I almost felt like I should
have replayed Max Payne again prior to playing
through Max Payne 2. While the story can easily
stand on its own, it would have been good to
get an idea of the recurring characters; Max,
Mona Sax, Woden. But Max Payne 2 is already
a six year old game. Replaying the original
would be going back another two years to very
dated graphics. Nevertheless, Max Payne 2 is
a good looking game. There are no big set-pieces
or memorable levels. You may include the Funhouse
as a memorable level, as it hasn't been done
before in my playing experience. However having
to play through the same level on three different
occasions gets old very fast.
While there were no set-pieces,
the game still looked good with oodles of detail
scattered throughout the levels. The entire
game takes place in a John Woo style film noir
world. It's always dark and raining, the city
is run-down. If you love film noir, you'll love
Max Payne 2. It's not just the design of the
levels but the story is heavily told throughout
the game. I haven't seen the Max Payne movie,
but I'm sure the story told in this game could
be made into a full movie.
Gameplay was good even with
just the one difficulty setting. After playing
through the first two levels I was soon tired
of Max's head always in the view of the target.
I just knew throughout the entire game I would
grow tired of this, and wished it was first
person. So, I did a search. Somebody had created
a first person mod, and I restarted the game
and played it all in first person view. I think
it was more enjoyable actually, as you can aim
at enemies much easier. The trade off is your
line of vision isn't quite as good.
But even so, the difficulty
level was well balanced. The game increases
the difficulty depending on how well your playing.
The most difficult parts I found were when your
having to escort or protect another character
in the game. Including playing as the sexy Mona
Sax trying to protect Max. However these were
equally the more frustrating parts of the game.
Overall May Payne 2 was a great
game, with fantastic story telling, good design
and fun gameplay. It could have had more spectacular
levels, but what was here fit in well with the
film noir setting. Also not a long game; I finished
it in three long sittings. No more than 10 hours.
