Calling all avenging angels - there's an ex-cop out for revenge. With a lot of guns. Shoots you, sir...

New York, New York - it's a hell of a town. All crack dens, rat races, compensation culture and downtrodden homicide units. Max Payne is caught at the eye of this storm, as a massive and unseasonal blizzard smothers The Big Apple.

They killed his wife and kid, man. Whatever knife-edge Max had been walking, he's now holding it to NYC's underbelly of drug lord schmucks. He's out for revenge.

Not the drawing-pin-on-the-toilet-seat kind, but action-hero-maniac cop-gone-lone-wolf-man-mental-trigger-happy revenge. He gets it, too, as he shoots, recoils and reloads his way through four episodes and more than thirty chapters of stylish third-person combat.

Framed for murder, the ex-cop steamrollers his way through the criminal underworld and ever deeper into the narcotics conspiracy that seems to have infected everyone from gutter-level street trash to city officials.

Despite struggling against insane odds in his reluctant quest for justice, he's got something on his side - time. Bullet time, to be precise. It's the gameplay feature which sets Max Payne apart from other third-person action adventures, and it's brilliant.

The press of a button lets Max enter the syrupy, protracted state of The Matrix-style bullet time, while things slow down to a crawl. It allows him to dive through the air at a leisurely pace and dole out single-gun theory to a room full of gangster wideboys. It looks and sounds spectacular - clothes flap and billow, guns recoil with a meaty roar and bullets whoosh and ping around the place, leaving ghostly vapour trails in their wake. It's ballistic ballet.

However, as grand as it looks, it's the only thing keeping Max Payne alive, in every sense of the word. Firstly, it's the only way to survive a point-blank shoot-out with multiple enemies.

A single barrel of sawn-off is enough to kill Max, so a swift shift into bullet time is pretty much the only way to cope with potentially fatal hails of buckshot. In real time, gun battles are frustrating and spurious, and can completely hinder the flow of play because it means quicksaving after every corner or encounter.

Secondy, it's the only attractive, substantial thing about Max Payne. The game world itself is dripping with grimy, gritty gangster bada-bing, but the gameplay is a one-note experience.

Enter a room, leap into the fray with some bad guys, watch the bullet time effects and admire the scenery shattering under intense gunfire. Reload and repeat for every room and every corridor in every chapter of every episode.

Bullet time is great, but it's how much you enjoy doing it hundreds of times that will dictate how much you'll enjoy Max Payne.

Even if you do approach the game as a bit of shallow, throwaway fun, there's still a chance that the repetitive nature of the game will turn you off. Us? We're big fans actually.

Staging the game from the third-person perspective, as opposed to the usual eyeball-cam of the first-person shooter, is necessary to show off the striking mid-air gun outines, but it does mean that the movement of your character feels a big slippy-slidey.

There's plenty of set piece about, easy-to-get movie references and gallows humour to break things up a bit but, ultimately, they're all just high-quality garnish.

What it comes down to is your appetite for the main course: a thought-free romp with an incredible amount of slick gunplay and virtually nothing else. And to some, bullet time could be a repetitive gimmich stretched gossamer-thin over a hollow and linear video game.

But if you like your action relentless and sweet to look at, Max Payne is for you. It's an action-packed, slow-motion side step for the modern day shoot-'em-up.

1. Mind Games
   Between each episode, Max relives the death of his family through nightmarish dream sequences. It's deeply psyhological, with some buttock-grindingly difficult platforming sections for you to see Max through safely.
2. Boil-It Time
   Your use of the fabulous bullet time feature is limited - there's an egg timer in the left hand corner of the screen, and it slowly trickles away as you use the slow-mo function. It can be refilled by plugging the bad guys (a decent incentive). In the future, all fairground rides will use bullet time.
3. Minimum Pain
   If Max takes a nasty slug or two upside the head, he can heal himself by munching painkillers. You can only carry a handful at a time, and it takes three of them to fully heal Max when he's close to death. Beats medikits, but they can still be found in typical places, like discarded crates and lockers.
4. Freshly Mode
   There are two extra modes to unlock - Dead On Arrival and New York Minute. DOA is a super-tricky difficulty setting with limited saves and criminals recast as men of steel. NYM is Max Payne in time trial form. You play against the clock, and culling bad guys rewards you with extra time.

Power
Visuals are good, but not stunning. Bullet time adds an impressive edge though.

Style
Dark and gritty crime flick fodder. Hard-boiled dialogue and one-dimensional characters.

Immersion
Plenty for action movie junkies and fans of relentless gunplay.

Lifespan
It's quite long, but quicksave lets you blast through. If you stay for the first hour, you'll see it through.

Summary
The ultimate Marmite video game - you'll love it or hate it. Flashy, stylish and repetitive but worthy of your time. Creeps.