I remember playing it during a long winter, while it was very snowy, and as I finished the game weather also cleared. It felt like I was in the game the whole time.
@@gmorgcyborg been wanting this for so long as well. Hell just give us small changes and wrap all 3 into one game for consoles and I'd be happy with that. The first 2 I have on PS2 and they have bad frame rate issues when there's more than 2 enemies on screen
I have beaten this game like 100 times and on the ps5 I'm still playing it. I absolutely love this classic game. I'm waiting for it to snow again so I can play it again. Never get tired of it. Can't wait for the remake!
Heisenberg this game is the worst in the franchise I finished and still think this. the controls are shitty and level design is claustrophobic too. Story’s ok and that’s it
@@hamburgerdan101 story's ok... Levels claustrophobic.. well kid I played it on pc in 2005 and its a masterpiece... That's not my opinion cuz that's what the entire gaming community thinks and by gaming community I didn't mean the FORTNITE BR GENERATION...
This game was incredible for the time. It had the extremely rare combination of original and compelling gameplay, good storytelling, original and very well polished artistic design in all areas, excellent graphics AND sound/music, and it was even well coded and well optimized, so it would run well even if you didn't have the best graphics card. All of this from a SMALL developer which was operating on a tight budget. This was one of the single most impressive games I've ever played, and was the primary motivation behind finally upgrading my graphics card at the time (went from a Voodoo 1, which couldn't run the game, to a Radeon 7500).
man, I just realized that I've been watching you review games for about three hours straight now, half as a way of reliving old games I loved, and half as seeing if I should give others I never tried a run. what I'm trying to say is thanks for these reviews
and android, its the best port of the game since its easy to get running, just install and play, the pc version requires a lot of tinkering to get working, its a pain in the ass.
@ShadowAngel you never played the game on windows 10 for you to make such an uneducated statement, it takes more than patching it, you have to tinker with the control panel and also maybe cap the frame rate (a few games require it im not sure about max payne)
@ShadowAngel back then i used to use consoles like 90% of people, ofc i wont know about this shit, i started gaming mid ps2 gen...switched to pc during late 360 gen and recently switched back to console...
People remember Max Payne for it's revolutionary contribution of introducing slow motion/bullet time as a game mechanic. What most people don't remember was that it also popularized surreal drug/dream sequences with odd FOVs.
The most satisfying end of a video game for me ever. Also cant resist saying the most realistic feeling firefights, to your point, no matter how good you are you can not control the situation in this game and that is awesome.
This game probably has more replay value than any game I've owned, plus that psychological factor that you always believe you could have gotten through a level much more efficiently than you just did, makes you stay at levels a lot longer than you normally would in most games.
I still play Max Payne here and there, especially with the KungFu and The Matrix mods. It feels like I’m in The Matrix, in a John Woo movie. So awesome, I grew up playing and loving the series while playing some Acid House music in the background, and I hope one day they remaster the trilogy…
For the painkiller mechanic, it really adds to the narrative of the game if you're a first time player. You feel like you're on the edge as Max does. You've been shot up, beaten, knocked around with a baseball bat (play it) and you really start to feel like you're at the end of your rope. You have to kill everyone in the next room and pray to a nonexistent god to grace you with pain killers.
Man, I didn't realise that, this was this deep. Throughout, my entire playthrough of this game, I was like "haha! *Pain* -killers? More like *Payne* -savers".
the part i loved the most was the fun conversations you can hear the enemies having before you enter a room. you can see the love the developers put in this game (and fun they were having) from them alone. those were some people who loved noir films and literature and made not only a great homage to the genre, but a groundbreaking one in its field.
@@TheDennys21 no not hard the story is very captivating and can be sad at times. And some parts can be tricky but so satisfying. The pc port is decent and also the atmosphere is gritty and one of a kind
Brilliant game, i used to replay the shootouts over and over again the bullet time was so fuckin' cool. The nightmare/hallucination levels were terrible and frustrating though. Any plans to review Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2?
Serpico's Beard The nightmares were wonderfully atmospheric but they are the the only part where Max Payne tuly shows it's age with horrible slow, frustrating platforming. I have to look up a youtube walkthrough every time I get to the second dream sequence, doing arbitrarily difficult platforming while getting lost in a black void is insanely annoying.
+Serpico's Beard The nightmare levels were great, very atmospheric, psychologically intriguing and not that hard. Many of the later levels are much harder. Plus: there are almost never enemies in the nightmare levels and once you managed the plattforming and remembered the right parts it's fairly easy. But that comes from a guy, who has easily played this game 20+ times since it's release. One of the best, if not the best and most influental third person shooters ever created.
This was one of the first games i played and definitely the one that got me into the first person shooter genre. I used to play it so often that i remembered almost every single part of it. So thank you for the nostalgia trip.
Yeah I know, but that’s the thing, in games that are completely unrealistic on purpose that’s fine, but I always find that sort of thing weird in games where the only enemies are normal humans.
Uh not exactly, I mean he can survive multiple medium/long range shotgun blasts in the game, but if ol’ Max is shot point blank with just one, it’s game over.
I’m talking about the enemies, but oh yeah if you get shot in short range with a shotgun it’s goodbye, but the enemies who aren’t wearing any body armour or aren’t some bullet sponge boss, they can survive getting shot in the chest with a shotgun.
A game that actually makes you feel while pulling off such an epic gaming storyline. I played through the whole trilogy and i would recommend to anyone who wants a good story journey.
