To show the fatalism of all that is to come, Max Payne begins with the ending. Standing high above the New York streets, Max releases the trigger of his rifle and is taken into police custody. The fight is over for him, but we know nothing of what led him to this moment. Alone, in the cold of a bitter ice storm, Max drifts back to the starting point of his crusade. It was three years ago when everything started to go wrong for him.  

The Prologue

Max walks through the door to his home. This is all in the past, three years before the incident which you have just seen. After a brief storybook scene, you are given control. Look around the entryway and get your bearings. Press the use button on the picture nearby to your left–this will give you another brief clip. Someone has put the sign of a V on the wall here; this will soon become a symbol of terror for many of the people in New York.

Further into the hall, you will begin to hear the phone ring–it is sitting nearby on a table. Walk over and pick up the phone. Someone on the other end of the line knows what is happening to you but does nothing to aid you. Even if you try to reach an outside line the phone will remain dead after this. Behind you in the hall are two unlocked closets. There is a shotgun inside one of these with several shells. Looking at the destruction of your house and possessions, you might need the extra firepower. Keep the shotgun out.

There is only one way forward. You won’t find anything to grab inside the living room ahead, but the staircase takes you up into the darkness. You can hear the sounds of shouting up there–your wife is yelling for help, pleading with several men. By the time you reach the top of the steps, there is gunfire. The bathroom is in front of you, but the door from there to the bedroom will be blocked. Turn and approach the far door across from the stairs. A gunman will throw open the door to meet you, screaming that ‘It is coming’. Kill the bastard before he shoots you, and take aim for the door inside the next room–another attacker comes through momentarily. The room is your nursery, but the baby is dead. You hear more shots from further inside and hope that it isn’t too late for your wife as well.

 

 

Max transferred to the DEA after that night. The attackers who killed his family were high on a new drug, Valkyr, that gives people a psychotic battle rage while under its influence. For the next three years, Max goes undercover to find the source of this new plague. It seems like the head of the Punchinello crime family may be involved, but Max has been working on getting proof of this and is much closer to busting a mafia lieutenant named Jack Lupino. Only Max’s old partner, Alex, and a DEA agent named B.B. know that Max is working undercover in New York. Now, B.B. has set up a face-to-face meeting between Max and Alex. When the detective arrives at Roscoe Street Station, he already knows that something is wrong.

You regain control after stepping off of the train and onto the subway platform. For now, the place is deserted. The only unlocked door is on your left–walk over there and go into the bathroom. A transit cop was killed and dragged in here. Given proof that something bad is about to go down, Max draws his Beretta. Don’t leave the room until you’ve taken the ammunition from the cop’s body. Also, you’ll find more ammo in a locker on the far side of the adjoining room. Take a painkiller bottle from the green cabinet nearby.  

You’ll hear two thugs talking out in the main area before you leave. Their conversation confirms that they are part of the murder, so you can feel vindicated in taking them down. Ambush them if you can. Aim for the head of the first man, then roll out of the way before the other can shoot. Get close enough for a good shot and take the second one out. You can head upstairs now. Another cop gets killed before you get up there, but you can kill the murderers while they stop to gloat. If it turns into a stand-off, the punks will get behind some cover and wait you out. Charge in, dive forward with bullet-time, and aim for the heads. You’ll find a third criminal behind some gates at the end of the hall; he’ll keep calling out, so it’s easy to hone in on him. When the way is open, go down the stairs across from the gates.

You’ll soon find another subway platform. A lone man with a shotgun waits here in a hall. Roll around and shoot well to avoid taking a nasty hit (quicksaves are useful for guys like this). There is a locked security room here that you’ll need later. Go down into the maintenance tunnels instead. A couple more mafia men are down there; be ready to roll down the stairs and ambush any targets that get in your way. To the left of the stairs you’ll find a room with a hostage. Go in firing to take out the enemy in a hurry. Open the lockers for some extra ammunition, then escort the worker there back up to the security room.

You are now in an older part of the subway station, but the crooks are still at work. There isn’t much in the room where you start. Ignore the sounds of rats behind the walls (they aren’t doing anything wrong). Two men are around the corner talking–it won’t be easy to sneak up on them, and you won’t be able to sneak past either, so round the corner with guns blazing. Break open a box toward the far door for some extra shotgun shells.

