. While experiencing a nightmare of the night his family was killed, Max is found by mobsters and taken away to be tortured, but manages to escape.
Max strikes a partnership with Lem, who gives him a tip about a cargo ship at the Brooklyn waterfront carrying high-powered firearms, which some of Lem's former henchmen intend to sell to Punchinello. After securing the weapons, Max attempts to lure the Don into a trap at his restaurant, only to be ambushed himself. After escaping, Max storms Punchinello's manor and confronts the Don, but discovers that he is only a puppet in a bigger conspiracy. The manor is then overrun by mercenaries who kill Punchinello and leave Max for dead after injecting him with a Valkyr overdose.
After another drug-induced nightmare, Max heads to an old steel foundry where the mercenaries are regrouping. There, he finds a hidden underground military research complex, and discovers that Valkyr is the result of the "Valhalla Project", a Gulf War-era military experiment to improve soldiers' stamina and morale through chemical enhancements. The project was halted after a few years due to poor results, but was later secretly restarted by Nicole Horne through her pharmaceutical company, Aesir. When Michelle accidentally found out about Aesir's illegal experiments, Horne ordered her and her family's death. Max escapes from the bunker after Aesir initiates a self-destruct protocol to get rid of the evidence and witnesses, including their own men.
Max, having figured out that B.B. is on Horne's payroll and framed him for Alex's murder, agrees to meet him at a parking lot complex, where he kills him and his men. Max is then called to meet a secret society called the Inner Circle, who have been observing him. Their leader, Alfred Woden, reveals that Horne was once a member, and asks Max to kill her in exchange for dealing with the charges against him. The meeting is ambushed by Horne's men, but both Max and Woden escape. Max arrives at Aesir's headquarters and fights his way to the top. Along the way, Max runs into Mona again, who has been hired by Horne to kill him; she refuses to do so and is seemingly killed for it, but her body vanishes. As Horne attempts to flee in her helicopter, Max severs the guy wires of the building's antenna, causing it to crash into the helicopter and kill Horne. As the NYPD storms the building, Max surrenders and is taken into custody. Outside, he notices Woden among the crowd formed at the scene and smiles knowing that Woden will ensure his protection.