I recently replayed this myself, actually, running it fine on Windows 8 with the compatibility tool. The depths those characters reach, and the ride the story takes you along, continues to have this massive impact on me. In today's climate especially, their sheer guts in telling the story they had to tell, making the best from what they had, and then letting it speak for itself (if you've got the skill to get through til the end), never ceases to amaze. They really stuck to their guns, so to speak. Being one of the best trips down memory lane I've taken in a while, too, it reminds me of what a game can be, fully ripping me up from the daily slog of life and setting me onto this other level of experience. I'm sure that's why it endures. Max Payne 1 hasn't lost that quality whatsoever, and if anything, even enhances the later titles of the series with a replay. For newer generation gamers, it could be easy to forget how and why Max is such a tragic case and this modern-classic Noire styled character -- though it's not for the feint of heart, for sure -- it's also not like much else you'll ever see in popular fiction. As for revisiting after so long, technically and gameplay-wise (a few notes not in the review), I was still amazed by all the random junk you can interact with in the levels, like televisions, soda machines, books and games (or things npc's had just been using), vibrating beds in seedy hotels, switches and secrets, easter-eggs galore, and on and on, plus breakable and searchable objects. They don't necessarily do anything, but are still nice details and the whole game's full of them. Some of this stuff is downright hilarious, like the soap opera parodies you occasionally run across, but at the very least, each of these nuances still manages to seem unexpected and provocative. It makes every playthrough appear fresh, even if only by an illusion. For the amount of thought obviously put into the levels, any prospective game designer for sure ought to have tried this title at least once, and study it close. The keyword is effort, care, consideration, or maybe experience -- maybe immersion -- maybe, a high enough effort matched by a genuine care that added up to effortless immersion for you, the player, and so a deeply sensed experience. It's a near-perfect balance of these. In fact, as for the linear structure of the game, I think this design philosophy was the secret weapon, because it went a long way toward making that small slice of the city you actually see, _feel_ like a lived-in space that is connected to a much larger, real, dynamic and bustling world. This is a feature lacked by most of its predecessors and other games of a linear type, and even if one detail or another only tugs at the subconscious while not being integral to the gameplay, when it's so well considered as the original Max Payne, it shows and it sticks with you for a long, long time.
Amazing game, and your review does it justice. I always try to switch to the baseball bat after firing the M-79 at the mast, because Max keeps the last used weapon in the cutscene. I hope the remaster will do the original game justice.
I love a good quicksave shooter. And this game was the quicksave king. I played it recently and at times would replay a gunfight 3 or 4 times to get near perfect. On normal difficulty, one rifle bullet would take half your heath! Makes you master the slomo mechanic.
I know this is old but you forgot to add the fact doing the slow mo thing while dodging, when max start to raise his arms gun shots follow the muzzle trajectory. The sniper rifle had a cinematic that when shooting you could follow the bullet trajectory and see how you hit the enemies. And also is one of the few games to include the Jackhammer
Great review, wish you had mentioned the in game TV show though! I loved that stuff in Max Payne 1&2 and Alan Wake. Those little Lynchian touches of surrealism really add to the athmosphere and enjoyment of those titles.
Don't think you touched on this on the video, but the reason the difficulty kicks up so much in the game, is that yeah, the game has an auto adjusting difficulty mechanics, but the thing is, if you quickload after every death, the game doesn't consider that a death, and instead it thinks you're playing flawlessly, so it'll throw a difficulty worthy to someone who is flawless.
+ArfJason I forgot all about that mechanic. A lot of games around that time did that "auto difficulty" thing but it never did work right. I remember being frustrated as hell with games that did that. Glad they scrapped that idea.
Perfect review. I have the same nostalgic biases for this game myself, but I feel like they're justified if you look at the game in the context of its time. On another note, the fact that Remedy provided the actual tools that they used to create levels was stunning at the time for a game this advanced. Because of it, the modding community was pretty enthusiastic, at least for awhile. Of course, the first mods I remember playing were all based on the Matrix lobby scene.
Another thing of the game's linear pace is that it's quite big, so that if you take your time around rooms you can find loot that could do you useful or not, so I guess it kinda rewards the player for exploring.
After 2 days of watching reviews from this guy, it comes down to this single review of a beloved game. This has to be in my all time top5 games of all time along with games like MGS1, Diablo 2 etc etc. Let's see!
I remember how excited I was as a kid when I bought this day one and I found the mousepad inside. I used that thing for like 15+ years lol. Don't forget the nightclub with the Lovecraft spouting madman :D
I literally used the plot line as an English project and got a B+ when I was 15 years old, after I got graded one of the front row nerds told the teacher that i just copied the story and I got in massive trouble. So I fucking ratted on the kid to his parents at our school dance thing that he had been playing violent games without them knowing, dude got grounded for the entire year. 10/10 would do again
did you make connections between organised crime and congresswoman who got money through dope selling , using gang bangers, on her political company and Aesir corp's funding and used hoboes as rats and brainwashed killers?
Glad you reviewed this. MP and MP2 were 2 of my all time favourites. When MP came out, I was instantly wowed by how immersive it was. It looks a bit rough 15 years later but the gameplay still stands up.
+hohtari1 Maybe it's dependent on the last weapon that was used by the player. In most cases it probably still would be a sniper rifle, but not necessarily. But it's in the outro, in the intro it's always a sniper rifle, AFAIK.
The intro always shows Max holding a Sniper Rifle, whereas in the ending chapter it'll be the last weapon you used to either break the last cable or shoot the tower down. As such it can range on anything from Lead Pipe to the "official" weapon which is Sniper Rifle.
The only other games except Max Payne that I was glued to during my college days was Half-Life and Age of Empires II. The best part of the game was the ambience of the city - cold, raining or snowing, buildings that are old but not in disrepair, dampness in the texture. Then there was the lighting that almost conveyed the sense of warmth and cold based on the situation.
I can't recall how I found your channel, but I was hooked from the moment I saw you reviewed like all my favorite childhood games. Keep up the good work! ;)
The child scream coming to a crescendo used to send chills up my spine to the point that I hated the nightmare puzzles. The pink flamingo scared me as a kid
Wow, finally a new review Anyway, this is easily one of my 10 favourite games of all time as well and favourite TPS ever. Shame you didn' even mention the amazing soundtrack though. And yeah this game is very hard and I couldn't even complete it without constant quicksaving (which reduces the difficulty)
What a great review, you described this game perfectly. I've beaten this game too many times to count on the hardest difficulty, and the only REAL trouble I had was with that crazy fuck, Jack Lupino. Still a tough game though. I don't see how anyone could ever beat this game on DOA with a controller.
The entire series is on sale on Steam this weekend, and there seems to be a small handful of fixes to get it running nicely on modern systems (including widescreen). I think I'm gonna pick up the first 2 and try them out.
Bravo. You just made my favorite review. I only finished the game a couple of months ago and it's really a masterpiece. The only thing that I didn't enjoy are the industrials parts. I prefered the urban environment.
I just played this game for the first time two weeks ago. So glad I finally got it running on Windows 10! What an experience, already one of my favourite games!
