Was it Good? - Max Payne

Patreon: / joshstrifehayes
Twitch: / joshstrifehayes
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / joshstrifehayes
#####
I don't know about angels, but it's fear that gives men wings.
Max Payne is the gritty film noir adventure of a broken man infiltrating the mob and taking down a government conspiracy, it's fondly remembered and spawned 2 sequels and a major Hollywood film, but...was it any good?
Max Payne is a great example of the memory of the entire event condensed to 'just the best bits' being a lot more enjoyable than the process of actually playing through it, which is buggy, simplistic and often frustrating.
Max Payne is an incredible experience told through a slightly above average gameplay vehicle.
Thank you to the supporters on Patreon for keeping the channel alive!

[@ErwinHolland.]

Without watching I can confidently say yes. Max Payne was very good.

[@SandwichGlitch]

Like 90% of the games he reviews...... It's always "Short answer yes..." Still we watch 90 minutes

[@moilami1]

@@SandwichGlitch Roflmao.

[@Wasteland_FX]

without watching i can confidently like this comment

[@barneschitown]

I Agree

[@wormerine8029]

And still is. Somehow it still plays better than either of its sequels.

[@samacvuk]

It is impossible to describe how mind blowing this game was at the time

[@JohnDiabol]

I remember going to the local gaming store seeing Max Payne being played for the first time by some older teenagers on the then new playstation 2. I must have been 11 or 12 years old and I was absolutely blown away by how fantastic the game looked! It was the first time I had looked at a video game and thought to myself that it looked like a movie.

[@party4keeps28]

I wouldn't go that far but it was certainly good.

[@bentubbs1939]

We need a max Payne 2 and 3 port

[@samacvuk]

@@bentubbs1939 Nowadays its a pretty underwhelming game, maybe a series or movie done properly like sin city

[@johnwalker3602]

@@bentubbs1939 huh? Max Payne 2 and 3 is on PC since forever.

[@MrSnake9419]

Rest in peace James McCaffrey one of the most iconic voices in gaming.

[@A_Minus007]

No way 😢 hope they reuse his lines in the remake

[@t2av159]

shut up , you dont give a f about him

[@ilovenierreplicant2983]

​@@t2av159you're corny as fuck.

[@KaceyKactus]

​@@t2av159are you ok bro

[@iResistive]

I'm glad he's gone tbh. Mid af.

[@dkstudios4805]

The constant focus on making interactables have a purpose i genuinely have to disagree on- having a purpose is cool and by no means bad but having them just be a pleasant surprise to the player is just as good because there was no reason to add the detail. It just adds to the experience.

[@ArteAlen]

also some ideas that josh have couldnt be made even in those times...

[@stevesparkes165]

As a games developer I started to collapse into myself when you suggested that the player should be able to shoot a cigarette out of an ash tray to set someone on fire

[@arciks11]

I'm not a game dev but it gave me a whiplash when he complained about painkillers on top of a crate being immersion breaking, while unironically suggesting THAT.

[@EternalSeabed]

He's been consistent, but that comment actually froze me too

[@At0mHeart]

The vending machine cans suggestion too, the fug are we playin?? Home fugin alone?

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

Yeah, that sounds like creativity, better shut it down quick.

[@remenacance]

​@@varvarvarvarvarvar it's more how much more extra work it would be to code and model all those environment interactions.

[@nat040496]

I gotta say the voice actor for Max is perfect for this kind of cop story. And those one-liners are often damn good. "He was trying to buy sand for his hourglass. I wasn't selling any" goes pretty hard.

[@michaelbuffington4047]

LOL that is a hard line

[@goonagun]

James McCaffrey Is a legend

[@andreknudsne7648]

funny that i have watched like over an hour and havent hear the line yet i think.. and after like 3 min after reading your comment it appare haha

[@Gurra88]

He ironically had a cameo in the movie.

[@Gurra88]

But yeah, the dialogue in his voice is so nice.

[@atp2727]

I played this in 2012, 11 years after release and I was blown away. Could only imagine what it must have been like in 2001.

[@parallaxe5394]

Hello. It was a revelation. "The station was drenched in gloom Alex was a ghost, nowhere to be seen." I can still hear it in my head.

[@bustatron]

It was unbelievable at the time. I got it at release and still can feel the sense of wonder I had seeing the tech, the story, even the music. This game was/is fantastic.

[@HenryTownsmyth]

It was an unbelievable game. Didn't think a game like this could exist. The dialogue the gameplay, all superb. My friend's father had passed away and I have him this game, he loved it so much and it helped him tackle the pain.

[@stolensentience]

@@HenryTownsmythmax pain

[@UlyssesCrab]

Slow. It took a loooong time to load (as all games did back then) but it was still amazing

[@milimunder]

Quick note on the “pills on the pallets.” I used to work construction, and multiple times, when someone would pull something or get hit by something or even cut, they wouldn’t just pack it in and go to the hospital, but pop a couple of painkillers and keep working. We had one guy specifically leave his pills on pallets when his shift was over, in case anyone needed them. So yeah, it’s actually not as outlandish as you’d think. Enjoying the video otherwise, interesting perspective!

[@laethinfowler2317]

Thats actually a fascinating bit of information, it seems really out of place in the game as he says but maybe thats just to people without that experience lol

[@cowmath77]

Max is taking opioid pain killers. Nobody is leaving opioid pain killers laying around a construction site. Tylenol, Motrin, sure, but not Vicodin or morphine..

[@MrFireBlaze]

@@cowmath77 guess your crew just doesnt have that real esprit de corps

[@cowmath77]

​@@MrFireBlaze I know plenty of people who love to bliss out, exactly why nobody leaves that laying around hah.

[@CodexQuinn]

​@@cowmath77 idk man, New York is a WILD place lol. (Kidding)

[@spevinkaceyheterosexualchi36]

Just a quick PSA for those looking to play this game: You may have noticed from Josh's footage that Max tends to slide along and clip through the floor in his shoot-dodge animation-this is a bug resulting from running the game at anything above 60FPS. So after installing the required compatibility patches, don't forget to cap your frame-rate if you want Max to dodge through the air like he was designed to.

[@oobie3049]

I'm kinda worried people will watch the video and be like "those shootdodges are just pathetic" only because he didn't cap the frame rate. This game takes a lot of work to make totally playable on a modern system, but it's 100% worth it! I should know, I've been playing it for over 20 years and I finish it at least once a year! Great game.

[@MNewton]

@@oobie3049 I've combed comment section for anyone who mentioned it but do you play New York Minute? It was a great spin on difficulty for the time.

[@oobie3049]

@@MNewton Oh yeah, I do that quite rarely, but I do enjoy it! My favourite challenge for myself is to complete the game without killing anyone but the necessary ones, which doesn't quite work on New York Minute. :'D I think NYM was a very innovative approach. I haven't really seen such features in many games!

[@velDANTe]

yeah i noticed he has the same problems i had during my first playthrough. the game is balanced around bullet time giving you a lot of time to shoot, and without it the game can get really difficult

[@lostboi8825]

This should be a pinned comment, really takes the effect of bullet time away being that low when you jump, had me confused as I played it on xbox

[@AnimatorDemon]

The Max Payne series is a testament to Sam Lake's talent as a writer. This game's story simultaneously takes itself very seriously and not seriously at all, and usually that would be like trying to mix water and oil. However, Max Payne 1 manages to do that impossible task. The story starts off with us, the player, experiencing a father's worst nightmare and it plays it straight up until we get to Roscoe Street Station. It begins to ease us into the dark comedy with Max's ridiculous metaphors that you'd see in film noir parody, and then we get the goofy dialogue between the goons which also borders on parody - the part where Max starts up the maintenance train to smash through the tunnel barricade, and he says "so much for being subtle" after breaking through, like did he expect to quietly smash through xD. Sam Lake knows that the entire story is ridiculous but he has fun with it whilst reminding the player why we continue with Max's warpath - "nothing is a cliche when it's happening to you".

[@mikedawson7695]

Hey, you probably have,but if you haven't,try Control. Very different,but very very good as well

[@charlesballiet7074]

very well worded and summarized

[@habadasheryjones]

Sam Lake and Remedy are treasures. My favorite devs by far. I don't think there are any games I'm more hyped for than Alan Wake 2 and Control 2 right now.

