From the tight action to the riveting story, Max Payne is a must play in my opinion. The story may be a simple revenge tale on the surface but there's so many nuanced details that go over the player's head the first time around. The game is also quite difficult but balanced meaning that in order to succeed you'll have to actually improve and on the higher difficulties you will really be forced to master the game's timing oriented combat. When to reload, how many shots you can get in before the getting up animation plays, bullet spread, bullet velocity, and so much more will be whizzing through your head just like the bullets will be death after death. But as I mentioned eventually you will overcome these obstacles and finally set things right for Max.

The soundtrack is brilliant, the graphics contain a ton of detail and a lot of these you still won't find in games today. As an example in one room a newspaper can be zoomed in on and the comic strip present in a comic book panel (what the game uses instead of cut scenes) earlier will be visible. In that same room you'll find crates that have hidden ammo and painkillers and a sewer grate that is for shadowing the sewer area two levels later. In fact the building your in doesn't seem very far away from said level so it's pretty safe to assume there connected. The dialog is both well written yet just light enough when it needs to be to relieve some tension. That coupled with the character models give such a fun vibe to an otherwise serious game. Each weapon has its place and play style like the less accurate but more lethal sawed off shotgun or the faster firing Beretta that's easier to find ammo for as apposed to the slower more powerful desert eagle. The line delivering is excellent, the controls are tight, levels are paced amazingly well and the notorious dream sequences in my opinion help break up the game nicely along with being an extremely memorable part of the game. They also help show how much Max is going through psychologically. I want to go into so much more of the game's meta and I know I'm only scratching the surface of the game but at the end of the day Max Payne is an achievement in interactive story telling and the pinnacle of video games as a whole. Well either that or Doom.

So why on earth would I give it a thumbs down? Because this game doesn't work out of the box for most people. There are workarounds but be prepared that what I did may not work for you. Everyone's PC is different and since the game is held together by duck tape you may need to try other mods and guides. What worked for me was downloading and following the setup wizard found in the "Max Payne 1, Complete FixPack - 2020 Edition" mod pack. Then I had to run the game and steam in administration mode along with running Max Payne in windows 95 compatible mode. These hoops are without a doubt worth jumping through but as retaliation for the incompetency of the ringmaster I feel obligated to give this game a thumbs down. Fix your game Rockstar. Let the world play your legacy titles without needing to mess with them and I guarantee you the money you would have to pay people to fix these games will be more then compensated for by the sales of your stellar catalog.