Max Payne 2:
The Fall of Max Payne
review by Head Cheeze

Max Payne is back, and better than ever. As much as that may sound like a huge compliment to some, to me it simply means that the game actually fucking works. I know there are legions of you who've played the original Max Payne and where floored by it's photo-realistic graphics, noir style storyline, and the bullet time...oh the bullet time.

For me, the original Max Payne was an exercise in tedium, and a bloody short one (8 hours to completion!) at that. For the $40 clams I shelled out, I got a buggy mess that was barely playable until patched, and then, for all my trouble, ended up beating the thing in just under three days of regular play. Needless to say, I was pissed, seeing as how the game was a completely linear experience, often interupted by seemingly endless cut scenes and bad "hard-boiled" voice overs (that accounted for at least an hour's worth of the actual gameplay), rendering it's replay value a big fat goose egg.

While the game did incorporate a bullet-time effect, in which you pressed an action button and time slowed down ala' John Woo as Max dove through the air expending all of his ammo in a room full of baddies, the bulk of the game was simply a Tomb Raider-esque third person romp through the mean streets of New York City, filled with all sorts of jumping and balancing acts straight out of Super Mario Brothers. In the end, after I killed the incredibly easy to dispatch "boss", Payne hit the recycle bin faster than you can say Mickey Spillane.

Now, under the guidance of the development house that brought us the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Max Payne makes a much improved return, in a game that's subtitled as "a film noir love story".

Max has left the D.E.A. and returned to his roots in the NYPD. The game begins with Payne layed out on a stretcher, bloodied and bruised from a conflict which has somehow cost the lives of his partner, as well as the woman he loves, Mona Sax. As Max, you make your way out of the hospital, only to find that you are wanted for these murders, and then the game cuts to the beginning of the events that led up to this. It is revealed that Mona is wanted for killing a politician, and it's Max's job to take her in. However, evidence hints at a massive cover-up by a group called the "Inner Circle", and Max sets out to prove Mona innocent. Thus, his fall from grace begins.

Much like the first game, Max Payne 2 is filled with loads of cut scenes, some animated, and some presented in a rather nicely illustrated graphic novel style. The voiceovers are back, but this time they're actually pretty well performed, even if some of the dialogue is more painful than a trip to the dentist. If you want the full gyst of what's going on, sit back, light a smoke, and watch the story unfold. However, if you're like me and can't wait for Max to shut the fuck up, simply press a button and gameplay continues as normal.

The control scheme is simple and straightforward. Move with the directional buttons, shoot with the fire and alternative fire buttons, open doors and interact with your environment with the action button, and so on. There's also a useless crouch button, but since stealth never comes into play (enemies start shooting in the other room before you even make your presence known), you'll never use it.

There are now two modes of bullet-time offered; one for simple dodge techniques, and a new one in which the colours onscreen turn almost sepia and Max does a sort of gunplay pirouette, which exhausts whatever ammo he has in that particular gun. It's really cool looking, but I rarely employed either effect simply because I was too busy shooting at stuff to be bothered. There are times, however, when bullet-time is unavoidable, especially when Max must dive into a room filled with enemies. Run in at normal speed and he's dead. Run in in super slow-mo, and Max dispatches enemies almost as if guided by the vengeful hand of God.

Assisting Max in his quasi-vigilante crusade are a virtual arsenal of weapons, made plausible by the game's plot involving illegal arms dealers. One can opt for a simple pistol, an Uzi in each hand, or a wide selection of wonderfully effective machine guns and pump-action rifles. Grenades, Molatove Cocktails, and other things that go boom help lay waste to rooms full of enemies, thus conserving precious ammo, which you gather from the endless piles of dead that lay in your wake. The bodycount in this game is astoundingly high, as Max can pretty much shoot anyone he wants without any repurcussions. That old lady down the hall? Shotgun blast to the face, and she's no longer saying how she'll call the cops. The bum that asks you for spare change? Throw a grenade to him instead. It would have been a bit more of a challenge were there penalties for killing the innocent, but, then again, these are the guys who gave you points for doing the very same thing in GTA, so it's to be expected.

Max Payne 2 is actually quite fun and reasonably satisfying, but is once again much too short (I beat it in ten hours) to justify it's $40 dollar price tag. The lack of a multiplayer mode hurts it more, although, at least this time the game offers a couple of variations in the guise of a timed killing spree and more enemies in subsequent games.

The graphics are excellent, especially the detailed level design and newly employed Havok physics engine. Now, instead of blowing enemies into walls, so that half of their body seems to have melted into the surroundings or floating in mid air, bodies bounce off and slide down into a heap, or roll down stairs and off balconies. It's a nifty fix that heightens the realism factor and comliments the fantastic character modeling. Mona, for existance, looks super hot, and has actual curves as opposed to polygonal bumps, while Max has a new face altogether, no longer looking as though he's in a constant state of bowel movement. My only gripe with the graphics occurs during cut scenes in which the characters speak to one another. The voice and mouth movements are hilariously mismatched, and often mouths don't move at all. This may just be a bug in the PC version, but it looks rather lame, especially in light of all of the other graphical improvements.

Sound is just balls out awesome. There's a great deal of variety between each weapon, and sound effects, like rain, car horns, sirens in the distance, all go a long way toward fleshing out the experience. My only gripes are the aformentioned sync issues, and the fact that a lot of the enemies sound the same and all seem to yell "Payne!" long before you've made an entrance. Perhaps they are psychic gun runners. This I do not know.

Gameplay is simple and straightforward, but there are a couple of nice distractions to keep things interesting. The new physics engine lets one interact with pretty much everything in their environment. You can open doors, cabinets, draws. Turn on television sets and radios. You can even shoot them, if you'd like, and watch glass shatter and sparks fly. Searching through draws, closets, and cabinets is essential as you uncover ammo, weapons, and Max's much needed pain pills (which keep him alive, much like Rush Limbaugh and Oxycontin), while turning on answering machines, answering phones, and looking at video monitors give you clues and show you where your enemies are. Pretty much everything in a room can be tinkered with, knocked over, destroyed, or shattered.

It's a good thing.

As in the original game, you "play" some of Max's nightmares, as well, but these are no longer the tedious puzzle games they once were, and are, instead, very cool looking and absorbing moments. One dream sequence in particular reminded me of something straight out of Nightmare on Elm Street, with Max running down a seemingly endless corridor only to arrive in a morgue filled with bloodied body bags. Nifty!

In a nice sub-game, one level is re-enacted from the perspective of Mona, as you race to provide Max with cover fire as he's pinned under a girder. Mona has a lovely arse, so it's worth playing just to watch it jiggle.

All in all, Max Payne is a really fun game that's more of a rental than purchase, especially for console gamers who can't reap the benefits of the online mod community for PC gamers. It's a very short, fairly easy game that's low on replay value, but has enough jaw dropping moments to make it a highly recommended playing experience if you can score it used and cheap, or steal it altogether. Hey, after all, isn't that the lesson we learned from GTA3?