[@dylhas1]

@@habadasheryjones mine too. They did great with the Crossfire campaign

[@dopey473]

Levity my friend, it's a powerful tool when wielded by a good author.

[@geoffok]

Josh: Why isn't this Hitman? Me: Because it's Max Payne. Josh: I want Hitman!

[@CodexQuinn]

With his desire for environmental kills and more world interactivity it definitely seems like he'd rather be playing hitman.

[@J03130]

"i was in a video game. funny as hell it was the most horrible thing i could think of" always loved that line.

[@tonywalker4207]

"Joe lapeno,yeah spooky." 😂

[@KarazolaX]

It's funny in how it breaks the fourth wall, but if you think about it from the perspective of Max... he is literally ascending to a higher level of understanding. He is able to comprehend the meaning of his reality and that there's a higher level of existence beyond his own. And just like that, he descends back to his normal reality. There's two more games after this one, too. I know this is not meant to be a deep moment in the game, but it has made me think about reality and God quite a bit. If Max interacted with us and acknowledge our reality, does that make us the Gods of his world? If there is a God in our world, what if he holds the same realtionship with us, that we hold with Max?

[@CasepbX]

What they lacked in budget they made up for with style and they nailed it... There's just nothing else like this game.

[@t84t748748t6]

could do whit out the crying baby maze

[@SebiBubble]

@@t84t748748t6 you think you could, but you can't. Levels like these are what makes a game memorable and what elevates the other levels in return.

[@Nightstalker314]

Yes, there is Max Payne 2 and it improves in every aspect.

[@dajokahbaby1506]

Honestly yeah, there’s something about this game where you can just feel the love and dedication in everything, it feels like it was made by a team pushing above their weight to make the best game that they can, and that magic is kinda gone in all of the sequels

[@arbiterally101]

It's interesting to think about. Max Payne's greatest traits it gained from budgetary and technical limitations. The comic book transitions are iconic, and help establish the style of the game as a film noir and draws us in as players to the experience of Max on this crazy drug fueled bust of a century. Contrasting that, it's interesting to look at high-budget games a few generations later and we see technological limitations being stripped away, but storytelling often struggling to meet the same immersion that this rather subpar game did back in 2001. Kinda good the film wasn't great, because it means people need to play the game to really experience it, and even if the gameplay is clunky and clearly dated, the storytelling and ambience is one of a kind. Sometimes, those limitations inspire games to go above and beyond in the things that grip us as players, even if the game itself isn't very good.

[@oversellingpartsunknown698]

Max's drug induced nightmare had me shook as a child. Running along that blood trial with his daughter crying was stuck in my head for weeks.

[@UM96lol]

I'd exit the room and let my older cousins play the section. Don't let kids this game.

[@MidwestGuru91]

I just remember getting annoyed at them because they were stupidly hard.

[@Johnnywayne5302]

It used to scare the hell outta me as a kid but I love playing them sections now it makes the game more than just a shooter my opinion

[@fonesrphunny7242]

​@@MidwestGuru91 There are basically no enemies and all the jumps are easy to make. There is nothing *difficult* about these sections, unless you have no practice with such games. Finding the right path isn't difficult, just *time consuming*, but IIRC you just had to follow the crying child most of the time.

[@freddyrock]

Yes, very powerful stuff. I remember the feeling..

[@scottbuck1572]

Dear god Josh; the coding alone for the cigarette to be able to do that would MELT a PS2

[@josedorsaith5261]

Bet the same was said about the melting/disintegrating ice cubes in MGS2

[@Palmieres]

While some of the complaints are valid, some are a fundamental misunderstanding of how game engines, optimization and basic technical limitations work, especially at the time this game was being made. This wasn't 2015, this was at a time where game physics were largely dedicated to move player characters and NPCs. Having a case full of bank notes explode and spread like a cloud just for a two second quip does not justify the weeks of development, disk space and processing power it would require, when so much else in the game was probably already such a big demand from the developing team. It brings me to a point where I'm standing here just waiting for the criticism about how none of the characters' mouths move...

[@CampanellaJ]

Pretty much how I felt like some complaints were valid but some could've been surmised as "and because this game was made in 2001, it's missing some really cool stuff''

[@noticiasinmundicias]

Yeah, I think I disagree with 80% of his takes in most videos, but hey. Long format and nostalgia? I'm in. Although at some point, listening to a grown man complain about a game for an hour becomes too much lol

[@uspo8326]

He seems to have terrible ideas for game features on literally all his videos...

[@Molda22]

I recently discovered this channel and at first i liked the videos, but the more i watch the more it become annoying. He is overly harsh and critical about everything and often the compaints are not even valid especially not when you consider when these games came out. mechanics or features or whatever that 99% of players absolutely loved and was mind blown is being criticised here super harshly from the stand point of "modern spoiled gamer view". Which is weird considering the whole thing is called "Was it good?" and not "is it good now in 2023 compared to modern games" And the answer to the "was it good" is - yes, most of the stuff that is constantly criticised in these videos were actually great at the time it came out.

[@Schnozinski]

@@Molda22 His videos on MMOs or more rigid RPG-style games are better, he is better at understanding and critiquing RPG mechanics and has much more realistic expectations and frames of reference for them. I feel like he's kind of stretching himself thin and just yapping for runtime's sake half of the time with videos about games like this.

[@armed_but_blind2768]

The part where the baby is crying and you've gotta follow the red trail stays with me to this day

[@NayDeevo31]

I'm also haunted by that level.

[@Radient001]

I quit the game trying to walk down the damn red blood trail without falling into the abyss. So infuriating.

[@Namelessstew]

Shit I was a kid when I played it and the beginning terrified me with the baby dying. Then I got to the nightmare sequences and I was so scared I stopped playing until I got older.

[@drake128]

Turned sound off . Only way I could do it

[@Holy_Wraith]

If I'm correct, there was a part you can drop down safely on an part to finish quicker without dying.

[@glumsulk]

This game is a masterpiece. Its hard to explain how innovative the game was. Bullet time, dual analog aiming, the mature story. Game is incredible.

[@lolusuck386]

The way bullet time was done in the Max Payne games just hasn't been done in any other game. Even the games trying to copy it don't do it as well.

[@LordMarlle]

It's a flawed masterpiece, but as video game storytelling goes this is a important piece of history. The ambience alone is 10/10

[@TheVanillatech]

Back then, the creative people were still in charge of the video game developer companies, that they had founded. It was before the massive corporate takeover that happened between 2004-2010, when the megacorps noticed that the video game industry was now turning over billions of dollars a year, and decided to buy it and squeeze it dry, sacking all the creative people at the heads of the companies (or relegating them to yes men) and replacing them them bankers / accountants. It's amazing to see how many genre defining games were thought up and made during, say, 1993-2003 - pretty much all of them on PC and from just 10-15 developers, and then from 2005-2023 how many remakes, remasters, sequels etc were spewed out by the industry, and how graphics stagnate for 5 years or more in between console generations. The only thing remaining for real innovation is small indie developers and kickstarter. But when some small studio has huge success and moves a ton of games and earns big money (say - Moon Software, for example) - they are instantly bought out by one of the huge megacorps, and set to work on Tombraider 17, or Call Of Duty 25, or Max Payne 5 (etc).

[@shinji-kaneda7911]

Yeah

[@sssolventless7105]

the Matrix came out and I rememer thinking that slow motion gun battles were EPIC, then this came out which totally bodied the bullet time mechanic. Was an awsome time to be a kid!

[@solidsnake-gy3rw]

bro you really have some wild critics for a 2001 game

[@infernaltourist9601]

He had critics for like some of the 90's games but that is what this channel is all about, complaining about things that nobody gives a damn.

[@conanmaolcheann5088]

It drives me absolutely nuts how everyone I’ve seen make videos on this game points out that the name Woden is “close to Odin” when Woden is the Anglo-Saxon name for Odin just as Wotan is the south Germanic name for him. Great video btw I just had to get that out

[@marcst3199]

And Sax is a type of Sword south germanic have used

[@briangoldberg4439]

interesting. i've never met anyone named "woden" or "wotan" before, so i didn't know there was a connection

[@johnnybensonitis7853]

@@marcst3199 And Sax sounds kinda close to sex, so ya know... it's all a rich tapestry.

