Game Review: Max Payne 2 (Xbox)
Those of you who’re familiar with the original Max Payne already know that the main premise is to narrate a story, presented with comic book panels sandwiching loads of beefy, slow motion, John Woo action. For those of you who aren’t familiar, don’t worry, because I just described the sequel as well.
Amazingly, the police from the previous game have turned a blind eye to the vigilante justice dealt out by him in the last game. Max, with the same voice actor, but a whole new, older, wearier physique, embark upon a new journey of revenge against an opponent who remains unclear. In New York city, nobody is innocent, but the party(ies) to take the blame are not apparent. The only way to the truth is paved with slow motion lead throwing and blood letting, and boy is it fun.
Sadly, the story of the game isn’t all that inspiring, which is a shame really, because the production values elsewhere are quite high. Graphics never get in the way, but don’t blow my mind either. The game receives high technical marks though, because of the beautifully rendered art-noir comic-book scenes and extremely good voice acting. The way they tell the story with it’s bravado and melodrama is well executed and gives the game the feel of a shy satire of mystery/action/thriller movies. Though, within the game itself this is taken a step further with the scenes from �Address Unknown� progressing in random televisions at key points in the story. Address’s story mirrors Max’s story which mirror’s stereotypical summer action movies.
The one area where the sequel stands ahead is the addition of another character who teams up with Max, and becomes useful in sequences trying to protect him. It’s a nice change of pace. Bullet-time is still there, though it’s a bit reworked. The meter goes up continuously now, not with each kill. There’s also the addition of �survival� and �time-attack� modes, and the New York Minute is still around.
All in all, Max Payne 2 distills the essence of the first quite well, but in my opinion, goes too far, leaving a game that can easily be beaten in two days. Sure it’s got the best of the old, and some really good new stuff, but there just needs to be more of it.
graphics/sound: 4
gameplay: 4.5
story: 4
value: 2
final score (not an average): 4