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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stylishly Honorable to the Action Platform, December 1, 2003
This is merely an expectation that the PS2 will undoubtedly astound gamers as the PC version has done to me. I was foreign to the world of Max Payne. Because I was not exposed to the frenzy of the detective's game back in 2001, I felt nonchalant towards the coming sequel. Now that I have experienced the sequel, I must profess that I have been stunned, then mesmerized, and all the more thrilled to have this game land on my laptop. Max Payne 2: The fall of Max Payne is a barrage of devilish quality saturating all through the game and then some. From the gutsy gameplay to the direction of the story, this game falls into a certain pizzazz of stylish coolness. I can crack the code as to why the first game ignited a stir. An action game has never felt so empowered to be reckoned as the high octave blast that is Max Payne 2. Playing as a pessimistic detective, you must blaze through he dark, gritty streets of New York city. The story alone is topnotch suspense bundled with extraordinary twists and turns that'll have you gasping throughout your day. Driven by the story, the game's focal highlight is the gameplay's Bullet Time implementation. Heck, Max Payne is one of those games that is truly augmented by the graphics and sheer physics of the environment. With eye-candy in every so direction, it's a joy to shoot baddies with a multitude of weapons. Further adding to the bountiful fun, is the Havok engine which has the environment fully interactive. There's also rag-doll effects where spectacular combat scenes are distilled in slow-motion scenes and the best part is your in control. The gist of Max Payne 2 is the more baddies you gun down, the faster Payne is in a slow-motioned surrounding. With the environment flinging all over the screen and the slow motion of the game setting in, it's a delight to control this gem again and again. Payne romps through New York City at its absolute darkest. As you go guns-a-blazing, you'll notice the graphical powerhouse. Each nook and cranny in the game is a stellar high point. What hit's the stride even more is the detailed photo realistic textures and the maw-gaping lighting effects. Like the story, the graphics stand on its own. A spectacular soundtrack kicks in to add to the already fascinating atmosphere. There are plenty of compulsive tracks, but the best part of the audio derives from the firefights where the signature sound of Payne's heart gallops as enemy gunfire sounds distorted. Plus, the voiceovers are good and suit the personality of Payne. The gritty comic book scenes heavily attribute to the overall atmosphere of the astounding game. You can easily tell that the makers of the game, have put sweat and effort into this wet-dream-come-true production. The first game has been known to be very short, and the second one follows suit. Under the circumstances, its honest to say that fans of this game will not go out aching. This game is really something, but does leave the gamer wanting much more. Aside from that quibble, the stunning action warrants a purchase. Max Payne 2: the Fall of Max Payne is stylishly honorable to the action gaming platform.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Almost as great as the first!, December 26, 2003
By A Customer
Pros: Great guns, great graphics, great sound, great level design, and easy to pick up, play, and save games.
Cons: Only half as good as the first game (But that's still a great game!). Story is rough and the dream sequences are just a break in the action and not as good as the blood trail levels in the first one. Other than that, there's not much to complain about in this game. Some gamers may think it's too easy, but the harder levels are unlocked after you do the first run through, which is fine by me. What the game lacks in AI, it more than makes up in quantity of action packed levels with tons of bad guys to shoot at. Game was very addictive and I had a hard time putting the controller down. Even for a violent game, this was the perfect early x-mas present.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes a great story can't save a game..., January 6, 2004
This is a continuation of the original Max Payne story, the film noir (or comic film noir) tale of a hard-bitten investigator with a taste for shooting his opponents. In the course of the first tale, Max loses his family, his job, and his self-respect. Now, in this episode, Payne confronts his own ghosts as he gets caught up in a gang conflict, crooked cops, and a hard fall for the woman who helped ruin his life.The game unfolds using short cut-scenes and comic book style illustrations to provide the narrative. From a purely artistic viewpoint, the game deserves high grades. The settings are highly detailed, including a grotesque funhouse and a Washington manor house among other settings. Levels are maze-like and sometimes the clues are subtle. Not so subtle is the script, which has a style somewhere between Mickey Spillane and a sledgehammer. Payne's narration is bitter, full of the knowledge that everything must die. The initial reception of this game was only slightly less than ecstatic. I'm not normally a fan of pure shooters, but I decided that this one was one to try out. What I discovered is that the PS2 implementation (I can't speak for the PC or Xbox versions) left a lot to be desired. Control over the characters is quirky at best. The player has no useful control over Payne's jumping ability - getting Payne to jump out a window to a small ledge just below it results in a low of reloading and cursing. Turns are extremely slow, resulting in all kinds of maneuvers to avoid having to turn when in a full battle. The end result is that the game failed to capture my full attention - there never came that magic moment when I lost consciousness of the controller. It was the enemy, not the geek trying to unload an AK-47 at me. I just finished playing Prince of Persia, so I was acutely aware of what a game could do, and The Fall of Max Payne simply fell too short of the target. Hopefully, this is the result of a poor port of the game from the PC version. For those that don't have PC's to play on, I would wait a bit for the price to drop.
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