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Max Payne [2001] Third Person Shooter

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Daithi:
It's probably around a decade since I've played Max Payne last. It's a game I've always liked, so I picked up 1 & 2 in the recent Steam sale. Sure, it's a bit clunky, and the models are distinctly low poly (the top of Max's head is literally flat), but it's still a worthwhile experience 15 years later. You take on the role of Max Payne, a New York cop on a revenge kick after his wife and child are killed by drug addicts.

Yep, it's pretty grim. It stands out in two areas: storytelling and bullet time, which allows you to slow down time for more accurate aiming. The story itself is by no means original, but if you enjoy the noir style, the quality of writing is fantastic. It's quite story heavy, and interludes are delivered in graphic novel style, with solid voice acting. You can't take much damage, making Max Payne a very difficult game which doesn't seem to autosave very often. Gunfights are tense, but can often be frustrating, with some requiring 10+ attempts to pass.

Overall, if you aren't troubled by older graphics, and enjoy good writing, you'll find something to like here. There were some moderate tech problems in Windows 8.1 but nothing a few restarts won't solve.

Nighteyes:
Never actually got into Max Payne...
Dunno why it passed me buy, a bunch of my mates was loving it back in the day, but I was apparently playing something else.

However I guess I could give it a try... Normally when I want to play an older game my go to is Vampire Masqurade Bloodlines with Dues Ex and Ascension to the Throne being close seconds.
Got any experience with any of those?

Daithi:
If you like noir, it might be worthwhile for the story alone, although even on the easiest difficulty, it is incredibly difficult (often to the point of frustration). Pretty much need to quicksave after each encounter. I've been playing the second, and it's considerably more modern, less clunky and the difficulty is more sensible. Also, no tech problems. If you don't mind missing the story of the first part, it might be a better place to start.

I've been meaning to play bloodlines again - I really liked it back in the day, but it must be around 10 years since I last played it. Loved Deus Ex when I first played it, though I went back and tried it a few years ago, and found it hard to get in to. The default key bindings are hilarious! Was ascension to the throne a precursor to King's Bounty?

Nighteyes:
Noir is a interesting genre. Mostly since it's underused over the last couple of decades. So I think I might put Max Payne on the list for things to pic up and give it a chance.

If you do try out bloodlines, you should get the unofficial patch at the very least. It started out by developers doing it for free after the company behind Bloodlines went bankrupt and have since been maintained and elaborated by fans.
The are also several other mods, both for updating grafics and for changing gameplay.


Dues Ex is an amazing game, mostly because it challenged the conceptions of game developers, both by letting the player complete the missions in several different ways, some of the never mentioned in game, but simply a reward for you exploring and being tactical. And then there is the fact that they challenge the player by expliccidly telling us "You cannot do the thing", but you can actually do the thing, it's just extremely hard to do it, and I'm not saying what it is excatly, to avoid spoilers, and the fact I don't want to spoil it more than 20 years after it was published should tell you something ^^

Ascension to the throne wasn't released till 2007 (according to their wiki page), so no :)
But there are some similarities even so, it has an overworld where you move around and you can see the fights before engaging them. The actual fights are turnbased. The only real big difference is the stat system and that on the overworld you are in a third person view, not an isometric on as in KB.
I love both, but Ascension has a spot in my heart since it showed up at a time where I needed something to get lost in.

Daithi:
Bloodlines is on my list for a revisit - might pick it up over Christmas. Thanks for the tip about the unofficial patch. I played as the class that could turn into a wolf (gangrel I think). Which other classes are good?

I'm with you on the merits of Deus Ex. I finished it when it first came out, and enjoyed its open ended nature. I'm a sucker for 1st/3rd person shooters with RPG elements. Possibly I just wasn't in a patient mood when I retried, so I might give it another shot. Played another hour of Max Payne 2 last night - definitely prefer it to the original - you can actually last more than 30 seconds without getting killed!

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