The story of Max Payne is a rather dark one. You play as Max Payne, a former NYPD cop. Coming home one day he finds his daughter and wife murdered by druggies. As result of the massacre, Max joins the DEA to find the killers, who have been on a new drug called Valkyr. Max soon finds himself framed for murder and in way over his head, and that's roughly where the meat of the game begins. This is all presented through spoken comic book style storyboards before each level, giving the game a graphic novel type setting.

Viewed from a third person perspective, Max Payne plays much like any other shooter. Remedy took much care in adapting the keyboard/mouse control scheme to the Xbox controller, as they developed the game even from its PC rev to be a console shooter. Things like auto aim and varying sized crosshairs will help gamers cope with the switch, as will an auto aim feature. But the real draw to Max Payne, and what sets it apart from the million other shooters out there, is its bullet time feature.

Borrowing heavily from The Matrix, entering bullet time slows everything down to a crawl - that is, everything but you. So while the action is slowed down to such where you can actually see the bullets whiz by your body, you are able to aim and view at full speed. In addition, you can perform a variety of rolls and dives that add a cinematic feel to Payne, as well as saving your butt. A meter regulates entering bullet time however, but capping a few bad guys will refill it posthaste - something that's going to be happening quite often.

Graphically, Max Payne for the Xbox features every texture, effect, and constipated facial expression of the PC version, albeit with a minor resolution loss due to the TV screen. In fact, due to the Xbox's robust graphics chip, Remedy and neo Software managed to throw in quite a few graphic features that you probably didn't have a nice enough PC to see, such as FSAA and particle effects. The texture work in Max Payne really deserves special mentioning. The detail brought out in the rather shoddy locals of Payne is incredible, and really sets the game apart from others.

Rockstar Games has been on a roll this year, and Max Payne is looking like a surefire way to end it. It's got the full package; graphics, control, and story - not to mention it's a killer game. They even took time to make it a bit more than just a straight port. If you're a avid fan of action shooters, this is definitely a title to add to your library. Look for an upcoming review to follow.

· · · piku