Max Payne Retrospective

Here’s part 2 of my Max Payne retrospective. I’ll warn you all now, it’s a long one, and there’s a good few spoilers in here.

Max Payne 2

It’s pretty rare for games to truly score points when it comes to emotion – besides raging over bugs perhaps. Max Payne 2 however achieves them in spades. Max Payne, the first game was by all accounts a depressingly emotional experience, and indeed, it’s the backdrop of the broken protagonist destroyed by the Valkyre conspiracy he brought down in the previous game. But Max Payne 2 eclipsed this – it’s a stony hearted gamer that could play through without at least one or two moments where it’s more than just a game. You care about these characters.

So, where were we? Max may well have lined the pockets of a fair few funeral directors in his previous escapade, but contrary to his statements in the game, they were not all dead. Thus, the scene is set for another path of total destruction across Noir York when Max chances across the woman he thought dead, Mona Sax, at the scene of an attack by a mysterious group of armed “cleaners” who are gradually revealed as part of a civil war within the group responsible for the previous game’s conspiracy. For all his attempts to escape his past, fate has another course planned.

The story telling techniques for the most part are identical to Max Payne; though arguably this time are supported by a far stronger set of voice overs, including the return of James McCaffrey as the excellent voice of Max. This time round however, each of the characters is as strongly developed as Max, particularly Mona who takes the centre stage alongside him, also becoming a playable character in some excellent sequences during the game – more on those later. All the voice work perfectly compliments the emotional heights of the plot and script.

The Max of the first game was driven by a singular goal: Revenge. Revenge on those responsible for the drug that destroyed his life and love. Though spectacularly well developed compared to most characters, his character in Max Payne 2 is given a life of its own; Max searches desperately for a sense of his own life. The bullet hole where his wife and child once belonged could never be resolved by revenge alone. Desperation clouds his judgement, but is the adrenaline that keeps him going. His love for Mona is both the cure and cancer. In seeking her love, he dooms himself to his fate.

Mona is similarly well developed: Possibly one of gamings great, underrated female protagonists. Unlike Max, Mona understands everything that is going on; and hers is the last and most tragic conspiracy to be revealed: That she must kill Max. Yet like Max, she seeks love, and escape from the world of violence and cloaked daggers that surrounds them both. She’s also incredibly well presented; she’s sexy (oh so, very sexy), but not an overt objective desire. Max, and I myself, saw the allure in her tragedy; the escape from the brutal reality of the story doomed to fall.

The betrayal in game is one of veritable Darth Vader proportions. When it finally hits, suddenly everything falls into place. It makes sense right back to the very moment you met them in the first game. Vlad Lem is in the right place, at the right time, every time. But he’s so innocuous, and apparently external to the power play that his true position within the conspiracy seems impossible, and until you are told the truth, unthinkable. His dialogue is the big give away, yet the wool over your eyes. The best gaming comparison is perhaps Atlas in Bioshock, only it’s “Max! My dearest friend” as opposed to “Would you kindly…” that acts as the dagger always an inch behind you. And more so than with Atlas, to have Vlad turn on me genuinely wrenches.

Supported by a cast of such multi-dimensional characters, the plot was always going to excel. It took what made Max Payne great in terms of plot – memorable lines, characters, and twists, and adds levels of complexity which truly compares with any great film or piece of literature. Max’s desperate crawl to salvation is depressing, but utterly compelling. The final result – with everyone really dead this time bar Max and the stalwart Jim Bravura seems destined to occur: For Max to find real happiness at the end of it all was always fated to fail. The betrayal, Max’s desperate search for love and resolution, and the final collapse of everything good or bad in his life at the end is above and beyond, one of the finest and heart wrenching climaxes in gaming.

For all my somewhat pretentious, somewhat self-indulgent rambling, I suppose I’ve not said much about the game itself yet. I could quite simply say that it improved on what made the original great. And it does. But there’s a lot of nice features that did this. First up would be the physics. Anyone who played Max Payne 2 all 5 years ago will remember that first hood that you encounter – bullets ripping through him, body jerking realistically with the impact of each round, collapsing into a stack of utensils, which also proceed to fall apart around him, in slow motion. It’s a gaming memory that always sticks. And developers still haven’t really got physics quite this right in a game to date in my opinion. Yes. Even Half-Life 2. The key thing is the degree of clutter littering basically every level. The original allowed for carnage of an unprecedented scale on the environments, but with Havok physics, the sequel allowed you to absolutely tear a room to pieces. It’s that aspect of Max Payne 2 that gave it an aura of realism that I don’t think has been quite bettered in many respects.

