izigame.me

!! the game requires fiddling and installing mods to be playable on most modern machines !!
So if you're ok with the game not being playable as is (get it on sale!), then it's really worth playing. Grab the mod pack to fix most if not all the issues and get better textures as well and get to dive into the downfall of Max Payne.
The game has a very Dick Tracy & Co noir vibe and is presented in the form of a comic but all tied up with a sprinkle of silliness from the 80's and 90's photo drama. It's kitsch but on purpose and it gives this game the little something that puts it above others. Looking at the various characters faces in high resolution - thanks to the modders - is really fun and is a good example of "it looks like I remember it from back then".
Beyond the packaging, the story is what you'd expect. You spend about 9h avenging your family by mowing through bad guys, their bosses and running from danger. It's all very well done and not too frustrating to redo when you die.
There are various level that are pretty different in their feel but, as the story itself is straight forward, it can get a bit tiresome at some point. Some parts would benefit from being cut down as the base is always similar : run down a hallway, go through a door, shoot anyone, repeat. It's very fine but that's where the game shows its age. The AI is also rather simple, they cover and shoot or go straight ahead to get you. It gets the job done but may feel repetitive. Although this makes playing with different guns more fun because they are basically asking to be shot. And you shall generously satisfy this urge. Because vengeance.
The gameplay uses bullet time, which was big back then. However it feels unsubstancial and sometimes a hindrance as the game is quite hader than I remember and using the special ability is less effective than the classical shoot and cover. It's still useful sometimes and to be honest it's probably because of having played more recent games where this mechanic has been refined. It looks cool though and was amazing decades ago.
On a more technical side, the game is stable once modded, otherwise it wouldn't launch at all. No crash for me. This said, due to the way it was apparently coded, the main loading between levels take some time even with SSD's. Give it a few minutes before killing the .exe. Windows will report it as unresponsive but it's not, you can probably see the memory usage go up and down because it's loading. Sometimes the loading screen is off centered out of the screen but really this has no impact on the game.
And the game is quite hard. More than in my memories but just don't rush in and it's totally fine and fun.
Overall, very well worth it for the story, the quiky visuals, plenty of weapons and the memorable nightmare sequences. That's probably what most people remember of this game and with good reasons.
One of the best old action games out there, even today, with a very decent story.