Max Payne

 Xbox
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 89 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 71 out of 89
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 89
  3. Negative: 8 out of 89
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  1. TrentN.
    Oct 2, 2002
    5
    I would have given it a 10 rating, but, on the game it says system link, noone seems to know how the system link works so there for, it got a 5 rating.
  2. MichaelC.
    Aug 20, 2003
    7
    Max Payne is a reasonably good third-person shooter. The gameplay is definitely there, and the graphics are pretty good. The game does get a little repetitive, but a variety of weapons to pummel enemies with helps ease that. My #1 complaint is the god-awful dialog/voice acting/story line. Hopefully this is something that they will remedy for the sequel.
  3. aspentitan
    Nov 18, 2020
    6
    I suppose back in the day I may have scored this higher but it's 2020 and so my review is based off of today whether this game holds up. I say no although it does have a charm which warrants some merit. First off I should start with the bad. I do play a lot of retro games on ps2/Xbox original so I do feel I'm being quite fair. First off, the game is very clunky, and probably my majorI suppose back in the day I may have scored this higher but it's 2020 and so my review is based off of today whether this game holds up. I say no although it does have a charm which warrants some merit. First off I should start with the bad. I do play a lot of retro games on ps2/Xbox original so I do feel I'm being quite fair. First off, the game is very clunky, and probably my major gripe. The problem I'm having may be of various routes. It may be that I'm playing this on a 360 instead of original console. It may be the game starts you off on easy setting and it may also be that I need to adjust settings sensitivities. I have played around with these but don't appear to be able to tweak the game to my likings. I am an experienced gamer so I was looking for a game without a lot of auto assist but I had to move on accepting it as I was wasting too much time trying to optimize the gameplay, unsuccessfully . I fear that the game is just clunky and "bullet time" was the solution to this problem. I suppose at a later date I may replay this game but kinda feel it's not worth my effort trying to make the game work to my tastes. Other games of the era like Dead to Rights just went straight to auto assist but their game seemed to work much better. I kinda feel this was the game developments work not mine and bullet time was a cheap quick fix to make the game much more exciting if you can buy into it, which I cannot given my feelings on how it's a fix not a true innovation. This game ends up being in neutral territory not being able to provide full assist nor leaving the player comfortably with their own aiming skills. You either have to run head on into an enemy or use bullet time which for me is almost a cheat, or just broken. The hit boxes on the enemies are ridiculously large and ruin the gameplay. Adjusting difficulty tightens the box but now you have to hit enemies a rediculous amount with a clunky aim system. Thankfully the design changes as the game goes on I presume the developers were fixing the game as they developed it. I didn't actually enjoy this game until chapter 16 or 17 of 22 when the design changed to more open areas where aiming wasn't such a technical issue. Up until then I thought this game was so bad I was gonna give it 5/10. Regardless I do admit this concept is up for debate and most players will think this game is awesome and not agree with me but that's how I feel, especially in 2020 I dont see the point of making such an effort on an old game. Now the good....I love games that have personality and this game excels there. Great story development and for immersion I love how many areas of the game have subtle interactions. You can destroy tvs, radios, npcs and use your environment to adjust your games tone. Don't like the noise from the tv? Shoot it out. Want to get game hints? Don't shoot it out. How about those rats chewing on a body on the ground? They can be killed. The choice is yours what you do in the environment and this really increases your own appeal to the game. It customizes your interests in the world quite well. I even watched some of the tv stuff just to see how long it went on and it was pretty decent. Even today most games the environments aren't given more than a 5 second soundclip at best. Here we have personality and I do praise that highly. With gameplay I'm stuck. I can see the charm in this game but my first playthrough was not ideal, I had to experiment with settings too much and this had a definite impact on my appeal. What I did really like was the game isn't totally linear with enemies. There is some randomness to how the enemies spawn and I was surprised in a pleasant way that I'd you died in an area the next encounter with the same group was not going to be exactly the same experience. Overall I'd just say this game did not age well. At its release I'm sure it was innovative and people thought the bullet time was super cool but going back in time I see it the other way, that this game wasn't all that good but was saved by a trick no one seen yet.… Expand
  4. SWFan523
    Jun 21, 2020
    7
    Revolutionary at the time and would only be improved upon in future entries. Would give a 7.5 positive but that option isn't available.
  5. goodgriff33
    Dec 25, 2022
    7
    Answer: 75 characters is between 10 words and 19 words with spaces included in the character count. If spaces are not included in the character count, then 75 characters is between 12 words and 25 words.

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best Xbox Game of 2001
2
#2 Most Discussed Xbox Game of 2001
9
#9 Most Shared Xbox Game of 2001

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. Xbox Nation Magazine
    80
    In slow-motion, it’s possible to catch every white bullet trail and crimson blood spray; we’d daresay it’s violence made beautiful. [Feb 2002, p.98]
  2. GameSpot
    92
    The PC version's visual quality--on a suitably good PC--managed to completely live up to the very high expectations produced by the early press, and the good news is that the Xbox version essentially looks just as good.
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  3. Total Video Games
    90
    One key improvement over the PS2 version is the lack of load times. Whereas levels had to be chopped up in that version the Xbox allows them to be loaded in the same way as the PC original, virtually eliminating any load times and keeping the sense of immersion high.
    Read full review
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