The MOD Noir York City for Max Payne 1

Noir York City is a mod for the original version of the game Max Payne 1 which published in 2001 by Remedy.
It is composed of 2 mods: "Max Payne Retextured" and "Realistic IA".
The Max Payne Retextured mod replaces the low resolution textures which recover the buildings, the skybox and various items and furnitures by better textures.
And of course the Realistic IA Mod makes the gameplay of Max Payne 1 more realistic.

Max Payne Retextured Mod :

In all exteriors, the ageing sky textures have been replaced by HD skies textures (with stars, clouds, the moon and in some maps the new skybox even add distant buildings in the skyline).
The 2 missions in the docks also now takes places in a very foggy day.

The distant buildings in most levels have either been replaced with fake 3D buildings (for the ones which are close) or by shadowy 2D buildings if they are from afar.

Most importantly (and the very reason why I decided to make this mod) : The skyscrapers which can be seen from the top of the Aesir building during the last mission of the game have been replaced by better distant buildings.

Also, since the game doesn't have any animated water and fortunately takes place in a frozen winter, I replaced the water textures with semi-frozen and frozen water textures. This way, with frozen water, it isn't odd if the water areas are immobile.

Finally, even thought the Noir York City mod initially focused on improving how the exteriors looked, in the version 1.5, I decided to go for the interior too and in the end, almost all textures in the maps were replaced by better ones.

Also, no need for reshade mods, the mod Noir York City also adds higher contrasts (and even an heavy fog too in a few levels) around the maps which make the borders of the playable areas way less visibles so the game's atmosphere doesn't look anymore like a fake "western film" decorum but like a geniune area.
This changes the atmosphere in both the exteriors and the interior areas.

Of course, if the mod does improve the visuals, don't excepted it to transform this 20 years old classic game into a "Next Gen" game.

Screenshots of the mod Noir York City Mod :

The Noir York City Mod : How it looks ingame (Video)

Noir York City 1.0	Noir York City 1.5

Realistic IA Mod :

The Noir York City Mod for Max Payne 1 changes various aspects of the gameplay while trying to stay faithfull to the original : So, there are no new moves and features.
The changes will only push the player to diversify his playstyle, especially on the higher difficulties.

- No more adaptive difficulty.
- Max Payne isn't immune anymore when he is jumping in slow motion.
- Max Payne doesn't automatically recovers health anymore when he has only a few health points left.
- Headshots are lethal for all characters (including bosses).
- Characters who have a bulletproof vest can take more shots to the chest.
- Strong characters and bosses react and move faster.
- Characters' weight and what they carry play a role in how fast they can move.
- In higher difficulties, there are less ammos to find.
- More decals are displayed on the ground and walls (ex: blood, empty cartridges, bullet impacts, etc...).
- Max Payne doesn't bleed anymore if he falls into the ocean in the Dock Mission Part 2.

If you decide to try the mod : The best way to enjoy it is to play in the Difficulty Hard Boiled as it makes the gameplay more diversified : In this difficulty mode it is necessary to save ammos and so the player has to go mostly for headshots but the gameplay isn't too punitive, so making mistakes and wasting a few cartridges aren't too much of a problem.
If anything, playing the Noir York City mod in Hard Boiled difficulty mostly prevents the player from always jumping around in slow motion while discharging his guns and it pushes him to use more the weapons he wouldn't bother to use otherwise (in order to save enough ammos for the stronger enemies and the bosses).
The mod Dead On Arrival is as difficult as before and if you make mistakes, the player may lack ammos in some areas and have to fight his way in by using the baseball bat and the iron pipe.

Where to obtain the mod Noir York City for Max Payne 1

The mod Noir York City for Max Payne 1 can be downloaded on Moddb and Nexus.
It exists in 2 versions.

The normal version of the mod includes :

- The sky and horizon HD textures.
- Customized Fog (density and color).
- Textures replacements for some buildings and some items.
- The awful 2d buildings in the last level of the games have been replaced by better ones.
- A higher number of decals (bullet holes, cartridge on the ground, etc...) are displayed.
- A realistic AI : Headshots are always lethals, damage to the torso and speed depends on equipments and training).
- The removal of adaptive difficulty in the Fugitive difficulty mode.

Please note, that it is possible to install only the sky textures, or use the original sky textures and replace only the bad textures on the buildings, or only install the IA files. Your choices.

The light version of the mod includes only : 

- The sky and horizon HD textures.
- The customized fog.
Please note that the light version of the mod does NOT fix the ugly 2D yellow buildings which surround the Aesir upper Headquarters in the last level of the game as theses buildings are not part of the skybox : They are actually 2D items which are included in the levels files.
This version of the mod is mainly for players who just wish to have better skylines and play with other mods like Max Payne Remastered 1.3 .
And it is also useful for People who may be interested in creating new skyline mods for Max Payne 1 (as using the Noir York City's mod as a base, they won't have to extract the files from the game.

NOTE : The mod Noir York City is in itself a FULL RETEXTURED MOD, so it is NOT compatible with the mod Max Payne 1 Remastered 1.3 Addon.