We're pretty much the same on this one, it seems. The original Max Payne's definitely among my favorite games across any genre. MP2's pretty up there too but despite mechanical and technical improvements, it just isn't *quite* the masterpiece that MP1 is. I imagine where we'd differ, if at all, would be on MP3... considering I hate it.
DWTerminator I liked Max Payne 2 more. It was shorter but had higher production values, more polished gameplay, mocapped cutscenes and I also liked Story more. I didn't like Max Payne 3 because I thought story and characters were poor. Cover based shooting, QTE boss battles, on rail sections and limited inventory ruined the game for me. Not to mention long boring cutscenes that take control away from you over and over again and sometimes they lock the door behind you after the cutscene ends, which means you can't go back and pick up weapons. It was a flawed game.
3 was a complete disaster. 2 was far better in terms of its gameplay and production values, sure, but the story wasn't quite as tight as the original game. They did a good job with what they had but it felt really more like a sequel for the sake of "the original game did well so you guys need to make a sequel."
The adaptive difficulty only applies to fugitive mode and is a bit bugged in that if you quick load during the death animation it won't register it as a death and you'll get stuck at the hardest level. In certain aspects this hardest level is actually worse than dead on arrival. The health/damage balance is marginally worse in doa (top fugitive is same as hard boiled) but you get much less bullet time. There's a config file where this can all be tweaked, including switching the adaptiveness off for fugitive.
Max Paynes hit scanning was supposed to be like a regular person firing. Yes there shots lined up but it won't be 100% accurate. So Max's aim is more realistic. This is one of my fav games ever. So much fun!!! Game is very very hard. I played it for the first time when I was 13
I will post a video later but I found a way to break the games AI by not triggering the bomb and that animated scene of the three guys dying in your room. It's pretty creepy how the bad guys walk and talk not knowing you're in the same room with them at your apartment. I managed a way to put the 3 guys and the lady with the shotgun in Max Payne's apartment then when you leave the AI goes crazy when it does that sequence with your apartment exploding. Go back to your apartment and the old lady shoots you but you have kill her. You will notice the three bad guys staring at you and the AI doesn't notice you then the three start talking weird. If you shoot anywhere in the room the AI ends up killing them even when you aim somewhere else. The developers use a clever trigger system that looks like a stretched out artifact and runs 10ft so when the guys run in your room it suppose to enable the bomb once the door closes. It's like a mouse trap using string. The whole time the three guys and the lady just stand in your room saying, " YOUR DEAD, I SEE YOU, AND OTHER RANDOM WORDS." If you push one bad guy into the hall way he just puts his gun to his ear lol.
Xbox version was pretty good actually, what are you on about? PS2 version was pretty rough with it's lack of a quick save feature and dodgy framerate but the Xbox version, for an early Xbox game was great. Controls could have been better for sure but the auto aim feature helped with that. PC version is definitely the best though, can't argue with that. I actually liked the Game Boy Advance game, again, good considering the hardware. It was cool to see the environments that I remembered from the actual game in a 2D, isometric perspective. I was impressed that they managed to get the graphic novel cutscenes on there with full voice over.
@@Gggmanlives Considering you've been reviewing console ports recently, is it fair to say your stance on all console ports being automatically trash has subsided?
One of the best PC games ever created. So many hours, so many good memories. When is someone going to remake it with a new engine? So much potential to revive the franchise.
Honestly I can't really see Max Payne's influence on video games. MP's bullettime being tied to the shoot-dodge is so unique that any other game using it would just feel like a ripoff. Bullettime also doesn't really feel that unique to MP, either. I remember in the F.E.A.R. documentary they said they made the whole team watch Hard Boiled and The Matrix to get the gunplay right.
I switched from a C64 to PC when Max Payne was released, snow stated to fall when I took my computer from the shop to my flat, I played until 02:30AM up to the first nightmare level also we got the biggest snowfall in 20 years, I replay it every year.
I agree with pretty well all that you said. One thing I’d like to add is that, I find the writing to be so good that while your running around these linear levels, TVs, radios, and the grunts them selves have so much character that for me it just immerses like no other game. So I agree full heartedly that you don’t need an overly bloated open world game for it to be good. You just need a group of passionate, hard working individuals that want to put a great pice of entertainment in your hands. Much love to the Max Payne Trilogy.
@John It really depends what is meant by "proud". It's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it's a code-word for bigotry, but not necessarily, especially when it's a small country.
"He is like Frank "The Punisher" Castle if he had been a cop instead of a (USMC) Marine." That is the most accurate description of the character. Max Payne is what happens when the elite of our national PC demo scene first build a technologically envelope pushing 3D and physics engine. And proceed to actually make both, a tech demo of the engine (3DMark gaming benchmark suite) and then an actual fucking video game with it. Proving wrong Carmacks principled assertion that a plot in a video game is like a plot in porn, something to strew action events together instead of telling a story. As, according to him, that is of no additional value to the audience. Ironically, John Carmack was a part of Half-Life 1 development specifically aiding in the game engine side of things at one point, and he states that he can see the iD Tech 2 (Q1 revision) parts in the GldSrc engine sources. With which Valve and Gaben would confirm the results.
Because there were no plants, animals (besides rats I think) and natural environment in general. It was easier to make buildings tunnels walls etc look OK in 2001 as compared to natural environments. I remember soldier of fortune 2 was the first shooter game that had pretty good looking jungle etc
I still cant understand why so many people force old games to launch in widescreen most of these games dont work properly in widescreen image is stretched or hud dont scale properl which cause to have very small hud i prefer to play old games on max supported resolution with black bars on left and right
@@thisismyname5657 if you dont want stretching in 4:3 resolutions you need to set in gpu control panel scaling to keep aspect ratio and set scaling to gpu this will make game to run in 4:3 resolutions with black bars on right and left and have true feeling of old games :)
Max Payne - my favorite game of all time. I simply loved everything about it. The game play, the story, the comic type story telling, the music and the dark musical theme, the dialog etc - it was one of the few games where I really lived into the game (the only other one I felt the same for was Mafia City Of Lost Heaven). I have completed Max Payne something like 15-20times and Max Payne 2 around 5 times. Max Payne 3 I have laying around, but haven't installed it yet.
Actually X-Box port was near PC perfect. PS2 port was the terrible one due to the system's limitation. No I'm not trying to start a console war so chill out fan boys.
