For: PC, PS2, Xbox Version Reviewed: PS2 ESRB Rating: M for Blood and Violence
Imagine you are a cop. You come home, and you notice a picture is crooked. You move towards it to straighten it out, and find the house in shambles. You pick up the phone, call 911, and say there is an intruder in your house. Running up the stairs, you hear your wife\'s voice. She is screaming in terror. Your heart pounds, and you open your infant child\'s door. A man comes out, firing at you. You fire back, and kill him. You check on your daughter, and find she is dead. \'No, no?\', you mutter to yourself. Another room, another shootout. Then your room. You kill the man attacking your wife, and run to her. Her throat is slit, and she is shot several times in the chest. Overcome with agony, you scream, \'NOOOOOOOO!\' And this is just the first minute and a half to \'Max Payne\'. Not a good start for a game. Though it has groundbreaking cg graphics, photorealistic surfaces, faces, and textures, the game is probably the most bloody released for the Playstation 2 this year. In a storyline that takes you from your family\'s brutal murder, to a Satanic altar, to a drugged-up episode, the game\'s designers had realism in mind. The game is also horribly corny. Max Payne has a y smile on his face the entire game, that reminds you of Han Solo. In fact, you almost wish Harrison Ford was playing Max Payne, or at least did the voice: at least it would be sarcastic. For any Christian, this game is distasteful. It is horribly gory, and the only real saving point of the game is the revolutionary Bullet Time, surprisingly similar to Perfect Dark\'s(N64) Combat Boost. However, the Bullet Time is rechargeable, whereas the Combat Boost, while giving the same The Matrix style look, is not, instead coming in pills that are collectable just like ammo. If you are a Christian, or even a parent, or older brother or sister, please use discretion when using this game, and keep it out of the reach of children. There are no curse words in the game, save for the pseudo-curse \'freaking\'; the blood and gore, however, is the standout point to the game. Story wise, well?there isn\'t much of a story. At least within the first three levels. I only played that far, because I knew where the game was going. The bad-dudes were senselessly murdering different people, and, as Rock star?s junior franchise, you know that gangs, , drugs, and other unmentionables will be involved. It was actually surprising that it didn\'t involve car-theft. One of Rock star?s premier franchises is the GTA series, which involves the above: gangs, , drugs, and car-theft. Add a fair dose of s in the mix, and you\'ve got yourself a \'game\'. The controls are unintuitive; after fumbling around for five minutes in a shootout, I finally found out the draw weapon and fire button. In fact, that first scene (the one I wrote about at the beginning of this review) shouldn\'t take five minutes. It should take approximately 1.5 min. It actually did when I played through it for the eighteen-millionth time. Yes, this game is that tedious. After playing this game, my soul feels drained. Maybe I need to lie down?but I need to play some games. Anyone got a old copy of Tetris around somewhere?
