History VideoGame / MaxPayne1

''Max Payne'' is a ThirdPersonShooter video game, with a plot and atmosphere heavily inspired by both FilmNoir and HeroicBloodshed movies, developed by the Finnish-based Creator/RemedyEntertainment, produced by Creator/ThreeDRealms, and published by Creator/GatheringOfDevelopers in July 2001. It is the first game in the ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' series. Remedy cited the UsefulNotes/PlayStation titles ''VideoGame/{{Loaded}}'' and ''Franchise/TombRaider'' as main influences in terms of gameplay.

* GuideDangIt: The game keeps track of your deaths with a DynamicDifficulty system, reducing enemy damage and accuracy if you're struggling too hard. The thing is, this only kicks in if you die and then let the game load the last save properly; simply dialing back to your last quicksave manually skips this check, so the game will never realize to dial the difficulty down should you keep dying. This can result in the game becoming ''absolutely frustrating'' if you don't realize this.

''Max Payne'' is a ThirdPersonShooter video game, with a plot and atmosphere heavily inspired by both FilmNoir and HeroicBloodshed movies, developed by the Finnish-based Creator/RemedyEntertainment, produced by Creator/ThreeDRealms, and published by Creator/GatheringOfDevelopers in July 2001. It is the first game in the ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' series. Remedy cited the UsefulNotes/PlayStation titles, ''VideoGame/{{Loaded}}'' and ''Franchise/TombRaider'', as main influences in terms of gameplay.

The game was an attempt to break video games into FilmNoir. A mixture of both the film and graphic novel treatments of noir, it featured such stalwart elements of the genre as the [[HardboiledDetective hard-boiled cynical hero]], the capable and mysterious FemmeFatale, and the complex plot with myriad linear and tangential echelons of villains, all played under a [[PrivateEyeMonologue gravel-voiced narration]] laden with [[GothicHorror gothic imagery]] and twisted arthouse metaphors. The story was, however, also quite self-aware of about the trappings of its genre, and while often playing them straight, would occasionally also {{lampshade| Hanging}} or even make light of them. The cutscenes are told in GraphicNovel form, made by photographing the scenes and altering them digitally to resemble watercolor drawings.

The game was an attempt to break video games into FilmNoir. A mixture of both the film and graphic novel treatments of noir, it featured such stalwart elements of the genre as the [[HardboiledDetective hard-boiled cynical hero]], the capable and mysterious FemmeFatale, and the complex plot with myriad linear and tangential echelons of villains, all played under a [[PrivateEyeMonologue gravel-voiced narration]] laden with [[GothicHorror gothic imagery]] and twisted arthouse metaphors. The cutscenes are told in GraphicNovel form, made by photographing the scenes and altering them digitally to resemble watercolor drawings.

''Max Payne'' is a ThirdPersonShooter video game, with a plot and atmosphere heavily inspired by both FilmNoir and HeroicBloodshed movies, developed by the Finnish-based Creator/RemedyEntertainment, produced by Creator/ThreeDRealms, and published by Gathering of Developers in July 2001. It is the first game in the ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' series. Remedy cited the UsefulNotes/PlayStation titles, ''VideoGame/{{Loaded}}'' and ''Franchise/TombRaider'', as main influences in terms of gameplay.

* GameBreakingBug: Since the physics engine (including in cutscenes) is dependent on the game's framerate, newer computers may suffer from some glitches during gameplay, like the characters getting stuck on scenery, which breaks some cutscenes. Capping the framerate at 60 fps typically fixes these.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Max breaks into the Deep Six facility, the Killer Suits set the place to self-destruct to destroy all evidence, which includes the Commandos guarding the facility. When a Commando objects to this, the Suits gun him down with extreme prejudice. The Commandoes, for their part, stick to their orders and start massacring the Deep Six scientists.

* HideYourChildren: Averted as after the Junkies kill Max's wife and daughter you can see her body in the crib.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: At the start of Part 1: Chapter 6 there are two vagrants who are discussing about the worsening snowstorm in New York. While meant to be street bums and not junkies, because they use the latter's model[[note]]the homeless model wasn't made at that time[[/note]] they instantly go from sane individuals to crazed psychopaths the moment either of them is shot at.

* DynamicDifficulty: Depending on how well the player is doing, the game would adjust the level of aim assist and enemy health, adding more a challenge if you were doing well and giving you a bit of a break if doing badly. This is disabled on Hard Boiled and Dead On Arrival difficulties, which permalocked them to the hardest levels.

** When he raids the Aesir Building to find and kill Horne, he takes a good look at her personal computer inside her office and finds that there are a lot of evidence, enough to get her and the company in trouble with the law. Seeing as Max is out for blood, he simply blasts at the monitor.

* CutsceneIncompetence: In Punchinello Manor after Max kills a few of [[spoiler:Nichole Horne's ]] goons, the player opens a door and a cutscene starts where Max just gives up as more goons hold him up and their boss injects him with Valkyr. Had the player been in control killing those goons and their boss would have been almost trivial, having done so to more than that number of Mafia goons before that point. The player even goes on to kill more than that number of the same sort of goons afterward.

** In the final part requires an explosive weapon and a sniper rifle. Two mooks will inexplicably have these just in case.

* AlwaysNight: The events of the game takes place during three nights. Max misses the daytime between them being drugged or knocked out.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The first game has these. Max has to use one to escape from Angel Punchinello's restaurant as his {{Mook}}s burn it down.

The film received a UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version in 2003, and was also ported to Android and [=iOS=] in 2012.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Bosses have a lot more health and much better aim than regular Mooks. Rico Muerte, your first really bullet-spongy opponent, can withstand a full 36 rounds from your dual Berettas before dropping (compared to 4-7 shots to kill basic Mooks), and later bosses (Jack Lupino, Frankie Niagara, Boris Dime, and B.B.) can take a good 64-70 9mm pistol rounds to kill (though you generally have better ordinance by the time you fight them). Even Candy Dawn and Vinnie Gognitti, who you wouldn't expect to have any sort of combat skills, are quite a bit tougher than regular mob Mooks.

-->'''Max:''' Collecting evidence had gotten old a few hundred bullets back. I was already so far past the point of no return I couldn't even remember what it looked like when I had passed it.

-->'''Max:''' I've seen much of it already.

* VocalDissonance: Max's voice ''really'' doesn't fit the facial expressions Sam Lake uses in this game.