14 Most Insane Video Game Dream Sequences
5. Max Payne
Max Payne isn't your ordinary third person shooter. From the get go Remedy's atmospheric comic book noir is filled with unconventional storytelling techniques and dark, brooding overtones. Haunted by nightmares of the night he came home to find his wife and child both brutally murdered, by the time the first act's over and done with in Max Payne you've already played through a few brief dream sequences.
However these sections come to a head at the start of the second act, as Max finds himself drugged and trapped in the far reaches of his own mind. Instead of starting the level with your usual selections of weapons, ready to blow away any fool who gets in your way with a cool slow-motion effect, the start of the second act has you going through the same worst night of Max's life that you've already glimpsed numerous times by this point - however this time Max doesn't wake up.
Forced to find his way out the haunting labyrinth that makes up his own mind, Max has to follow a trail of blood to escape, all the while revisiting the most traumatic moments of his past, with only the harrowing cries of children serving as background noise.