Matrix, Quake, and The Die Hard Trilogy had an Orgy, and here's their hybrid.

3rd person shooters had been given the reputation of pure crap now. Thanks to the works of horrible 3rd person shooter games such as Tomb Raider. But that's besides the point. The point is, 3rd person shooters have been given the butt end half of all game-dom.

Of course, American Mcgee's Alice delayed the downfall, but nothing like this game.

The four year old project is finally released. People are running around trying to buy the game that is supposedly the most graphically advanced game out right now. System Requirements are necessary to run it, however, if you have it, then it rocks.

Max Payne plots you in a bad American action flick, with a cliché plot and a cliché emotionless character who is a good cop gone vigilante in his journey to avenge the death of his wife and baby. The story unfolds little by little in graphic novel form, a form that has been highly respected in the eyes of serious drama cartoonists such as myself. Though, Max Payne is very mainstream-ish in some fashions, especially the plotline cliches that you know you can't stand.

But action games rarely need excellent plotlines to make the game enjoyable. Besides, the only good plot ever put into a 3rd person shooter was American Mcgee's Alice, but that's another story.

Max Payne is exceedingly different from Alice, even though that its basic game play is the same. You still move your character like a 1st person shooter player, and you still see your character pulling actions and dodging projectiles. You also go through platform scenes and the basic shooter frenzy of shooting up enemies like any other shooter.

What makes this game exceedingly different is the option that Max Payne seems to offer anybody. Bullet Time, bullet time is a Hong Kong Action Flick term, putting fighters in a time-space continuum where they concentrate more into what they are doing. This makes it seem that time goes slower for the fighter so he or she is able to go through more in the process. The Matrix is the first American action movie (but partially directed by a Hong Kong action director anyways) that shows this Bullet Time effect. If you ever watched the Matrix you can remember Neo dodging bullets in slow-mo while doing extremely good stunts as bullets whiz by his ears so slowly.

Max Payne puts you in the same process. There is a button key added in this shooter that allows Max to get into "The Zone", where things are much slower than usual. In this case, you can maneuver Max in slow motion, as he does flips and jumps to take out enemies while flipping through his arsenal upside down his head. This is extremely cool, not just because it looks nice, but it also adds an entire new perspective to the 3rd person shooter. This great option allows you to plan more, and even be able to use the environment at an extreme level against enemies who stand in your way.

The game is as much eye candy as fun. The graphics are awesome. Despite the lack of mouth movements for each model to talk, this game looks almost real, using actual models for the game's character. These people are also put into the graphic novel where they have been photographed and labeled in their own extremely distorted Photo-Shop induced way. The added in Bullet time deals with the animation a lot in this game, which I have to say is beyond impressive. It's tremendously excellent. This game has dealt with more animation than any other game has in its eye candy-ish genre. An excellent way to impress people visually, that's for sure.

The game itself is full of neat little levels and areas to play in. Dodging bullet behind a pillar like in the Matrix, jumping through a building rigged with explosives. Running through a crumbling hallway while people try to shoot you left or right. Jumping out of windows and on rooftops looking for a gangster with a gut wound stumbling out of your reach.

Good thing it's a game, or this would've been a stupid action movie, don't you think? It seems that even though American Action movies are extremely cliché. Max Payne puts you inside the movie, allowing excellent action gameplay for the action player in all of us.

The game also offers many programmers to make modifications for the game that you can download. Do you want Max Payne to fly? Pull Matrix Kung-fu moves or play him in the first person? There are already over 60 mods out that you can download for free along with many extra levels and models to play with. This means even after you beat the game you can have much more things to do with the game by downloading the mods. Even though a single player only, it has already reached that caliber of popularity with the gaming crowd.

This game is just plain fun. Though it does require system requirements, and the game is overly clichéd in plot this is still one of the most impressive games I’ve played this year. Get it if you have a powerhouse.