No Payne, No Gayne...

Max Payne. Not just the name of a wrestler from the late 80's, early 90's, but now an icon in the gaming business. It was the name of the first game to capture John Woo's style of movie making in which time slows down during a dodgeing sequence. The first Max Payne told the story of the title character's revenge on those who killed his family. It was an intriguing story for an intriguing game. It's unique graphical novel style of storytelling coupled with the innovative bullet time system made it a classic in it's own right. Everyone who played it loved it and couldn't wait for more. Well...more is now here in the form of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. First off let me say that the horrid dream sequences from the first are gone. There are still dream sequences, don't get me wrong. However, I almost jumped out of my seat and did a little jig when I finished the first dream without needing to follow some god-awful blood trail in an empty pitch black space. The dream sequences that Max has are very interesting and show his deepest, fears and thoughts. But thank god for no blood trail. If you've played the first Max Payne (and if you haven't you must be some form of mutant kept chained in the basement by his twisted parents)then you know what to expect. Max goes through a level, shooting up the bad guys with dual pistols, uzis, desert eagles, what have you, and uses bullet time to slow down time in order to achieve his goal. One of the newer additions to bullet time is that when you're in bullet time mode, the more guys you kill, the faster Max Payne moves, and the slower the bad guys move. This makes it easy to clear out a room of 6 or 7 goons without breaking a sweat. However, that also means that you face more bad guys as a whole throughout the game. Which means that you'll be using bullet time a lot more, right from the beginning in fact. The graphics in MP2 have had a great overhaul. While not the best looking game out there, it still looks better then the original in many respects. Max himself looks completely different then the first game and actually has facial expressions which is nice. Max's leather coat looks better then ever and flows behind him. MP2 also uses rag doll physics as seen in games such as Hitman 2. Meaning that when a guy gets hit with a shotgun at point blank range, he flies back through a pile of boxes, into the wall and slumps to the ground like a sack of beaten hampsters. It all looks very real and very nice...in a gory not so nice way. The sound in MP2 is nice. Every gun has a unique sound and the voice acting is just as good as the original. The voice behind the Payne returns for the sequal and is just as gritty as ever. Some of the lines are still pretty cheesy, but hey what can you do? You can still hear Payne's heart beat during bullet time, as well as bullets whizing by and hitting other objects around you. All in all a very good game worth playing. It's a worthy sequel to the original. Definately have a look!