I didn't seem to notice any problems in the PS2 port. I was confused when he said it was a bad port. Although, I haven't played the game in years, so I wouldn't really remember much.
+Airjet2582 I am not sure how much RAM is needed for Max Payne, but I think the PS2 was not that limited. It was hard to program for and usually PS2 got decent ports. I think the PS2 would handle Max Payne just fine, if given to developers who know how to develop the PS2. The developers they give it to did shoddy PS2 ports. And remember, it run Quake 3 60 FPS and had a decent port of Half-Life. Max Payne is a masterpiece and would be great in all platforms.
This was my first PC game back in 2002. Super smooth with my Celeron 1.0Ghz, GeForce 2 MX 400 on a 17" CRT in 1024x768 resolution. I don't remember playing anything else this year. The ball of my mouse was so filthy! No better way to get into PC gaming.
+Hervé G. LOL those specs, and a ball in your mouse? We're so spoiled these days. Still love going back and playing this and MP2. These older games are better in their own way than the newer ones.
+Hervé G. LOL those specs, and a ball in your mouse? We're so spoiled these days. Still love going back and playing this and MP2. These older games are better in their own way than the newer ones.
I used to clean them for a living LOL IT work used to be simpler. But it's sure easier to install a monitor now than when they were CRTs. Holy crap my back about died the one time I had to setup a 21" CRT for someone...
I actually managed to get it running on widescreen. On another note: This game isn't just balls-breaking, it's annihilating. And yet through all the punishment, the sense of elation from beating each gunfight was a steady high that never felt euphoric.
Love to see you back! I keep watching your videos due to your experience in gaming and good vocabulary and grammar. You are not too objective, for a serious review nor too subjective, I don't get the feeling that you express you opinion based solely on your fellings about the games. Your constant flow of videos keeps you a constant and faithful group of fans. I suggest, if you find pleasure in posting video reviews, to also upload other genres once you're done with the shooters. This however is up to you. Keep up the good job! :)
I remember playing it during a long winter, while it was very snowy, and as I finished the game weather also cleared. It felt like I was in the game the whole time.
@Mark Gaming the nightmare sequences gave me nightmares lol. Probably shouldn't have been playing this game when I was 12
Can we please get a max payne remaster smh just update the textures.. better controls and we good !
@Mark Gaming bruhhhh I played it for the first time during quarantine, & played the nightmare with headphones on… talk about horrifying 😨😂😂
@@gmorgcyborg been wanting this for so long as well. Hell just give us small changes and wrap all 3 into one game for consoles and I'd be happy with that. The first 2 I have on PS2 and they have bad frame rate issues when there's more than 2 enemies on screen
I have beaten this game like 100 times and on the ps5 I'm still playing it. I absolutely love this classic game. I'm waiting for it to snow again so I can play it again. Never get tired of it. Can't wait for the remake!
I love the gritty snowy atmosphere that is present throughout the game
The rockstar port for andriod is also great if you use a controller or a nvidia shield
Glad they brought it back in mp3, way easier to play through lately than back in the day. Guess i finally got güd lmao
The controls remind me of Duke Nukem:Zero Hour on the N64. I love this game. I have it on PS4 today.
Would be a shame if they took it away entirely, wouldn't it?
its rly amazing and mesmerizing how smooth it was for this kind of game back then in the day srsly tbh its so smooth so wow
This game is one word...masterpiece.
This game is ass you’re crazy
Heisenberg this game is the worst in the franchise I finished and still think this. the controls are shitty and level design is claustrophobic too. Story’s ok and that’s it
Cosmic Blunder ps4*
@@hamburgerdan101 story's ok... Levels claustrophobic.. well kid I played it on pc in 2005 and its a masterpiece... That's not my opinion cuz that's what the entire gaming community thinks and by gaming community I didn't mean the FORTNITE BR GENERATION...
This game was incredible for the time. It had the extremely rare combination of original and compelling gameplay, good storytelling, original and very well polished artistic design in all areas, excellent graphics AND sound/music, and it was even well coded and well optimized, so it would run well even if you didn't have the best graphics card. All of this from a SMALL developer which was operating on a tight budget. This was one of the single most impressive games I've ever played, and was the primary motivation behind finally upgrading my graphics card at the time (went from a Voodoo 1, which couldn't run the game, to a Radeon 7500).
man, I just realized that I've been watching you review games for about three hours straight now, half as a way of reliving old games I loved, and half as seeing if I should give others I never tried a run.
what I'm trying to say is thanks for these reviews
+sprflyenya You're welcome!
+sprflyenya Hah, same here!
Yeah when i found this channel i was watching the reviews for hours ! Great reviews.
Likewise. Hard to find good game reviewers. Glad I found this guy.
I'm doing the same right now ahahah.
I love that Max Payne theme music.
Oh yeah, it fit SO well!
Instantly recognizable.
!!! THE FLESH....OF FALLEN ANGELS !!!
...I think I'm dying, I think... I think I'm dead...
D Sandoval
shit was fire
I didn't wanna know what had happened here... it was a not a pretty sight
I was in a video game. Funny as hell. It was the worst thing i could think of.
@@Di3mondDud3 *computer game*
There's a really good iOS port out now too. ported from the PC version.
Oh hey Larry :D
and android, its the best port of the game since its easy to get running, just install and play, the pc version requires a lot of tinkering to get working, its a pain in the ass.
@@milit4nt189 u aint lying, do u know how i can use ny xbox one controller or any conteollee besides the keyboard
@ShadowAngel you never played the game on windows 10 for you to make such an uneducated statement, it takes more than patching it, you have to tinker with the control panel and also maybe cap the frame rate (a few games require it im not sure about max payne)
@ShadowAngel back then i used to use consoles like 90% of people, ofc i wont know about this shit, i started gaming mid ps2 gen...switched to pc during late 360 gen and recently switched back to console...
People remember Max Payne for it's revolutionary contribution of introducing slow motion/bullet time as a game mechanic.
What most people don't remember was that it also popularized surreal drug/dream sequences with odd FOVs.
Ooo
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The most satisfying end of a video game for me ever. Also cant resist saying the most realistic feeling firefights, to your point, no matter how good you are you can not control the situation in this game and that is awesome.
