Max Payne: Bring on the Mods

So Max Payne is finally out, and I for one couldn't be happier. It's been a very long time since an action game, arguably the most straightforward of all PC genres, has been so polished, so innovative, and to put it quite simply, so much damn fun to play. Last year's No One Lives Forever had some characteristics that set it apart from other similar action games, certainly, but for me, it hasn't been since Half-Life that a game got its hooks in me the way that Max Payne has. The only knock I have against it is that it's short, and while it's a great experience through and through, I wish there was more of it to play. To that end, I sincerely hope that the editing tools included with the game are embraced by the mod-making community.

Maybe it's a matter of time before Max Payne looks like this.

Amer's Now Playing: Max Payne, Counter-Strike, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, Red Faction (PC), Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting Recent Favorites: Jet Grind Radio, Virtua Tennis, NBA Street, Twisted Metal: Black All-Time Favorites: Duke Nukem 3D, Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Half-Life

Just imagine not having to wait two years for Shiny's game based on The Matrix. Max Payne plays and looks so much like the popular sci-fi movie that a Matrix mod would most likely be the first one available for download. It wouldn't take much to pull off, either. Some gun replacements would be a good place to start. Replace the M4A1 with an M16A2; add the H&K MP5Ks, Benelli M3 shotgun, and the CZ Skorpion. Then reskin Max as Neo and add character models for Trinity...heck, some of the bad guys in later levels even look like Agent Smith and his two cohorts. The levels in the game wouldn't need much retooling, either. After all, Max Payne already has a subway station level, a skyscraper lobby level (replete with marble-tiled columns and metal detectors near the entryway), and a helicopter that levels an entire building floor.

Max Payne has great potential for mod makers.

It'd also be nice to see a multiplayer mod for the game. While the game doesn't have any multiplayer code to speak of, I'm sure that a talented designer/programmer can make it work. The obvious pitfall would be addressing the slow-motion "bullet time" and "shootdodge" skills. Do you implement these two moves in a way that mirrors their function in the single-player mode? That would seem strange, since in a match with anymore than two players, time would be at a constant standstill. Would you make the multiplayer mode strictly a two-player affair? That would seem somewhat more feasible, especially if you limit bullet time to a small radius around each player. That would strictly limit the slow-motion activity to close-quarters battle, which, speaking of The Matrix, is how most of the combat took place in the movie anyway.

At any rate, the possibilities are endless. It's not hard to imagine, though, that the next Counter-Strike may very well be an upcoming Max Payne mod.