Max hopes that his cover hasn’t been blown yet, so he heads over to one of the Punchinello family hotels. On the sly, he tries to meet with a couple of killers known as the Finito brothers, who agree to see him. The bad news is that they are ready to get ugly, and you just stepped in a big pile of trouble. The first step is to get your game saved and then to roll backward before one of the Finitos can put a hole in you. The room has plenty of things to hide behind, but most of these obstacles are placed in favor of the brothers. Use some of your bullet-time to dodge around and get a few shots off until one of the enemies joins the choir invisible. Once it becomes a one-on-one fight you are in great shape. A few punks will come up to unlock the door and fight you, but you have enough time to reload and get ready before the next round of fighting starts.

Kill the newcomers then look around the room before you leave. Open the safe for some bullets and a painkiller. Read the letter on the desk to find out about Vincent Gognitti, a powerful leader in the family who works from the shadows. The letter to the Finito brothers gives you a target–Rico Muerte is staying at the hotel, and he is a major player in this game of killing and drugs.

Out in the hallway, you’ll find that the stairway is locked and the elevator is dead. You will have to leg it the long way out. Go down the steps to the next section. One dresser on the far wall has a single Beretta in it, which you can use for ammo in a pinch. A radio on the far side of the wall will give you an update–it looks like the police have found a single name for all of their trouble. Of course, it’s your name, but that doesn’t make a difference anymore. There aren’t any open doors to take, so break through the glass windows and out onto a section of the hotel’s roof.

It’s cold outside, but you won’t feel it inside your heavy leather jacket. A few toughs are about to come through the door ahead of you. Pull out your double-Berettas and just keep firing after the first one sticks his head out. Go inside and collect the extra ammo. The door at the end of the hall leads to a storage room with a single Beretta. To the side you find more stairs that take you down into the main section of the hotel. Ignore the passage immediately to your left (it doesn’t go anywhere). Charge into the first room and hose down the guy sitting there. Take a painkiller from his dresser if you need it. Go out into the main area and take out another thug who is resting in front of the TV, then get ready for a final guard who will come into the hall. You can pick up another painkiller from the bathroom ahead on the right. For a laugh, listen to the soap opera that the second guard was watching.

Take the doors with the exit sign above them at the end of the hallway. Two more men come out of their rooms for a fight, but they don’t have anything that you haven’t seen before. You won’t get anything from their rooms except for a broken TV that explodes when you touch it. Shoot the lock on the far door to continue.

Hide in the next room and wait for a couple of guys to pass. One guy is making fun of the other, so they won’t notice you unless they actually see you moving around. Come out behind the men and take them out quickly. Two more creeps will come out quickly, and one of them is pretty good with his pistols, so watch out. With the hallway cleared, go to the room on the right for a TV update. You can find some painkillers in a cabinet nearby.  

You end up in the basement of the hotel, but not much has changed. There are still plenty of mafia wise-guys around to keep things lively. The elevator opens up into the laundry room, but all three of the guards here are reliving past exploits at a card table, so they don’t hear you come in. Roll in and use a stream of bullets to wash away the targets. Break the boxes with your lead pipe to find a few extra bullets, some shells, and a painkiller. Watch a quick TV broadcast for an update on the situation outside.

Open the door to the next room over, but don’t go inside yet. Across from you, another door will open and two guys will come in to take their shots at you. Waste these enemies before they can get behind the boxes and cover themselves. When they are dealt with, break the boxes on the shelves and by the door on the right to stock up on ammo and clear the way. A shotgun loser is waiting in the hall by the door that you clear, but he goes down after a good shot or two from your own sawed-off shotgun.

The furnace in the open area is intimidating, but it doesn’t have much importance. Grab the baseball bat from the floor and read a short newspaper comic if you want; listen to the door on the left as two henchmen talk about the problems with movie vampires and their real estate troubles.

Kill the talking guys up in the kitchen then roll to avoid the third who comes down the hallway beyond. Finish him, then grab ammunition from the bodies and two painkillers from a medical stash on the wall. Move forward, past the third guard’s body, then up some short steps. Through the next set of doors you can see a large area with several doorways. A group is meeting in the first room on your left. To kill the entire group easily, use a spare Molotov cocktail on the doorway after you open it up and alert the people inside–all of them will rush out to meet you and burn to death; it’s wonderful. Inside the conference room, you’ll find Valkyr, drug money, another Molotov, a painkiller, and the key to the bar. Nothing is well hidden because no one was supposed to take the place down this easily.