This game probably has more replay value than any game I've owned, plus that psychological factor that you always believe you could have gotten through a level much more efficiently than you just did, makes you stay at levels a lot longer than you normally would in most games.
One of my favorite games of all time... I wanted you to review this so badly.
I still play Max Payne here and there, especially with the KungFu and The Matrix mods. It feels like I’m in The Matrix, in a John Woo movie. So awesome, I grew up playing and loving the series while playing some Acid House music in the background, and I hope one day they remaster the trilogy…
This nostalgia goes hard
@@AC-hj9tv For real, I’m hyped for the 1 & 2 remake from Remedy. I hope we get it so we all can relive our memories again
For the painkiller mechanic, it really adds to the narrative of the game if you're a first time player. You feel like you're on the edge as Max does. You've been shot up, beaten, knocked around with a baseball bat (play it) and you really start to feel like you're at the end of your rope. You have to kill everyone in the next room and pray to a nonexistent god to grace you with pain killers.
Man, I didn't realise that, this was this deep. Throughout, my entire playthrough of this game, I was like "haha! *Pain* -killers? More like *Payne* -savers".
the part i loved the most was the fun conversations you can hear the enemies having before you enter a room. you can see the love the developers put in this game (and fun they were having) from them alone. those were some people who loved noir films and literature and made not only a great homage to the genre, but a groundbreaking one in its field.
*Manly tears.*
What a magnificent game.
So good.
So good.
This is a true classic
This game got some very thought provoking lines. Max's constantly talking metaphorically, it seems like poetry.
*GASP*
I've missed you...
so much...
so much
Salokin Sekwah Right back at ya, slick.
Gggmanlives *Tears*
Man...I'll probably cry if i play this game again.
The music alone makes me cry.
Why? Was it that hard? :P
@@TheDennys21 no not hard the story is very captivating and can be sad at times. And some parts can be tricky but so satisfying. The pc port is decent and also the atmosphere is gritty and one of a kind
Brilliant game, i used to replay the shootouts over and over again the bullet time was so fuckin' cool.
The nightmare/hallucination levels were terrible and frustrating though.
Any plans to review Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2?
oh yeah, the bad company games. They would make a great review
Serpico's Beard I hated those levels too. So many lives lost in those levels. :(
Serpico's Beard The nightmares were wonderfully atmospheric but they are the the only part where Max Payne tuly shows it's age with horrible slow, frustrating platforming. I have to look up a youtube walkthrough every time I get to the second dream sequence, doing arbitrarily difficult platforming while getting lost in a black void is insanely annoying.
*****
hahah I had to do the same thing for the dream sequence levels. The rest of the game is a blast though.
+Serpico's Beard The nightmare levels were great, very atmospheric, psychologically intriguing and not that hard. Many of the later levels are much harder. Plus: there are almost never enemies in the nightmare levels and once you managed the plattforming and remembered the right parts it's fairly easy. But that comes from a guy, who has easily played this game 20+ times since it's release. One of the best, if not the best and most influental third person shooters ever created.
I never knew about the difficult level goes up and down
The mobile port of Max Payne is very good btw, almost nothing lost beside a couple of minor graphical effects. Played it on my phone last. year
I'm currently playing it on my phone and it's really good.
all rockstar mobile ports are amazing i have all of them
@@Airfryer208 gta sa on mobile is good?
@@indestructible247 It's decent
The good one for me are Max Payne, Bully, GTA LCS and CW
GTA 3 & SA are decent
And finally GTA VC is bad, just bad
This was one of the first games i played and definitely the one that got me into the first person shooter genre. I used to play it so often that i remembered almost every single part of it. So thank you for the nostalgia trip.
One thing I would say that isn't right about max Payne is how people only wearing shirts can survive multiple shotgun blasts.
It's a game, not a simulator. Saying that something isn't realistic is NOT a valid criticism.
Plot armor
Yeah I know, but that’s the thing, in games that are completely unrealistic on purpose that’s fine, but I always find that sort of thing weird in games where the only enemies are normal humans.
Uh not exactly, I mean he can survive multiple medium/long range shotgun blasts in the game, but if ol’ Max is shot point blank with just one, it’s game over.
I’m talking about the enemies, but oh yeah if you get shot in short range with a shotgun it’s goodbye, but the enemies who aren’t wearing any body armour or aren’t some bullet sponge boss, they can survive getting shot in the chest with a shotgun.
A game that actually makes you feel while pulling off such an epic gaming storyline. I played through the whole trilogy and i would recommend to anyone who wants a good story journey.
21 fucking years and still the graphics are just as I remembered.. sick!
I recently replayed this myself, actually, running it fine on Windows 8 with the compatibility tool. The depths those characters reach, and the ride the story takes you along, continues to have this massive impact on me. In today's climate especially, their sheer guts in telling the story they had to tell, making the best from what they had, and then letting it speak for itself (if you've got the skill to get through til the end), never ceases to amaze. They really stuck to their guns, so to speak.
Being one of the best trips down memory lane I've taken in a while, too, it reminds me of what a game can be, fully ripping me up from the daily slog of life and setting me onto this other level of experience. I'm sure that's why it endures. Max Payne 1 hasn't lost that quality whatsoever, and if anything, even enhances the later titles of the series with a replay. For newer generation gamers, it could be easy to forget how and why Max is such a tragic case and this modern-classic Noire styled character -- though it's not for the feint of heart, for sure -- it's also not like much else you'll ever see in popular fiction.
As for revisiting after so long, technically and gameplay-wise (a few notes not in the review), I was still amazed by all the random junk you can interact with in the levels, like televisions, soda machines, books and games (or things npc's had just been using), vibrating beds in seedy hotels, switches and secrets, easter-eggs galore, and on and on, plus breakable and searchable objects. They don't necessarily do anything, but are still nice details and the whole game's full of them. Some of this stuff is downright hilarious, like the soap opera parodies you occasionally run across, but at the very least, each of these nuances still manages to seem unexpected and provocative. It makes every playthrough appear fresh, even if only by an illusion. For the amount of thought obviously put into the levels, any prospective game designer for sure ought to have tried this title at least once, and study it close.
