There are hundreds of bottles, canisters, and barrels lying around just waiting to be bumped. What players first see are tons of debris. The main manifestations of the engine aren't utilized all that much, at least upon first inspection. Remedy is using the sturdy Havoc engine, which means the physics are more enhanced in every way possible. Gameplay The big changes to Max Payne 2 are rather subtle at first. The only thing that hurts the presentation are the many, many 20-30 second long load times (which are super quick on the PC and Xbox), and the lack of a quicksave option. (But hey, she did through the TV out the window, which is a pretty big criminal offense!) Heck, there really are a handful of excellent lines. Then there's the whole videogames-on-violence conversation between a women who's scared that her ex is going to kill her because he's played too many videogames. I can't even count the times I laughed out loud, but the single, four-minute conversation between a policeman and a convicted V-addict talking about whether he chain-sawed his wife and the pizza delivery boy goes right up there with very best pieces of dialog in a videogames ever. Remedy also does a superb job of laying down a heavy, seemingly important story while constantly slipping in gameplay situations with humorous TV shows ( Baseball Bat Boy, Dick Justice and Lords and Ladies), sly billboard ads and some of the funniest dialog this side Giants, Monkey Island and Sam and Max. After all, the rest of the pulpy dialogue makes the generally good love story look just fine. Of course, Max Payne 2 is more focused on the love story of Max and Mona and less on Nordic religious sects and the evil of corporate crime, but the sap is easily kept in line. For a game that's mostly a bunch of bullets whizzing through the air, it's a delight to see how much depth the story offers. Just like in the original, Remedy's sequel is filled with conspiracy theories, allusions to the classics, and questions about the meaning of love, the battle of good and evil in the heart of every living human, and what, in the end, our small lives really end up meaning. One of the things players will notice this time around is the cutscenes are more heavily integrated into the gameplay scenarios, breaking up the action, but also fusing the two together more solidly. But as players step into the thick metaphors and dripping analogies, they'll learn what's really going on. At first the narrative is a little abrupt because it's told out of order (similar to the way Pulp Fiction is handled), and because of Remedy's addiction to psychedelic/troubling dream sequences. In Max Payne 2, he returns to his role as the toughest cop on organized crime in NY, but he's caught in the classic trap of femme fatale love with the sleek hit-woman Mona Sax, who he must protect while solving a case in which she's the main suspect. In his debut, the distraught husband and father sought vengeance and justice from those who slaughtered his innocent family, and in most respects he got it. It follows troubled New York cop Max Payne, who lost his wife and child in the first game. The story is classic hard-boiled fiction. It's so well handled, carefully paced and so artfully imagined, that Max Payne 2, which is one of the few games to merge these two seemingly close mediums, has become the near flawless embodiment of how to fuse the two the right way. Remedy's hard-boiled shooter brandishes a comic-book cell style of storytelling combined with a deadpan monologue by lead character Max Payne (reminiscent of film noir movies and books of the late '40s and '50s) that sets a distinct tone for the entirety of the game. Presentation The second in the series, Remedy's Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne brings gamers one of the best told stories in straight action form on any system. Now, if you only own a PlayStation 2 and you love action games (and you dig action games with great stories) get this game or rent it, but be warned, it's inferior to its cousins in every way. Comparing them side by side will hurt your eyes, drop your jaw in disbelief, and make you genuinely wonder what the hell happened. If you own all three systems, just skip the PS2 version. It's a stylish noir story told with an enviable amount of style and panache - and it absolutely teems with intense blasting action. If you own a PC or Xbox, get Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne and have a blast. I'll get into the details soon enough, but let me put it straight to you. After having seen and played the generally excellent PC version, and the near duplicate Xbox version, the PS2 version - while exactly the same in content - suffers from being a tough-to-recommend port. But like I said, I'm writing about the PS2 version, and I'm torn. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the Max Payne series is one of my favorite action games on the PC or Xbox, and that's saying a lot.
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