Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Review





Developer: Remedy Publisher: Rockstar Games
Release Date: November 25, 2003 Also On: PS2 and Xbox

When we first saw Max Payne, we were amazed at the remarkable bullet-time effects and gameplay. The game was poor, though in the fact that it was short and the graphics were not great. Max Payne 2 was aiming to change all of that. Even though it is still on the short side, it truly improves on the last.

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Max Payne now looks very appealing compared to the first. This time, Max doesn’t have the same blank stare that he had in the original. Blood now flies from the enemy when shooting at them. Max will have scars, bruises, stitches, and other things on him that look great. Explosions look very good and seeing the way fire spreads in a building is amazing.

The voice acting in Max Payne 2 is better than ever. An all star cast, led by Kevin McCaffery, brings you deep into the world of Max. I believe the sound of the guns is pretty weak. Some of the guns sound nice, but on the automatic weapons, they all sound the same from gun to gun.

Max Payne was amazing the first time through because of its stunning gameplay. The bullet-time action returns in Max Payne 2, only better. It is now easier to dodge bullets in bullet time and shoot at your foes. The enemy tends to be quite resistant to the bullets however. It takes about 10 bullets to the chest or 3 shots to the head to take them down. This is unrealistic for a game like this, but you barely ever run out of ammo, so it’s not a huge deal. Also, it’s a lot easier to get where you need to go in levels. In the first Max Payne, you would easily get lost, but that’s not what happens here.

The whole cop framed for murder story is starting to get old. There are a lot of different games like this available now. The only thing that makes Max Payne different is that the voice acting is good and the gameplay is the most solid here than any other game that I know of.

Max Payne 2 is a solid game that plays very well. However, it still comes up short in replay value. You could easily beat this in 5-8 hours, depending on your skill and difficulty settings. The improvements on the game greatly help, but if it were only a longer game, it would be insanely worth a purchase. As is, it is worthy of a rental, but too short for a purchase.

Graphics: 9
Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 9
Creativity: 8
Replay Value/Game Length: 6
Final: 8.1
Written by Shawn Review Guide

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