With the bar key in hand, you should head down the hall and up to the door that is labeled “Bar.” A room nearby on the left is another bathroom with two painkillers, but you’ll probably need those after this fight rather than before. Muerte is in the bar with Candy Dawn and four wannabes. Muerte will flee after the storybook scene, so you’ll only have to fight Candy and the other four. Back away from the door and let the first three rush out to you. Use a Desert Eagle or twin Berettas to take these light targets down. Snipe the fourth, who often stays toward the back of the room. Kill Candy with a lot of bullets at medium range–up close she is brutal, because the prostitute has several times more life energy than you do. It may take more than a couple shotgun blasts to bring down this character, even if you aim perfectly. Use your painkillers, get more from the bathroom back in the hall, and prepare for another ugly fight.

Muerte isn’t fair, so accept that before you open the door. Rico has a high-speed, high damage machine pistol. He has infinite ammo, two bodyguards, and more energy than you could ever summon. This hitman will retreat to the end of the hall when you open the door in the bar. Don’t follow him. Soften Muerte up for a while with long range roll-and-strike tactics. The two allies won’t pop out until you run down the hallway. If you get totally frustrated with the slow fighting, use a Molotov against Muerte and his buddies–you’ll need to get fairly close, but a few good rolls can take care of that problem. As a reward for all of this, you can take the killer’s Ingram from his warm, bloody hands.

You continue to take the fight to Lupino’s boys. As you close in on some tenements in the slums where Lupino controls the local crime groups, you get a look at a potential ally in the war. It seems that Don Punchinello has a dangerous enemy in the Russian mafia. Before you arrive at the tenements, a bomb goes off, stirring up unrest in your foes. For better or worse, you’ve got distraction on your side.

You’re out in the cold again, and there are a couple of spots to check out before you can find a warm place to hide. There is a pawn shop in the open street where you begin. Two mafia grunts are stealing inside, and you can get some extra Ingram ammo (and satisfaction as well) by killing the thieves and looting the place yourself. Down the side of the main street you’ll see a board with the latest news report. A van is parked in the street ahead, and you can get the enemies to come out after you by setting off its alarm. Smash the hood with your bat, then hide behind the van and wait. Take out all three of the attackers at range if you can. There are a few shotgun shells in the back of the van if you need them.

Go toward the building where the men appeared and you’ll see a staircase down into the basement. Go inside and pick up the Molotov cocktails on a crate. Further inside, you’ll see a couple drab rooms with V-junkies taking their trips to Ragnarok. Ignore them or blow them down. Keep moving and you’ll find that your only route forward is blocked by a locked door. Across from the door is a case with two air tanks in front of it. A bomb goes off behind you and this inspiriting event gives you a reason to shoot the red tank (after you have gotten back into the previous hallway and are out of the way). The tank will explode and fly across the hall, smashing through the feeble locked door. Problem solved.

A lone guard comes to investigate all of the noise, but he doesn’t pose much of a threat. The newly opened room has a case with two painkillers and two V-junkies who are mostly harmless. On the right side of the room is the way forward. You’ll pass through a room of empty construction, but the two guards ahead will often notice your approach. Use close quarters weaponry to clear the path, then go up the steps in the final room. An Ingram-bearing creep will get in your way on the stairs, so use something quick like the sawed-off shotgun to keep from taking a nasty hit.

A series of ledges can get you back and forth between buildings. You really don’t have much of a choice in the matter so it’s time to start building hopping. Start by climbing down the fire escape. The two guys below you are just trying to keep themselves warm, so don’t shoot them. The basement of the nearby building is empty but it has an elevator up to the roof. Even with a clever attempt to trick the people within, you still end up having to fetch someone who can make them open the door.

Take the door on the right, which will put you out in the snowstorm again but on a different street. There is another building that you can get into on the left side of the street. The place is dirty as hell and there are V-junkies everywhere–the perfect place to find a contact. Search the first room on the right in the new building for some extra ammunition. Go back and take the main hallway past several junkies. A gunman is watching the main stairway, so be ready to fight him; you may have to deal with the V-junkies as well because of the fighting. There are two other mafia fools near the top of the steps, so fight and move. More people are tripping out on the second floor, and another pair of goons will come down the far flight of steps before too long. With these last enemies gone, you can move up to the third level. The unlocked door near the top of the steps is where you need to go. Inside is a man who can get you inside the laundry room door–with a bit of convincing, he agrees to help. Before leaving with your escort, go into the side room and open a closet for two more painkillers.

Make you way back to the laundry room and stand to the side of the door while your new “friend” convinces the mafia guys to open the door. Save now, and do your best to time it so that you put a bullet into your friend just after the door opens (if you do it too early the game will instantly end). If you wait too long, the man will yell out a warning and run into the room. Roll inside after the first guy dies and take out the thug on the right. Get ready, then go into the area on your side; two men are there and one of them usually rolls behind you. Clean the floor, then go forward again. You’ll see an elevator in the hall that you want to take, but there are two painkillers next to a cashier in the room facing the elevator. Grab what you need then go upstairs.