[@billwithers4762]

Also Wednesday is named after Odin, "Wodensday".

[@arjunsatheesh7609]

@@billwithers4762 I'll complete the set Tuesday - Tyr's day Thursday - Thor's day Friday - Frigg's day Sunday and Monday are just Sun and Moon and Saturday is for Saturn

[@1.618_Murphy]

It was not just good, it was one of the best things ever happened to gaming industry! The series deserves to be remastered!

[@Absolynth]

The first game is being remade from the ground up in the new Control engine as we speak, developed by Remedy and published by Rockstar :)

[@JeffreyOnly]

@@Absolynth Correction, both 1 & 2 are remade into one game at the same time

[@Absolynth]

@@JeffreyOnly woah. Hope it comes to PS4!

[@Clumpfy]

@@Absolynth That is freaking awesome! I did not know that. Part 1 was for my 16 year old mind "the best Action game ever" back when it released. And to be fair, I think it held up pretty nicely when I replayed it a couple of years ago. It was only shadowed by the far superior second gameand sadly the series was fucked up by Rockstar in part three. I dislike MP 3 with a passion. I tried to play through it three times and never finished it. So sad, but for me part three is an ugly odd one out. It doesn't fit into the series. And my goooooood the unskippable Cutscenes are atrocius - Remedy should get the chance to make a new part three for Max Payne and end it gloriously in New York, in the winter, with a dark and gritty story and Max dies in the end.

[@nopillzplease2830]

@@Clumpfy the way I like to think of MP3: definitely a FLIP but not a FLOP lol it's different and there are things that just drag on but man is it an entertaining and responsive shooter 👌 I hear you tho

[@fesimco4339]

"Imagine if you could shoot the cigarette out of the ash trey and set someone on fire" That would be so unbelievably stupid. Why would you think of that?!

[@omarsheriff51]

I agree, it's beyond stupid. Like who tf wants that in a game ? Worst take I've seen on Max Payne ever.

[@Tigerhearty]

pseudo intellectuals of the faked mcn Zoy nlst youtube circle

[@theTankGuy1941]

Would be a good gag

[@fesimco4339]

@@theTankGuy1941 Explain the gag, I'd love to know how you could make that funny.

[@theTankGuy1941]

@@fesimco4339 a cigarette will eventualy kill you

[@drewclarke8611]

Besides the nightmare scene and the crying baby, the line that stuck with me all these years occurs when Max loses all his equipment and is being tortured. Freeing himself, he growls: “All I had was Niagara’s bat, sticky with my own blood.” Holy crap, what a great noir line and perfect delivery!

[@jamieroach5755]

i was nine years old watching that scene and then my mum walked in , werent allowed to play it after that

[@CinnamonToastKing]

That nightmare level was pure agony and pain.....I will never forget it. The platforming the constant baby cries......my god!

[@EQOAnostalgia]

"aaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

[@coomr419]

Maximum Payne

[@athf226]

I think we rented Max Payne from Hollywood Video or Blockbuster or something and I never beat it because I kept falling off of the freaking blood lines when platforming. It actually tainted my image of the game because I liked it up until that point, but it's all I can think of when I think of the game and it sort of soured my image lol.

[@MercenaryBlackWaterz]

After the "nightmare" level you get rewarded with the best level in the game "Take me to Cold Steel" and the awesome Colt Commando.

[@nightnday6675]

Its because movement was atrocious. Super sensitive.

[@fb1767]

This game is still an absolute gem.

[@tommcewan7936]

First of its kind, and honestly nobody's done it better since.

[@fb1767]

@@tommcewan7936 I think Max Payne 2 was even better. Max Payne 3? Good game but it can't touch 1 and 2 in my opinion, these were another kind of animals. And Quantum Break? A missed opportunity for a great game derailed to shallow gameplay and a boring TV show thingy.

[@tommcewan7936]

@@fb1767 I didn't like MP2 all that much, honestly, not least because it completely retconned one of my favourite characters from the first game.

[@SuperHns]

@@fb1767 Control is also great imo. But yeah Max Payne 2 is better in terms of shooting and physics.

[@holden_tld]

i was 17. my old computer desk was falling apart. we went to the store to get a new one and picked up max payne too. i got home and decided i wanted to play the game a bit before worrying about my new desk. my computer was set up at the living room couch with my giant 19" CRT monitor sitting on a wobbly cardboard box, the keyboard on my lap, and my mouse on the included max payne mouse pad (which i still have of course) sitting on the couch next to me. i sat there and played through the entire game that night.

[@susanna8612]

That tells it was the great game. Now days we jump from one game to another and strugle to even finish one game because many games has become too repetative, boring, all the same and simply too long. And there is too many options.

[@snipermagoo]

Eventually, they were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. You released your finger from the left mouse button, and then it was over.

[@ShadowSumac]

​@@susanna8612You have just changed and no longer like video games. It is not the games that boring, it is you are.​

[@susanna8612]

@@ShadowSumac insulting people will bring u nowhere in life. First, grow up and be nicer so u might find real life friends 💃 I feel sorry for u

[@TheBlackDeath3]

52:25 | You _can_ use that trap door to kill an enemy. You're even treated to a bespoke cinematic camera angle. You just didn't do it.

[@myztik5716]

I wonder how this happens. Does he stream his playthroughs and ask chat to verify? Does he do his own research? Does he not do anything? It seems weird to make so many authoritative statements without research

[@MrHoxworth]

His gripes sound mostly like he forgets how the game was made, that the game his running is not optimized for newer systems and his serious SKILL ISSUE, also it's a trap door for crying out loud, same with his criticism of the stage, what is he expecting a pyro show to do ? burn the whole place down ?

[@infernaltourist9601]

@@myztik5716 He has to complain about something to make these videos even if it's a really minor detail...

[@thegeist79]

The vibe of this game is unsurpassed

[@s3dghost]

Some John woo shii...

[@vandamned-qr7xb]

And the modding community, oh lord!

[@TheTGOAC]

​@@s3dghostwas that a thugnificent reference? If so I see it and appreciate it

[@kirillholt2329]

it's a psychological horror thriller [john woo's director's cut]

[@jabber9594]

Would have to disagree, Max Payne 2 surpassed it ;)

[@AthosJosue]

"Nothing is a cliche when is happening to you" What a quote 🤯

[@ignaciogodoy7095]

That frase is to all politicians in the world

[@moonstergamer4]

I just love hearing Max's dialogue, his voice actor did so well and I love the music and atmosphere. Replayed Max payne 3 several times and might have to play it again here soon lol

[@susanna8612]

Have u played Max Pay 2?

[@LarixusSnydes]

I also liked that due to budget constraints they did not hire a professional actor for Payne's likeness. When someone does not look like a super model, it's easier to form an emotional bond to a character.

[@parallaxe5394]

Hello. "The GAME PLAY falls short." What have you been drinking? The game play is amazing and at the time it was nothing short of a revolution.

[@millmr20]

Wrong

[@nosam20031]

You're simply wrong. Max Payne's game-play has aged like dog-shit, and when people say otherwise it just screams "nostalgia goggles" to me. It's true that it was an exceptional game when you were a kid in 2001, but by today's standards the game is incredibly clunky.

[@Markus-8Muireg]

​@@nosam20031I first played it a year ago and say the gameplay is great, no nostalgia goggles here.

[@SoulsofEmber99]

Max Payne 1 gameplay hasn't aged well. 2 has though

[@Draugo]

The hard thing about set dressing in media is that half the critics are annoyed if every little thing is used for some function and half are annoyed if not.

[@shanetaylor761]

I'm pretty sure the lions share of annoyance is for games without the detail. As long as you don't tie details like that directly into the stories progress. I remember playing luigis mansion when I was younger and I was stuck in this one room forever. It turned out you had to suck this poster off the wall with your vacuum to show a switch. It's clever and I'll admit certain games like dark souls make that a hallmark mechanic but you can't just do stuff like that once randomly. Especially if it's the only way for you to continue forward. That's one of the few excepting though. Normally details in games are always for the better. It's it just me or were his ideas for how to tie in interactivity really silly. Make soda spill out the machine so that people slip deathloop style. Or close the briefcase so that the bad guys chasing(key word lol) you stop and open it leaving you with the element of surprise. I love this guys reviews but his examples are crazy. I thought he was gonna say be able to pick up the drug brief case and destroy it somehow or use the soda machine enough and painkillers randomly come out.

