This week comes from one of my favourite shooters, and a game that truly impressed me with storytelling depth I hardly expected from a shooter, at a time when I was really getting into Japanese RPGs… A colleague at university lent the game to me back in my first year there, shortly after it’d come out. The mysterious main theme quickly won me over, but the game that followed was even better. Max Payne had it all – from the distinctive looks of the main character, a New York cop gone fugitive (and actually played by the game’s writer – it’s a true shame they changed his looks in the sequel), through the dark atmosphere, mortifying prologue, intense action, Matrix-style bullet time, horror-like chapters, to the amazing comic book-style panels the story was told in… Max Payne is truly a landmark in gaming history.

Composers: Kärtsy Hatakka, Kimmo Kajasto
Game: Max Payne
Song: Main Theme

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