Rest in Peace James McCaffery

"Civvie, you're in an underground containment facility"

My dad played this game a lot when I was growing up. I'll never forget the time he incidentally saved his game the instant before a mook fired a shotgun into his forehead, dooming his entire playthrough. I learned a _lot_ of new bad words that night. Good times.

A cool fact for those of us who are even bigger dorks: in Europe there's something called the "demoscene" which is all about using as little space as possible and pushing computer hardware to its limits, we're talking like full realtime 3D on old Amigas. Remedy originally got their start making demos for the demoscene, I think you can still find some of their original demos on KZfaq.

You know Max Payne is a different kind of beast when you can call it "funny" and "fun," despite the fact that a baby and her mother get fucking murdered in the opening chapter.

"I have tasted the flesh of fallen angels... This can't be good for me, but I feel great." -Dude Lupino

I love how Max Payne can have some of the funniest comic panels with something sobering and profound in between guys doing their best trollface impression.

Hearing Max saying "Thank you" after shooting down the siren/speaker in the vault is something I will probably never forget. No, thank you, Mr McCaffrey, Max, and Civvie. I also love how back in the day game basically communicated "Look at me, I can be an action game, I can have a story and it doesn't have to be stupid story."

"You're in a KZfaq comment section". The truth reveals itself through a green haze: before me were descending walls of text, containing scant spam messages or witty observations for the current video. With each new comment, my own thoughts become dwarfed and lost in this digital ocean. I was in a KZfaq comment section. Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I can think of.

Funniest detail to me in this game is that Max is played by Sam Lake in the graphic novel cutscenes and Nicole Horne is played by his mom.

The health meter thing "you can do better" before reloading is ABSOLUTELY what I did in Max Payne. I felt I was the only one. Thanks for making me feel less crazy Civvie.

I didn't expect us to open with Civvie absolutely shredding Eli and Borderlands, but I'm always here for when "extreme hatred" and "surgical precision" overlap

Katie crushing on OG Max Payne is the kind of character development that makes this channel stand above the rest of the inmates--I mean "content creators."

Only Civvie could find a way to mock Randy in a video about Max Payne.

Max Payne is the game that taught me to quicksave every ten seconds. It's also the game that taught me that doing that sometimes puts you in a situation where you have 1 hit left and you're 3 seconds away from being killed and now you're stuck in a Groundhog Day-like death loop unless you can either think real fast or get real good.

Max Payne is possibly the only video game movie that excels at being a game, a comic, and a movie at the same time.

Gary Coleman, god rest his soul, screamed on G4 about how much he hated the dream sequence level in this game. Civvie, you MUST find that clip.

"f**k you Randy" I never get tired of hearing this.

6:45 I love that Civvie was still miffed about Druckman talking about AI as a substitution for writers when writing this.

I'm stating the obvious here: Jack Lupino is clearly a reference to the Fenrir Wolf.

Another fun fact - in Max Payne 1, Vladimir Lem is modelled after Marko Saaresto, the vocalist for the band Poets of the Fall, which made the song "Late Goodbye" which is heavily featured in Max Payne 2. It's the band's first ever song. Talk about an amazing start

My biggest gaming flex to date is that I beat the mobile port of Max Payne on the highest difficulty, all without the ability to crouch or zoom in your sniper scope, because they didn’t give you screen buttons for those actions. It took me a week, but I did it.

Trying to dispose the last enemy in a gunfight in the most dramatic way possible is an art, in these games.

Okay, that Kevin Spacey joke is pure gold.

"Hey!" "Hohld it!" -slomo machinegun fire "AHHHHHhhhhhhhh" Those enemy voice lines have been burned into my brain for 23 years.

I love how in this Max Payne review Civvie spends the first 7 minutes talking about a terribly cut trailer fight for the inevitably going to be shit Borderlands movie. I love it because it's clearly just a long ass tangent that he left there for shits and giggles and i am all for it

36:00 Rolling does not make you invincible, it just makes you substantially harder to hit. Enemies in this game shoot where you are, not where you're going to be. I know at some points that may not seem like it's true, because enemies will round corners and nail you, but they're able to do that because they're mid-turn. If not, they can only shoot where you are, meaning strafing is very effective. But here's the real gem: the shootdodge DOES make you invincible until you touch the ground, but there's a catch: Max can still take damage, but cannot be killed. Shootdodging also instantly reloads your weapon if you have the reserve ammo for it, so once you have the M79 grenade launcher you can do stuff like shoot a cluster of enemies, shootdodge in their direction, then shoot another grenade mid-dodge at the floor and not die. You'll be damaged as hell, but you'll be alive.