It’s pretty empty up above. All of the doors are boarded up except for an opening into a chamber with a television. You can watch the TV for another update; Jim Bravura is making more promises to bring you to justice. Meanwhile, there is a wise-guy in the bathroom who doesn’t realize how doomed he really is. When the guy opens the door, be waiting to seal his fate. Go out through the window when you are done.  

There are pipes outside that connect your building to another. Jump out onto those and start toward the far window, but stop once you can hear the TV program inside the room; this is one of the oddest things that you will overhear in the game and it really is worth listening to. Three men will attack you when you break through their window–you won’t have much space to maneuver, so keep the high power weapons ready. At the far end of the apartment, you’ll find another breakable window. Jump outside again and take a second set of pipes. A bomb will keep you from taking the stairs inside the building, but if you head through the open area you will find another way. Two men are deciding which wire to cut on a bomb. They don’t choose the correct one. Luckily, this destroys a pesky wall. As soon as you go into the hallway and try to open the locked door, the entire wall will fall away.

Keep walking until you reach a dark, blasted section of the building. Two guards will come down a convenient slab of drywall to attack you, but neither is ready for the fight. Go carefully up the broken wall and turn around to see another room with a pair of enemies; sometimes they won’t see you, so wait until they present easy targets. Go out and around the ledge to the right. Open the door there and ignore the screaming–Gognitti is just upset that his life is almost over. Before opening the next door, loot the room. You should be able to find some Ingram ammo and two painkillers. Get out a good weapon and save now.

Time to do more work racing across icy rooftops in the blackness of night. Your quarry continues to make decent time, even though his blood is freezing on the snow under his feet. Get down onto the pipes beneath your starting position and get over to the next building. Two men jump you there, but you should have enough Ingram ammunition to have fun poisoning them with lead. Turn right and keep moving. You have to make a fairly long jump between rooftops. You can see where you are supposed to jump by looking for a break in the wall. Two men are across the way firing at you–it’s a judgement call whether you want to take them out.

A police helicopter starts to circle in as you make your way toward the doorway inside, but keep running and the cops won’t cause you any trouble. Vincent is still trying to escape, and he’ll send three more of his men up the stairs to keep you from catching up. Save your game here and shoot the first guy in the back of the head as he climbs the steps. The next two take up positions on the floor beneath you and one of them has an Ingram. Roll down the stairs and shoot the man on the right first. The last guard doesn’t have anything special, so blow him into the wall or over the banister for a cool slow-motion finish. Go down to the first floor, grab two painkillers from a medical cabinet, and then take the door at the rear of the building.

Jack Lupino is at the gothic S & M club, Ragna Rock, so that is where you go to confront him. The place is loud, but at least the weather is bad enough to keep away the innocent bystanders who shouldn’t get involved. Lupino is just around the corner now, so get out your guns and start warming up.

You can’t get into the club through the front doors. There is a security station just to the left of where you start, but there is only a locker with a free shotgun in there (okay, so this place doesn’t have the best security on Earth). To the right is a ticket booth, and this is where you want to go. Inside the door, you’ll see a button. Press that to open up a secret passage into the side of the club. Two guards will come in after you; the first doesn’t know what is going on, so ambush him then wait for his buddy.

The room beyond holds a number of useful items up on the rear shelves. On a table, you can read the first of many occult works that you’ll discover here. To the right you’ll find a couple of painkillers. Various bullets and shells are strewn about the case on the left. Get everything you want then pull out your pistols (use the Ingrams if you have the ammo to spare). The next room is a bar and dance floor for the club. One guy will be in front of you behind the bar, two are up above, and a fourth is on the far side of the room. These thugs have it all, so don’t take up a defensive position.  

There is a set of double-doors that lead onto the next dance floor; they are on the right side of the room. Take these, then roll through the second set of doors. There are three men waiting with guns drawn, and two should be directly on your right side. Take them out one-at-a-time if you have to. There isn’t anything important in the open area of the room, so head to the left side and continue forward.  

Three more guys are hiding on the left side of the next room. Kill them using the same tactics, then grab more ammo and a painkiller from behind the bar to your side. More thick reading rests on a table near the door on the other side of the room. Take a look through Paradise Lost if you want, then use the button by the gates to open the way. The guard on the stairs up is a complete wannabe, so deal with him as you see fit.

