Bang, You're Dead Max Payne!

In this post I will dive into one of my all time favorite game-franchises. I started out with Max Payne by buying Max Payne 2: The fall of Max Payne, on sale in a local supermarket for a price, somewhere around, 15 dollars, and I was blown away. I had tried the first Max Payne game at a friend on PlayStation 2 but hadn't really tried it for good, so I was shocked at how incredible it was. Max Payne 3 was a really good follow up and was off course improved in a lot off ways, but still had the same core values as the previous games had. The movie on the other hand was not so great. I don't hate it at all but it lacks a lot of key things a Max Payne fan wants. In this post i'll take a closer look at what made the games good and bad and have a look at what failed in the movie. The video games will be refereed to as: Max Payne 1, Max Payne 2/The fall of Max Payne, Max Payne 3 and the movie as: Max Payne the movie/The Movie.

First off the first game was a revolution in the sense that it change third person shooters forever. Though graphics and some of the mechanics are out dated, compared to today's standards, they were brand new and still to this day work really well.I don't think a series like Hitman would've gotten anywhere if not for Max Payne. Though Some games can pull of having a lot of extra mechanics and cutting edge Technology a lot off the time it's the simple things that work. Paine killers, Shoot, Reload, Movement, jump, Interact, aim and scroll through your weapons. That is all it took. Off course there are other keys, such as crouching and walking instead of running but you don't need them at all to get through the game. Everything is straight forward and you blazing way through mansions and subway stations along with your Winchester 1300 and a couple of Beretta 92fs'. there are off course other weapons but I think those two are the most significant, though a Desert Eagle is always lovely to have in your back pocket. The whole Idea off having the story told in a form of comic-style cut scenes was completely new and gives both the first and the second game an edge and storytelling to it, that no other game has had ever since.And leads me into the best part of the entire franchise: The story. 

The story was to me what set the first two games apart from everything els. One of the best maps to ever be produced is the first part of Max Payne 1. Everything gets explained and you start off at the end with Max Telling how it could ever had come to this. On August the 22. 1998 Max is going home from a days work at the NYPD. He has a beautiful wife and a lovely baby daughter waiting for him at home. His former partner Alex Balder, now with the DEA, talks with him about going over to the DEA but Max is not interested because he wants to focus on his family. and off course you have Already gotten the fact that James McCaffrey is the perfect cast. His voice is awesome and fits Max like a glove. Max Returns to Jersey where he lives and finds his home a mess. Chairs knocked over, Cabinets open and a big green V is tagged on a wall. The phone rings and it's some elder lady who seems glad that something is wrong"At the Payne Residence". Max runs upstairs and is met by junkies on the new drug Valkyr. He finds his little daughter butchered and wife murdered in a sea off blood. It is one off the best starts to an epic drama I have ever seen.

Max continuous through out the game, to dream and think about his wife and daughters murder and you see just how affected he is by him having constant nightmares and thoughts towards the incident. In nightmares he blames himself and the reality around him morphs into his dreams. This happens through out the first two games mostly and helps the player interact with Max and feel for his cause. To meet the sexy and cold killer Mona Sax and the charismatic Russian mobster Vladimir Lem. Characters who play a huge role in the second game and I love how the characters are pulled over into the second game. Some of the voice work sounds a bit low budget but at ads to the comic feel in the cut scenes

In Max Payne 2. The Fall of Max Payne you get just what you wanted: more of the same. The comic book style cut scenes, A fantastic voice actor casting, some of the same weapons, awesome storytelling filled with those long metaphors you see time and time again in the first game, updated graphics and great overall feel and impressions. Max Payne 2 feels a bit shorter then the first one and is a bit easier the play trough, when you look at the difficulty of the game. The story though is easier to follow but you still have the same feel for Max has he is screwed time and time again by people around him. The soundtrack, Late Goodbye by Poets of the Fall has the same melancholic and sad tone that the game evolves around and it also has that same light at the end off the tunnel feel you have in the game. I mean by this that at some point things have to end for Max Payne and please let him have revenge and at least die with a smile on his face.

