With a dark and snowy New York City as a backdrop, Max Payne delves into the city’s sinister bowels producing an eerie and often disturbing look into the darker side of human kind. And the game’s liberal doses of violence and drug use are a constant remainder of the fitting ‘mature’ rating. Despite the heavy body count that Max leaves behind like blood soaked footprints in a freshly fallen snow, the violence is kept in check by doing away with the recently popular trend of exploding heads and severed limbs. Make no mistake; this is not a child’s game. With that said, Max Payne is a quite easily the best shooter that I’ve played.

The story is about Max Payne, a framed NYC undercover cop, who is avenging the violent death of his wife and child. Max must find the killers, prove his innocence, and uncover a conspiracy that has its seedy tentacles deeply implanted in some of New York’s least<\i> glorious locals like subway stations and dilapidated night clubs. Does is it sound like classic Hollywood action film fare? Of course, and that’s one of the beauties of this game. Remedy managed to fashion a superb action game that closely mirrors what we have come to love from movies like The Matrix<\i>.

’Bullet time’ is a gaming first. The creative sprites at Remedy have hit the jackpot here, because this feature simply rocks and, quite honestly, makes this game. When the feature is activated, the game action slows way down, but allows the mouse aiming cursor to move at normal speed. The result is a distinct gaming advantage that tips the scales in your favor when facing almost insurmountable odds – which is almost all of the time.

Installation was a breeze and I was underway within minutes.

Max Payne employs the best graphics I have yet to see in a game. With the developers recommending a 700 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 32 MB graphics card for gameplay, it’s quite safe to say that Max Payne is the most demanding PC game to date it terms of system resources.

With the high system demands come super high expectations for graphic quality and Max Payne does not disappoint. Bullets are rendered as 3D objects, so that when ‘bullet time’ is engaged shotgun buckshot, for instance, can be seen sailing over your head. Although my favorite has to be when using the sniper rifle, the camera actually follows<\i> the bullet en route to the target. The effect is done masterfully, and I must admit, I had to replay several scenes, because I couldn’t get enough of some of the effects.

Remember the buckshot zipping past your head? Well, not only can you see it, but you can hear it also. The use of environmental sound effects is used to perfection to round off a truly immersive gameplay experience.

The comic book like scripted voice acting can, at times, seems a little over-the-top, but as the game plays on, you will find that it works well with the overall theme of the story.