Max Payne Is The Greatest Action Game Ever Made
As an apocalyptic winter snowstorm engulfs New York City, a cop framed for murder embarks on a blood-soaked quest for vengeance. This is the pulpy premise of Max Payne, a stylish 2001 shooter by Remedy Entertainment—the Finnish studio behind Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control. This was one of the first games to make a back-of-the-box feature out of bullet time, the slow-motion effect popularised by The Matrix. When the game launched, pop culture was still feeling the aftershocks of the Wachowskis' groundbreaking movie. Fans were desperate for a sequel, meaning Remedy couldn't have picked a better time to bring Max Payne into the world.
Returning home after work, Max steps into his idyllic suburban home and finds his wife and newborn daughter murdered—killed by addicts high on a dangerous designer drug called Valkyr. In a New York minute his world is turned upside down, and he swears revenge on the people responsible. Three years later, Max is working undercover for the Drug Enforcement Administration, embedded deep inside the Valkyr-trafficking Punchinello crime family. Then his life takes another grim turn. He's framed for the murder of a fellow DEA agent and flees for his life, pursued by the mob, the NYPD, and a sinister secret society known only as the Inner Circle.
Related: If They're Remaking Max Payne, They Gotta Keep The Face
Remedy is a studio known for having an offbeat, idiosyncratic take on established genres, and Max Payne is no different. On the surface it seems like a pretty standard Scorsese-influenced New York crime/mob story. But as you delve deeper into it, a curious mythological undercurrent reveals itself. There's a surreal, dreamlike quality to the game, with its eerily abandoned streets, endless
Read more on thegamer.com