The dings on the old sewer count scared my dog so much he instinctively runs from civvie's voice im pretty glad to see them gone Man i love max payne

A few gameplay tips for new Max Payne players: 1. Use the roll. You're gonna need it. You can use it by running sideways and pressing the jump button. Enemies have a harder time hitting you. 2. Bullets are not hitscan in this game, so you can dodge bullets even without bullet time by just running. Knowing when to run and shootdodge will supply you with way more bullet time when you kill enemies. 3. Shootdodge sideways or away from enemies, you dodge more bullets this way. This is especially useful if you're shooting out of cover or to reach cover. 4. Shootdodging reloads your currently equipped guns, so you can use this to your advantage right when your magazines are empty. You can also bypass reloads by switching guns. 5. The deseet eagle has nearly no recoil, even while shootdodging, so this is incredibly useful at long distances. 6. Don't underestimate the dual berettas, they are consistently useful for most of the game and are very useful for saving up on other ammo. 7. If you are one more gunshot away from being dead, shootdodging while getting hit by a bullet will actually save you from death. It can be a cheap move, but you'll have to act fast since you can still die as quickly. 8. The pump-action on the shotgun can be bypassed and it's totally a broken mechanic. Right after you fire a shell, shootdodging will bypass the pump so can you can immediately fire another round. If you do it right, you can fire up to 3 rounds by the time you've finished. I've played this game since I was 10 years old, so hopefully this will aleviate some of the seemingly unfair gunfights. Love this game still to this day. Good luck and have fun 👍

"I released my finger from the mouse. And then it was all over. Civvie seemed to lose his frenzy. The ragged clouds gave way to the stars above."

The sound the addicts make when shot was so annoying that my cat stopped accepting scritches behind his ear, turned to stare at the speaker, and hissed. He was in full zen mode too, falling asleep while purring and everything.

The writing in Max Payne was in a whole new level. We have never seen anything so poetic and refined in a video game ever. There was nothing like it. It turned what could have been boring comic book panels into something extremely entertaining.

“I don’t know about angels, but it’s FEAR that gives men wings.”

I never knew Max Payne was developed by a Finnish studio and suddenly the tone, writing and themes makes a lot more sense.

In case anyone missed it, Alfred Woden's last name is the original Old English name for Odin

I actually played this via the old borked steam version way back, which removed the audio during most of the comic cutscenes and the soundtrack. It honestly changed the entire experience into something way darker that I kind of dig, so seeing the authentic experience here was a trip.

At 15:40, it's funny how you can see the face on the model of the mysterious person who kills Alex, because this was originally 4:3 like everything in 2001 and he was previously out of frame.

Every time Civvie mentions Hard Boiled, I have to stop watching the video and go watch Hard Boiled again. The man ain't wrong about it being the best.

One of a handful of games that will tattoo the inside of your skull the first time you play it. Unforgettable, 20 years later.

Having played through the game so many times by this point, I actually think Dead on Arrival is a more well balanced experience than the default Fugitive mode. Fugitive's difficulty adapting only occurs if you let the full death animation play out. If you quickload BEFORE the prompt comes up on screen, the game will not lower the difficulty setting (which is a number up to 8 I think). Dead On Arrival is more fair. You're stuck on the max difficulty settings like most people on Fugitive are bound to wind up, BUT the game compensates with BIG jumps in bullet time bonuses from kills, letting you chain bullet time more effectively like in Max Payne 2. It also gives you a fair amount of pain killers and ammo relative to the difficulty and overall just feels more fair than the base game.

Max Payne and even more Max Payne 2 might be the first games I played that really made me care about the protagonist as a character. Max Payne 2 still has one of my favorite endings in any game I've played. "I saw my wife and daughter. They were dead. But it was alright."

Lots of memorable bits from this, but the one that stuck in my mind was when you're fighting through the tower at the end and hear her over intercom snapping at someone. "What do you mean 'you cannot stop him'? You are better trained, better equipped, you outnumber him at least 20 to 1! Do. Your. Job." Especially because you're barely holding on most likely.

