Written By:
Date Posted: September 17, 2001

The Story

Yup, there is actually a story, and thankfully not one that involves key finding and putting together puzzles, as is the norm for 3rd person games. It is a little cliché, I'll admit, but at least it's better "than fighting space aliens and save the planet Earth" story again. The story actually begins near the end of the game, with Max looking over New york City after dealing serious punishment to his enemies. He looks back at the events that transpired that led him to his current situation.

Max Payne was a regular cop, doing his daily grind three years earlier. A buddy in the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) continues to hound Max into joining his team, but Max declines, citing he needs to go home to his family. Of course, being an action game/movie, Max returns home to find his wife and child brutally murdered by a bunch of thugs loaded on a drug named Valkyr. After dispatching the thugs to the afterworld, which you actually play through, Max joins up with the DEA.

Fast forward three years later, where Max is working undercover to infiltrate a local mob family. He's getting closer to the source of Valkyr, and unfortunently, the bad guys know this also. Thus begins the "real" game of "John Woo, action movie style" gun shooting carnage. Like many an action flick, your best buddy gets nailed, and as luck would have it, Max is the prime suspect. Shortly after, not only is the mob after him, but so is the police, and a mysterious group of government soldiers and spooks.

There are shootouts in the streets of New York, subway stations, temples, ship cargo bays, rooftops, helicopter gunships, you name it. As Max progresses through the game, there are still more double crosses, deceit, plot turns, and of course, blowing baddies away. There are even a few dream (nightmare) sequences thrown into the mix where Max relives the murder of his family. I'll have to admit, with the screaming and warped looking hallways, it was fairly chilling.

Prev Next