14. Max Payne
Remedy | 2K Games | 2001
The hard-boiled noir third-person shooter that popularized slow-motion gaming for good
What made it so great?
In a word, finesse. What do we really do in action games? Walk into a room, point a gun at people and shoot them each in turn. Often the skill required to do that successfully is impressive, but it wouldn't make a good film. Max Payne would. By slowing the whole world to a snail's pace for virtually every fight, Max is able to dive dramatically behind cover, out from cover, over cover and often accidentally into cover, all while firing two guns with improbable accuracy. It's spectacular, every time. We're shallow creatures, us gamers. The truth is that we simply haven't had the chance to do anything as cool as you'd see in even a mediocre action movie, so when a game like Max Payne comes along and makes us look this good, it's impossible to resist.
The plot, while simple, was perfectly pitched pulp noir: a dead family, a corrupt world, an empty hero, a femme fatale. It was expertly told through simple comic panels between the action, brought to life only by Max 's deadpan, sometimes absurdly heavy-handed voice-over. Never did a game pick such a compelling style, or stick to it so effectively.
Get ready to play
Donning a trenchcoat helps, as does watching The Matrix. But although Max borrowed one or two motifs from the Wachowski brothers' sci-fi blockbuster, there's since been a movie it has a lot more in common with: Sin City. But most of all, you'll need to sharpen your reactions. They don't make 'em like Payne anymore: it's viciously hard.
Been there, done that?
Dark tales of gaming #2: American McGee's Alice. Trust the ex-id designer to find the gothic horror in Lewis Carroll's fairy-tale and make a game of it.
