Playing Max Payne properly on a PC today takes a few simple fixes, but the good news is that it will run great at very high resolutions. And writer Sam Lake’s face, which was used as the model for Max’s constipated scowl? Still priceless. Nearly 15 years later, Max Payne is still a fun, challenging third-person shooter.
But it really made a name for itself with bullet time, which had Max throwing himself around the room in slow motion as bullets whizzed by his head. With writing like that, how can you not love Max Payne? Remedy’s original bullet-slinger from 2001 had the schlockiest, hardest boiled writing to ever appear in a game. A spreading labyrinth of questions, like a pool of blood spreading on the snow. I was trying to look for the answers, but every gunshot, instead of closure, was just a hole with more questions leaking out. The NYPD was trailing me by the dotted line of empty shell casings that I left behind. Pushed over the edge, I found myself in the cold no-man's land between right and wrong. The bad things came, like a winter storm. A couple of days ago it had all come crashing down.
