Max Payne in 200 words

This was my first review. I hated it. It took me hours to write and I wasn't at all happy with the end result. Still, I kept going and now I can produce stuff I at least like :)

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“Hey” mumbles a goon, not sounding the least bit surprised that I’m lunging at him with Uzis. “What the hell?” burbles another, accidentally blasting his friend in the back with his shotgun. As a shooter, Max Payne isn’t really very good. The AI is pretty unconvincing, the levels fairly bland and the guns lacklusture.

Lacklusture that is, when used normally. The big feature of Max Payne is the ability to dive (literally) into slow mo at the push of a button. This is when the game gets good. The Ingrams, usually sounding like a box of paperclips being dropped suddenly sound like some kind of automatic artillery gun. (Note to self- find game with automatic artillery gun) The terribly unconvincing groans of enemies suddenly sound like the roaring of… roar-y things and your mouth will fall open in reverential awe.

Your mouth may be open in reverential awe, but your brow will be furrowed with hate for the (disappointingly short) duration of Max Payne thanks to its frankly brilliant story. The core content of it may be nothing new (wife dead, revenge) but it is told with glorious hand painted sections of graphic novel narrated with a razor sharp film noir script.

All in all then, Max Payne is one of the best games ever made. The bread and butter components are not all that amazing in themselves but the incredible story and dramatic slow-mo takedowns more than make up for this

90%