I have Max Payne and it's a great game - very hardboiled in
nature. I'd classify it as action noir. In between the
playable segments, there's a gritty comic book/storyboard
narrative with a gruff voice-over, which can be very dark, if
sometimes melodramatic and overacted.
The gameplay itself borrows elements from the Matrix - when
the chips are down, you can use "bullet time," a limited
resource that enables you to move at full speed while the
rest of the world is in slow motion. The shootouts are fast,
bloody and brutal.
The plot is definitely hard-boiled - a cop's family is
murdered by drug addicts and he goes undercover to nail the
drug kingpin. But his main contact is killed and he's
betrayed by others in the force, and soon he is the subject
of a manhunt - accused of murdering his partner. He goes into
hiding and launches a campaign of vengeance against the mafia
boss he suspects is behind all of this. Max strikes me as a
very Spillane-esque character. I haven't played the whole
thing yet, but that's how things start off.
Most of the game takes place in really gritty areas of New
York - scummy subway stations, rat-infested underground
tunnels/sewer systems, shoddy hotels, etc. Max comes across
junkies, prostitutes, mafia bosses and henchmen and all sorts
of other underworld denizens.
It is currently on GameSpot's list of the ten best games of
the year. You can read a review at:
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/reviews/0,10867,2799311,00.html
> [Max Payne:]
> > A Finnish game in origin. I don't know how
hardboiled
> > it is, but there are clearly some noir elements
in its
> > visual style.
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