The keyword is effort, care, consideration, or maybe experience -- maybe immersion -- maybe, a high enough effort matched by a genuine care that added up to effortless immersion for you, the player, and so a deeply sensed experience. It's a near-perfect balance of these. In fact, as for the linear structure of the game, I think this design philosophy was the secret weapon, because it went a long way toward making that small slice of the city you actually see, _feel_ like a lived-in space that is connected to a much larger, real, dynamic and bustling world. This is a feature lacked by most of its predecessors and other games of a linear type, and even if one detail or another only tugs at the subconscious while not being integral to the gameplay, when it's so well considered as the original Max Payne, it shows and it sticks with you for a long, long time.
Amazing game, and your review does it justice. I always try to switch to the baseball bat after firing the M-79 at the mast, because Max keeps the last used weapon in the cutscene. I hope the remaster will do the original game justice.
I love a good quicksave shooter. And this game was the quicksave king. I played it recently and at times would replay a gunfight 3 or 4 times to get near perfect. On normal difficulty, one rifle bullet would take half your heath! Makes you master the slomo mechanic.
I know this is old but you forgot to add the fact doing the slow mo thing while dodging, when max start to raise his arms gun shots follow the muzzle trajectory. The sniper rifle had a cinematic that when shooting you could follow the bullet trajectory and see how you hit the enemies. And also is one of the few games to include the Jackhammer
Great review, wish you had mentioned the in game TV show though! I loved that stuff in Max Payne 1&2 and Alan Wake. Those little Lynchian touches of surrealism really add to the athmosphere and enjoyment of those titles.
Don't think you touched on this on the video, but the reason the difficulty kicks up so much in the game, is that yeah, the game has an auto adjusting difficulty mechanics, but the thing is, if you quickload after every death, the game doesn't consider that a death, and instead it thinks you're playing flawlessly, so it'll throw a difficulty worthy to someone who is flawless.
+ArfJason I forgot all about that mechanic. A lot of games around that time did that "auto difficulty" thing but it never did work right. I remember being frustrated as hell with games that did that. Glad they scrapped that idea.
+compmanio36 I think only God Hand did adaptive difficulty right.
I still remember playing this game on fall of max Payne on a rainy day. Story is amazing. Game is amazing.
I can remember looking at the falling snow, thinking wow - this looks amazing. :) The first game with real time slow effects..
Perfect review. I have the same nostalgic biases for this game myself, but I feel like they're justified if you look at the game in the context of its time. On another note, the fact that Remedy provided the actual tools that they used to create levels was stunning at the time for a game this advanced. Because of it, the modding community was pretty enthusiastic, at least for awhile. Of course, the first mods I remember playing were all based on the Matrix lobby scene.
I usually play this beauty every winter.
My introduction to videogames. I won't forget how scared I was when I wathed my father playing it on our PS2
Another thing of the game's linear pace is that it's quite big, so that if you take your time around rooms you can find loot that could do you useful or not, so I guess it kinda rewards the player for exploring.
11:44 Max Moonwalking forwards.
Happy 20th birthday, Max.
Do a review of The Chronicles of Riddick - Escape From Butcher Bay . It's a very good game .
After 2 days of watching reviews from this guy, it comes down to this single review of a beloved game. This has to be in my all time top5 games of all time along with games like MGS1, Diablo 2 etc etc. Let's see!
I remember how excited I was as a kid when I bought this day one and I found the mousepad inside. I used that thing for like 15+ years lol. Don't forget the nightclub with the Lovecraft spouting madman :D
I literally used the plot line as an English project and got a B+ when I was 15 years old, after I got graded one of the front row nerds told the teacher that i just copied the story and I got in massive trouble. So I fucking ratted on the kid to his parents at our school dance thing that he had been playing violent games without them knowing, dude got grounded for the entire year. 10/10 would do again
did you make connections between organised crime and congresswoman who got money through dope selling , using gang bangers, on her political company and Aesir corp's funding and used hoboes as rats and brainwashed killers?
I know I'm late saying this but it's good to have you back.
Wow, wasn't aware of the difficulty scaling, that really explains s lot. Great review as usual.
Glad you reviewed this. MP and MP2 were 2 of my all time favourites. When MP came out, I was instantly wowed by how immersive it was. It looks a bit rough 15 years later but the gameplay still stands up.
7:07 No they dont, I've modded the game, I've seen the files. They have a higher fire rate, therefore you see more bullets & tracers.
02:20 but... it's as sniper rifle, not an auto shotgun :)
+Павел Мастрюков he fucked up
+Павел Мастрюков It seems to be random, i had a grenade launcher on the Xbox version yesterday.
+hohtari1 Maybe it's dependent on the last weapon that was used by the player. In most cases it probably still would be a sniper rifle, but not necessarily. But it's in the outro, in the intro it's always a sniper rifle, AFAIK.
TENMAxNIEMA it can be a grenade launcher if you use it to hit the tower
The intro always shows Max holding a Sniper Rifle, whereas in the ending chapter it'll be the last weapon you used to either break the last cable or shoot the tower down. As such it can range on anything from Lead Pipe to the "official" weapon which is Sniper Rifle.
The only other games except Max Payne that I was glued to during my college days was Half-Life and Age of Empires II. The best part of the game was the ambience of the city - cold, raining or snowing, buildings that are old but not in disrepair, dampness in the texture. Then there was the lighting that almost conveyed the sense of warmth and cold based on the situation.
Ah memories. I remember playing this in one day on christmas.
I can't recall how I found your channel, but I was hooked from the moment I saw you reviewed like all my favorite childhood games. Keep up the good work! ;)
Damn great review! I need to play through this again.
The nightmare sequence still haunts me to this very day
Glad I subscribed, you play alot of the same games I do, and the sheer amount of reviews you have is pretty staggering
The child scream coming to a crescendo used to send chills up my spine to the point that I hated the nightmare puzzles. The pink flamingo scared me as a kid
Wow, finally a new review
Anyway, this is easily one of my 10 favourite games of all time as well and favourite TPS ever.
Shame you didn' even mention the amazing soundtrack though.
And yeah this game is very hard and I couldn't even complete it without constant quicksaving (which reduces the difficulty)
8:27
When you unintentionally describe Skill Based Matchmaking for a 2001 game review
What a great review, you described this game perfectly. I've beaten this game too many times to count on the hardest difficulty, and the only REAL trouble I had was with that crazy fuck, Jack Lupino. Still a tough game though. I don't see how anyone could ever beat this game on DOA with a controller.