The stairs will take you above the dance floor. Kill the guard to your left when you come into the upper level, then blow down the guy across the way. You can get over to the other side by jumping onto the support beams. Where the other guard was standing, you’ll find two painkillers and some ammo. Run back across the beams and go through the unlocked door there.

Only two men are near the stage console that you find. Kill them and get a painkiller from the console. Press the button on the panel for some pyrotechnics, but it won’t really accomplish anything. The door out is on the same wall as the door you came in through. The hallway beyond leads up to another level. You can hear a group talking about Jack Lupino through an open doorway–these guys are really getting frightened of their boss, but no one wants to do anything about it. Pull out a grenade and toss it in to take out one or two of them early on. Try to kill the third quickly and get ready to use a Molotov cocktail. Three more troops will rush out and around the racks of booze to get to you; if you toss a cocktail at the only opening while the three are approaching, it will make your life a lot easier. Check the racks and the boxes in the corner for several painkillers.

Back behind all of the casks, you come to a rickety set of stairs with four guards blocking the path. Blow the first away at the doors–use a shotgun to see him collapse through the room’s trapdoor. The next is low on the steps and is easy to get to, but the two on top will harass you the entire way. Take these two out from below if you can get a good shot at them.

The closer you get to Lupino, the more it becomes clear that this man has serious problems. Blood rites, strange writings, and multiple bodies are here. Read everything in the first room to see just how lost this man has become. Even Don Punchinello seems to have taken notice and written to warn Lupino that he needs to back off the Valkyr power trip. As you walk through the passage out of the room, you will hear Jack screaming and ranting to his various gods. Get your good weapons ready, save, and heal yourself to full strength before going through the gate at the end of the hall.  

There are a couple of things to remember in the huge battle that is coming. First, you won’t get to keep your weapons, ammunition, health, bullet-time, or painkillers afterwards, so use it or lose it. Second, there are tons of supplies littering the tables around the main “temple” area, so use your painkillers the moment you are injured and pick them up while you are dodging around.

Frankie Niagara is ready to take care of you now that you have returned to the land of the living. Sadly, this mobster isn’t planning on showing you a good time. After a few kindly exchanged words, the wise-guy does some batting practice with your head and walks off for a relaxing drink at the bar. You break out of your chair and find yourself in the hotel that you shot up just one night ago. You don’t have your weapons, ammo, or painkillers, but that baseball bat seems to work just fine.

There are a lot of killers out in those halls, so here is the cheap way to start the level. Knock off the lock on the cabinet nearby and take the two painkillers so that you aren’t practically dead anymore. Then, take the door on the right and let one of the guards see you–he will yell and everyone else in the nearby area will come running. Go back to the furnace room and get up against the wall beside the door. Start swinging your bat at the door and don’t stop until you’ve heard about seven people die. They won’t get to see you, but each will try to get in the door and will meet Mr. Baseball Bat. It works out well to your advantage. Collect the various weapons and this becomes your killing time.

All of the commotion will have cleared out two of the three rooms in the square hallway outside. The central room should be empty now, and it has dozens of boxes with extra ammo and a couple of painkillers. On the right side of the hall, there is another supply room with enough ammunition to put you back in good shape. The final room is on the left, but two men will stay in there until you come after them. There isn’t anything that you need in there, so unless you are being doubly thorough, it isn’t worth the trouble of going after these guys. Of course, you do get a comic strip because of it. Who can resist the funny pages?

The way out of here is via an elevator at the far end of the square hallway. Take the elevator up and kill the two men who are in the room that it opens into (face the other side of the elevator, because that is the door that opens).

The open area beyond is usually pretty tough. A grenade will bounce out at you, so jump back to avoid that. Three guys who are armed to the teeth will then rush you after a few moments, so you might want those twin Ingrams just to survive. On the up side, the room that these troops were guarding has a medical cabinet with four painkillers. One final man is dressed up in a leather trench coat inside the meat room; this room is accessible via the street and the opening next to the medicine cabinet. This mafia creep has twin Ingrams of his own, and you don’t get anything for killing him. Sometimes it is best to simply avoid that room and head out into the street.

Go around to the front of the hotel and walk in. There isn’t anything important to see outside–it looks like the cops who were protecting this area couldn’t stand up to the firepower that has been coming through. At least you don’t have to shoot at anyone who isn’t already shooting at you because of that.

