Max Payne 2 : The Fall of Max Payne

Written by John Yan on 10/27/2003 for PC  

When we last left Max Payne, he just racked up a body count equal to a small third world country and sent Nicole Horne to a fiery death in a helicopter. It’s been a few years but he’s back to create more mayhem and unleash more bullets into bad guys. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne continues the bullet time action goodness and this time, the sequel does outdo the original.

The second game has come out with a lot less hype than the first one. In fact, it was pretty late in the game when it was announced at E3 and showing up on store shelves. To Remedy and Rockstar, I give them much credit for not making a big deal about the game long before it was finished. If you played the original, then the second game isn’t that much of a stretch. What Remedy did though was produce a very stylish game, refine the engine, and made great levels. It is a very, very short game though and you can beat it in around six hours. But for those six hours, it’s a very enjoyable game.

Like the original, the game's story unfolds in a somewhat non-linear fashion. The chronology of the film is disjointed and the story jumps at will. You’ll start out waking up in a hospital in a less than tip top shape. From there you’ll relive the past leading up to your current state and then finish in a stand off against the main bad guy. In between missions, you’ll be treated to the nicely drawn graphic novel cut scenes like the first one. This time around, you’ll also be controlling Max’s love interest Mona Sax. Mona’s a bad girl and she’s not shy about taking out anyone that gets in her way. Max, of course, is drawn to her naughtiness and spends most of the game chasing Mona around while uncovering twists and turns of the story. All the while, you’ll be unloading a small armies worth of lead into, well, a small army of bad guys. Besides being able to play as Mona, you'll experience some levels with NPCs helping protect you. They'll be toting guns and try to take out any bad guys they see. Just be careful you don't kill them yourself with friendly fire.

Bullet time has some improvements in that you’ll be normal speed while everyone else slows down. The more you kill, the faster your bullet time reserve refills. Max and Mona do have this bullet time spinning dance that reloads your weapon quickly. I’m sure you’ve seen movies where a character decides to do a backflip or spin around for no apparent reason other than to look cool. Well, you get the same here but at least it reloads your weapon and it can be cool looking in the right situations. The bullet time dive is also back and will take out of bullet time when you land. It takes a little time to get up so if you have some bad guys still alive and gunning for you, you’re pretty much toast.

From the beginning, you can tell the graphics engine has gotten a nice upgrade. Gone is the annoying smirk on the face of Max. In place is a lot more realistic version with facial movements and realistic modeling. From the close-ups during cut scenes, you’ll see the impressive job Remedy did in improving the look of Payne. The improvement in Payne also translates to every other character in the game. Each model has greatly improved detail and better modeling when compared to the first one making them much more lifelike. The motion capturing also enhances the lifelike appearance of each character.
A major addition to the engine that greatly enhances the way the world and characters interact is the Havok physics engine. If you saw the E3 presentation of Half-Life 2 and how physics in every object make the world much more realistic, you’ll be able to experience the cool effects in the world of Max Payne 2. Objects and bodies react to other objects and bodies with impressive effects. One example of this is on one of the levels there are some painkillers that are high up out of reach on top of some boxes. Taking out a gun, I took aim and shot at the boxes. Each bullet caused the boxes to move until the stack finally tumbled in realistic fashion, reacting to other objects on the way down. Once the stack fell, I now could pick up the much needed painkillers. Some of the greatest moments in the game involve going into bullet time, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the enemy, and seeing him flip over a stack of barrels behind him. You’ll get into more than a few instances where you’ll want to turn on bullet time and witness the impressive physics display of a body being sent backwards in slow motion over objects as you unload on them. During a shoot out with a camping bad guy, I saw a toolbox through my gun sights that was blocking the person’s head. With a well placed bullet, I knocked the toolbox off revealing a nice clear view of the enemy’s head in which I promptly placed a nice single bullet for the kill. The Havok physics engine really helps make the world come alive with realistic object interactions.

Level design is top notch in the game offering some well rendered real life environments. The one level that I think that really shines out is the Funhouse. Walking through the Funhouse, you’re treated with various sites and sounds of a real funhouse that are impressively mimicked in the game. The rotating stars room actually made me a little motion sick. All the other levels in the game feature very realistically modeled locations. There are plenty of objects to interact with and plenty of areas where you’ll witness the Havok physics engine in action. From buildings to the streets, Remedy did a tremendous job at providing fun, realistic environments to wreck havoc in.

The levels wouldn’t be impressive if it weren’t for the texture quality. And make no mistake about it, Max Payne 2 has some very realistic textures that make the game look great. From the incredibly detailed brick wall textures to character maps, all the graphics are clean and crisp giving you a very beautiful picture.

If you were frustrated with the dream sequence or the exploding level from the first game, well they’re back in Max Payne 2. Thankfully, this time around they are a lot less frustrating. The dream sequences are done a lot better and the wavy graphical effect that is prominent in the level makes it very stylish. There are no blood trails to follow this time around and no dying from falling short of a jump. The exploding levels, yes there are more than one, are also a lot less frustrating and I found myself only needing one or two restarts to get though them. I was very impressed with the flame effects in those exploding levels and their some of the best recreation of fire I’ve ever seen in a PC game.
Some levels need you to jump onto small beams or thin ledges. With the control of Payne, it can get rather tough and there were a few times I misjudged the jump only to have Max fall to his death. More than a few times, I had to hit F9 in these situations and there are a few more than I would’ve liked in the game.

I did wonder why the game didn’t include the ability for Payne to climb ladders. Just like the first game, all the areas are reachable through a jump, ramp, stairs, or elevator. I’m curious as to why the ability to climb ladders weren’t included in the sequel. Not that it’s that big of a deal, but many third person games allow for this.

You’ll be reloading often and it’s not that quick to reload saves. The game is tough with the AI doing some better tactics to try and take you out. There are also a few surprises that will cause Max to be blown away and have you waiting on the load screen. A few areas you will probably need multiple tries to get through and after the fourth time, it does get tiring.

Playing on my AMD Barton 2500+ and ATi All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro, the game rather pretty smoothly. I didn’t notice any slowdowns really at 1024x768 giving me a very enjoyable playing experience.

Multiplayer was laggy and with everyone using bullet time, the gameplay can slow down a lot…. I’m kidding of course. There are no multiplayer options in Max Payne 2. But longtime readers of old Gamepen, where I used to work, will get the joke as Gamepen had a very infamous review of the original game. For those who want a brief insight on the joke, you can read this Dejanews thread to be enlightened. Anyways, replay value does suffer a bit with no multiplayer options, but there are a few more gameplay modes that are unlocked when you finish it the first time around.

Improved graphics, great gameplay, and fun levels make Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne a great PC game. It is an incredibly short game and I feel should’ve been available to consumers at a more reasonable price. But then again, I felt the game would’ve dragged if it was too much longer. I can honestly say I enjoyed the second game a lot more than the first and commend Remedy on doing such a good job on a sequel to a much hyped game. They really delivered with a great quality action title on the PC.