Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2533 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Take 2
• Released on: 2001-07-27
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
There have been a lot of famous Maxes in our time, Mad Max, Max Headroom, Maximus the Gladiator and Max Load (as featured in lifts across the world) but none have matched the cool, dark, brooding, pistol-packing chic of Max Payne. This third-person action-adventure shooter brings those slow-motion antics as modelled by Neo in the Matrix onto your home PC, as Max fights to clear his name and wreak his revenge on the drug fuelled psychos that killed his family. The game begins with Max returning home to find his house is a wreck and his wife and child murdered. Years pass and Max is now a drug enforcement agent desperately trying to bring those who ordered the killing of his family to justice, but Max's partner is killed and he becomes the prime suspect in the murder inquiry. Desperate and with nowhere to turn, on the run from the police and the mob, he goes underground to find those responsible for ruining his life. What follows is an adrenalin-pumped action game where you get to shoot first and ask questions later. Max has nothing left to loose and like another action hero in a certain Roman related film, he will have his vengeance, in this life or the next. Developer Remedy Entertainment has used the kind of movie-style special effects seen in the films of Hong Kong auteur John Woo and the Wachowski brothers to create a unique gaming experience. Max will dodge out of the line of fire whilst still letting his target have it with both barrels. The Max-FX game engine can be used to slow down the action so that you can actually see bullets leave the gun and feel the recoil. All this graphical whiz-bang comes at a price though. Minimum requirements are a Pentium II 450 MHz computer and you will need a good graphics card to get the full Maximum 3-D experience. But if you have the power your reward will be one of the best-looking and fun games to come out of the PC so far this year. --Kristen Bowditch

Manufacturer's Description
New York City, present day. Max Payne is an undercover DEA special agent on the run. Since his family were senselessly slaughtered three years ago by a gang of drug-crazed junkies, Max has been on a crusade for revenge, out to get even. Now Max's boss and best friend--the only man to know his true identity--has been murdered, and Max has been framed for the slaying.

Max Payne, a lone hero against a horde of stone-cold murdering mobsters, drug-enhanced killers, bad cops, professional assassins, corrupt politicians, and things much, much worse. It's gonna be a cold day in hell before anyone can stop him.

This game is a completely unique third-person gaming experience enhanced by its cinematic aesthetic, and by revolutionary combat sequences set against the most convincing New York backdrop--at its grittiest.

Customer Reviews

You'll probably need the software update
I got this because I enjoyed Max Payne 2. Maybe I've become jaded but I didn't enjoy this nearly as much. With 2 I got completely involved in the story and the comic book style narrative bits were really good - In this one they are weak and I skipped most of them.

IMPORTANT: This wouldn't run for me until I downloaded the software patch - I could do the training on low res but after that it bombed every time. The patch fixed it.

Bloody fantastic game!
Max Payne is the type of game that re-defines the genre shoot-'em-up, Max Payne is an undercover DEA agent who is on the run, he has been out for revenge ever since his family was slaughtered. Now his best friend/boss has been murdered and Max has been put in the frame for it. This is the first game to introduce bullet time which lets you slow down the action so Max can take fire bullets at people and kill them in one fair swoop.

Glad I saw this again.
I played the demo a few years ago and liked it. What I normally do is put games on my budget list and buy them when the price comes down. For some reason this got dropped off that list.
First, I have WinXP and DID get a crash when starting the game but renaming the intro movie solved that for me.
From there it was just pure excitement.
The bullet time is as good as ever, the story even more so. I guess many people have already bought this who are going to but, if not, and you want a couple of days of fun for under £2 then this is ideal.