+

The slow motion dodging and shooting really glorifies the violence. It's a cool novelty

The controls were ported from the PC pretty well. Nice control scheme.

The story integrated into the gameplay is done very well, especially in the beginning. The story unfolds around me. The paranoid conspiracy feel was also portrayed very well.

Lots of detailed descriptions are given whenever Max talks to himself.

There are a lot of things that let you know that this is part of a story. Max narrating as you play, the different chapter numbers, etc.

They nailed the conspiracy niche pretty well with the monotone voices, the feeling that they're all out to get you, etc. The soldiers you come across sometimes talk about movies of the same genre like The Usual Suspects, Seven, etc.

The gameplay has some variety.

-

They could have beefed up the graphics and utilized the full power of the XBOX, but they didn't. It's almost a direct port.

Too many of the fights involve pointlessly shooting goons. They're there, they're trying to kill you, and you have to kill them. Simple as that. The glorified violence is also really a cheap thrill. Shallow at best. It also gets repeditive and played out really fast. Shooting people is basically all you do in this game, except for the occational jumping puzzle or explosion puzzle. The slow motion moves and the rest of everything that glorifies the violence doesn't have anything to do with the plot at all.

Max is alone on his quest. All alone. So very alone. The only relationship he has with anything else in the game is simple: they're trying to kill me so I have to kill them. Pretty one-dimensional if you ask me.

The comic book cutscenes are lame. They are much worse than real cutscenes.

The paranoid conspiracy did a really good job of drawing me in, but once I was in it threw the same stuff at me throughout the whole game. There was very little plot (character) development, except for a few key points in the game. Most of the time it's just, "The weasing chill of the night... those maniac mobsters were up to something sinister... blah blah blah..."

The whole conspiracy dealie is more of a niche. It lacks mass-market appeal.

The trippy dream sequences with Max killing himself and his wife scream, "Max! What are you doing!? ahhh!!" were never explained. Also, this story is about a guy whose wife was killed, and he embarks on a quest for revenge, and in the end he gets it and feels good about it. That's lame.