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Excellent story driven shooter...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: August 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'll spare you the review of the plot and game mechanics because you can read that just about anywhere.

What I would like to review is MacSoft's port of the title. If you follow gaming at all on the Mac, you'll know that the titles often times have a serious delay between their release date and the PC counterpart. That being said, when I read a review of the Mac port, I'm only concerned with a) how well it translated to the Mac platform, and b) will it run good on my system.

Although I have never played the PC version of the game, I have experienced the PS2 and XBox versions and I'd have to say the Mac version holds up well. Capable of running in OS X (shouldn't all games do that now?), Max Payne ran flawlessly. I had no installation problems and no game play problems that weren't related to the capabilities of my system. I would recommend that if you are going to run this under Mac OS X that you upgrade to the latest version as it contains more recent drivers for many Mac based video cards. At the time of this writing, the latest OS X version was 10.1.5. This really brings me to my second point, how well will it run on your system?

I tested Max Payne on a PowerMac G4 450 with 768MB RAM and an ATI Rage 128 Pro with 16MB RAM. Max Payne ran quite at medium detail levels considering the age of my system. Although there was a hint of slowdown in large, open areas or in areas where there was quite a few enemies, nothing really detracted from the enjoyment of the game. I sure would have liked to see it at full detail, but my system just couldn't handle it.

Suffice to say, max Payne is one hell of a fun game. Even on my aging Mac, I had a blast with it.

Max Brings The Payne

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Max Payne is one amazing game. You play as Max Payne, a everyday person who walks home one day to find his wife murdered...because of this he goes undercover and thats where the story begins...the story is filled with action and adventure and it keeps rolling out, never getting "slow". The graphics are great and "bullet time", a matrix type gameplay, is very cool...everything slows down and you can dodge bullets easier. Although there is no online option, Max Payne still has a very good story line and is probably one of the most popular shooters. The best part about the game is where it takes place...takes place in New York City where there are tons of cops and gang members to kill.

Gameplay: Lots of action MATRIX style! What more can you ask for in a FPS??

Graphics: Game may be a little old but the graphics are still terrific...

Story: Probably one of the best stories for a FPS. Contains a real ganster story instead of those other games that try to contain a "street" story and takes place in ohio with no cops to kill.

Overall: Max Payne is one must buy title! I haven't played anything this good in a long time... If you like BLOOD, GUNS, or ACTION, this one is a MUST-BUY!

Heck Yeah!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Even though I have the PC version of Max Payne, this game rocks! if there are any Mac Users reading this, and they do not have Max Payne yet, why not? go get it! The game came out in 2001, and I am still hooked! I have not played any other games that can top this. I can't wait for the sequel, which is suppose to be out sometime at the end of this year. Don't know if they are making it for Mac users. Oh one last thing, A word to parents-if you are worried about this game being too violent for your son/daughter, it really isn't. There are other games that are worse than this one. Yes, it's a shoot em up game, In the prefrences file of the game, you can remove the blood in the game, and set your own password, if you wish, although setting this prefrence will remove the graphic novels in the game too, and make the game less intresting, and not very much fun to play. Decide for yourself, but if your son/daughter knows that Max Payne is a game, and nothing more, things should be ok, nothing to worry about. Well, that's it, have fun, mac gamers! ...

a shooter (third person) par excellence

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

normally, shooters dont do much for me unless combined with some other quality such as stealth, role playing, or puzzles, specifically nolf, deus ex, and tomb raiders. i dont have the reflexes or hand eye coordination of a teenager, and i cant do unreal tournament etc, even the training. max pain, though is a real winner with excellent visuals and a convincing, though improbable story (one man wipes out the entire illegal drug industry, from street junkies all the way to the head of the corporation that makes the drugs) of revenge for the murder of his family. the script is hilariously overwritten and BAAAD, obviously a parody on tv and movies. the story and exposition are presented in comic book form. as with most pure shooters, there are no puzzles and very few secrets.

