Overview

Same as it ever was

Max is back. And, boy, is he the same as he ever was. Although the cover of the box promises "a film noir love story", all that's really delivered is the same shootouts, the same slick graphics and animation, the same limited replayability, and the same bad writing. In brief, Max Payne 1.1. Luckily, the first Max Payne was pretty good for what it was, so more of the same isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The Max factor

Say what you will about Max Payne as an intellectual property (reportedly purchased for $10 million), but this is really about the gunfights. The characters, the locations, the comic book -- excuse me, "graphic novel" -- style cutscenes, and the plot are all incidental. Everything is designed to get you into gunfights, doing that bullet time thing, and wasting bad guys by the dozen, one fight at a time. You're relentlessly shunted past a thousand fake doors that lead you always to the next flashpoint. As Max himself sagely notes about a funhouse, it's just "a linear sequence of scares". Similarly, Max Payne is just a linear sequence of gunfights.

Pause, police!

Shot the piano player

Sepia time

In this regard, Max Payne 2 is entirely successful. Although it's fairly short (you could plow through it in a weekend, easily), there's not a lot of filler. There are perhaps a half dozen walk-around sections that advance the plot, and most of these are trippy dream sequences or an attempt to establish a location you'll be visiting later. But on the whole, Max Payne 2 goes like this: okay, these two bad guys; now these four bad guys around this corner; now this room with these three bad guys and three more bad guys who come from above; then down a hall with these two bad guys...and so on. As the game progresses, there are an increasing number of dirty tricks with guys popping out behind you or lurking behind blind corners. A lot of the challenge involves 'gotcha, now you have to reload so you can anticipate it next time!' gimmicks.

Ladies, please!

TV break

Mean streets

There's not a lot of variety in terms of locations or enemies. In fact, you're basically fighting the same guys the entire game, but two thirds of the way through -- surprise! -- they change costumes. Locations are frequently re-used. In one case, it's a clever example of before-and-after. But the world of Max Payne 2 feels less like New York and more like one big construction site stuffed with scaffolding and cardboard boxes that will eventually catch fire so you have to run out before it all blows up. The place where Mona, Max's love interest, lives is actually pretty clever. Otherwise, the levels are non-descript and as linear as a funhouse.