It’s hard to get by these days without doing a couple of favors for the Russian mafia, and it’s no different for Max. The lovely bomb-setter from the last evening has a bit of a problem. One of his former men, a sea captain named Dime, has gone over to Punchinello’s side, taking a hefty shipment of weapons with him. Traitors can’t be allowed to survive; it is bad for business. The offer is a pretty good one for you–you take Dime, and you can collect the extra weapons for your private war. Punchinello gets hurt on both ends.

You start at the entrance to the dock area. Inside the security station, a single guard is whistling away, so it isn’t hard to throw the door open and greet him with the reaper’s smile. Take the ammo inside and press the button on the right to open the gate.  

Just inside is a loading area on the right; two men are here, but they aren’t very alert. Blow down the mafia guys and get up on the platform. You can use the button on the left side to raise the loading bay door. People are talking inside about the poetic value of mass murder, so don’t interrupt them yet unless you want to break up the philosophy session. Inside, two men on the ground are watching the door, so you usually won’t be able to get in stealthily. A third gunner is up on top. Dive forward in bullet-time to get a heavy edge. Before leaving through the door on the right, jump up on the far crates to get a painkiller. If you then use the crates to get up on the catwalk, you’ll get more Ingram ammo and a second painkiller.

The open area outside only has a couple of guys. One is standing near an explosive barrel, which could mean a quick end to him if you are a good shot. The other guy is inside the cargo car with some ammunition. Use the next loading door on the back left of the area to get to the next warehouse.

At first, only one enemy will attack you here. Avoid his Ingram fire and grenade throwing; it is best to hit him while he is reloading the Ingram after some steady fire. Take the lift on the far side of the room and walk around until you find the crane controls–use them to open the way to the door down below. Don’t forget to open the medicine cabinet there for four painkillers! Two more enemies will come into the room now, but you can lure them near the explosive barrels in the center of the room and then blow everything up to watch them do the dance of flame.

The door you opened will put you back outside in a huge storage area. Two fairly clueless guards are close by, but a single shot to the back of the head with a Desert Eagle will restrain them. In the back right corner, you will get a stash of ammunition of a box with a painkiller. Get out your Ingram now, or a shotgun if you are feeling lucky. Going forward a bit more, you will trigger several more guards. All three will charge you, so stand behind one of the crates and wait. As each man approaches, pop out and deliver a lethal salvo into his face. Walk back, reload, and repeat. Perfect.

There is a lifting crane in the section beyond. Go past it for now and get all of the goodies on the table in the back. Then, climb up into the crane and use the power button on it to clear the way ahead. One guard will come out of the building behind you because of this, and two more will come out from the new opening.

When the guards are dead, go through the gap in the cargo cars and stop when you are past the suspended car. The crane will lower the car behind you, and a wise-guy with a shotgun will make his move. Jump out with surprise and frag him. Now, go a bit further and move between the legs of a heavy mover. This vehicle will start itself up, so you should head for shelter in one of the open cars (there is a bit of ammo there anyway). The mover will pick up some cargo that was in your way and then smash it into the wall. When the shaking dies down, you have to go out and face two attackers. The man in the rear has a shotgun, and he seems fairly good compared with his buddies. Keep the first attacker between you and that shotgun, then take potshots at the far guy when you are done. Don’t try to get this done quickly, because you might take a spread of shells and have to actually use a painkiller or two (or three).

Go carefully into the new area, because an Ingram-bearing fool will try to open up on you. Kill him a lot, then turn the corner to face a bigger problem. Another heavy mover is clearing the way for you, but a guy is on top of it with a shotgun. This thug takes a lot of pain before falling, though he is a terrible shot if you keep moving. Two allies of his will charge through the gap once the mover is done its job. Further down that pathway, three more guards are waiting to come after you. Roll around a lot and hope that the guy in the back with a shotgun will plaster one of his buddies to the wall (it is always gratifying to see friendly fire at work against your enemies).

The following warehouse is well stocked with enemies and vicious fighting. From the start, people see you from above and alert their allies, so you won’t find many soft targets. The first two men are around the corner from you, so get out the close-quarters weaponry and take them down. One man gets up on the cars across from where you entered, and he is easily taken out with a few Desert Eagle shots. When you try to move around the first bend, a shotgun attacker gets up on the catwalk to your left, and he has a grenade. When the action dies down, get ammunition from a set of shelves in the back right corner.

Two more grenades and some ammo are on the shelves in the tight passage through the warehouse, but where there are two grenades there certainly may be more. Walk just a bit into the next tight passage and a grenade will fly through the air nearby. Run back to safety, and it is very hard to avoid taking damage from this (sometimes you can trigger the thrower to make a premature attack by going into the area a little and jumping straight up so that he sees movement).