I actually really liked the parking garage level. I used to play it over and over again with a mod that let you play as Neo and gave you tons of melee moves and wall running.

15:22 That door exploding is a homage to The Matrix.

As a 13yo in 2001 it didn't hit me just how ballsy it was to start a game with you seeing the bloodied corpse of your character's infant daughter; it'd be ballsy today still

"Have no fear, Vlad is here Max, Dearest of all my friends." Will be only a matter of time then

Great video as always. I really appreciate the work you put into subtitling your content.

Dude, I used to watch NBC's VIPER all the time as a kid. When I heard James McCaffery was voicing Max Payne, I was astonished and floored he got the part. Now, this dude is gone along with the franchises him and Sam Lake contributed with the game industry. This one hit home for me. I'm still missin' this man like I currently miss David Sanborn. Two Tickets to Paradise, I suppose. Rest in Peace, James and David. 👮‍♂🎷💐🪦🪦

"Sam Lake's constipation face." Well funny thing about that as industry rumours apparently say that that the face was inspired by the face Lake made while in the toilet...

should have called this video " Propayne: Set the world on fire "

Another CV-11 banger. Fun fact: there's a game called El Matador which is basically Max Payne meets slavjank, good stuff, it's on Steam I think.

The game that made me realize that video games could have characters and stories that are just as compelling as films or TV. That opening scene of Max walking into a home invasion is still absolutely brutal and terrifying. And it only gets worse with each nightmare sequence. I think my favorite bit of dialogue in any video game is when he's in Lupino's lair and he says "The end of the world had become a cliche. But who was I to talk? A brooding underdog out to right a grave injustice against an empire of evil. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliche when it's happening to you." It's perfect self aware writing but it's not smug, it's sincere, it's not going too far with the tone. It fits in the world and lampshades the writing device without being distracting. So what the character is a cliche? What can the character do about it? The only thing he can do.

Finally, been looking forward to this for years. This is one of those games that earns a spot in your all-time favorites list. I'll always love it. RIP, James McCaffrey. May you make like Chow Yun Fat in heaven.

I'm halfway through and I can already confidently say this is one of my favorite videos of yours. Thanks!

Hey Civvie, I've been using your content as a way to deflate after a long day and you always manage to make me smile, and you've gotten me onto alot of hidden gems of games. Keep circle strafein' and kickin ass!

Rest in peace James McCaffrey, his legacy will always live on and his last performance as Alex Casey (aka Max Payne in a different universe) in Alan Wake 2 gave me chills and I hope to get to hear him one more time in the Max Payne 1&2 remakes

Fun Fact: The Steam version is actually a crack from a group (who also does demoprods) called Razor 1911.

It's a beast of it's own. Neat to see a video done on the classic, good work.

It's always a delight come from work to and find you've uploaded a new video to enjoy while drinking a cup of coffee or some mates (yerba mate).

Civvie doesn't often cover 3rd person games, but Max Payne is undeniably massively influential to the FPS genre. He has to.

IT'S PAYNE!

I love this channel man. The whole content: the criticism, the humour, the edits, everything. For real!

YES! I've been waiting for this video for so long. Thank you Civvie!

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.

_"It was time for some R&R the only way I knew how."_ Max Payne (James McCaffery)

Thank you Civvie, I was waiting so long for you to cover it

Funniest bit for me when I played the game back in the day was how painfully obvious it was that every person in the game cut-scenes was an ethnic fin. Nobody looks like a proper Guido mobster. They fixed it in the sequel.

I have been hoping for this video for years. Thank you Civvie. RIP James McCaffery.

A lot of people talk about Metal Gear and Half-Life changing how games present themselves, but for me, it was always this game. Nothing is ever gonna top being a kid, playing this game, and going, "Holy crap, games can be like this?!" Except maaaaybe Deus Ex and Silent Hill 2. Games are still great, but I'm not sure they've such a leap in a long time.

For all of chapter 2 I forgot that I was watching a Max Payne video.... Well played!