Well, I have and it's golden.
ComYxCon4Gaming Beaten it on DOA with a controller?
APPLEtoFEAR Yes indeed.
ComYxCon4Gaming Lol, you deserve some kind of reward.
APPLEtoFEAR Nah, it's just my own personal achievement.
Just finished replaying the PlayStation version for the first time in over a decade, and it's still epic, fantastic game.
you deserve so many more subs
Thanks!
+1 from here
Gggmanlives Did you enjoy Finnishing this video?
This was the first game I ever played through in Linux via Wine back in 2009 and had it work flawlessly the whole time.
I don't think I've ever felt more of a need to make a sempai joke than with the return of GGGMan.
The entire series is on sale on Steam this weekend, and there seems to be a small handful of fixes to get it running nicely on modern systems (including widescreen). I think I'm gonna pick up the first 2 and try them out.
Bravo. You just made my favorite review. I only finished the game a couple of months ago and it's really a masterpiece. The only thing that I didn't enjoy are the industrials parts. I prefered the urban environment.
I actually started playing this game and it is definitely a kick ass time. Thank you backwards compatibility.
one the masterpieces of the 6th generation
I just played this game for the first time two weeks ago. So glad I finally got it running on Windows 10! What an experience, already one of my favourite games!
We're pretty much the same on this one, it seems. The original Max Payne's definitely among my favorite games across any genre. MP2's pretty up there too but despite mechanical and technical improvements, it just isn't *quite* the masterpiece that MP1 is.
I imagine where we'd differ, if at all, would be on MP3... considering I hate it.
DWTerminator I completely agree with you as far 1 and 3 go, haven't played MP2 yet.
DWTerminator MP2 is my favourite of the bunch, but it's true that its is nothing but an improvement to MP1 wihout any real innovation.
DWTerminator I liked Max Payne 2 more. It was shorter but had higher production values, more polished gameplay, mocapped cutscenes and I also liked Story more. I didn't like Max Payne 3 because I thought story and characters were poor. Cover based shooting, QTE boss battles, on rail sections and limited inventory ruined the game for me. Not to mention long boring cutscenes that take control away from you over and over again and sometimes they lock the door behind you after the cutscene ends, which means you can't go back and pick up weapons. It was a flawed game.
3 was a complete disaster.
2 was far better in terms of its gameplay and production values, sure, but the story wasn't quite as tight as the original game. They did a good job with what they had but it felt really more like a sequel for the sake of "the original game did well so you guys need to make a sequel."
DWTerminator
It's sad to see people like you with this binary notion of a game being either "amazing" or "terrible" with no in-between the two.
The adaptive difficulty only applies to fugitive mode and is a bit bugged in that if you quick load during the death animation it won't register it as a death and you'll get stuck at the hardest level.
In certain aspects this hardest level is actually worse than dead on arrival. The health/damage balance is marginally worse in doa (top fugitive is same as hard boiled) but you get much less bullet time.
There's a config file where this can all be tweaked, including switching the adaptiveness off for fugitive.
You know you're watching gggmanlives when you have literally 30 other tabs open of just his video's
Max Paynes hit scanning was supposed to be like a regular person firing. Yes there shots lined up but it won't be 100% accurate. So Max's aim is more realistic. This is one of my fav games ever. So much fun!!! Game is very very hard. I played it for the first time when I was 13
Max Payne 20 Year Anniversary special clip with Sam Lake and James McCaffrey! th-cam.com/video/DsQVD5ttpog/w-d-xo.html
I will post a video later but I found a way to break the games AI by not triggering the bomb and that animated scene of the three guys dying in your room. It's pretty creepy how the bad guys walk and talk not knowing you're in the same room with them at your apartment. I managed a way to put the 3 guys and the lady with the shotgun in Max Payne's apartment then when you leave the AI goes crazy when it does that sequence with your apartment exploding. Go back to your apartment and the old lady shoots you but you have kill her. You will notice the three bad guys staring at you and the AI doesn't notice you then the three start talking weird. If you shoot anywhere in the room the AI ends up killing them even when you aim somewhere else. The developers use a clever trigger system that looks like a stretched out artifact and runs 10ft so when the guys run in your room it suppose to enable the bomb once the door closes. It's like a mouse trap using string. The whole time the three guys and the lady just stand in your room saying, " YOUR DEAD, I SEE YOU, AND OTHER RANDOM WORDS." If you push one bad guy into the hall way he just puts his gun to his ear lol.
Remember when games were ported from PC to crap consoles.
sadly i wasn't a pc gamer then but still had fun playing the ps2 version
The mobile version is awesome
The Xbox port was the closest to the original.
The ps2 version was and is shit but the xbox version is just as amazing as the pc version!!!
Who cares as long as people enjoyed the game even with downgraded visuals
This game was real tough but it was really rewarding to beat
Xbox version was pretty good actually, what are you on about? PS2 version was pretty rough with it's lack of a quick save feature and dodgy framerate but the Xbox version, for an early Xbox game was great. Controls could have been better for sure but the auto aim feature helped with that. PC version is definitely the best though, can't argue with that. I actually liked the Game Boy Advance game, again, good considering the hardware. It was cool to see the environments that I remembered from the actual game in a 2D, isometric perspective. I was impressed that they managed to get the graphic novel cutscenes on there with full voice over.
Smaller levels, long loading screens, gimped graphics and a controller for precise shooting. That's why it sucks.
Gggmanlives Your definition of sucks differs greatly from mine. The Xbox version is as good as you would expect for a console port in 2001.
VodCrack
But still a console port.
Only version I ever played, ought an Xbox on day one for Max Payne. It was amazing.
@@Gggmanlives Considering you've been reviewing console ports recently, is it fair to say your stance on all console ports being automatically trash has subsided?
One of the best PC games ever created. So many hours, so many good memories.
When is someone going to remake it with a new engine? So much potential to revive the franchise.
Honestly I can't really see Max Payne's influence on video games. MP's bullettime being tied to the shoot-dodge is so unique that any other game using it would just feel like a ripoff. Bullettime also doesn't really feel that unique to MP, either. I remember in the F.E.A.R. documentary they said they made the whole team watch Hard Boiled and The Matrix to get the gunplay right.
