Yes, it's a simple story, but Max Payne seems to understand how much more important presentation is. The story? You are basically on a path of revenge, which slowly has you unravelling a big conspiracy about a designer drug called V, which gets you entangled into the machinations of the Big Apple's upper echelon. It helps immensely that the voice acting is perfect, bringing those, otherwise, stereotypical characters to life, with James McCaffrey being what David Hayter is to Metal Gear's Solid Snake. Compared to the soap opera-esque, "perfect" actors used in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, these amateurs look like real people, and, bar some exceptions, much more striking. something that's not to be taken as an insult here. Note that everyone is portrayed by ordinary folk, not actors, with Sam Lake, Remedy's writer, playing Max, with the rest of the cast being comprised of his friends, family, and even his janitor! The result is something that has a strong, non-professional aura. Due to budget constraints, the developer used the tried-and-tested, visual novel narrative technique, with comic book panels acting as the cut-scenes, and yet, these work wonders here, never feeling like just a cheap, easy way out of an empty pocket.
It also helps that Max himself carries a kind of Die Hard-era, everyman action hero vibe, combining a relatable vulnerability, mixed with his, otherwise fearless, nothing-to-lose, and super cool demeanour. The end result is fantastic, in a weird, '80s kind of way that's hard to describe, especially for a title that came out in the early '00s, where character slowly begun to die out in cinema and video games (and everywhere else). It all sits right in the centre of taking it extremely seriously, and none at all, blurring the lines between snarky parody and unapologetic homage. The titular character dresses up his sentences with corny metaphors, describing simple things in a very theatrical way - and it's awesome! It knows it's silly, but the cheese on offer never tastes sour. Max Payne takes the brooding detective trope of noir films, and turns the knob to eleven and beyond, offering lines like " as subtle with its dark message as a cop killer bullet through the heart," or " The moment I stepped into the room he folded like a deuce before a royal flush," and so on and forth. And this was the most moderate, and less verbose example. Front row centre - and this, fellow gamers, is how the actual protagonist begins explaining how he left behind him a one-thousand body count behind. But they had given him the best seat in the house. The hero didn't like the way the show started. Twilight crawled across the sky, laden with foreboding. The sun went down with practiced bravado. The American Dream come true - but NY cop Max Payne will soon realise that dreams have a nasty habit of going bad when you're not looking. The sun setting on a sweet summer's day, the smell of freshly mowed lawns, the sounds of children playing a house across the river, on the Jersey-side a beautiful wife, and a baby girl.
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