Max Payne Platinum (PS2)

Simply put, Max Payne is Goldeneye for adults. It is thick with plot and the experience plays somewhere betwen a game and a movie. It's less about enjoying bashing a key pad and more about enjoying an interactive story line.

Bullet time is a fantastic addition to the art of video gaming and I hope I see a lot more of it. If you have ever seen a John Woo film and enjoyed it, you will be particularly impressed when you see one of the bad guys spend a few fractions of a second frozen in time as you riddle his body with 100 rounds from your duel ingrams.

They say they are talking about making a film based on this game. Until then, I'm happy playing my way through it myself and dishing out the revenge.

Feel the Payne.

Max does offer the usual assortment of rewards to keep you interested, including new weapons to discover and, of course, the graphics, which are their own incentive. The engine's most astonishing accomplishments are the level of detail in the environments, with even the smallest objects being sharply rendered, and the creamy smooth and varied animations of Max and his enemies. Flames and weapon discharge effects are also noteworthy, the latter being especially cool in Bullet Time. It's odd that with so much attention invested into this engine, some moderately important elements, like making character's mouths move when they speak, were omitted -- even the ageing Half-Life fulfilled this obligation to some extent. They try to distract you from this by avoiding close-ups whenever possible, but it's still quite noticeable. What good are the almost photo-realistic faces when the camera's too scared to go near them in case the character has something to say? A few other minor flaws include the lack of discernible locational damage - while baddies go down in less shots when hit in certain areas (yes, very gruesome, I know), their physical reaction is always identical and, oddly, a snipe shot to the foot yields the same result as one to the head. This is a bit of a step back in the shooter field. Also, multiplayer is completely absent; the developer's defense is that all attention had to be paid to the single-player experience, but even a lackluster deathmatch mode (with or without Bullet Time) would have been a welcome addition.

Max Payne leaves us in a slight predicament. As is evident from this review, for every compliment one can bestow on the game, there's an inevitable "but..." that follows. Its predominant flaw is that it whets our appetite for something unimaginably amazing but only fulfills half of that unveiled promise. Nevertheless, that half is better than many wholes, so I'm compelled to slap a "Highly Recommended" badge on this review. The Max Payne experience is exciting, original and enticing enough to warrant the time and money of any dedicated action gamer.