Though the voice acting in the first game is great it is almost perfect in Max Payne 2. Vladimir Lem, voiced by Jonathan Davis, is so awesome and so cool. He really pictures that arrogant attitude that a Russian Mob boss should have. Wendy Hoopes has that soothing and soft though jet firm voice that fits Mona perfectly. James McCaffrey is flawless and a guy like Vinnie Gognitti is this time around a bit less fake and his panicky high pitch voice feels more real and fitting this time. The overall dialog is amazing from start to finish. Every time Vladimir Lem opens his mouth he is so calm and calculating you can't help but to smile knowing how well he played Max in the cleaner business.Though the Soundtrack during game play is simple and still based upon the soundtrack from the first game. It is much more heard this time and those deep piano parts really fits the storytelling. An example of that is when Max first has a talk to Vlad at his Restaurant and his Monologue is sublimely supported by the dark music around him. Some of the lines Max Payne has are just astonishing. When Annie Finn is killed in front off him he says "Like all the bad things in my life, it started with the death of a woman". Then you think right back at his wife and daughter and get that whole feeling again that everything is gonna get messy with the blood of bad guys in the near future.

A cool detail is that the TV-Series Lords and Ladies is still going strong in the second game. You can stand at a TV and listen to the cheesy lines going back and forth between the nobles being acted out in the series. Dick Justice was a name that a security guard gave his gun in the first game and now it's a TV-Series about the policeman Dick Justice. His life is very similar to Max Payne's and is set in the 70's so big Afro here we go. Address Unknown is a weird psychological horror series that at some point in the game morphs with one of Max's nightmares. A sadistic killer is killing in another mans name and has lines that echo the first game. "The flesh of fallen angels" and so on. They give the game a sort of self-conscious and ads to the replay value. the final level is long and hard and ends just the way you want it to even though Mona dies in most of the endings. It is still one hell of a game. 

Max Payne 3 is a completely different animal to deal with. It is by no means a bad game. not even close, but it lacks some of the magic. I feel like the story is a bit to far fetched when it comes to Max's involvement. I know he promised his friend and boss to help and save his boss' family but I still feel like he could just had run away at any point during the game. The setting in Brazil on the other hand is awesome and depicted perfectly. I know how crappy a country it is and I really think that all that happened in the game happens once a month in real life Brazil. The graphics are awesome and the mechanics work perfectly. Max is down and out and finds himself in trouble he can only get out of if he loads his guns and start nailing some head shots. The game is a real challenge in the higher difficulty levels and challenges and collectibles ad to the replay value. The multiplayer part is good and works well enough not to drag the game down. Once again the voice acting is awesome and the level designs are really special. The Panama Mission is really cool inside the canal and all that. Though I like the New York parts the best every chapter and part have something good about it. Max Payne 3 seems to have more focus on the shooter part of the game and it does that really well. The story is sometimes hard to follow and I still have question on the whole situation about panama and all that but you get the major points at your first play through. What you miss is your caring for Max. He is not really involved in a big way with the people killed other then they pay his bills. Other then that the game is excellent through and through and was a fitting end to the franchise if it turns out to be the end.

Max Payne the movie featuring Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne, is hated by a lot of people. I for one like it but not as a Max Payne movie. If you just watch it as an action movie it is awesome but is just messes with a lot of things that it should have kept as they were. Mark Wahlberg is on of my favorite actors. He is a badass all day long and I think he is alright as Max thou he might to much of a bad boy then an angry and revenge filled regular guy, though his no nonsense gun scenes are good. The military adaptation of Valkyr and Jack Lupino is good in my book. It would have been to weird to have all the satanic stuff and all that hanging around. The Valkyr part with burning skies and fallen angels is awesome. but here come the faults.

Valkyr is green not blue, so why make it blue. It would have been killer with green flames engulfing Max when he takes it but they chose a more linear and normal take on it. Some of the guns use in the movie are really well picked out but MONA SAX USES A DESERT EAGLE why even bother getting her another gun? The use of BB and having him be the bad guy is just wrong. He had nothing to do with the murder of Max's family. The role of BB is so wrong and the entire Aesir thing is so weird and complicated it makes no sense. Michelle didn't work for them but just by accident got involved with the Valhalla project that came to be Valkyr. Jim Bravura is black..... What? That is just ludicrous ;) Mila Kunis is hot like always but is not how I see Mona Sax. The entire story about Mona is so messed up I won't mention it at all. Nicole Horn is so far out in the distance I fail to see what the point of having her in the movie was. The scene where Max's family is murdered is ok but if some of the darkness of the games had been present it would have worked much better. The movie just seems rushed to me and should have been more true to the story. All that in mind it's not a bad action movie and still gets me when Max is on a rampage in Aesir Corporation at the end. And the scene where Max takes some Valkyr is killer. But it's not a Max Payne movie...... Not even close.

All that in mind I love the Franchise. Rockstar once again hit the Jackpot and impacted me forever. They made me replay every chapter time and time again after I bought Max Payne 2 and it was a pleasure. they are geniuses and I wish for them to once again make something new and unique so I can feel that rush again like I did the first time I played Max Payne 2.

Get a life and start listening to better music!