Next, a major improvement as I see it, is vastly superior level design. It still suffered from the numerous locked door issues Max Payne did, but this time round it’s not quite so noticeable, and the environments feel far more realistic and less forced. And there’s some excellent highlights – examples including racing around a construction yard taking down snipers pinning Max down as Mona for one, or desperately trying to reach the bottom floor of a rich apartment block in another. Another particularly interesting and entertaining area is Mona’s amusement park hide out that is excellently visited and revisited, gradually falling further and further apart with each one. Finally, Enemies aren’t quite as likely to seemingly drop from nowhere – and there’s a lot more audio cues when they are just around corners, resulting in less quicksaving headaches than before.

There’s some other tweaks: Bullet time is improved; controls are even more intuitive – allowing you to stay on the floor firing after a dive for example, as well as giving you a secondary attack for melee blows or grenade throwing. A slew of new weapons, including the infinitely fun MP5 further add to the action and far superior AI both challenges and impresses. I also love your ability to knock enemies over with a dive or by throwing yourself through a door they’re behind, adding more tactical options to the mix. The result of all these little and large improvements are quite simply, some even more spectacular gun fights that really are as intense as any bleeding edge release.

On the whole, Max Payne 2 was not only a solid sequel, adding more refined mechanics and technical enhancements, but somehow also managed to improve on the originals already excellent storytelling. This leads me thus onto the final part of my retrospective look at the Max Payne.

Where it goes from here.

The plot:

Here is the major headache that any next instalment will encounter: They are all dead. Literally, the only characters from either game still alive now are Max and Jim Bravura, unless of course they decide that the Dead on Arrival ending where Mona lives becomes canon. Not a good idea. I’m not going to speculate what could be. I’m just going to hope that whoever in charge of the script has got some bloody good skill, and I wish them every luck with it, since I do think part of Max Payne 2’s strength was its ability to do away with introducing too many new characters – which would prevent the development of those returning. It’ll be tough to find a new angle.

What needs to stay:

Max’s narration; his constant nihilism and perchance for metaphor is essential. His greatest asset in winning the player over is his narrative excellence. I don’t think any would-be developer could forget this one.

Intuitive controls as per both games are essential.

Keep the violence as gritty and unrelenting as the first two – I worry slightly given Rockstar’s general relegation of violence to humour. In Max Payne, it’s far more mature than that. It’s not sadistic in the way it is in the likes of GTA or Manhunt. Maybe I’m generalising with regards Rockstar, but it is a slight concern to me.

Self awareness – Max Payne 2 didn’t have too much time for it, but it was a highlight of the original. More of this would be excellent, and I think it’s something that Rockstar tend to be effective with in games.

In general, I have to say I wish Rockstar all the luck in getting this one right. It’ll be tough by all means, but my affection for the series is too great to want it to end where it has. And something will (probably) have to make up for the movie. I’m not judging it yet by any means, but it’s a game-to-film. Hoping for a miracle is perhaps a little rash.

Max Payne Retrospective – Part 1

My opponent stands opposite me in a corridor of rusting cargo containers, we’re both frantically reloading for the next volley. He’s ahead of me by a split second and looses the first shot. As the barrel of his gun flashes, hot lead flies towards me, I dive to the right at the last moment. In slow motion precision, I make my move. A single shot to the head, and it’s over. Crimson splashes in contrast to the bright white snow, the hired goon’s corpse twists in agony to the floor. Such are the moments of ballistic tension that Max Payne pulls off better than any game to date.

So why a retrospective, and why now? Well, first up, it’s on Steam at criminally low prices, and I managed to score it and its sequel for £6.40 during one of Steam’s excellent bargain weekends. Secondly, the Mark Wahlberg starring film based on the license is set to hit cinemas later this month, and finally, news of a Rockstar produced sequel in the works appears to be picking up.

