10 Video Games Way Freakier Than You Thought

10. Max Payne

Max Payne was one of the first major video games to borrow The Matrix's ground-breaking "bullet time" stylistic techniques, whereby players could slow time to mow down fleets of armed goons while savouring every last nanosecond of it.

The game was unsurprisingly marketed on the inventiveness of this mechanic as well as its gritty, film noir-inspired detective story, while scarcely little mention was made of its more unsettling, horrific atmosphere.

And so, nobody expected that Max Payne would be a deeply unsettling meditation on grief and revenge, as our insomniac protagonist murders his way across New York City, develops a painkiller addiction, and has horrible recurring nightmares of the night his wife and child were slaughtered.

To make matter worse, the nightmares are actually delineated, frustrating platforming levels separated from the more conventional action, which with their reality-warping visuals and sound are a far cry from the relentless shooting gallery most people were expecting.