Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

"Bullet Time IS back, but is it better than ever?"

The Fall of Max Payne...

When the original Max Payne landed on PC, it was a revelation. After languishing in development hell for literally years, coders Remedy finally finished it. It turned out that all those years of work had paid off, as Max was stunning. The graphics where amazing, the story, whilst cliche ridden, was extremely well done and very engaging, and, probably most importantly, it had fabulous bullet time gameplay. Then it got ported to PS2. And the graphics took a hit that even Ali couldnt get up from. The game was still great, but the graphics where awful. Now the sequel has arrived on PS2 via PC, is it the same old story? Read on.

GAMEPLAY.

Firstly, and most importantly, Max Payne 2 plays like a dream. The gameplay is almost identical to the original. Again, Max moves through a variety of real world settings, from apartments to mansions to city streets, shooting almost everything in sight. His mission is to clear the stage(which usually means kill all the bad guys) as effectively as possible. Thats it. However, due to the Bullet Time (BT) feature and excellent weapons, this never becomes tiresome. This time around, BT has been upgraded. Now when in combat, Max's BT meter will turn a darker shade of yellow. The darker the shade, the faster he can move in Bullet Time. So, whilst at the begining you move slowly, the more bad guys you drop, the more you begin to carve through enemies like a twenty-first century ninja with the bad-assity turned up to eleven. Time it right and you can move so fast that everyone in the room will be falling to the floor in Shinobi-esque unison.

This upgraded BT encourages a more attacking nature to the game than before. Now that better combat abilities are to be gained through being the aggressor, and and your speed in combat begins to slow when you are not fighting, it pays to attack the enemy more directly. This differs from the original game, where it could be very easy to simply 'ShootDodge' (dive to the floor in any direction in BT)everytime in battle, making the combat of MP2 more direct.
The ShootDodge has also been slightly tinkered with, but nothing major. Now, once you hit the floor, as long as you are firing your gun you can lay prone in that spot. Whilst this may sound good, tactically it is not really recomended due to the inability to move.
The Rag-Doll physics in this game are very impressive. This type of physics, for those who don't know, simply means that Max and his foes, when shot and killed, will move or fall in whatever direction the bullet would move them in real life, with individual limbs reacting to being shot or hit by any object. For example, if you kill a foe with a shotgun blast to the chest, he will fly back. Alternitively, if you shoot him in the leg whilst he is on a platform, his leg will give way and he fall of the platform, hitting whatever is below. Given the fact that Max is armed to the leather overcoat in high caliber boomsticks, Rag-doll showcases their power by throwing enemies around, bouncing them off the scenery in a very realistic manner. This is especially true of the grenades on offer.

Payne 2 also offers you the chance to fight alongside other AI characters. These moments are few and far between, but they do help to break up the action nicely, and lend a different approach to the game.

The controls of the game are the same as before, apart from one important addition- mapping mellee weapons and grenades to the R2 button. This stops you from having swap between guns and grenades etc, and is generally less annoying than before.

STORY.

Max Payne 2's story is just as gritty as the first, and is still presented in those exceptional graphic novel interludes. Whilst the game may not be very long, the story is so engaging that you will want to play it over other, longer games. Max still offers his own unique brand of articulating his view on the world, but it is part of the charm, and helps to lift the film closer to its movie aspirations.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

As stated at the start of this review, Payne 2, like its brother, is a port of a PC game. And it is here the game is dealt a major blow. The graphics on this game are close to awful. The textures, be it on the wall or on the character models, are terrible. They are bland, washed out and seem to blend into one. The textures on Max's coat and hair are prime examples of this, and when you have to look at them for the whole game, it can become disconcerting. The game is not as crisp, and not as clear (the draw distance in some levels is terrible) as its PC or X-Box brethren. The fact that the graphics ar not improved from the previous outing (on this system at least) is too large to ignore. It would not be unreasonable to say they can be at extreme detriment to your enjoyment of the game.
However, the frame rate does not fare to badly. The game does slow down when Max is in heavy combat with a large group of people and /or there are fire effects etc, but overall it is quite good. On an audio level, the game fares slightly better. The voice acting is clear, and most sound effects are passable. The audio, unlike the graphics, is certainly not something to worry too much about.

The save game system is, to put it bluntly, crap. To save, you are required to go through two menus, wait for the game to save, and then exit these menus. This would not be too bad if it wasn't for the inexplicable decision to leave ALL level saves to the player. If you die in one level, and have not saved since the previous one (or two or three, or even the entire game) you start right back there. As it is easy to become completely lost in Payne's amazing gameplay and story, this is a major fault.

Max Payne 2 can be finished in a weekend by a dedicated player, and fans or expert gamers could finish it in a day. The game does offer more game modes upon the first completion, and at least one of these changes the style of playing the game. Despite the length of the game, Payne 2 is enjoyable enough to come back to again.

AND FINALLY...

Overall, Max Payne 2 is a great game, yet one that is affected by an amazingly poor save system and horrendous graphics. However, Payne 2 is a game you have to play, as long as you can tolerate the two major faults listed above. If, however, you can play it on either of the other two systems it is released on, then do that instead. If you are die hard Max Payne fan, and you only have access to PS2, then buy it. If you are a casual gamer, then it is probably better to rent due the short play time and bad graphics.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/03