I switched from a C64 to PC when Max Payne was released, snow stated to fall when I took my computer from the shop to my flat, I played until 02:30AM up to the first nightmare level also we got the biggest snowfall in 20 years, I replay it every year.
The game does have widescreen support.
I have the Xbox port and I have no complaints
I disagree with your thoughts on the Gba version of max payne. That port is actually pretty good for a gba game.
This port is amazing. I really love it
I agree with pretty well all that you said. One thing I’d like to add is that, I find the writing to be so good that while your running around these linear levels, TVs, radios, and the grunts them selves have so much character that for me it just immerses like no other game. So I agree full heartedly that you don’t need an overly bloated open world game for it to be good. You just need a group of passionate, hard working individuals that want to put a great pice of entertainment in your hands. Much love to the Max Payne Trilogy.
Proud to be from Finland :)
Suomi mainittu torilla tavataan
@John It really depends what is meant by "proud". It's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it's a code-word for bigotry, but not necessarily, especially when it's a small country.
Those godamn blood trail levels
"He is like Frank "The Punisher" Castle if he had been a cop instead of a (USMC) Marine." That is the most accurate description of the character. Max Payne is what happens when the elite of our national PC demo scene first build a technologically envelope pushing 3D and physics engine. And proceed to actually make both, a tech demo of the engine (3DMark gaming benchmark suite) and then an actual fucking video game with it.
Proving wrong Carmacks principled assertion that a plot in a video game is like a plot in porn, something to strew action events together instead of telling a story. As, according to him, that is of no additional value to the audience.
Ironically, John Carmack was a part of Half-Life 1 development specifically aiding in the game engine side of things at one point, and he states that he can see the iD Tech 2 (Q1 revision) parts in the GldSrc engine sources.
With which Valve and Gaben would confirm the results.
Damn this game's graphics holds up so well.
Because there were no plants, animals (besides rats I think) and natural environment in general. It was easier to make buildings tunnels walls etc look OK in 2001 as compared to natural environments. I remember soldier of fortune 2 was the first shooter game that had pretty good looking jungle etc
There's a widescreen patch for a lot of these old games. And this game looks extremely good in 1080p despite its age.
I still cant understand why so many people force old games to launch in widescreen most of these games dont work properly in widescreen image is stretched or hud dont scale properl which cause to have very small hud i prefer to play old games on max supported resolution with black bars on left and right
@@Extreme96PL
Yeah, unless the stuff is scaled properly and there isn't any stretching I don't bother with widescreen. But typically they are.
@@thisismyname5657 if you dont want stretching in 4:3 resolutions you need to set in gpu control panel scaling to keep aspect ratio and set scaling to gpu this will make game to run in 4:3 resolutions with black bars on right and left and have true feeling of old games :)
Are you gonna review the other 2 Max Payne games?
Siriwet Corkill Yes.
+Gggmanlives awwww yeaaaaah B-)
Gggmanlives Don't play Max Payne 3, it's shit.
Story wise... Not as good 1&2 but it had unique multiplayer that implemented bullet time and better refined gameplay mechanics.
DuSlothster terrible opinion detected
Ah, good to see a review from ya Gggmanlives!
can ya do the punisher game
liam tobin Fuck yes!
He should definetly review that game.
+Ihsan Algan oh yes. i hold it up there as one of the best... brb going to hunt down a good review
Max Payne - my favorite game of all time. I simply loved everything about it. The game play, the story, the comic type story telling, the music and the dark musical theme, the dialog etc - it was one of the few games where I really lived into the game (the only other one I felt the same for was Mafia City Of Lost Heaven). I have completed Max Payne something like 15-20times and Max Payne 2 around 5 times. Max Payne 3 I have laying around, but haven't installed it yet.
Actually X-Box port was near PC perfect. PS2 port was the terrible one due to the system's limitation. No I'm not trying to start a console war so chill out fan boys.
I didn't seem to notice any problems in the PS2 port. I was confused when he said it was a bad port.
Although, I haven't played the game in years, so I wouldn't really remember much.
Airjet2582 I didn't have any issues with the Xbox port.
+Airjet2582 I am not sure how much RAM is needed for Max Payne, but I think the PS2 was not that limited. It was hard to program for and usually PS2 got decent ports. I think the PS2 would handle Max Payne just fine, if given to developers who know how to develop the PS2. The developers they give it to did shoddy PS2 ports. And remember, it run Quake 3 60 FPS and had a decent port of Half-Life. Max Payne is a masterpiece and would be great in all platforms.
+RustyLasagna bad framerate and terrible load times. plus it wasnt really designed for gamepad use very well.
barfyman362 yeah...
Man I missed that permanent smirk that Max had in the first game
Are you planning to review the Metal Gear saga in the future?
This was my first PC game back in 2002. Super smooth with my Celeron 1.0Ghz, GeForce 2 MX 400 on a 17" CRT in 1024x768 resolution.
I don't remember playing anything else this year. The ball of my mouse was so filthy!
No better way to get into PC gaming.
+Hervé G. LOL those specs, and a ball in your mouse?
We're so spoiled these days. Still love going back and playing this and MP2. These older games are better in their own way than the newer ones.
+Hervé G. LOL those specs, and a ball in your mouse?
We're so spoiled these days. Still love going back and playing this and MP2. These older games are better in their own way than the newer ones.
+compmanio36 Yes ahah! Don't you remember the ball in the mice??
I used to clean them for a living LOL
IT work used to be simpler.
But it's sure easier to install a monitor now than when they were CRTs. Holy crap my back about died the one time I had to setup a 21" CRT for someone...
Hey! Xbox version was solid!
I actually managed to get it running on widescreen. On another note: This game isn't just balls-breaking, it's annihilating. And yet through all the punishment, the sense of elation from beating each gunfight was a steady high that never felt euphoric.
FREAKING LOVE THIS GAME. Wish for A R.A.G.E remake
This rage? cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/9200/header.jpg?t=1447353435
Love to see you back! I keep watching your videos due to your experience in gaming and good vocabulary and grammar. You are not too objective, for a serious review nor too subjective, I don't get the feeling that you express you opinion based solely on your fellings about the games. Your constant flow of videos keeps you a constant and faithful group of fans. I suggest, if you find pleasure in posting video reviews, to also upload other genres once you're done with the shooters. This however is up to you. Keep up the good job! :)