Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

The Max Payne series began in 2001 with the development team at Remedy. Set
in New York City, you follow the tale of a NYPD Detective with nothing left
to live for, but revenge. What Remedy created 2 years ago continues with Max
Payne 2: Fall of Max Payne. The series began with Max coming home one day to
find his wife and child brutally murdered in his home, as the mystery began
to unravel you were immersed in a twisted plot involving the cities most infamous
gangs and a lucrative drug trade.

The Max Payne series has always stood as a pinnacle for it’s style in story
telling. Replacing where most games feature FMV to tell the story, Max Payne
features the voice of the hero narrating comic panels that show the events as
they unfold. Blending standard action moments with controllable dream sequences
help to explain what is going on in the head of Max and create truly unique
and stylish levels. Remedy has taken what would have been a standard game and
created a memorable title through unique story telling aspects.

The evolution of the Max Payne series has begun with this latest installment.
No longer is Max just running and gunning around town, killing everyone that
isnâ€™t him, in Fall of Max Payne you not only assume the role of Max, but
also of Mona Sax, who some may remember from the first title. The latest Max
title expands on the story from the previous game, picking up some time later,
and features a variety of new improvements such as improved Artificial Intelligence,
Bullet Time 2.0 and integration of the Havok physics engine.

At heart Max Payne is a run and gun game, however this latest installment has
you doing other objectives such as protecting a target as they attempt to escape
or need backup. You even find yourself protecting Max at some points with Mona
and her high powered automatic sniper rifle. Choices in certain levels also
affect the game play and minor changes to the immediate story line, this includes
one or two characters, if they die they will not appear later on in the game
where they would have otherwise.

With the game sporting such amazing texture work and wonderfully designed levels,
the Havok physics engine was a wonderful addition to the game. Adding to the
sense of realism, all objects under a certain weight in the game can be kicked
around, moved, pushed and are fully interact able with other objects in the
level. This allows for some amazing gun fights in levels as you shoot dead your
enemies and watch as they fall into tables, chairs, or bookshelves that drop
a set of encyclopedia Britannica on their head. The rag doll physics in the
game also create a nice touch; enemies can be killed with the same gun, but
wont always fall and die the same way, adding a nice touch of variety. Shooting
an old lady twice in the head and watching her fall down over a coat hanger
all realistically distorted is simply amazing, and a symbol of how realistic
games are getting.

The controls in Max Payne 2: Fall of Max Payne are very nicely laid out and
simple to get used to for anyone familiar with the previous Max Payne title,
or first person shooters in general. If however you find yourself having difficulties
with the controller layout, you can proceed to the options menu and configure
a custom controller layout there as well as set basic settings such as your
cross hair, invert aiming, auto aiming, auto weapon change, controller vibration
etc. The default controller layout is as follows:

L Trigger: Shot Dodge
R Trigger: Shoot
A Button: Jump
B Button: Bullet Time
X Button: Use / Zoom
Y Button: Secondary Attack
Left Analogue: Move / Crouch (click)
Right Analogue: Aim
D Pad: Weapon Menu
Black: Reload
White: Painkillers

Simply impressive, I do not know where to start. The textures, the models,
the level design, overall everything is top notch. The texture work is probably
the most impressive aspect; after loading up the game and playing through half
way, I stopped and realized that every room I walked into had amazing texture
work. Pictures and couches all look amazing, burned hallways have the scorched
black ’soon to be ash’ appearance, walls never seem redundant and neither do
the many rooms you travel through. Max is nicely detailed down to his torn up
jacket and the serious impression he always has on, even in the most comical
of situations.

The level design in Max Payne 2 was another aspect I felt truly shined. The
level designers created a wonderful setting that never felt boring or redundant,
as Max travels from room to room, each seem to have their own interior decorator
who designed it. One of the levels you play through takes place in an expensive
apartment building in Manhattan, as you go into each room, they are all wonderfully
decorated. The thought that kept appearing when navigating the levels was, “Why
can’t I decorate something this nice in The Sims?” Levels range from
burned down buildings to under construction mansions, all detailed amazingly
and laid out perfectly.

The character models are a toss up, they are nicely animated and carry convincing
voice acting for their characters, however they do not appear as nice up close
as they do from afar. While it is expected for slight blocky-ness to appear
at times, Max becomes extremely square-like as the camera pans closer to him.
The toss up comes from watching max in action, while his model may not be the
most detailed, his animations are simply amazing. Watching Max do a spin move
and reloading his gun while ducking bullets is simply amazing. The animations
in the game allow for Max to do some truly straight-out-the-movies maneuvers
while in Bullet Time 2.0 mode.

Screenshots Temporarily Unavailable, Sorry.

The sounds of Max Payne 2 are probably the most impressive aspect the title
has to offer. The voice acting in the game is simply amazing; each character
carries a voice that correctly fits their persona in the story. When you sneak
up on enemies they are often found in the middle of conversations about various
topics, often pretty funny ones. The audio truly stands out when proceeding
through the various levels where the ambiance and sound effects are right on
point, especially for the dream sequences; which are better laid out then the
maze of veins in the first title.

With the ambiance of the levels and the character voices being top notch the
only audio topic left is sound effects. The effects from the gun to the sounds
enemies make as they interact with objects in the environment are nicely done.
With each item containing its own weight and proper physics, it was nice to
see they also contain their own sounds in respect to how they are reacting with
the level. For instance, a chair that is pushed along the floor will sound different
than one propelled through the air by a grenade. Though many gamers may not
notice such effects it was something that stood out to me immediately and showed
me how serious the team at Remedy was about creating a wonderfully immersive
world of Max Payne’s New York City.

With Max Payne 2 being a pretty short title, for better or for worse, the game
does offer a few additional game play modes once it has been completed on the
standard â€œDetectiveâ€ difficulty mode. In addition to unlocking the
harder difficulty levels in the game, you also unlock mini games to play. One
has you attempting to stay alive as a flurry of enemies begin to spawn around
you, faster spawning occurs as time progresses. Your time is then saved on the
top 5 for that game, thus allowing you and your friends to compete for better
scores, or allowing the game to work as a training ground for you skills to
be honed. By offering an additional ending and the mini game as well, Max Payne
2 does offer a nice dose of replay value.

Detailed, that is the word I am left with after playing through Max Payne 2.
You are transported into the film noir style of game play that the Max Payne
world takes place in. Re-occurring characters that may die and not appear in
later parts plays a small, but nice touch of detail every game should have.
The style used to portray the dream sequences and new touch up of them from
the old â€œwalking on veinsâ€ followed by the â€œendless maze of
hallwaysâ€ is a great upgrade. The dream sequences are now jumbled messages
and hints of what is to come, the TVâ€™s become more then just pornographic
adds and a cheesy show, but extend to glimpses of Max Payneâ€™s life, filling
in the puzzle pieces you may not have noticed. Remedy has out done themselves
with this latest title, truly shining and bringing the Max Payne world to life
with its immense detail.