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Max Payne 2
by Jeremy Gard
Thursday, December 18 2003
More of the same but that isn't so bad in this case.
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Title:
Max Payne 2
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Platform:
Xbox
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Publisher:
Take-Two Interactive |
Developer:
3D Realms |
#
of Players: 1 |
Genre:
Action
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release:
December 2003 |
Grapevine:
Max is a very deep, cultured, and ultimately tortured and violent person. |
In the first game Max comes home from a hard day at work to find his wife and baby child are dead, and drug junkies are raiding his home. What would you do? Yeah, that’s what I thought. The second game explores the tramatic affects upon Max's mind resulting from this experience. In Max Payne 2, you play the title character, a member of the NYPD. In the last game you come home to the stated situation and killed the junkies. You quit the NYPD to join the DEA to hunt down and take out operations of the drug Valkyr, the drug the junkies whom killed your family was addicted to. You go undercover letting very people know and are soon pursued by both mobsters and the NYPD. In Max Payne 2, you fight to both reclaim and suppress your memories.
Not much has changed since the first game. Max Payne 2 is third-person action game with a slightly different twist. Max Payne 2 uses a concept known as bullet-time. In short, bullet-time is like throwing Max into the Matrix. When in bullet-time, everything slows down except Max’s aiming. Though this ability sounds like a gimmick, it can become very useful in tight situations. The beauty is that Max can use this ability with any weapon he yields, whether it is a shotgun, a Beretta, or dual Ingram submachine guns.
The game controls felt great on the hands. The controls were easy enough for me to pick up a controller and start blowing away mobsters immediately. However, there are a few areas where these shooter controls can be more difficult to use, such as more platform game-like areas. Max Payne’s stiff jump can cause some problems in areas such as these. However, Max can still pool off a number of cool moves, such as dives and rolls. These moves are accented in bullet-time, which makes the game look like an awesome John Woo film.
The game was fun to play most of the time. After a while, the levels can feel a little repetitive. I mean the WHOLE game you are running around killing people. The whole thing is one big blood bath. However, it doesn’t stop most of it from being enjoyable. The AI isn’t half bad. As the game progresses, it becomes a lot smarter, and its aim improves significantly. I only have two main complaints about the gameplay. First, the load screens are intolerable. Max Payne 2 has to load multiple times in a single area. It becomes irritating and discouraging after a while. Secondly, at the beginning of each chapter, Max Payne 2 has some kind of dream/hallucination about his family’s death. These levels are annoying and pointless. Making it a cinematic out of it would have been a better move.
Mona makes a return from the first game though her motives and intentions are unknown at the beginning of the game.
To put it plainly, I have seen prettier games. Though the game is better looking than the first, the characters still look very “blocky.” The expressions on Max’s face look like someone cut it out of a magazine and glued it to his head. There was a lack of detail to some parts of the environment. Unusable doors are designed poorly, and the enemies look as poorly if not worse than Max. However, explosions, fire, and weapons are the pretty part of the game. The developers really concentrated on this area. What counts the most? Max Payne 2 excels in the category that all action shooters should…blowing stuff up!
The sound in Max Payne 2 is by far much better than the graphics. The music is great as well as the environmental sounds. Max can sneak up on a group of mobsters and listen to their conversation. However, if he is too loud, they hear him and make chase. The voice-acting is done excellent as well. Max holds a dark vengeful voice while a cowardly gangster pawn talks like a little girl. A great attention to audio detail was taken in this game, and it paid off well.
The presentation of the game was good. The story is presented in a comic book format, allowing for the skipping of certain parts if the player so chooses. However, the look of the characters in the “comic” is kind of ridiculous. When one hears Max Payne 2’s voice, he sounds like a real bad ass, but when you see him in the “comic” he looks like a total dork. He looks NOTHING like his NYPD/DEA bad ass voice portrays. The same can be said of many of the other characters seen in the “comic.” However, besides this poor choice for a Max Payne 2 image, the presentation is decent. The storyline has a number of twists that will keep Max going.
It is hard to find a third-person action shooter with a good replay value. Why? Lack of a multi-player. However, once the game is beaten on either easy or difficult, Max Payne 2 presents the player with some new game options featuring an extremely difficult mode and a “New York Minute” mode where the player gets a certain amount of time to beat each level. However, beside these modes, the game offers no other reason for a gamer to pick up the game again…except for maybe some fun with bullet-time.
To put it simply, Max Payne 2 is a fun action game. Though it can lack in the graphics department, the audio completely makes up for it. Yes, I know what you are thinking. Max looks like a wimp! Yes, but he talks like a bad ass. My only advice…close your eyes and imagine. WARNING: Doing so can be detrimental to gameplay.
--- Jeremy Gard
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