EstablishedĪ couple of years back the original was a massive commercial success on the back of an extremely polished graphics engine and its pioneering use of the now ubiquitous Bullet Time system of enabling the gamer to slow down time and continue shooting at a real time rate. Welcome back, Mr grim, we've missed your constipated grimace. If that's the case then poor Max Payne is a supreme architect of ill fortune a man so down that you wonder why he even bothers getting up in the morning. But its sheer quality gives it almost an iconic status.Some people insist that you make your own luck in this life. The Fall of Max Payne is about as cool as a computer game gets and is let down only by being too short. It didn't work all that well, but has been refined for the sequel to the point where it becomes almost an essential feature. The first game offered a Matrix-style slow motion mode when the shooting started. The bottom line is that it's an action game, and players expecting lots of shooting won't be disappointed, especially as it's done in such glorious detail. It's not Bogart and Bacall, but it's not too bad, either. Max Payne does it as well as any game, and manages at times to create real sexual tension. Computer games in general handle romantic themes with difficulty, more often than not offering stilted dialogue and stereotypes. In the sequel Max is still tormented by the events of two years ago, but he finds comfort with Mona Sax, the femme fatale assassin from the first game. The almost photographic quality of the graphics helped the player to get a fix on Payne as a person, and made it easy to share his pain. He emerged as a flawed hero: a hard-drinking, hard-boiled New York cop who walks a tightrope between right and wrong. The first game started with the murder of Max's family and dealt with his quest to take vengeance on the killers and clear his name. The Fall of Max Payne has it all: cutting-edge graphics, a gripping, if violent, plot and full-on, fast action. By PETER ELEY (Herald rating: * * * * *) How long will it be before players become the central characters in movie-like games, able to control their virtual destiny? The sequel to Rockstar's brooding, dark Max Payne takes us one step closer.
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