Overall 8.7 Graphics 6 Sound 6 Addictive 6 Story 8.8 Depth 7.5 Difficulty 7
8
Third-person shooting on the GBA? Huh? NovemberJoy
Max Payne is a series of well-made third person shooters for Playstation and Xbox consoles, as well as PCs. At least, that's what I thought it was supposed to be. I can't even imagine the thought process behind the decision to take a 3D third person shooter and put it on the GBA. Now, I don't understand it, but it doesn't make this GBA port any less real. I guess I'll just have to face the music.
The graphics of this game are a bit strange. The backgrounds and most objects look alright, but the human shapes look like they were taken from the console/PC versions, but shrunk down and compressed to work with the GBA hardware. Needless to say, it looks atrocious. The animation is fluid enough, but the shapes only barely resemble human figures. The sprites made for this version of the game look fantastic, which only makes me question it even more. If you can make sprites that look great, then why would you just take the lazy way out and resize the characters from the console versions?
The music is decent, but cut down from the original versions. It's noticeably compressed, which definitely affects the listening quality. The sound effects, however, don't seem to suffer from this compression quite as badly, and they sound great. The thing that surprises me most is that they managed to get the voice acting into this version of the game, intact! Now, it's compressed even more than the music, but it's still fairly legible, considering that this is a GBA cartridge we're talking about here.
It plays similarly to the console versions, aside from a few key differences. For one, a third-person shooter on the GBA is obviously impossible, so Max is shooting people from an isometric perspective this time. Now, that sounds like a terrible disadvantage, considering that this game is all about shooting people and the isometric perspective would severely impair your aim, but this version of the game includes an incredibly powerful auto-aim mechanic. All you have to do is fire in the general direction of the enemy, and your bullets will hit their target 100% of the time unless there's an obstacle blocking your shot.
Don't worry, this game isn't too easy, even with the auto-aim. Enemies do a massive amount of damage to you very quickly, and your health is very limited, just like in the console versions. Every hit causes damage that doesn't just heal up over time, and the only way to heal yourself past 25% health is to use painkillers, which are in short supply. Adding to the game's difficulty is the camera, which works most of the time, but suffers from issues when trying to see enemies. Because of that, you'll end up getting shot by enemies you never knew existed because they didn't appear on-screen yet!
One Max against dozens of armed men sounds like an unfair battle, but you have tools that make it a fair fight. The main feature that sets Max Payne apart from other shooters is the bullet-time shooting, which allows you to slow down time to avoid being fired at before you know what you're doing and to fire at enemies before they can react. In this version of the game, however, the bullet-time is powerful enough to practically carry you through most of its gunfights! If you perform a running bullet-dive, it uses up almost none of the bullet-time meter and allows you to hit enemies easily before they can pull off a shot.
The game's storyline is intriguing, to say the least. It follows a cop by the name of Max Payne, who ends up being framed by organized criminals for the death of his partner and pursued by both organized criminals and by the police who he used to work for. Max attempts to get his revenge on the criminals who framed him, and then the real story starts. It's quite well-written, with a comic-book style of storytelling, and the voice acting helps you to get immersed in the story with relative ease.
The game's difficulty is relatively fair. Although you'll sometimes be killed by enemies you didn't see, it's your own mistakes that will really get you killed. Max can soak up far more punishment than any normal human being ever could, and the enemies typically don't take very much gunfire to kill. However, they have the advantage of stealth and superior numbers, so you'll have to always be on your toes and do everything you can to turn the tables in your favor.
The game has a large
selection of weapons to choose from. Oddly enough, though, a lot of them are practically useless. Single pistols are too slow and weak to take down more than one person at a time, and yet the game will insist on giving you ammunition for them! And, for some unfathomable reason, Max has multiple melee weapons to choose from. Even attempting to use a melee weapon in any situation is practically suicide, which makes me question why they were even included in the game. To top it all off, some weapons are ridiculous and unrealistic in their amount of power and range. The Sawed-Off Shotgun, which you acquire early in the game, has seemingly infinite range and can pick off enemies with one hit from across an entire room, which I find absolutely hilarious.
It's an absolutely baffling game to put on a portable console like the GBA, but it manages to work in its own odd little niche. Sometimes, it's fun to shoot anything that moves before it shoots you, and this game perfectly satisfies that need. Its intriguing storyline and surprisingly good voice acting just add to the experience. If you want a shooting experience that you'll find from very few games on the GBA, you might want to give this one a try.
Graphics 6 Sound 7 Addictive 7 Story 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 12-12-15
Review Replies: 1
4
Maximum Payne! Boxia
Max Payne for PC is one of my all time favourite games. I loved the grittiness, the action, and especially the bullet time, something that has become sort of a series trademark. It was only recently i had heard of a GBA port. When i found out, i got so excited, i instantly sprinted out of my classroom (i was at school) and dashed straight home, mowing down anything in my path and causing several thousand dollars in damage. When i got home, i immediately went onto vizzed and played the game! OK, the "skipping class and causing several thousands of dollars in damage" part is fake, but i still played the game! Unfortunatly, it was horrible. Let's find out why!
Story: This is the only really good part of the game, and only because they copied it over from the other versions. NYPD officer Max Payne returns home one day to find his wife and baby daughter murdered by junkies high off a new street drug called "Valkyr". He decides to transfer to the DEA to investigate the drug and its origins, going undercover as a mobster. After a meet-up ends with the murder of his parter, Max is framed and a city-wide manhunt is ordered. Now, Payne must evade both the police and the mob, all while searching for answers. Unlike a few name Rockstar titles, this story is quite serious and mature, which i enjoy.