Released in 2001 after a somewhat protracted development period, Max Payne told the story of its titular protagonist; from the death of his wife at the hands of designer drug pumped junkies to the moment he finally takes the finger off the trigger, an obscenely high body count of mobsters and sinister corporate power players dead in his wake. Film noir and graphic novel sensibilities, laden with Max’s relentless narration of metaphor barrage drive the story, while slow motion gun-fu creates some of the most spectacular shoot-outs gracing gaming history. It was a grim, angst and death ridden tale of blood, betrayal and bullets. All to the setting of New York’s worst snow storm in history.

Max Payne’s story is perhaps unparalleled in gaming. The crucial plot points are unveiled through graphic novel style slides; oozing with Max’s biting sardonic wit. Excellently, you can review the story so far at any time by hitting F1, which is essential given the twists and turns in the plot. Max’s crusade against those responsible for his wife’s murder is a domino trail of death, destruction and desperation, each shot fired bringing Max closer to the truth, a new twist and adversary rearing themselves just as Max works his way up the syndicate. It’s a genuinely tragic tale. Max is constantly haunted by his loved one’s deaths; survivors guilt from this and the ever growing body count eating away at his sanity. Max is supported by a cast of superbly written characters; Lupino for example, a mob boss gone mad on power and drugs turns his gothic mess of a club into an occult den. The trail of letters, phone calls and dialogue leading up to Max’s encounters with the characters builds them up in a way which I think has only been matched by Bioshock’s audiotape expose’.

The dialogue is deliciously self aware: The dream sequences, though suffering from serious deficits in the level design department, contain one of my favourite pieces of dialogue in any game ever: Max realising first he’s trapped in a graphic novel. Second that he’s in a video game. Throughout – hoods talking about how cool bullet time would be for example, or Max thanking you for taking out the speaker spewing cheesy music in a lift – such touches are masterful strokes of humour, and demonstrate critical awareness of its own art that lift it above the tired machismo dominating lesser games dialogue. Simply put, Max Payne’s narrative depth and intricacy alone quite rightly raises it to the heights of gaming aristocracy.

Max’s brief critical evaluation of the game mechanics don’t quite do it justice, yet sums them up perfectly. Max spends a lot of time shooting, diving and causing spectacular explosions, in glorious slow motion, yet repetitive this may be, it never seems to get old. Diving round the corner, duel Ingrams blazing is only matched in gaming coolness by landing an M79 round smack in the middle of a bunch of suits, limbs flailing. In slow motion. Environmental damage, despite being pre-Havok is similarly entertaining. Bullets that don’t connect with hoods bleed plaster from walls or shatter glass. And at the end of a fight, you can’t but help to revel in the field of death you’ve caused. You’ll reduce Noir York’s snow white back alleys to a mess of corpses and casings; early on, a bank becomes strewn with battle scars and blood.

The control mechanics feel superb, they feel right. I don’t think there’s a third person shooter out there that manages to quite strike such a chord. I still feel to this day that no other third person shooter can best Max Payne in the perfect balance of kinetic finesse and total control. Max is right; you really do control his every step.

There are some minor detractions – some dodgy level design can infuriate for example. Some of the locations do feel somewhat forced; a maze of locked doors haunts some levels, and you do get the sense that the developers tried to squeeze as many corridors as they could out of some locations, leading some bafflingly unorthodox ways of getting around them. What do you mean the lift is out of order? They all seem to be. Why can’t I just take the fire exit? Enemy placement can infuriate, and you’re often given no warning as to when you’re going to come across gun toting hoodlums – and thanks to Max’s relative fragility, you do find yourself coming to rely on endless quick saving a little too often. It’s no chore to look past these issues when there’s so much brilliance to Max Payne however. You just can’t give up on it when the narrative is this good, the set pieces so precisely balanced and brilliant.

Max Payne nearly 7 years on is still a game any true gamer simply must have played at least once. It’s a benchmark in story telling, in games as art. Developers could certainly do a lot worse than to take cues from Max Payne’s strong sense of aesthetic flair, story telling and explosive action. If you didn’t play them before, they’ll prove as playable as any modern title. If you did, now is the perfect time to revisit them.

I’ll bring the second half of my Max Payne retrospective soon enough, as I’m now playing through the sequel. I’ll also spend some time looking to the future of the series with Rockstar, and what they need to get right in my opinion.