Well, that was pretty quick.

I wasn't expecting to finish the game so quickly either actually, especially with the breaks in between.

So, let's get started?

Carlos! I have nothing to ask you here.

How helpful.

I will say this game has left me pretty mixed about it.

Either way, this will be structured semi the same as the first review,

Gameplay, Story, Level Navigation, if it lives up to Max Payne 1 and Summary.

Gameplay

Max Payne 2 doesn't change the gameplay a lot, bullet time works the same and the guns work (I think) relatively the same?

Though Weapons sound leagues better than MP1, while the SFX in that game was good, this beats it out a lot more.

 

As well, Melee, Grenades and Cocktails have been unified in a way I'm a little mixed about.

Putting them in one slot was a good move, I'm not sure why they were in different slots.

But it does remove the Bat and Metal Pipe, which in MP1 did let Max attack in moments where he didn't have a gun.

Now if you have no guns, you're just defenseless.

And also, for some reason the game doesn't teach you this and it confused me a bit in the first 30 minutes, but you have to press F in order to Melee or Use the Grenades/Cocktails.

At times it's really useful and other times annoying. If I'm in a bad situation, I'm usually fumbling around for the F Key in panic.

It's hard for me to not like the feature, but it could've been way better.

 

At least this change does have some positives, which I can't say for the weird change they made to combat.

For context in Max Payne 1, your weapon would reload whenever you began dodging in bullet time.

It's a really nice quality of life that makes gameplay feel great and certain weapons super fun, like the Sawed Off Shotgun.

Which was brought out back and shot, as they removed this quality of life for seemingly no reason?

Maybe for realism, maybe for balance, but it feels horrible to shoot and not be able to go into bullet time cause Max is reloading.

That's not a joke, you literally are unable to go into Bullet Time while reloading, Max doesn't even dodge, he just does flips or something.

It's weird cause it's not super consistent, if you just used up all your ammo on your current weapon, you can still dodge and go into bullet time.

Which makes it even more confusing and just annoying as certain weapons like the Sawed Off have a stupidly long reload time compared to the bullets it has.

 

Enemies are a bit of hit and miss, they aren't as stupidly difficult as MP1, but at times they are and others they aren't.

And unlike Max Payne 1, they aren't as varied. It's just Street Cleaners, the Commandos and rarely some other group.

Which sucks cause it makes a lot of encounters and rooms feel very samey.

 

NPC Allies are great, they actually can hold their own. 

A little too well, they'll turn a corner before I do and just take down half the Enemies quickly, making me think "Well what's the point of me being here, if John Wick Sr. is here?"

Bosses are still a joke, but the final boss is slightly more challenging.

Yet, more of "shoot this thing and that, win" like in MP1's "Final Boss"

Level Navigation

Max Payne 2 doesn't really improve Level Navigation a whole lot, things still blend together, important interactable items are off your natural line of sight and the game still wants you to do dumbass things.

In certain areas, they reuse the same door texture or use similar texture to it for doors you can’t open. Worse when that fake door seems to have light seeping out or is lit weirdly.

In one section, you enter a big open room that's on fire. I was looking around for where I needed to go for a minute, before finding out that where I needed to go was literally on the left of the door I just came from and was out of my vision.

Just slightly less than MP1.

If you really want the details, go to the level navigation section of the Max Payne 1 review, most of it still applies.

The story has to be good right?

This is the most mixed part of the review.

I will preface this with, I don't hate Mona, I do like her character.

The issue is that the story overemphasizes her and Max’s relationship to the point it almost changes the genre from Isolating Action Noir story to Romance Action story. 

Especially when it does the most annoying and generic tropes in these kinds of stories:

Mona in Max Payne 1 was more of a throwaway character like most of the others in that game, I just figured they only had the flirting/romance cause you “needed” one in a late-90s/early-2000s action game. 

And them "killing" Mona in Max Payne 1 was to show that they weren't going to do that.

Instead they answer the question of if that was actually her or her twin sister with, “That’s her twin sister and Mona is still alive.”, when it really should’ve been a question left up to the player.

As well they just sexualize the hell out of her. Having her moan for no really good reason, in a nightmare sequence, she’s taking a shower and is just moaning?

In the comics, they have a field day with her, having her lift up her shirt halfway, constantly having her look seductively towards Max.

Compared to Max Payne 1, where she was literally not presented in that way at all.

It felt super weird, uncomfortable and just “why?”.

Didn’t really add anything to her character, if anything it felt like it reduced her to “Sexy Action Love Interest” at times.

 

The game also has a problem where Max will say "I'm gonna go shoot this guy." in the game to let Mona and the player know what he needs to do, then after that, Future Max Narrator comes in and says "I began heading over to the man to throw lead in his face."

Or Mona says "I'm gonna go over here to cover you." and here comes Future Max with "If Mona didn't get there in time to cover me, I would've been a footnote in the history books. A distant memory in her mind. And a failure to myself."

I know what I need to do, I don't need Future Max to repeat it twice.

 

And the Final Boss, if you remember I mentioned him, is your friend Vlad from Max Payne 1.

The moment it was revealed that Vlad betrayed you, did not make me feel angry or sad.

It made me confused, cause as far as I know, there weren't any signs at all and they did the typical thing of him becoming more cartoonishly evil afterwards.

Felt like an absolute assassination on his character, who was described to be a "Noble Almost-Good Moral Criminal" that was genuine and helped out Max.

 

Compared to 1, Max Payne 2 just wasn't as funny consistently.

Though that isn't to say that The Vinny Baseball Boy Costume Section isn't funny.

Seeing this absolute idiot walk around in that ridiculously huge costume, and the costume's head squish as he can't fit through doors and overall just seeing him strut through the building while Commandos are shooting at us. 

Makes the section probably the funniest part out of the two games so far.

Something that the story does well is the setpieces, which were far and few between and at times began blending in together in 1, but a little more common and varied in 2.

The Comics do look really good, a little less "amatuerish" than 1, but still pretty good.

Though the Actors do look pretty serious (then again, it was literally just Mona and Max 99% of the time.)

Does it live up to Max Payne 1?

Not really.

It removes or makes features that make combat good either worse or mixed.

The Story is not as great as 1 and just isn't as atmospheric or lonely as Max Payne 1.

And feels like a downgrade in a lot of places.

I didn’t mention it before, but Max Payne 2 uses in-game cutscenes way more that are actually motion captured. Which I don’t necessarily like and would’ve preferred a lot of them to be comics instead. (ex: Alfred Woden’s Death)

So... anything else?

Not really.

But here is a few other things I like/dislike:

Like:

Dislike:

What now?

Max Payne 2 was disappointing. Especially with how great Max Payne 1 was.

It seems like there was just a bit too much ambition and changes that really should've gotten a 2nd pass and a bit more time.

Ambition with the success of the first game, seemingly increasing their budget, making them change the face models, overpolishing certain aspects, making the game more “cinematic”.

Changes that overcorrected the complaints of the first game and worsened certain aspects of the game, like enemy difficulty, graphics and a few other things.

 

Despite this, as a standalone game, it is still fun to go through.

Only taking me 9.1 hours over a week to complete.

I'm sure if I actually would’ve stopped had it been longer.

 

With that, it's onto the final chapter of Max Payne's story.

Max Payne 3.

Which will be interesting as Rockstar takes up the development this time and they tend to lean into realism, cinematics and polishing.

Thank you for reading, I'll see you next time.