gameplay. max's moves are limited to kicking open doors. he cant climb ladders, move boxes, etc. however, there is bullet time, a great slow motion effect, which can allow him to get the bad guys more easily. on "fugitive", the default and easiest level of difficulty, this was pretty useless, allowing me to watch max's demise in gory detail, but on "hard boiled", the next level up, it is more useful, though not frequently. since its hard to take on 3-4 thugs at once and live, my favorite and effective technique was to run and wait around corners and blast the bad guys when they followed. seldom does one have to attack directly. "safe spots" are non existant, because ai is as good as they come; you cant hide; theyll get you. all the weapons are useful at one point or another, my favorites being the shotgun in the early phases and the colt automatic rifle in the later ones. this is because there was tons of ammo for each. there are also tons of medkits, referred to as payne killers. there are a couple of boring surrealistic mazes ..., but these do not detract from the overall game.

visually striking, conveying all the seedy side of new york. it surprises me to see that most of the names in the credits look like Finnish. max tends to run duck footed, and, as typical of third person games, he gets in his own view, especially when crouched. this does not hamper the action much, though, which is so intense that you really dont notice this is a short game, at least not until the second time through. many windows users have complained of poor running, even with their "high end" machines. this ran perfectly at 1024x768 on my slow emac.

in summary, this is a classic, even for those who dont like shooters. buy it now, and in great quantities so mac users will continue to get great games.

A kick in the pants!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Max Payne is a tongue-in-cheek graphic novell, and a well-crafted video game. Definately for teens on up, this first-person shooter has some fairly graphic and violent scenes, and a dark story line. In the game, you are Max Payne, a hard-boiled detective who has experienced some personal loses, and decides to exact some justice, no matter who gets in the way. Most of the bad guys deserve it.

The graphic novell has some over-the-top Mickey Spillane dialog, delivered in a dead-pan that would make Mike Hammer envious. The colorful metaphors are forced in stretches, but over all is a lot of fun, and definately a nice addition.

The game itself has an inovative feature called "Bullet Time." Time slows for the character and the ambient sounds are replaced with a slowed heartbeat as you dodge bullets and deliver justice with twin pistols blazing.

Overall, the game loaded easily on my Quicksilver G4, and performs well enough without an accelerator card. Macsoft has a reputation for excellence porting PC products to the Mac, and so far, this seems to be no exception.

THIS IS TIGHT!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: August 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is the bomb......it's got the matrix action going on and a fantastic story line. It's hard as heck to play......but that is what makes it so fun, you can't just start playing it and beat it. It gets harder as it goes and makes me keep coming back for more. Sometimes it makes me frustrated and I quit.....LoL.....but then I come back with a better attitude and pass the level or stage. I recommend this game to anyone with a fast, fast, fast computer, and really good graphics card.

Great game with a gritty storyline.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Bought it for my new G3 iBook and it runs and looks great. Game play is flawless. Storyline keeps you interested. The controls are minimal so playing on a laptop is easy and convenient.
I am a big fan of the Rogue Spear/RS series games and this is the first time that I ventured out of that relm, well worth the [money] spent.

Good for 13

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: December 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Listen this is the deal.
If your some young kid wih amotherwho wont let u see James Bond. Or movies over PG this isn't a game for you.
On the other hand if your mother is a "mom can i get "GRAND THEFT AUTO Vice city?" "of course honey" type go get it now.
IN my view if u like Grand Theft Auto 3, Mafia, tis is your type of game.
This is in the top 5 on my list.

Fun but predictable

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is very fun, gameplay is relatively unique due to the needed use of Bullet Time where time slows down for a few seconds. Graphics are great on a stock 20 inch Imac ans sound is also great. The biggest flaw in the game is that there is no puzzle element during the actual game. There is only one open door where there is a posability to go else where. So wherever a door can be opend is the way to go. Also enemies become very predictable after the majority of the game which makes replays pointless. There are however, two blood trail mazes which are extremely annoying and are a complete waste of the time it takes to get a walkthrough and pass them.
Overall this game is very fun the first time around but that's all there is to it.

fun fun fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

will not disappoint. I wish there was a difficulty setting to make it harder, but I enjoyed every minute and got totally immersed in the game play. well done.

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