[@ExeErdna]

@@shanetaylor761 I honestly blame it being a 22 year old game NOW a days a lot of the environment would be interactable. It'll really look like the Tea house shootout from Hardboiled where everything can get shredded.

[@shanetaylor761]

@ExeErdna you know what's ironic. I specifically remember max payne being the first game I ever played where you saw bullet marks on the wall wherever you shot. I'm a way golden eye was like that but in max payne I remember trying to spell my name in the mirror with bullets. For the graphics having that ability felt like the coolest thing.

[@ExeErdna]

@@shanetaylor761 You try to write "fuck" on the wall and reload to save your bullets

[@ExceedProduction]

Yeah. If you introduce more environmental traps someone will complain about them being useless because simply shooting is more efficient or smth like that lmao

[@peacemaster8117]

Josh when he finds an unlocked cabinet full of painkillers in a hotel hallway: this is totally normal Josh when he finds a stray bottle of pills dropped in a warehouse: WHAT THE FUCK???

[@AzureIV]

A warehouse worker might have dropped their bottle of pain killers when they climbed up on the boxes to take a break. Josh doesn't know.

[@KingLich451]

hahahaha

[@soldierorsomething]

Well he did say that he had worked in a factory, so it might have been against regulations :D

[@iamrage4753]

Probably amazns warehouse xD

[@peacemaster8117]

I got a like from Josh, that means my comment is canon.

[@harrymasononvacation]

I've liked pretty much every video i've watched of yours, but I do have quite a bit of criticism here. It looks like you're running the game with the framerate uncapped, which completely breaks the shootdodge mechanic. A lot of sections you seemed to have a lot of trouble with stemmed from your shootdodge not working properly. Also, the game has adaptive difficulty. If you reload the game without letting the death animation play out each time, the game actively gets much harder. At its hardest, Max's health is less than half of its maximum, and enemies have deadly precision. Loading via quick load can easily lead to the game feeling much more difficult than it should be. Definitely not a perfect solution to difficulty, but I feel like that might explain a lot of the 1 hit deaths. As for the environmental interactivity, I really don't think you're considering the budget and time constraints this game had, and playing the game gimped definitely added to your feeling that the gameplay was missing something that you looked for in interactivity. I know it might be a bit much to ask, but I'd like to see a second playthrough with these things in mind. I definitely disagree with the notion that Max Payne has mediocre gameplay, as ive finished it myself 20+ times (and while some are to experience the story, a lot of the playthroughs are just because the game is so damn fun), and I really think taking those things into consideration would really enhance your experience.

[@drewrobinson5562]

Oh ya. I don't remember if it was this game or another with similar mechanics. But it Showed up on a list of "games players accidently made more difficult" because quick loading made the game think you've had zero deaths. (Course considering the lack of actual check point... I can see how he's got that loop when you are playing the game for work and don't wanna waste extra time each death)

[@nullvoid7188]

​@@drewrobinson5562now I'm imagining if they implemented this into BG3 or non casual fire emblem to keep you from save scuming.

[@Sotanaht01]

Never knew about the quickload thing, but I never thought the game was THAT difficult either. Not that I didn't die a lot, just that with maybe a couple exceptions later on it never really felt excessive. But anyway mechanically I think Max Payne 1 and 2 are great. For third person shooters with realistic gun options, I can't really ask for much more.

[@colbybradbury870]

The thing that stood out to me and maybe im blind, just some constructive criticism here. He never used the normal roll at all in combat. Its 50% his fault for not trying and 50% the games fault for never teaching it. In combat it gives you, infinite free i-frames if people are shooting at you, and it completely auto dodges the one hit kill shotguns if you use it. I wish more people knew this because I feel the game was balanced around it and thats why some people find it so cheap because they don't learn to use it.

[@herczegmarton9972]

This dude couldn' set up an old game to save his life. It's really awkward to watch him play the game with 10 times the fps it was designed for and getting confused things don't really work well. The fact he didn't bother to install the widescreen fix so the whole image is scretched is just icing on the cake.

[@dwatts64]

He's struggling so much because he doesn't have his fps capped. The shootdodge is broken without a fix. You just kinda drag your body across the ground for 4 feet.

[@CodexQuinn]

As someone who just picked up the game, I fucking KNEW something was going on with that. Imagine my face as I stared incredulously as this bullet sponge of a cop goes 7 1/2 inches every time he uses his leg muscles to dive.

[@katanalevygames]

I have to totally disagree with you on all of the little interaction points you made. Sure some of your suggestions might have been fun, but extremely hard for them to implement and wouldn't have made it in at all. I think we are lucky they put all these fun simple interactions in, even if there is no gameplay purpose. I miss the era of games that did stuff like this.

[@acehood9953]

It just adds to the overall presentation and peaked in rdr2 imo.

[@ArvelDreth]

I think the one with the drums attracting enemies so you could kill them with pyrotechnics could have been pulled off, but yeah basically every other suggestion would have been impossible at the time.

[@The_ElegyOfSins]

I wanted to comment the same. Considering the time of release, and the state of video games back then, those interactions with no use are exactly what made them special and stick out. The fact you could redirect resources to useless things just to increase the *feeling* of the game was genius. But it's hard to understand from today's perspective. I genuinely love interactibles without gameplay use, because they're cute gimmicks that put a smile on my face, and enhance the gameplay experience so much, when not overused.

[@bboollll]

sinks, showers, toilets gotta check if they work and when they do its a oddly satisfying feeling one gets. does bugger all but still.

[@MagnaKay]

Yeah, the point at the time was "we can do it". If I remember correctly, Remedy's devs had roots in the demoscene. They even released a demo (think benchmark scene) of MP's engine a few months before release that spoofed the lobby shootout from The Matrix. It was jaw-dropping for a ton of different reasons. The demoscene at large is quite obsessed with optimization and showing off (that's kind of the point), and it's a thing that really percolated through in Max Payne. Devs love to flex and just _show it can be done, for no other purpose_. Also, these baby steps from the whole "the world _can be_ interactive" are what caused Josh's question "wouldn't it be nice if (now we can)..." that would be answered in the next decades. A series that is particularly interesting to observe for this is Hitman, from Codename 47 to today's World of Assassination, from clunky "3DFX-era game that explored some new things" to "building complex Rube-Goldberg machines out of the environment and NPCs interacting with it to engineer funny hits is kind of the point, also you have a gun". I think Josh's point is still valid though - the fact that these things are there and _do nothing_ can make you feel like you're in a gallery of dev flexes. It's the kind of things that would be interesting to answer in a "good" remake (please don't remake this game though).

[@KevinoftheCosmos]

I still occasionally narrate certain situations in my head like I'm existing in the hard-boiled noir of Max Payne. Like when I have a hanghover I might say something like "I wanted to dig inside my skull and scrape out the pain." or "I had a bomb ticking in my head. No amount of painkillers would disable it." Thank you for giving this game exposure in this modern era. It certainly deserves it.

[@ElliFong]

It is surely the shakespeare of modern time

[@PornTrouT]

This started for me during Max Payne era and has recently been amplified by Disco Elysium.

[@willm5032]

I do the same, glad its not just me tbh haha

[@dougr8646]

No you don't shut up

[@kevincollins8620]

I do too. Max Payne 3 does them well during multi-player. Game was annoying but hearing max kept me going fr.

[@ryanloney3448]

“He was trying to buy sand for his hour glass, but I wasnt selling any” hha so good

[@traxcanonch.2421]

52:18 That trapdoor is actually used for that enemy you killed at that moment. You just killed him too fast before he had the chance to reach the trapdoor lol

[@crescentmoonrisingsun8196]

Common sense will tell you not stand in front a flaming pressurized gas canister aimed at a locked and only passageway. You dont need special game mechanics to tell you that. Lmao

[@npiper]

Since Josh is the KING of forgetting historical context I want you to do a thing. EVERY TIME he utters the words "Wouldn't It Be" I want you to remember the minimum system requirements Processor: 450MHz AMD / Intel Processor [single core because multi core didn't exist yet] Memory: 96 MB RAM (128 MB RAM or greater recommended) Graphics: 16MB Direct3D Compatible Graphics Card DirectX Version: DirectX 8.0 Hard Drive: 830 MB Hard Drive Space for full install, 530 MB for minimum install Sound Card: DirectSound compatible sound card and understand THAT is why it wasn't. P.S. as a graphics design student at the time this was made I can guarantee that filter on the photos probably took like 3 minutes to render each picture, old computers were SLOOOOOOOOOW.