Run out into the open area and quickly take the way left–an Ingram fighter will start showering the area, and he is very hard to hit from where you are. Dive into the man who gets in your way and make sure that you are the one who gets up. Before taking the stairs that are around the boxes to the right, go left and pick up a large amount of supplies, including a painkiller. Run up the stairs, firing your Ingram pistols the moment you see your enemy’s head, and he shouldn’t be able to hurt you. Another guy comes out from the door you need, but some crates are blocking the way. Go around on the catwalk to greet him, then take out your sniper rifle. Open the door to the outside and aim for the left side of the vehicle in front of you. An enemy will roll into position, but your .50 caliber bullet can take him out of the equation. The transport will make it over to your area. Jump on and control the device with the four buttons–each one corresponds to the direction that the vehicle will travel. You can only move on the tracks, so don’t try to go through anything.

You will need to take the transport forward, then left, to avoid the car that is on the tracks. Use the zoom feature of your new rifle (there is extra ammunition on the box nearby) to kill the guards in the four towers of this area at very long range. Odds are that the guys won’t even see or fire at you. When the men are dead, you can move about pretty easily. Going back toward the first warehouse on the second track will take you to a guard tower with a fresh corpse of your doing and a couple of painkillers. You have to go the other way to continue. You can then travel to the guard tower across the way, which has another painkiller and more sniper ammo. Two men on the ground will fire up at you, but the firing angle is certainly in your favor now.

Go back across to the first track, now that you will be on the other side of the cargo car. Head toward the far warehouse and guard tower. Two more men on the ground will attack when you go for the painkiller and sniper ammo there, but they are again at an extreme disadvantage. Take the door when everything is quiet.

The new warehouse is very open, which means that you won’t get to do a lot of shoot and scoot fighting. Instead, use the dual Ingrams and take the fight to your enemy. Run down the catwalk to your left, then charge across the floor. Shootdodge at anyone who steps in front of you. When you come to the far catwalk, the enemies will come down after you. Roll around to avoid them, then fire once they are close enough to kill with a burst. There is no finesse here. Get some ammunition from the right wall on the side where you came in, then shoot the box open for a painkiller.

Get onto the second catwalk and head toward the far side. A shotgun wannabe will throw open the door ahead of you, but a dive will help you dodge and finish him. Look through the window in the room to see the ship–there is also a person below who presents a great sniping opportunity. Press the button near the door to open the fenced-off portion of the lower area in the main room. Two more guards come out because of this. You’ve seen worse. Take them out at long range on the catwalk to keep your clothes from getting scuffed.

Get everything in the security room before going out the door. There are two guards to the left of the door when you leave–these are decent fighters who have nerves of steel. You can try a grenade toss, but they are fairly tough to hit without exposing yourself. Twin Ingrams and a dose of bullet-time are often needed to avoid damage.

You go to meet Punchinello at his restaurant, but things don’t turn out too well. The place is dark when you get there, and it looks like there is no one around. Save now, and take a nice, calming breath. The next section is pretty easy once you are used to it, but quite difficult over the first few runs. Each room has its own sequence of explosions that you have to avoid–you can hit the quicksave between rooms if you like. At least there won’t be any guards until you are out of the fire. Here we go.

Get to the right side of the wall and head toward the dark door at the far end of the room (it is next to the bar).  Go through the door. Keep going straight through the next room and cut across the center of the floor–take the double doors ahead of you. Go very quicky forward and cut to the right. Race through the row of shelves before they start to fall and take the door on the right side. If you get cut off, then go through the last space in between the cases (that one won’t fall over).

Don Punchinello is too scared to leave his estate, so it’s time to pay him a personal visit. You have been brazen enough that this move is expected, so there are a lot of guards there to keep you out. Plus, the Trio is present. Three super tough killers have their guns trained on you.

Inside one of the lower entrances to the manor, you find a few bodies. It seems like Mona made an escape. Look in the room on the left to see a bit of her artwork. There is a cache of ammunition on the shelves in the main room, but there are guards in the hallway beyond who might walk in behind you if you go for the treasure first. Clean the hall, grab the ammo, and then keep going. The door at the end of the hall on the left opens into a storage room with two painkillers–a shotgun blast will rip you open if you come in slowly. Shootdodge in and take out the guy on your left. On the other side, the hall bends around for a few turns. You’ll hear a couple of thugs trying to decide whether to get help or take you on personally. They will make a feeble rush, so use close range weapons to finish them. A twin Ingram fool will back them up near the booze casks, and he is the guy to watch for. Head upstairs from the winery and you’ll end up in the kitchen. One guy flees from you and calls for the first of the Trio, so you know that the next room will be bloody.

