Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

"A solid game, but not as good as the original"

Since the release of the first Max Payne, there has been an unstoppable wave of gritty, violent, and sexual shoot em’ up games. Among these clones are Dead to Rights and True Crime: Streets of LA. None of those games have come close to capturing what Max Payne was. Now, it is time for the original to come back and show it’s done! I was excited to play this sequel to one of my favorite games ever. I’ll tell you more about this game in the review. Now, on with the review!

Graphics: 7/10
Not much has changed in Max Payne 2 since the new one. Come on, it has been two years! Actually, it seems as if the graphics have gotten worse! There wasn’t much of a slow-down problem in the first one, but now the game slows down almost every time there are five enemies firing at you (no I don’t mean bullet-time, if that is what you are thinking genius)! The cut scenes, if the camera is zoomed in on object, it looks blocky like PSX graphics. Well, at least Payne doesn’t have that look on his face as if he has been sucking on a lemon his whole life like in the first one. That looked really weird. Another feature is that the environments are more interactive. Still, the graphics aren’t a big change from the original Max Payne.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay in this game is pretty much identical to the gameplay in the first one. Except, in this one, you get to play as gun-toting Mona Sax who appeared in the original Max Payne. You still have the bullet-time feature that put Max Payne on the map, and the weapons selection is gigantic. Guns are blazing while you are providing cover in a construction site, fighting Mafia guys in an old, ruined department building, and helping a mob boss in mascot suit escape Russian Mafia soldiers. But still, not much has changed in gameplay since the last game.

Control: 8/10
It is still easy to use bullet time, but it is moving around in general and jumping that is a little difficult at first, but eventually becomes pretty easy. Something that they did in this game that was pretty inconvenient (I don’t even know why they did this) was that it doesn’t automatically save the game when you get to a next part in the game. Instead you have to stop and go to the menu screen and save. And because of this and the fact that there is tons of action in this game, I forgot to save quite a few times.

Sound: 8/10
The sound was OK, it just could have used more polishing. You had Mona talking with Max’s voice. It was weird.

Overall, this is a solid game, but it isn’t quite as the first Max Payne. This is a pretty short game, so I consider that you rent this.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/03