[@chriskeepit100]

😮

[@tehSunBro]

Historical context means literally nothing when the premise of the show is "is it still good today"

[@jent14]

​@@tehSunBrobut it would've been nice to include it in an hour and a half long video, maybe

[@tehSunBro]

@@jent14 It's literally the opposite of the premise of the show. Historical context means nothing when asking how the game is today.

[@bahji]

@@tehSunBrowrong

[@grud8495]

Max Payne is a pillar in gaming history. This game proved that gaming was a great medium to tell a great story. It blended gaming with comic books and movies.

[@LutraLovegood]

Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Koudelka, Final Fantasy IX, Xenogears, Metal Gear Solid... I'm only scratching the surface of games that did it before Max Payne.

[@kennta340]

@@LutraLovegood Max payne is still a pillar of gaming history, telling a good story, have good gameplay and got the players stuck to the screens. Yes some of those games you talking about might have done it before, dont take away that Max payne also did it tho....

[@nahnotreally2337]

@@LutraLovegoodbro said blood omen AND soul reaver Feels like padding the list lmao

[@Incog2k6]

Rest in Peace, James McCaffrey 😔

[@TheSteinin]

On Fugitive difficulty the game uses certain metrics like number of recent deaths to dynamically alter the difficulty. This changes stuff like player & enemy health, number of painkillers found, how much bullet time gained per kill and more. The game increases in difficulty as long as you don't die and can actually become harder than Dead on Arrival difficulty. The adaptive difficulty can be disabled using a mod.

[@fridayhawks-spangenberg8979]

The feeling I got from Max shooting the monitor wasn't that he was trying to destroy data, but rather that he didn't care about collecting any evidence and was venting his frustration and anger by shooting Horn's property.

[@Akhtar93]

Thats exactly what he even said

[@stuflames4769]

He simply didn't need to or want to look at it. *Bang*

[@kaiserjoe2316]

Laughed at the "thank you" for taking out the elevator speakers.

[@mxhornet]

Not sure of the specific name of the genre, but Max Payne's noir-like monologues have got to be my favorite part of this series, even beyond the bullet-time ability in my opinion.

[@jon4715]

Pulp/noir, you're spot on

[@mxhornet]

@@jon4715 thanks!

[@LarryHazard]

it's a blend of pulp noir stories and hong kong action cinema with very 90s occult thriller tropes and post-modern self awareness and irony

[@RyugaHidekiOrRyuzaki]

The monologues remind me of Thief

[@Uradamus]

IMO, Max Payne falls into the hardboiled genre. Which is similar to, but distinct from, noirs in as far as they usually focus on a protagonist who will usually be some sort of law man who had to take thing into their own hands to do what they think is right/just when the system has failed them. Noir is more cynical and dark, where everyone tends to be in the wrong in the long run, think something like Breaking Bad. Pulp isn't really a specific genre. It's a broader grouping of genres that tended to be published in the same format back in the early 20th century - which was cheap paperbacks printed on the lowest grade "pulp" paper stock to cut on costs. The works that were put into such media were often considered trashy/salacious and targeted the more baser desires of the common man/woman. The genres employed were often crime stories, westerns, sci-fi/fantasy, and the more scandalous romance works. They often featured a lot of cliches, violence and eroticism. Many were written fast and followed well established formulas and were treated more as a commodity than a work of art. But a lot of folks still found a lot of fun and charm in such works. Nostalgia and romanticism for those old cheap books lead to several renaissance periods where writers/directors/producers would try to recapture and elevate the classic pulp tropes into something fresh for a new era.

[@greglongmore6503]

On your comments regarding set building around 25:00 I was a gamer for at least 10 years when this came out and we collectively didn't care about all that, this was the beginning of PC Power with console aesthetics/gameplay (along with Hitman). Just the execution was huge; all what you're talking about came later when we started to get spoiled.

[@Marcelo88160]

I've been watching this video for 2 days now and knowing today that the Legend James McCaffrey has passed away, it gives me that motivation to finish it for the nostalgia and in his honor too. RIP LEGEND!

[@bones17]

A lot of the gameplay issues are because of the framerate. All the footage you used it seemed you didn't install the win10/11 fixes. I'd say that if you played it in the early 2000s or if you apply all the fixes so it runs normal on modern hardware, most of the "clunkiness" you describe is gone. Obviously not all since it's like a 20 years old game, but it's not as bad as you said at the start. I replayed it around Christmas (with all the fixes) and had tons of fun. There's a "allinone" fix in the steam guides for the game that works perfectly if anyone's wondering. Also, also if you decide to play it, don't go all out with the shoot dodge. Actually slowing down the time and moving and shooting is surprisingly effective. As a kid when I played it I used to just gun people down with the shoot-dodge, but with just the regular bullet time you can wipe out whole rooms with little effort (bullet time restores as you kill people so you won't run out until a room is cleared).

[@danialyousaf6456]

Yeah. I remember gman reviewed it a while back and he said you have to set your frame rate at 30 fps or else you'll barely be able to shoot dodge

[@SKY11211213]

especially when he should know PC GAMING WIKI HHHHAAAAASSSSS all fixes needed listed with verified sources which contain no viruses. JUST install it. I start to feel like Josh is a zoomer. I know no older gamer who still plays retro consoles or and or only PC who does not follow the same mindset: "read PCGamingWiki", do the stuff needed and if it is a multiplayer game hope for a openspy patch to be available. He skipped it which is anti PC gaming imo. Nowadays most games are PC = console game and not a separate completely different version of a game which is definitely not bad.

[@AlastorD]

I agree, the Game is designed so you have to read the room when you are in combat. Where are enemies standing, where are they firing, where are obstacles ect. A shoot Dodge helps nothing if you jump right into the enemies line of fire and you lose control when you do it, so its important to know when and where you can use it.

[@saisameer8771]

Don't forget the dodge roll. It's way more useful than most people imagine. The arenas are usually open enough to give you some maneuverability and have boxes, pillars and everything for cover. So, if you can effectively use the dodge roll along with the shoot dodge while switching weapons on the fly and some awareness of your immediate surroundings, you can totally get through most arenas unscathed. I find myself constantly reloading saves to get the perfect action movie run. The gameplay is simple at surface but has some surprising level of depth.

[@explorersara]

It's really surprising considering how well Josh seems to research stuff usually

[@ijnkako5326]

The stick to the wall glitch is related to launching it on modern harware, it definitely wasn't an issue back in 2001

[@Silvanfan]

Come now Josh, the painkillers found on top of a stack of palettes is too much of a video-game mechanic and unrealistic, but you want to be able to SHOOT A CIGARETTE to set a gangster on fire? Bro... come on.

[@TheInfiniteAmo]

I feel like a lot of players have a bad experience with Max Payne 1 because they want to be constantly using the bullet time dive, like that's the game's only gimmick, but its not. The regular bullet time plays a huge role in making the combat doable, because as long as you can freeze time and click on heads you can take down most enemies. The bullet dive is a reaction to get away from an enemy or into cover, and the spray n pray guns work great for regular gunplay against most enemies well into the late game.

[@snipermagoo]

I actually remapped the controls so the shootdodge was just a basic bullet time even while moving and it did make things much easier. A shootdodge is only really useful if it takes you into full cover.

[@JHamList]

it was incredible, at the time that it came out there was nothing like it at all, the dark grittiness of it really helped set the mood too

[@NohabloEng]

For me it was the narration too

[@KasumiRINA]

Also the gameplay? In the early 2000s every third person game was either a GTA clone or Tomb Raider wannabe, there were no third person shooters that had you just... shoot stuff... and did it well. All tried to bring either cars, or platforming or puzzles or minigames into them. And had crap combat with autoaim and no dodges.