Hell yes, a Civvie video on Max Payne! I actually did not know about the rats with guns, that was an incredible bit.

my favorite part about max payne 1 is that as a finn, everyone in the cutscenes just looks extremely familiar. like i'm sure i know like five people who look exactly like this evil mob boss and they're all called sami

Fun fact: In the comic panels, Vladimir is visually portrayed by Marko Saaresto, the singer of the band Poets of the Fall (who have, I think, been involved with every Remedy game since).

Max Payne is one of my favourite games of all time and I'm super stoked to see you covered it.

love when cinematic action violence scenes are shot like a 90s comic book, where no element on any frame is related to AND is paradoxically undistinguishable from any other frame

I remember just unloading the uzi into a couch in Max Payne just to see the awesome particle effects and little tufts of fluff and stuff.

Apparently the painkillers were going to be Valkyr. Yes, originally Max got addicted to the very drug that inadvertently got his family slaughtered.

Civvie, you just gave me the most brutal, raw, rage inducing PTSD flashbacks by reminding me of that goddamn lobby at Aesir Corporation. I had forgotten all the rage, broken keyboards and holes punched in drywall trying to beat that level as a kid. ...and it all came flooding back. Thanks!

jesus christ civvie that gognitti impression was so good and seamless i cant even

Fun tip about Max Payne 1, if you dodge to the left or right by pressing a movement direction and the space bar you will dodge the enemy and for some reason instead of shooting or leading their shoots they will always attack in the area where you were standing before the dodge or they will reposition to face you, makes using the pump action a lot easier since its the slowest firing weapon in game.

So the side and backwards roll give you complete immunity to gunshots (but not explosions) and the shoot dodge gives you a semi-unkillable status, but not immunity to damage and as soon as the slow-mo ends you'll be on the floor and vulnerable to being insta-killed by whoever you left alive. The highest difficulty relies on you rolling into a fight to cause enemies to "miss" their first shot, followed by normally shoot-dodging back into cover/slow-mo headshotting people.

finally, civvie i've been waiting! thank you so much!

I love you Civvie. Please don't ever change. Just completely shred the subject matter whenever necessary in a very wordy and precise menaner.

Man this game blasting out of a CRT at like midnight was such a good time back in the day. I gotta play through this game again

I saw "Norse Mythology with Guns" and was immediately worried that Civvie had decided for some unearthly reason to play "Too Human" and I was concerned for his health.

Really outdone yourself with this one man, genuine bliss everytime when you upload

Civvie's accent has been waiting for years for this one.

Blessed be the day, Civvie is covering one of the best and most impactful games of my childhood! The game that taught me that slow-mo dual wield shootouts and hard boiled noir are the coolest things in the world.

Shoutout to Remedy for still making weird but good games.

Watching Remedy go from Underdogs to Tastemakers, has been a fun ride. How they're blending their universes together, is so good.

I began analyzing every piece of media I consume after I started watching civvie and that is a gift I never knew I needed

Despite the warmth of the summer evening, the chill of nostalgia hit me like a sniper round from a dark window.

Fun fact The lead singer of Poets of the Fall is the comic actor for Vlad

A Civvie review of my favorite game. What a great way to end a week. The biggest problem with the game's early difficulty is that you can also abuse the pump shotgun with shoot-dodge. If you fire and dive holding the button down, you get an instant double-blast of pump shotgun spread. It turns the whole first 1/3rd into a cake walk. That, and diving makes you invincible, unlike in the sequels. Makes the grenade launcher a lot less of a pain to use.

I don't know about Max Payne, but Max Payne 2 was completely mind-blowing for me as a kid with the newly, fresh bought PC.

Great video, Max Payne was the bomb when I was a kid. I've even met Sam Lake briefly, he seemed very nice. Woden is Odin BTW. Same root word that got us Wednesday.

I MUST mention a really cool thing you past over, Civvie, at 29:41 you can toss a grenade down the dumbwaiter shaft and it blows up the guards down the stairs, it was such a cool moment when I discovered that.

One of the best atmospheric games I've ever played. I always play it every winter when it gets cold out here. It definitely has its flaws but i love it so much.

Thank you for taking the time to dunk on the Borderlands trailer. I didn't know how much I needed that.

The sound of the granade smacking into the wall has been living rent free in my brain for 23 years. When all granades up to 2001 had a throw and sound of a aluminium can filled with helium, these grande felt so much more real and dangerous.