Max Payne on Steam is a Mess

It may come as no surprise that older games on Steam have some difficulty playing on newer systems. I’ve had frame drops with Bloodrayne II, Bully downright doesn’t work, it’s a standard affair. Usually, this stems from incompatibility between operating systems and not due to a lack of hardware power. Most games designed for Windows XP/Vista will have major issues on Windows 10. However, Max Payne is a whole different story.

Upon startup, you get the usual opening cutscene. It’s grainy and almost hard to make out what’s going on, as this cinematic is hitting twenty years old. While the game supports modern resolutions, such as 1080p, a lot of the textures do not reflect this, even if you crank up the settings to their maximum. It’s unclear whether this game got a visual overhaul for its Steam release, as its release date is listed historically as 2001, with no indication as to when it actually got placed onto the storefront.

Here is where the game is absolutely butchered: half of the sound is gone. Gone is the intense music, the gripping, and the cold reading of the newspaper narrative. What is present are some voice cues that are completely out of place. For such a massive issue to be a part of a major retail release in this concurrent age is more than unfortunate, especially when it’s attached to such a beloved, long-standing franchise.

For me to actually experience the sound in the game, I took a risky route and downloaded a patch I found in the Steam support forums. It’s baffling that I had to do this to fully experience the game, but the small patch worked wonders. Some games have had acclaimed patches to fix performance, such as Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and it would be a no-brainer for Rockstar to do the right thing and incorporate this into their release. However, they’re too busy with their own launcher.

Of course, there are plenty of positive reviews. It’s a game that was well-loved by thousands and people fondly recall their time with it. In addition, positive reviewers will praise the game and then link a mod that they demand prospective players download. Would they be so positive of the game if they didn’t have access to the mod? If it’s essential to the experience, it needs to be part of the official release – no ifs, ands, or buts.

It’s a shame that this title is released in the state that it is. It would take no effort at all to adapt one of the fan-made patches into the game’s release to stay current. This is another case of a AAA publisher not making an effort to be universally-relevant with their releases. Seeing that even EA is adapting and putting their titles on Steam in a playable state after years of sticking to Origin, it’s about time that others follow suit. As I play through Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, thankfully these issues are remedied, but it’s a sorry shame that the state of affairs aren’t the same for Max Payne.