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

It did look dark and gritty alright, but Max's narration is such a large presence and is so relaxed and stoic that the whole game just ends up feeling cozy. No matter what happens, we'll handle it. That's why I didn't care for the third game although it probably has better gunplay.

[@maskedbadass6802]

@@KasumiRINA Yeah, I remember GTA having some sort of lock on system but it was very janky and so Max Payne giving you the freedom to aim at any angle with slow-mo felt so much smoother. Even to this day when I would play games like GTA5 I feel like I am cheating using instant lock-on, not the worst but certainly not as satisfying as manually lining up headshots in slow mo.

[@holysecret2]

One of the greatest examples of limitation breeding creativity

[@imnotdavidxnsx]

It's driving me crazy how you're almost never doing head shots, especially while in slowmo. I think that's why you found the game so hard. Most of the enemies you're shooting when you dive into a room are meant to die in one shot each.

[@davidringstad8507]

I finished the game back in the day, headshot only. Loaded every time I missed shots etc... (I was a nerd...)

[@darkzentai7417]

If you’ve got blown up by igniting a gas cylinder and not moving to a safe distance, that’s your fault it’s basic health and safety.

[@Indiana_Minotaur]

This was my first ever game that made me fell in love with narratively driven games. And it still holds up to this day.

[@Indiana_Minotaur]

And yeah sure somethings don't hold up because oof yeah. But the story is still really really good for it's time and can still be enjoyable to this day.

[@LVD3NS]

@@Indiana_Minotaur >the story is still really really good for its time what, you think that good storytelling in videogames is a thing that was invented in the 2010s?

[@Indiana_Minotaur]

@@LVD3NS you be very surprised what people regard as "Good storytelling" in games nowadays

[@forlorngallery]

I think whoever came up with the Flamingo TV idea was inspired by scenes from Twin Peaks. Specifically the "Red room" or "Black Lodge" where a surreal, unsettling feeling is everywhere. The red curtains depicted in two of the images on the TV are almost identical to scenes from Twin Peaks where the main Protagonist is navigating the space.

[@penyuwan]

It was alwaya Sam Lake, he loves David Lynch especially his creation Twin Peaks.

[@gavinbarnes4701]

Yeah that was definitely the red room.

[@bhijdasasdjhasdbjkdasbjkfasbjk]

the screaming reminds me of Lauras scenes in the red room, plus the backwards stuff ; neat reference to see in max payne

[@von4297]

Exactly this. The characters in the red room in Twin Peaks spoke backwards. We needed subtitles to understand it.

[@Kralysk]

Absolutely - the background of the shot showing the flamingo also has the same design as the Black Lodge's floor.

[@vegeta8169]

That nightmare scene with the crying baby still haunts me.

[@SachBro]

One of the greatest games I ever played. Calling it medicore is downright criminal. When you judge a game 2 decades later since when it was released, think of the gaming standards in the year when it was released. By today's yardstick games such as Halflife or Doom will be called medicore due to their simple and repetitive gameplay. Hell COD to this day has that issue.

[@ibazulic]

But Josh didn't call it mediocre. He called it "a cliched chipped diamond of a game" and some of the criticism he has does stand. Personally, even with those flaws, I found Max Payne to be extremely enjoyable and have loved the story, the characters, even the gameplay. But I do have to say, in my opinion, Max Payne 2 is a better game, because I feel they fixed there some of the flaws that Josh is speaking of here.

[@chrislee5268]

Half-Life and Doom still hold up, Max Payne 1 doesn't, simple as.

[@laethinfowler2317]

As much as I do disagree with this game being considered mediocre, he DID think of the gaming standards in the year it was released. I can't remember where in the video, but he specifically points out that the game was competing with the releases of Devil May Cry in terms of action combat, and Metal Gear Solid II in terms of any sort of stealth gameplay/gunplay; He was quite fair with the points of the game that he did enjoy and was, as always, more than fair in terms of looking at the actual directorial vision of much of the game (camera shots and the like)

[@pyramidschema8668]

​@@laethinfowler2317 That isn't really fair in itself though, PCs of the time didn't have DVD drives, which MGS2 and DMC had access to on PS2. Max Payne was also the second title made by it's developer, while DMC and MGS2 were both flagship titles developed inhouse by two of the most successful game publishers of all time, Konami and Capcom. Comparing the action to a dedicated beat-em-up and the stealth to a dedicated stealth game is also a bit unfair, and as far as gunplay goes Max Payne is as good as MSG2 and, I'd argue, more influential on the genre. Josh does a good job talking about the narrative and the atmosphere of a game, and often he has legitimate criticisms of gameplay, but he often does a poor job placing things in their historical context with respect to technology, mechanics and game design. If the series was called "Has it aged well" that'd be different, but it isn't.

[@laethinfowler2317]

@@pyramidschema8668 ill grant you that much for sure; I still think he was relatively fair about the review but I did not consider the disk drives nor the fact that the company was newer to the industry though. I agree that comparing the aspects of the game to other games dedicated to such aspects is a bit unfair too, but they do go to show what was possible at the time; I can definitely agree that the possibility was certainly hindered by the aforementioned disk drives and experience though

[@Valkyrie_Thorn]

Fun fact, Vladimir Lem was modelled by Marko Saaresto. He would later become the lead singer of Poets of the Fall, who performed Late Goodbye from Max Payne 2.

[@JohnZ117]

Love that song.

[@arciks11]

Knowing that explains so much.

[@mrthaimaster]

Yepp Friend with Sam Lake they got a Song in Control too that's pretty good.

[@madmanarrivednow]

Thank you. I was hoping to find this one. Actually that game made me look for the band and they aren't bad at all IMO. In the second. In that game there are two thugs I always mention. One deserved to die thousand deaths, since he spoils the ending of Address Unknown. And one I really didn't want to kill because of his piano rendition of Late goodbye. And then there is the janitor singing it which was just funny.

[@JaitsuStudios]

Just want to point out that Woden isn't just "close to Odin", its literally one of the various names Odin has had in history. It's also what we get "Wednesday" from, originally it was "Wodens Day".

[@franzrott4904]

I think Woden comes from the old germanic name of Odin, being Wodan

[@chaosgyro]

The Norse gods gave us most of our days of the week. Tyr's Day, Wodan's Day, Thor's Day, and Frey's Day.

[@franzrott4904]

@@chaosgyro Yeah but also weirdly the roman Titan Saturn, which is kind of an outlier

[@mercurydrive9720]

The writing and voice acting in every one of these graphic novel sections was an absolute treat, really nailed the film noir vibe on the one liners

[@nerfherder4284]

When you bump into things in Max Payne 2, the stuff on the table fell off. That absolutely blew my mind at the time. The rag doll was phenomenal.

[@neuro.weaver]

Max Payne was PHENOMENAL!!!! After all these years, I still have goosebumps when I hear the theme music! The noir atmosphere, the cool monologues, the amazing story and, above all, the cutting edge gameplay that introduced Bullet-time for the first time.

[@tyrongkojy]

To video games for the first time, but damn right!

[@Poldovico]

​@blueyellow7749 Your comment's no different. Just script 25 instead of 31. Or maybe it's all crap, huh?

[@bigwinz]

The story is nothing special, and the monologues are so bad they're good. I'm pretty sure Max's dialogue is meant to be a parody of pretentious film noir dialogue, I certainly wouldn't call it "cool." Other than that, I agree with you.

[@heavenly2k]

"The killer's mad laughter was a riddle filled with wicked innuendo" Damn. I thought this was gonna be a mindless action game. That's some quality writing right there.

[@DirtyDishSoap]

Old man here, but back in the day, this game was standard. Grade A writing up there with the Legacy of Kain series.

[@bigwinz]

How is that good writing? This game isn't written very well, it just has dialogue that's entertaining because of how ridiculously convoluted Max's hacky metaphors are. The game's story is about as simple as it gets, but it still manages to have some holes. I wouldn't call this game "well written."

[@peacemaster8117]

@@bigwinz It's good writing because it's an original poetic turn of phrase that implies much more than it says. I'm sorry you don't enjoy the style of it, but there's a reason this game is held up as one of the best-written the industry has produced so far.

[@pade3]

@@bigwinz Good writing? No, but on a level that videogames are, it is a masterpiece. On of the best in the industry.

