

It features a gritty neo-noir style and uses graphic novel panels (with voice-overs) in place of animated cutscenes to narrate the game, as it draws inspiration from hard-boiled detective novels by authors like Mickey Spillane. The game centers on former NYPD detective Max Payne, who attempts to solve the horrific murder of his wife and daughter, in connection to a criminal case involving a designer drug named "Valkyr" and while doing so, is entangled in a larger and complex conspiracy, involving the U.S.

The game was also re-released in 2012 as a downloadable game in the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 under the PS2 classics banner, iOS, Android, and in April 2016 for the PlayStation 4 as a PS2 emulated downloadable game in the PlayStation Store.

The game was re-released on 27 April 2009 as a downloadable game in the Xbox Originals program for the Xbox 360. There were plans for a Dreamcast version of Max Payne, but they were canceled due to the discontinuation of the console. A Mac OS port was published on 16 July 2002 by MacSoft in North America and Feral Interactive in the rest of the world. Ports created later in the year for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and the Game Boy Advance were published by Rockstar Games. Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Gathering of Developers in July 2001 for Microsoft Windows.
