Dream of Waking

#29 – Max Payne (PC)

I was never really interested in this game, even though I know it had a huge following when it came out. I got it, and Max Payne 2, during Steam holiday sale. I’ve owned Max Payne 2 for a while but never got far in it and when I tried to install it recently either the disc was bad or it wasn’t entirely compatible with Vista/7.

For being nearly 10 years old, it doesn’t look that bad and the action still holds up. It’s a revenge story told in noir style with slo-mo gunfights. That’s pretty much Max Payne in one sentence. The slo-mo isn’t as useful as it is in F.E.A.R. because you move just as slow but it gives you a better degree of control in your aim. You can actually see individual bullets or pellets in each gunshot. Still, I found it was often the case where just running around and circle-strafing were more reliable than going into slo-mo as the enemy AI didn’t lead much when they shot and had a harder time hitting a moving target than I did hitting them standing there.

It’s about 10 hours long but it’d be much shorter for a pro. A lot of that time was spent reloading and re-doing some tough gunfights. I never found ammo to be a problem but I used every single health item there was. There’s no cheesy boss fights but there are certain character who can very obviously withstand a lot more bullets ripping through them than their common henchmen.

I’m loading up Max Payne 2 but who knows if I’ll get to it before I move.