User Reviews (1 - 11 of 269)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Do not buy this if you have Windows XP

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have a brand new Sony Vaio Pentium 4 that runs on Windows XP.
Despite notes on the liner and on the website on running the game on XP, this game will not run on XP on this PC. Their tech support are totally unhelpful, and I have found no way to get my money back because the box is opened!
PS. I have talked to people who made this work on an HP / XP configuration-- good luck!

False Hype

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: November 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Max Payne has impressive graphics and lag rarely interfered with the gameplay; the levels are pretty varied and I guess kind of fun to play; also, the levels interact well with the bullet-time feature.

On the flipside:

The gameplay is SO freakin repetitive--I just got bored: encounter an enemy and gun em down with bullet-time. Yes, I did this some seven thousand times. I mean, what kind of shooter doesn't have buttons to press and levers to pull that provide some variation from the monotonous shooting (from MP I learned that this is not an oximoron)?

And to make matters worse,the gun selection is slim with only sixteen guns, and boring ones at that. Sure every shooter's gotta have the classic baseball bat, shotgun, and desert eagle, but most make up for it with something cool like a gattling gun or chainsaw. But MP only had the same old, same old--uzis, berettas, grenades, a lame rocket launcher.

Also, the hype for the bullet-time feature was way over-blown. For starts, from some of the screenshots I chcked out before buying the game, I thought that, during bullet-time, the camera views would switch to something cool and cinematic. Not the case. You just dive at an angle and the camera follows where you point. In sum, very monotonous.

Another aspect that was seriously overhyped was the plot. I wont give anything away, but a lot is not addressed in the game--why was Max's family killed and he, subsequently framed? Also, I expected an intense, twisting plot. There was none. All the attempts at twists were failures and not once was I suprised by discoveries Max made on his quest.

What a dissapointment. When I had gotten sick of the game itself, all that drove me to the end was the anticipation of some closure with regard to the plot. But the game ended without any. Well, it was a boring ride and a stupid end. Dont buy it

At least it's pretty...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 16
Date: August 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After a number of years in development it's finally here.....oh goody. It is undeniably pretty, the graphics are first rate and the graphic novel interface is intersting....but thats about it. The number of enemies gets rediculously large, and its just enter a room, kill everyone in the room, move to next room and repeat gameplay.....after such a long development time, it should have been much better than this. Bullettime is an intersting idea, but the timer runs out to quickly for it to be very practical in much of the game...weapons are nicly modeled, but [impratical] to use....many times I have turned a corner and unloaded a load of buckshot directly into some goons face.....and he still lived, it often took 3 shotgun blasts to the head to take one baddie out. It would seem that this game is one of those that jacks up the hit points to the point of absurdidty on some of the main baddies.....one takes around 12-13 shotgun blasts in teh head at point blank range to kill. It really is a shame that after the time it took to develop, this is the result. Abosute waste of money. To enjoy the graphics of teh engine, wait for another game to come out that uses the same engine. 1 star because its pretty and bullettime is a nice innovation

Should have finished it and released it in 1999

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 10
Date: February 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Back when the game was started and developed, it was technologically way ahead of its time. Too bad that by the time it came out, other games with game engines like Max Payne's or even better were already out and dampened the already losing popularity. On top of it, the story finishes in a New York Minute so darn fast and then the interest in giving it another play is all sapped out. Would have been better if the story had been more dynamic rather than linear ! And don't count on the sequel to be any better as it copies another game engine to soup itself up barely !

Started out ok and did get some traction but when the game's over, so is the fun

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 15
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I didn't find myself coming back to the game as it got more boring after the first time. The tougher levels were not all that difficult either so I don't regret having bought a cheap and used copy and will be happy to sell mine and put this crap behind. Overall, the game's not worth the money and neither is the sequel. Don't let the liars and hypers mislead you on how really great either of the Max Paynes are. Get it cheap and used and see for yourself.

Warning - dumps to desktop

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Game worked well all through part 1, but dumps to desktop everytime while loading chapter 1 of part two (Rmemory error) the website lists this as a known issue, but the link to the patch (presumably to fix it) doesnt exist. Very annoying having invested several hours to get this far into the plot just to find you cannot complete the story.

The Worst Game Ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 30
Date: July 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game stinks. Don't buy it, or you will be bored to death.

Too Difficult

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 13
Date: November 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

There should be a very easy setting. The game is much too difficult for me which makes it unplayable.

Wish I Could Rate It !

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 9
Date: August 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I was so busy trying to get my hands on this game that I neglected to read the requierments. You have to have at least 96MB of ram in order to run. I have only 64. Now I am probably stuck with a game I can't play until I upgrade my computer. My question is why would a game so long in development need RAM that was not even heard of at the time? Or where they waiting for computers to advance that much in order to run it? Piece of advice to potential buyers. Don't make the same mistake I did and read the requierments carefully!!!!!!

If only Max was playable...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 11
Date: January 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I wanted this game from the moment I read the PC Gamer Preview/Review of it. It looks awesome and probably is. I received Max Payne for Xmas and installed it immediately.

The reason this game to me is rated ONE STAR is because I can not play it. In the game you can run, walk, shoot, jump, everything else, but you can NOT TURN LEFT or RIGHT at ALL! Not without the use of the mouse. In the options settings for the movement controls, many things are missing. The most important of these is the TURN LEFT and TURN RIGHT commands. Without this, all players are forced to use the mouse. There is no way to use a game pad or a joystick or any other device to play games with because the game will not allow for custom settings to turn facing another direction. Players are restricted to a STRAFE (walk sideways left or right).

Until a patch is available to fix this (I have emailed the game developer) I can not play Max Payne. I tried for over three hours straight to play and re-orient my fingers to the controls but failed miserably because having to switch from mouse to keyboard to do combination moves does not help.

Hope an update comes soon...

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions