Bullet Time

"Einstein was right. Time is relative to the observer. When you're looking down the barrel of a gun, time slows down. Your whole life flashes by, heartbreak and scars. Stay with it, and you can live a lifetime in that split second."

―Max Payne

Bullet Time is activated. Notice the visible flying bullets and the lit hourglass icon.

Bullet Time is a special power used by Max Payne and Mona Sax. When activated, everything around them slows down, but he/she will still be able to aim just as fast as in real time. This gives an unique and enormous advantage over the enemies.

Characteristics

Bullet Time is a limited resource. The player can see how much they have left in the hourglass in the bottom left corner of the screen. When Max takes out an enemy, he will replenish a little more Bullet Time. In Max Payne, the only way to regenerate Bullet Time is through killing more enemies. In Max Payne 2, Bullet Time also regenerates slowly when it is not in use. Additionally, if Max takes out several enemies at once, the Bullet Time hourglass will turn yellow, causing Max to move faster and at the same time appearing to make time even slower. This gives Max an even larger advantage over his enemies. In Max Payne 3, Bullet Time can only be charged through taking out enemies, with more elaborate kills reaping greater rewards, or by Max taking damage himself.

When used in Max Payne 3's new multiplayer mode, Bullet Time works off of line of sight with other players. When a player enters Bullet Time anyone they see, and anyone who sees them, will incur slow-down. This also chains to anyone else on the map who happens to see another character who is slowed down. This makes it so players running around in far corners of the map away from the slow-motion gunplay do not feel the effects of Bullet Time. To escape a players Bullet Time, simply Shootdodge or roll behind cover to break their line of sight on you.

Reloading trick

In Max Payne 2, when Max reloads in Bullet Time, he will use a stylish reloading trick by spinning around in a circle. This decreases reload time to near-zero, and allows him to dodge incoming fire. When the hourglass is yellow, the camera will follow Payne as he does it. The reloading trick is essential for weapons with a small ammo capacity such as the sawed-off shotgun, or weapons that may otherwise take a long time to reload, such as the pump-action shotgun.