[@myname9130]

@@DirtyDishSoap Max Payne and Legacy of Kain were definitely not standard, it's honestly kind of an insult to both to disregard how exceptionally good they were especially for the time

[@mtgAzim]

The texture work was so great in this game.

[@hyshade5132]

I play this every year during the first snow fall. Absolutely amazing game in every way.

[@HansensUniverseT-A]

It's a freaking masterpiece, it has such a unique atmosphere to it, i played it through probably at least 6 or 7 times.

[@maskedbadass6802]

For sure dude, every time I look up videos like this it makes me want to play through it again like, "fuuuck how am I ever gonna get through my backlog of games at this rate, but it's sooo good and it's been sooo long since I've played it!" lol.

[@TheTuttle99]

@@maskedbadass6802 it's a good drop in drop out game...i think im gonna..................................... "pull the trigger"

[@Mazaroth]

I can't even remember how many times i've played through MP1&2 over the years, wouldn't be 2 digit number that's for sure, MP1&2 are just fucking amazing and that's an understatement, 3 is good but not as great.

[@TheVanillatech]

I played through it originally on a VooDoo 3 equipped Pentium 2 450. Every time I upgraded my rig, for years after that, I'd always run through Max Payne 1 + 2 at a higher resolution, higher refresh rate, higher detail levels - and enjoyed the games all over again but even more.

[@Mega4est]

Referring to the pyros at 53:50, they actually have gameplay significance. As you open up a passage forward, the enemies come running in, and by activating the pyros you can set them on fire 🙂 Also, the trap door at 52:20 has a purpose of staging a cinematic shot with a killed enemy flying through it, but this happens only if you use weapons that have knockback, such as shotgun, desert eagle, etc.

[@jtdenton1483]

Guy is bad at game so game is bad. This is why gaming sucks nowadays because gen z snowflake needs their hands held with a big prompt in the middle of the screen.

[@doctorrobert1339]

@@jtdenton1483 What are you talking about lmfao this guy is much older than Gen Z and it's clear he sucks at the game

[@LadyNightscale]

@@jtdenton1483 this HAS to be a troll post; aint no way you think Josh Strife Hayes, who'se in his 30s and married with a full career, is "gen Z."

[@ashwin5703]

the trap door is a key element for speedrunning that level, max payne 1 and 2 have so many unseen details added for complimenting speedrunners no other game has that many mechanics purely intended for speedrunners

[@Cortanakya]

​@@ashwin5703I guarantee that nothing was added to this game for speedrunning. You know why I say that? Because there's literally no evidence that the developers were even aware of speedrunning as a hobby.

[@chrisjlocke]

32:27 - This is a good example of bullet time. If you go into 'bullet time' using just the slo-mo, you can walk up to Candy easily and repeatedly shoot her without taking much damage - each time you shoot her, she recoils a bit, so doesn't have 'time' (pun intended) to shoot you back. If you start by the bar entrance, you can easily kill her with just the Buretta.

[@BenWallace985]

This game blew my mind as a kid. Just recently played through it on my OG Xbox and its still great to this day. A God Damn masterpiece if you ask me.

[@eponymous7910]

Great on XBOX, mediocre on PS2. The difference was stark

[@Matt-wf7ry]

This game was beyond good - it is right up there with the greatest games of all time. Hard to believe that it's been over 20 years since it was released.

[@johnnyave]

its the single greatet story every told in video game format

[@TheTuttle99]

@@johnnyave lol now that's just silly

[@johnnyave]

@@TheTuttle99 fucking how? tell me a better one

[@OuhPii]

One of those games where I can't force myself to be objective. Too many memories, too much nostalgia and an unstoppable yearning for another experience like this.

[@kevincollins8620]

Max Payne 3 is easily my fave in the series. I love em all though.

[@aleksiheija8170]

​@@kevincollins86203 had the best gameplay but 1 had the best story and atmosphere in my opinion

[@deadjuice1880]

​​@@aleksiheija8170 110% Agree. I don't even argue with people, like Penny Arcade at the time, who said the dialogue was campy and corny. It is, and it's the best thing ever. It helps that the game is self aware and genuinely loves its noir influance, makes it easier to swallow. MP3's writing on the other hand lost me. I hated it. I'm pretty sure it was written by the GTA writers, and it shows.

[@mrconroy4672]

@@aleksiheija8170 I do think both max payne 1 and 2 deserve their remakes because both are stuck between a excellent story with a decent game/s. Also both stories need to be reworked a bit more and given better context especially by two.

[@aleksiheija8170]

@@mrconroy4672 Agreed

[@PassageOfChrist]

The mechanics are good, I have absolutely no idea where this guy gets his info from.

[@LordVader1094]

He's a bit of a moron on this one. He didn't even cap his FPS to 60 so the shoot dodging wouldn't be buggered lol

[@bendrix92]

really? you have no clue where he generated his own opinions from? Looks to me like it would be from him playing the game no? You dont have to agree with his takes but this is silly.

[@PassageOfChrist]

Yes I have no idea. Because the game I played and his description of it are two entirely different things.​@bendrix92

[@constantrage4677]

@@bendrix92 this guy plays like shiiit so his opinion is the same quality he cant even headshot ffs

[@grovestreet4lyfe]

Haven't even pressed the play button yet, but I can confidently say it's a masterpiece

[@Rasgarroth]

Orson Welles used to say that low budget was a blessing. That when he had all the money he could ask for, his movies were awful. That budget restriction that didn't allow for special effects, forced him to use metaphors, twists and complex writing and it was then when good cinema appeared. I remember this game fondly from my early teenage days and I thought it was a complex, adult story masterpiece. Thank you for this Josh! I love your "quality over quantity" style for videos.

[@cyphi474]

Thats why im done watching movies today. CGI gave directors tool to create super realistic monsters and enourmous scenes, but at cost of everything else. Imo. Take Alfred Hitchcock like example...he didnt need special effects to create scary stories. He didnt have to relly on stupid jump scares, even if he used them from time to time. His story was told by characters, not effects. Sure if he lived today, he would be using CGI to some level too, but its story telling what matters.

[@greyngo]

Being cheaper to produce also means there's much more variety. Gaming in the ps2 era was so much fun because so many different types of games came out. Some were bad, so bad they became good. I miss that. When everything is the same mediocre 3rd person adventure, with guns or swords, it just stops being fun.

[@vovin5975]

The flamingo scene is a very nice reference to the legendary show TWIN PEAKS. With the weird backwards speech and all. I'd recommend giving this absolute classic a watch.

[@_mickmccarthy]

Yep, the red room reference, along with the chat about doppelgangers. Very heavy Twin Peaks references.

[@chataclysm2112]

@@_mickmccarthy it's more fire walk with me than the actual show to be fair.

[@_mickmccarthy]

@@chataclysm2112 For me it made me think of the last episode of season 2. I actually had to go back and check if the red room actually featured in FWWM (it's been quite a while since I last watched it!)

[@zeugenberg]

Came here for that

[@FleshyCannibal]

I was too young to have been playing Max Payne when it came out but I remember the beginning tearing my heart out and the creepy dark blood paths parts disturbing me especially when you fall off and hear his scream of pain. This game was legendary and i still pick it up and beat it every once in a while. *Edit - The dialogue is still unmatched to this day in my opinion.

[@zmr3352]

R.I.P. James McCaffrey. Thank you for everything.

[@un0RRS]

Remember, this was 2001. By the standard of the day, Max Payne was light-years ahead of the competition in nearly every aspect. I vividly remember waiting for this game to release. Every trailer blew my mind. It was one of the first games to use real world photographs as textures, which made segments of it look almost photo real. It's particle system was revolutionary, and it's narrative was spellbinding. One of my all time favorites.

[@PieroMinayaRojas]

True

[@LutraLovegood]

It wasn't lightyears ahead in level design, enemy design, weapons design or voice acting, that's not quite nearly every aspect.

[@manimanistatue]

I think you’re forgetting how many timeless masterpieces released in 2001

[@CharlesAnjos]

I mean, he cited MGS2, which had much better stealth, and DMC, which had much better action. the strength of Max Payne was really it's narrative, if we were being honest.

