Max Payne was released on the 23rd of July 2001 in North America for the PC, 15 years ago.

I've always felt that the game, although generally agreed to be excellent, is usually somewhat forgotten in "the greatest games" discussions. For me, as my user icon attests to, Max Payne is absolutely one of the Top 10 games I've ever played and the franchise is one of the most dearest to my heart. The excellent music and sound design, progressive gameplay, impressive graphics which still hold up rather well, great atmosphere and a memorable story make it an absolute classic in my book.

My first exposure to the game was almost a year after its release, when a group of my friends bought it for me on my birthday. The game had been all over the local news in Finland around its release, but back in those days and among kids my age it was cool to hate on anything locally made. Surely all the hype was only because it was a locally made game. Nothing that good could ever come out of my home city? Well I was proven wrong rather quickly. At 12 years old, I was still too young to fully appreciate the story and writing of the game, but the bullet time gameplay and noir atmosphere hooked me immediately. Since then I've re-played all the three games in the franchise over and over again, especially the first one which still rings truest for me.

I'd love to see some content around Max Payne here on Giant Bomb, as it would be cool to see and hear fresh impressions from the crew on this seminal game. What kind of memories do you all have on the game and the franchise?

I was in 5th grade when the game was released, so I had to hide my play sessions under the cover of darkness, and that contributed towards my-experience with one of my favorite games of all time. Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were linear shooters, a genre I had absolutely no interest in, and yet in the way that hese games brought ultra violence and stylistic graphic novel storytelling together resonated with me for many years. I have replayed each of these games so many times on so many difficulty settings, on so many different devices that I lost count.

And you're absolutely right about the game being neglected in the GOAT lists, which blows my mind. I've been lucky enough to find myself a part of a work center full of passionate gamers, and yet I am the only Max Payne fan to be found! I rank MP1 and 2 in the same tier as Red Dead, Metal Gear, Zelda, and Mario as games that I can play until the sun comes up regardless of how many times I beat them.

Max Payne 3 is one of my favorite games and 2, which I first played about ten years ago, is pretty good too. I finally started the original last year and beat it earlier this year. I didn't like it.

The story was alright, I guess.

The dream sequences were terrible, because of the narrow blood trails that you had to platform across using the broken jump mechanic, and the walls that Max would sometimes magnetize towards. Other times, he'd be blocked by invisible walls and after moving back and forth and changing positions he would finally go through.

The action wasn't much better. It was too simple. No melee, underpowered shotguns, levels were mostly narrow corridors, shoot dodge seemed mostly worthless, Max ran like he was in low gravity and the camera was positioned so that Max often got in the way (with no option to change which side of Max it's on, which would have been helpful when moving leftward from cover or going around a corner).

I also didn't like how he had these stupid photos permanently on his face.

That baby sequence. Stuff of nightmares.

Ah, the good ol' days.

I loved the first half of the first game, once it got into the norse mythological stuff I lost a lot of interest.

With me at least, Max Payne (the first) was my all around favorite, followed by the Fall of Max Payne (if I remembers right..) But when I went back to replay it, the graphics (sry) seemed very dated. Must have played it 4 or five times though before the last attempt. The mechanics, third person and over-all story were all excellent for me.

It's a fun game, and it's storyline which goes really out there especially with blood line platforming. I feel this game fits in really in that American McGee Alice era where these were the only PC games at the time trying to do something different.

That theme music's still pretty jamming. I remember my jaw dropping the first time I activated bullet-time, it was just that amazing to see slow-motion action in a video game. The story telling was also definitely a thing that kept my interest up throughout the whole game, even if looking at it afterwards, it maybe wasn't all that spectacular. The "graphic novel" way of telling it sure helped, especially back when motion comics still weren't a thing in games.

I kinda like the cheesy trailer all the way back from 1998, when bullet-time still wasn't a feature and there was a Duke Nukem lookalike waltzing around...

Totally agreed with you. I think the whole series is to some degree underrated. 2 is a top 5 game of all time for me, with the gem being the outstanding story and writing in it. I've played it at least 20 times. 3 is also really underrated and a great, if different, game.

When the first game came out it really blew me away. No games manage to make you feel as badass in a gunfight and the stories are always tops in videogames for me for enjoyment. I also think they do the best easter eggs and random side stuff to look at in any games in 1 and 2 (Dick Justice, Lords and Ladies, and Address Unknown are all stand outs). As someone who loves noir and John Woo-esque shootouts, Max Payne just has so much fun in that realm it's impossible not to love.

Wow i feel like it came out earlier than that? Guess I played this fresh out of highschool. One of my first pc games along with total war, i remember being pissed i couldnt run max payne 2 with my compaq lmao. Definitely a classic game.

Says a lot about how far we've come to say that it was legitimately cool at the time. I remember that, plus the physics (bullets modeled) and slo mo blowing my mind. Plus TV shows in the environment and details like that.

*raises glass*

Hell of a series.

One thing I'd love from Rockstar is a redone Max Payne 3 with faster loading times. Such a huge pain in the ass to play the side modes and have to sit through large chunks of cutscene over and over again. MP2 really shined with its side stuff, so I was hugely disappointed to find it unbearable in 3.

Man I was like 13 when this came out.