There are three painkillers that you can take from the kitchen (or come back to grab later). For a laugh, you can also read the tarot cards on the table that Mona left out. To soften the next fight, get out a grenade and open the far door carefully. If you can strafe quickly, it’s not too hard to throw the grenade behind the table that “Big Brother” and his two buddies are using. This will cause two of the guys to die, and their boss will charge you with less than half of his energy. When the fight ends, the door on the other side of the kitchen will open and two reinforcements will arrive, so watch your back.

There are two men in defensive positions in the room beside the kitchen, and one of them is on the ledges above you. There isn’t anything useful in the area, so kill and keep moving. Another pawn hides behind the plants in the piano room and shouldn’t last long. Take out another grenade if you have one, then open the double doors in the piano room with a tasteful throw. The bar will be on the far side of the room on the left. Two men are there, and at least one should get squished by the blast. Dodge back if any grenades come your way. Fill up on painkillers at the bar.

Outside the room through the doors on the right are the stairs. The troops out there are calling for help from the second of the Trio, but it sounds like he wants them to take care of their own problems. Roll out to the center of the room and dive up the stairs for some classy moves. Only two guys here, so you can take it. At the top of the stairs on your right will be the real test.

Joey and two more mafia fighters are just beyond the door. All three will be to your right, and the doors open in such a way that it’s quite hard to use grenades against the group. Your best bet is to use the Ingrams and to run into the room shooting. Don’t dive until you’ve already taken out a target or gotten the enemies to line up–if you dive too soon, Joey will mince you while you are getting up. To take out the heavy hitter, aim high, and use a full shootdodge to leap toward him while pelting his face.

The last of the Trio isn’t here. The door on the other side of the stairs keeps getting locked, but the guy inside will blow the wall open with a M79 shot the next time you approach. Stand back and let him do this, then pull out your sniper rifle and hit him from the other side of the room–he can’t even get to you from that range, so he is SOL. There are two more generic attackers in that room. Toss a grenade around the corner where the bed is, or roll around with heavy firepower to break them quickly. The intact door leads to the bathroom.

Max Payne’s cheat modes can be accessed without too much trouble. Edit the properties of your shortcut to the game. (Change the Maxpayne.exe reference so that it says Maxpayne.exe -developer). This is also how you access the game’s screenshot functionality (Maxpayne.exe -screenshot).

After loading the game up with this extension, you can use the F12 function key to access console mode. These are the codes that work in the current version of the game. Though the codes are not case sensitive, they are listed here in an easily readable format.

Mortal: Turns God mode off

NoClip: Turns off the physics engine for your character (you can pass through walls)

NoClip_off: Restores the normal function

GetAllWeapons: Gives you every weapon and fills your painkillers

GetPainkillers: Stocks your character with painkillers

Coder: Turns on God mode and gives Max infinite ammunition for his weapons

Some Extra Training (Tutorial)

Max Payne’s tutorial is excellent, and you can train with the Ingram there if you so desire. There is a van along the final street of the tutorial. On the wall beside the white van are a couple of air units that you can jump onto. Use these to get up onto the fire escape, then climb up to the top. There is a breakable window there that you can use to get inside a secret room. Take the painkillers and the Ingram there for a good time against the respawnable enemies below.

Is Buffy Summers in Max Payne? (Part I, Chapter III)

Hard to say, but someone is trying to set her up for a murder in the Finito Brothers’ hotel. There is a broken doorway down the hall from Rico Muerte’s room (313). If you shoot out that door, you will find a room with a small ledge outside its windows. Use this ledge to reach another room on the right. There you will discover a body, staked to death by a blow to the back, and the name Buff (possibly Buffy) is written in blood nearby. Was this Faith’s doing? Is Angel on a vacation to New York, still pining over his lost love? Maybe Alfred Woden has just been doing a little role-playing on the side. There is a painkiller here, and you can grab three Molotov cocktails as well.

A Tribute to Another Fine Series! (Part I, Chapter VI)

There is a room with Soldier of Fortune II posters up on the roof. You find this just before going across the pipes to the building with the Pink Flamingo TV show. Instead of getting onto the pipes, go around the left side of the building and you’ll find a window that can be broken into (though it won’t look like the other accessible windows). There are some weapons inside, and the decor is fairly interesting.