- published: 15 May 2012
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Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game developed by Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment and published by Gathering of Developers in July 2001 for Microsoft Windows. Ports created later in the year for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and the Game Boy Advance were published by Rockstar Games. A Macintosh port was published in July 2002 by MacSoft in North America and by Feral Interactive in the rest of the world. There were plans for a Dreamcast version of Max Payne, but they were canceled due to the discontinuation of the console. The game was re-released on April 29, 2009 as a downloadable game in the Xbox Originals program for the Xbox 360. The game was also re-released in the spring of 2012 as a downloadable game in the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3.
The game features a gritty neo-noir style and uses graphic novel panels (with voice-overs) in place of animated cutscenes to narrate the game, as it draws inspiration from hard-boiled detective novels by authors like Mickey Spillane. The game contains many allusions to Norse mythology, particularly the myth of Ragnarök, and several of the names used in the game are those of the Norse gods and mythos. The gameplay is heavily influenced by the Hong Kong action cinema genre, particularly the work of director John Woo, and it was the first game to feature the bullet time effect popularized by The Matrix.
Nine years after the events of _Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003) (VG)_ (qv), Max finds himself living a degenerative lifestyle, addicted to painkillers and alcohol in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, while trying to forget the past that haunts him. Employed by real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco, Max works in private security, protecting the wealthy Branco family. But as things go wrong and Rodrigo's wife Fabiana is kidnapped, Max is forced into a deadly new conflict, while relying on the abilities he attained from the experiences of the past he left behind.
Keywords: abandoned-hotel, action-hero, airplane-chase, ak-47, alcoholism, american-abroad, anti-hero, arm-blown-off, arm-wound, arms-trade
Max Payne: [after shooting a "pirate" on the zipline] My judgment is lousy, but my hand is steady.
Max Payne: [entering nightclub] This kind of place made me want to puke. I needed a real drink to cope with the electronic music and robotic people.
Max Payne: So I guess I'd become what they wanted me to be, a killer. Some rent-a-clown with a gun who puts holes in other bad guys. Well that's what they had paid for, so in the end that's what they got. Say what you want about Americans but we understand capitalism. You buy yourself a product and you get what you pay for, and these chumps had paid for some angry gringo without the sensibilities to know right from wrong. Here I was about to execute this poor bastard like some dime store angel of death and I realized they were correct, I wouldn't know right from wrong if one of them was helping the poor and the other was banging my sister...
Max Payne: It had taken me right into the heart of it. Becker's gimps were everywhere, so he and Branco must be close. Smart move would have been sticking with Da Silva and going straight to the hangar, but when was I ever about smart moves? I'm a dumb move guy, "Hey Max, we'll drive onto the runway, No thanks I'll walk into the main entrance". I'd put a big shit shit-eating grin on my face and let these assholes take turns trying to kill me, that's my style and it's too late in the day to hope for change. Boy were they throwing numbers at this problem, but then I wanted this. Was it redemption? Not really, it was pathetic desperation and not much else. The further in I got the more guys I saw, Becker wasn't running a police force, he was running an army. These guys were better trained and better equipped than anyone I'd seen out here and I seen some mean sons of bitches. The mission was screaming suicide but I didn't give a damn, at least I'd die being a pain in the ass...
Max Payne: [after taking painkillers] Breakfast of champions.
Max Payne: Listen, if you think I can still do a job, what have I got to lose? Apart from the weight. Very funny... Ha ha... Yes, that is a fake laugh, you jerk.
Max Payne: [playing piano] There it was, the soundtrack to my life, and, for a few seconds, came harmony, finally.
Max Payne: There are two kinds of people: ones that are trying to build their future and ones that are trying to rebuild their past.
Max Payne: I'd killed more cops than cholesterol and still no sign of Becker. It wasn't the first time it dawned on me I should probably have gone over the plan in more detail, but it was too late for that now.
Wilson DaSilva: [after Max shot down the private jet] [running after Max] Wait, Max. No! Stop, Max, we have what we need on him now. Let him enjoy the trial and spell him in prison. Let him suffer! Trust me.::Victor Branco: [laughs manically while lying consciously with his wounded leg] You know I'll walk.::Max Payne: You'll walk... WITH A LIMP!::Victor Branco: [screams in pain when Max stomps Victor on his broken leg]