Graphics: This games graphics look like they could have been MUCH better. Humans lack faces (Except for in the comic book style cutscenes), blood is nothing but a mess of red pixels, and things like walls and floors are just brick or tile textures repeated again, and again, and again. As for the aforementioned cutscenes, they're basically copied from the PC version, only they're of lower quality and are a lot darker. The darkness does however add to the grit factor a bit so i have to give it that.
Sound: The soundtrack is carried over from the PC to the GBA. The repercussions of transferring the music from PC to a significantly less advanced console are horrifying. Quite simply, listening to the soundtrack is like listening to a chainsaw buzzing. This isn't an unfair judgement, there are plenty of PC-to-GBA ports that have amazing music. Why the tunes for this game are so bad, there is no excuse. As for the sound effects, they're even more annoying! Most of them sound like someone beating your head in with a bat, and it's just as painful. If you want to stay sane, turn the sound off.
Addictiveness: Just by reading the other sections, you can probably guess how fun this game is. Not fun at all, of course! If you want fun, play this game on the PC or one of its other console ports.
Depth: Many levels have been shortened from the PC version. This means instead of it taking me 7 hours to finish the game, i could complete it in just 4 hours. There are almost no secrets to discover (unless you count barely hidden ammo stashes, of which there are many), so you'll find the only real thing for you to do is to keep moving.
Difficulty: I find that the game is actually a little bit more difficult than the PC version. The problem is less with the stages and the enemies as is is with the screen. The game is displayed with an isometric viewpoint, which frequently conflicts with the stages that were made for a third-person perspective. For example; if i'm heading down a hallway or popping out from a corner, i can get shot by an enemy i couldn't see unlike from a third-person perspective, where i could very well see the enemy and hit him first. However, once you learn to use bullet-time and painkillers effectively, this becomes less of a threat.
Max Payne for GBA is an attempt at a port gone horribly wrong. With sub-par graphics, awful music, no replay value, and its only selling point being the story, you'd best pass on this if you seek a good shooter game for the GBA. If you're looking for a good Max Payne title, play any other version of this game.
Graphics 4 Sound 1 Addictive 1 Story 10 Depth 3 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 01-01-14
Review Replies: 0
8.5
Max Payne Review Marcmoney
Overall - 8.5
Max Payne is a good game on the GBA. I haven't tried it for a long time because it would be very hard to play, but now I know how to get through the game that can make it easier. :) I think that the game is pretty scary and a mystery-type game. It is a great game to play if you are one of those people that like mystery shooting games. The quality is bad, but the rest seems to be fine. It gives you scenes in the game to understand what is going on and what you have to do. Sounds like James Bond right? Exactly. I remember playing a Max Payne game and I was horrible at it. I get this flashback of driving a car and I hit a wall and I had to start over again. I think it was on PS2 in the beginning of the level, but I was so confused. It was a long time ago so I was no where good at that kind of game. This game as the age I am seems to be a lot better than the last time I played a Max Payne game.
Graphics - 7
The graphics are kind of bad. It looked a bit blocky to me and it would look like James Bond from Goldeneye.
Sound - 10
It sounds pretty good, just like any other games that involve shooting and actiony music. :P
Addictiveness - 8
The game is kind of addicting and I would play it frequently. It is like James Bond, only you have to be really good at this game and try to not mess up.
Story - 10
The story is very interesting and very cool like any other action shooting games. It is kind of weird to start out cause it is about an average person named Max Payne that goes to his house one day and realizes that someone broke into his house and calls 911. The people on the phone cannot help him out and hangs up on him. He then finds his wife dead on the floor. It happened 3 years ago. That is all I can remember about, but I think it is about him 3 years later to go and find out who killed his wife and stop them.
Depth - 10
The game has some good features. You can pick up ammo from places and from some people. Another would be the slow motion that you would have to use in most parts of the game. I think that it is a lot easier than the last time I played a Max Payne game.
Difficulty - 8
What I did not like about this game was that when you would get shot, it takes a lot of your health, so you have to do this Matrix thing (slow motion) to prevent yourself from being shot. Sometimes you run out of ammo and you would have to go and hit the people in slow motion most of the time cause they can kill you very fast.
Wrap Things Up...
Max Payne is not very popular, but I would recommend trying this game. It is not that bad of a shooting game. :)
Graphics 7 Sound 10 Addictive 8 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 06-24-11
Updated: 09-16-11
Review Replies: 1
8.5
Max Payne: Review AngelKingUltra
Max Payne is a really good game on GBA. I didn't actually expect this to be that good on handheld. I'm also actually surprised how much depth the game has. It's actually a pretty long game. It's a run and gun shooter. You collect weapons as you go. There are many weapons to collect from. I don't pay to much attention to the story really because I kind of hate reading text in games :P. It depends what game it is. Max Payne is a shooter so it doesn't really matter but anyway. When you beat the game you unlock 3 different cheats. Infinite Ammo, All Weapons, and Super Cop. I think it means god mode but I'm not sure. This game has a lot to offer for something so small.
This game is worth trying. I love it. Give this one a try. :)
8.5/10
Graphics 7 Sound 6 Addictive 8 Story 7 Depth 10 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 07-18-12
Updated: 08-28-12
Review Replies: 0
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