Max Payne 1-2 Revisited

[TheEdge]

After watching that horrible abomination of Marky Mark pretending to be a tough guy while getting pelting with fake snow I decided to revisit the REAL Max Payne series on my PC.

The minute I loaded it in I was hooked again. The combination of in game action and dialogue mixed in with a graphic novel created a perfect blend of action and noir detective fiction.

After finishing Max Payne one 1 I installed MP2. Which in all repect had better graphics but lacked the originality of the first one. The physic engine makes up greatly for that but I still feel that MP1 is the winner by far.

What do you guys think?

[FoxHound]

Never Played PC versions, but the PS2 one i loved, especially the fall of Max Payne

[j_factor]

I loved both games, despite the fact that they were published by Rockstar.

[TheEdge]

I loved both games, despite the fact that they were published by Rockstar.

I think only the second one was produced by rockstar. Since then I share your prejudice against them.

[j_factor]

Perhaps the PC version was different, but the Xbox version of the first was published by Rockstar.

[TheEdge]

Max Payne 3 is coming soon. I feel they are going to take the Franchise and throw it off a bridge.

Max's new character design is based off of Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger force. I'm not even joking.

[Devil N]

I did pretty much the same thing a couple of weeks ago. I got the movie on Blu-ray for my birthday, and after letting it sit on my shelf for a couple of months I decided to watch it. Man, it was horrible. It failed to capture the spirit of the games in every single fucking way. The story was a complete mess, the characters were bland and uninteresting, the beautiful film noir atmosphere was replaced by a dime-a-dozen stylized action movie feel, and even the action scenes were lame, as far as they existed. Hell, I'd go so far as to say the games had better graphics. A total disaster, start to finish.

So to rinse away that bad taste I picked up MP1 & 2 again. I cheated by turning on god mode, because I mainly wanted to absorb the excellent mood of the stories. Yeah, that was such a good experience.

MP1 has always been a little rough around the edges IMHO, both in gameplay and story, but because it was the trendsetter it will always be exceptional. MP2 is more polished, but the story feels a bit like an extension of MP1, rather than something that stands on its own. Still, I was always impressed that they managed to make MP2's story even more dark and depressing than that of MP1. Because of that, I think MP2 is my favorite of the series, but it's close.

And MP3 looks horrid so far. From what I've seen, it looks like your average Gears of War wannabe with the Max Payne name slapped onto it. Cringeworthy, to say the least. Not looking forward to it.

[TheEdge]

They are both excellent games but I think MP1 is slightly better in the story department and MP2 is much better in the graphics department. Eitherway they are probably the noir detective stories of the decade. Whoever is a fan of Detective Fiction NEEDS to play these games.


Did they ever come out with a Max Payne Graphic novel?

[WarmSignal]

The original definitely, I don't think they should have ever made a sequel. I don't even remember the story for the second one, that should tell you how necessary it was.

[Nunzio]

I preferred Max Payne 2. For some reason it just feels more atmospheric to me, easier to fall into. And the packaging on the PC version was NICE But yeah, kind of super short...

[roguetrip]

I just beat Max Payne 1 for the first time a couple months back, I owned this game forever but never got around to playing it. Started Max Payne 2 but paused due to life and other games Both have been great so far.

I believe 3D realms produced MP1 and sold the rights to Rockstar for MP2 and MP3.

Man I need more time or sick days to catch up on my collection of games for all systems and PC, LOL!

[havok666]

I always liked how much character this series had, they really paid attention to the little details. I also loved listening in on the bad guys conversations and then blowing them away once they finished talking.

[Cornugon]

Max Payne is great! It came out around the same time as Return to Castle Wolfenstein but was much better than it.
Max Payne 2 is one of those rare sequels that's even better than the previous part (like Freespace 2, Baldur's Gate 2)

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

I remember liking Max Pain 2 on the PC, but now I am playing GTA4 and couldn't see myself going back to Max. I just love killing cops.