by Brad - December 7, 2003

Adding yet another game to their arsenal, Rockstar Games recently released Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on October 15th. Max Payne 2 could be classified as an all-time great if it weren�t for but a few faults. Once you start playing this adventurous, �film noir love story,� you won�t want to stop until you have beaten it, which unfortunately doesn�t take very long.

From the makers of GTA brings this...

From the beginning, you will feel as if you are playing an advanced version of Grand Theft Auto. Not for the story line, variety, or car driving, but for the overall shooting feel. You may be thinking, �Then why don�t I just go play GTA and save myself some money?� The answer to that is easy to see after playing for a few short minutes. You feel in complete control of your character and have a variety of options for attacking. You could chose to charge your enemy, sneak up on them, hide from them until they get to you, or use the enemy-fearing �bullet time.� Bullet time is a mode you can enter that slows the game down and where you can make dives or just get an edge over your enemy by blasting them before they get a chance to shoot you. This �bullet time� is the saving grace of Max Payne 2.

Although this game has a great plot and action line, sometimes it gets too in-depth. By this, I mean that the story seems to overpower the action. You feel that you watch more scenes than you play. On top of this, the game is too short. I would have liked to enjoy my purchase for more than a few days. After four days of about one and a half hours each, I had suddenly completed the game. The manual saving option is an advantage as well as a drawback. Although it was very nice to be able to save the game instantly at any point in the game, saving a lot of trouble and relieving any in-game stress, it is a downside of the game in the sense that it takes a large amount of challenge out of it. Think about it. Is it much excitement going into a newly discovered room where there could be enemy units anywhere if you know that you can just press �F9� to go back to the moment before you entered?

As for the controls, I have no problems with the nicely laid out defaults. You have your basic left click for shooting, scroll for changing weapons (numbers for those of you without a scroll), �w,a,s,d� as moving keys, �r� for reloading, and �tab� to gulp down a life-saving and often used pain killer. If you have played other shooting games on the PC, then you will be very familiar with the general feel of the controls. Also, bullet time is conveniently set as the right mouse click. If you don�t like these key assignments, you can easily go into options and change them.

Weapons. Who could forget about the things that usually make a good game great and help you with getting through the game? In Max Payne 2, you have a wide variety of guns. The selection ranges from single shot pistols to Uzi�s to varied automatics. In most missions, you have more than enough choices of which weapon to use, while in some you wish you had more. Don�t plan on being able to keep the same weapons through the next mission every time. Yes, sometimes you do get to keep your arsenal while in others you don�t. In addition to guns, you also get to use grenades and cocktails. Those provide for some fun times!

Gaze at the special effects

With great special effects and animations, the graphics of Max Payne 2 are simply brilliant. The levels are the nicest of all due to their interactivity, nice details, and great textures. For example, you can turn sinks on, operate soda machines, and open most cabinets and furniture without the graphics or flow being interrupted in any way. In bullet time, the graphics seem to become even better as you see each bullet rushing towards you, or hopefully, towards your enemy. This is because you experience them in a slower, seemingly richer form.

I would like to see improvement in the area of character modeling. No noticeable damage is done to the enemy, although you do see blood. Other than this one small issue, the graphics of Max Payne 2 are among some of the best I have experienced.

Gunfire! Duck!

Although very limited, the soundtrack of Max Payne 2 has quality. During action, you won�t hear much music but that doesn�t matter due to your concentration on the game and the action itself. All of the small extras such as television sets, faucets, coffee makers, footsteps, and the swallowing of pills are very smooth and rich. As for the weapons, the guns sound great and their name can be determined by only the sound of their firing. Just as in graphics, bullet time seems to have an even more enhanced sound to it.

The idea of having Max speak in a low, melancholy tone is a great idea to go along with the story, but I felt that every so often it got a bit too excessive and lost its seriousness. Furthermore, my chief problem with the sound in this game is the annoying fact that if the character is out in the open or not faced to you, it is very hard to hear, nevertheless understand, what is being said. I realize that this makes it more realistic, but most of the dialogue in this game is actually something that needs to be heard and helps you with what you need to do next or progresses the story line.

FUN

In addition to the outstanding main single player portion of the game, you also get to experience a few other game modes when you complete the single player. When you beat the game, you are able to play it again at a harder level. �New York Minute� is also available. Here, you simply try to get through the level as quickly as possible. You also unlock �Dead Man Walking,� where you are restrained to a relatively larger area in a map and have enemies continuously spawning in different areas that try to take you down.

There is no feeling quite like the one you receive when you masterfully use bullet time and conquer your foes with a sweet move or a quick shot. Throughout the game, you will have areas where you will want to rush through as quick as possible, use stealth, apply bullet time, or just casually move along. These assorted tactics add depth and quality to the game. Also, on occasion, you will view the death of an enemy, which you caused, in a slow motion replay. This is a good break in the action and a very cool few seconds. The best part about it is the fact that you aren�t shown this every other kill, but instead, only a handful amount of times during the course of the game.

Add this to your christmas list.

Although short, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is well worth the money. With its great graphics and sound, it makes it one of the top action story games out there. I highly recommend this game to you even if you are not sure if you like this style of game play. Rockstar Games can be happy to add another great title to their already impressive line-up.