Max Payne. With a name like that you know the game is going to be yet another cheery adventure game just for kinds. Or maybe not. In creating Max Payne, Remedy Entertainment's main objective is to finally create a game that puts the gamer right in the middle of something that feels just like a John Woo film. You play Max Payne, a wise cracking undercover cop faced with enemies on both sides of the law. The drug Valkyr is spreading like wildfire through New York City, creating more addicts just like the junkies who murdered Max's family. Having infiltrated a New York Mafia family that is spreading Valkyr, Max learns that his boss, the only person who knew his real identity, is dead, and that he has been framed for his murder. Even worse, the Mafia now know he is a cop. With no one to turn to, Max turns to vengeance, beginning a descent into the criminal underworld on a quest for vengeance.
The story isn't the only part of the game reminiscent of a classic Woo film. A key part of the gameplay is the gun fighting scenes. Whenever Max gets into a firefight, the action slows down giving you more time to execute perfect action-hero dives and other smart moves, guns blazing away at criminal scum all the time. As long as it is done right, this new twist to your standard 3rd person shooter should lead to some impressive, movie style shoot outs especially as it seems that Remedy believe they have a few more movie-style gameplay additions up their sleeve.
Although the story and gameplay concept sounds promising, what has been wowing everyone at tradeshows for the past few years is the MAX-FX graphics engine behind Max Payne. While Remedy may seem new comers to the graphics programming scene, many of their members are far from it. For years many Remedy members were part of a graphical demo group called Future Crew that regularly produced stunning graphical demonstrations that pushed the limits of what then current hardware could do.