Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
- October 22, 2003 13:23 PM PST
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?This one?s just like the last one,? thought the reviewer, and that?s not a bad thing.
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A Bloody Homecoming
The PC version of Max Payne 2 hits shelves a couple of months before the console version?s release date, and for many Payne fans, it?s the definitive version of the long-awaited crime opera. The PC release features sky-high resolutions and takes full advantage of high-end video cards to produce Max?s dark New York City, and Max?s controls just seem natural on a mouse and keyboard, compared to its predecessor?s console adaptations. Plug a subwoofer into your PC sound system and you?ll bathe in the crisp sounds of gunfire, the desperate screams of your enemies, and the pulsing heartbeat during the game?s central bullet time mechanic. Strangely, even with its attention to high-end systems, the game runs great even below its minimum recommended specs.
Never is the PC version?s attention to detail more evident than in the game?s many, many combat sequences. In bullet time, you can see every individual bullet trailing superheated wakes as they fly in slow motion toward you, and you can hear every slowed, muted shot. Sound design and visual appearance have rarely worked this well together before.
The Fall of Your Nerves
While Payne 2?s visuals succeed, its vision has a harder time. Whereas the original game created a new genre of gritty third-person action titles, its sequel simply continues on course, only breaking ground in terms of its sprawling, complicated love story. Level designs range from ingenious to infuriating, with the bad threatening to overshadow the good. Trippy-cool and surreal hallucination levels give way to horribly extended ?protect the weak moron? missions that really only test your ability to hit F5 and F9 to successfully save-crawl your way through.
Still, Payne?s action is intense and challenging, and the game works hard to make sure that you?re rewarded both with adrenaline-pumping firefights and adequate caches of weapons and painkillers. While Payne 2 is difficult, it?s rarely too difficult, and that makes following the compelling story all the more fun.
A Bit O? the Ultraviolence
So maybe it doesn?t break ground, but it will entertain you, as long as you?re willing to overlook a bit of repetitiveness and unnecessary difficulty. Even if Max Payne 2 is just more Max Payne, that?s good enough.