[@herczegmarton9972]

@@CharlesAnjos Not sure. I think Max Payne has some of the most fun and satisying third person shooting gameplay like ever. The responsiveness of the controls, the complexity of using the bullet time the right way in the right situations, dodging bullets, diving at the right moment all that stuff. No reason to compare it to MGS of DMC as those are very different games. The story is nice but that's Remedy, thats why I like them. They don't sacrifice good gameplay for a good story. You just get both. Except when you don't and you get Quantum Break.

[@comancostin4623]

One of the greatest action games ever made.

[@defeqel6537]

Yup, played it again a little while ago and (after some fan patches) it still holds up quite well

[@JukemDrawles87]

I seriously love max payne 1 and 2, both have such memorable levels. The vibe brings me back almost every year

[@HellNaught]

Honestly not being able to skip cutscenes and autosaves are both quality of life features that slowly trickled in over the existence over video games. Not being able to skip the intro to a game is another and while they're all common now you cant really discredit older games for not having them. Heck I remember leaving my old NES on overnight cause some games didnt even have save features lol.

[@rangerghost2474]

Max payne’s voice will forever be burnt into my mind it’s so soothing the way he speaks the monotone type voice. It’s perfect to me. Like Sam Fisher, Snake/Big Boss, John 117.

[@SiCSpiT1]

The vast majority of the gameplay critiques in the vid can be solved by just capping the framerate to 60fps, including some of the durpy checkpoint glitches. I just replayed Max Payne a couple of weeks ago at 200+ fps and it was soul crushingly annoying. After completing it I read a few recent forum posts to gauge player retrospectives, it was still largely postive. I decided to retry it but this time capped the framerate to 60fps on the standard difficultly and dicovered the fun I was hoping to find during my last playthrough. I'd enjoyed myself so much after beating it I did a second run on hard boiled, the game was challenging but mostly fair, unlike my first playthrough where the game was very challenging and unfair, on normal difficulty mind you. Max Payne is still a masterpiece, albeit a flawed one. Even today most games can fall short to it.

[@impossibur]

This ☝️🙂

[@BigFatCone]

That was my first thought; lock the damn framerate.

[@homerhat420]

I did 120, fall damage was obviously amplified.

[@KasumiRINA]

It's also MUCH better with mods. Original balance was way off, I remember never finishing Max Payne originally, until I got the Ultimate mod that stopped wasting bullet time bar on every dodge (it still ran off on manual toggle), and also added more weapons and you could dual-wield almost everything and some Matrix-like kung fu moves... There was also Max Neo mod that was popular but kinda broke the atmosphere and wasn't as good.

[@RTS___]

One of the best games ever made. Old games are just breathtaking

[@rudolphantler6309]

The flamingo in the TV is probably a David Lynch Twin Peaks homage.

[@DiegoSpinola]

As a programmer that worked on 3d engines back in the early 2000s I remember their physics being amazing for what it could be achieved by the era's hardware...

[@garretteverett2613]

Bullet impact effects based on what you were hitting were also next level. In a time where at best most games had decals and sparks, it was so satisfying to just stand there firing bullets into walls, boxes, books etc. as everything had unique effects. Chunks of tile, plaster dust, bits of paper, splinters - haven't played it since it came out so perhaps I'm romanticicizing it a bit but it felt very John Wu/The Matrix elevator lobby scene when it came to environmental destruction. I recall being disappointed with MP2 as it seemed to scale that back even with better graphics. Audio feedback was on point too.

[@rodneyabrett]

The Flamingo TV show is one of the many nods to David Lynch that the developers would included in later games as well as Alan Wake. The backwards talking played forward to sound like strange spoken words is inspired from the "red room" sequences in Twin Peaks, they even included the same curtains.

[@madmanarrivednow]

In the second game there is a marathon of that "TV show" Address Unknown. One of the thugs spoils the John Mirra ending. He deserved to perish.

[@sachimi_ggz]

i was thinking about david lynch too

[@CobraFat2000]

Funny - I was thinking David Lynch's "Rabbits"... but it seems that Max Payne kind of predates that one. Silly me.

[@SENATORPAIN1]

The red curtains is twin peaks the scream is twin peaks.its just twin peaks.

[@madmanarrivednow]

@@SENATORPAIN1 Don't forget the backwards talking... "thE flasH oF falleN angelS"

[@cheezus4772]

This was painful. Never played this game but have been a gamer for longer than most people here have been alive and listening to this guy re-write almost every scene in the game gave me "bitch, are you for real?!?" feelings. Demanding levels of environmental interaction that don't exist today from a 20 year old game is really something else.

[@Royvcent]

Exactly! The things he's suggesting to make the gameplay 'better' aren't even around in games today... His ideas are absurd.

[@johnh4952]

the very opening level was so impressive and dramatic back in the day, still holds up today if it’s a persons first time playing. the whole game felt edgy and dark, sad, suspenseful.

[@MrtnMrnv]

I first played Max Payne in 2002 or 2003 when I was 13 years old. I didn't understand English well, so it was just a shooting game for me at that point, and still loved it. Over the next 10 years I'd been replaying MP 1 and 2 every year, at least once. The older I got and the better my English got, the more awesome things I started noticing in it and appreciated it greatly. I could quote literally every line of dialogue and still remember quite a bit of them. May be it's about time I do 10-years-later replay again.

[@wallaceshawn-zk8iw]

Same

[@susanna8612]

U can wait year or two still before replay because they are currently making remake from Max Payne 1 and 2

[@ignaciogodoy7095]

I play the game in 2001 in Spanish, one of the best games I ever player in mi life.

[@kennymichaelalanya7134]

​@@susanna8612 One can only wish they do the remake justice but we live in a soft, sensitive and PC environment.

[@Lex-vd2is]

The "imagine if this and that would happen when you do this and that to the environment" came up one too many times...

[@Blei1986]

i agree. what i hate about modern games is, that these interactions always shout to be scripted. it's like "hey look at this. one of our nerds took 3 hourse to inplement this into the game. notice it!" while you may have less direct effect in the world of Max Payne, it doesn't look forced onto the player, pulling him out of the videogame world by reminding him it's just programmed stuff.

[@Silvanfan]

"The cops arrived, sirens singing in the off-key harmony of a manic-depressive choir." I had this game for the ps2, and at the time, though I had games like FFX, Jak and Daxter, and Soul Calibur 2, had a special place in my heart, even hough it wasn't graphically amazing. The combination of Max Payne's voice actor (and imo, both at the time and now, all the voice actors really did a great job!), the writing, the music, and the plot was really appealing to me, and kept me rivited. Sure, it's cliche and harkens to noir-type films and novels, but I honestly thought the execution was well done at the time. Enter the Matrix's gameplay was similar I think, and I enjoyed that game a lot as well. I remember wanting to play more games like this after beating it. It's also surprising to me that Josh struggled as much as he did playing this. The only memory I had of difficulty was that nightmare-hell-level where you're high and you're reliving the death of your family, walking in the darkness and following the trail of blood. Because my TV was shitty and there was always glare in that room, I caught hell to see where I was supposed to walk, and died a lot there, not to mention that the constantly crying baby was unnerving. I remember muting the TV on that level. Josh says that it becomes unscary after a while, but not for me. I muted that shit, and was scared the entire time.

[@darkoriano]

jesus christ this was an AWFUL exposition on everything that made the game great back in 2001, I would be ashamed if I felt even the slightest proud about releasing this video...

[@fartmcgiggles2171]

"Shoot a cigarette out of an ash tray and catch somebody on fire." lol What?

[@WigglesMcFluff]

The scene with the guy coming out of the bathroom and Max shooting him at 39:45 is a homage to Pulp Fiction, where John Travolta's character is killed in this same way. They even placed the uzi on the counter just like in the film. Right when you were talking about John Woo homages and showed Travolta being in Face Off :)

[@IMN602]

It was his heroin addiction that resulted in his death. Opiates cause constipation so that's why he's in the bathroom for long periods of time.

[@adamcichon6957]

Both in the movie and in the game, these ware Ingrams M10s, maded by Military Armament Corporation, not an UZIs. So, the reference is accurate in that regard.

[@Heydad956]

Rest well, James.

[@EM-lk7jw]

This was a very good video. I played this game before but not very much. Feels like I got the full experience and a review.