Max, you're back. You look a little different. Are you alright?
Video game sequels can bring on several changes, often improvements on the original titles, and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne argues the case for not using your own development team as the stars of a gritty film noir.
Gone is the smirk - if you could call it that - of the original incarnation of our troubled cop, replaced with a face more befitting of a big sequel to a popular game. The graphics have gotten better, but what else is going on here that we've just got to play?
Frustrations
To say I had troubles getting Max Payne 2 going would be a little bit of an understatement. In the decade and a half since its release, it turns out that it simply doesn't start with AMD graphics cards until you download an unofficial patch.
You could hope to run it in a compatibility mode, but I had no luck there. At one point, I even emulated the PlayStation 2 port, but the less said about that, the better (it was awful). I managed to get it up and running, at which point it seems to run rather well, but the getting there... ugh... I hope to not see so much of that going forward.
Anyway, concerned that I ought to have finished the first Max Payne before diving in, I clicked on the menu option to see the previous story and learned absolutely nothing about the first game. It was even worse than the Z.O.E. recap. I guess we're just going to go into this one and see what happens.
Fun Times
If all you wanted from a Max Payne sequel was more of the same, it sure looks like you're getting it from the very start of Max Payne 2. The graphic novel voice-overs return, but they look that little bit more punched up and detailed, a little less like a photoshop filter on top of a photo.
It looks and sounds like this is the level of quality that the developers wanted for the original Max Payne but couldn't quite reach, and that's great.
We're reintroduced to our lead as he hallucinates in a worryingly empty hospital. Multiple injuries won't stop Max from reaching his goals, whatever they are. I think this is a bit of a backstory, as he tries to work out what's going on in the present by revisiting what happened earlier, but I'm not terribly sure on that.
Voices and names are heard, presumably only in our heads, and they come from characters I'm not familiar with. Is this a direct continuation from the first game? Should I recognise these people? Am I missing critical plot points already?
The familiar Max Payne look continues through to the third person camera, as we explore the ever so slightly larger than life hospital ward we've found ourselves in. As I say, this hospital is devoid of activity, and even people. What's going on?
Now making out with his hallucinations, Max is talking to himself in all kinds of film noir clichés and trying to piece together what has happened. I've not got a clue either. Am I supposed to know who that woman was? His wife was murdered, and I don't think that's her. You really need to have played the first game before this one, surely.
There's not much to do in this hospital except for finding which door to walk through and watching Max slowly regain his stability, physically if not mentally. Upon finding a dead body, we're discovered by a masked stranger with a gun, and there's only one way to deal with that in a Max Payne game...
A press of the bullet-time button and a headshot later, our foe falls to the floor, smashing through the scenery to show off the physics engine as he does, boxes and trays falling to the floor in a heap atop his body.
It looks great, doesn't it? The details, the polish... it's not like every single pill bottle in the cupboards have been faithfully modelled for the sake of authenticity, but compared to the first game, Max Payne 2 seems to have cranked up the detail slider and looks all the better for it. It even has working mirrors.
I suppose, on the one hand, our confusion over all these characters mirrors Max's confusion and recovery from a significant injury or two. He is clearly out of it, drugged up on who knows what, and not thinking straight. But, at the same time, he knows who these women are, and we don't, and I think we need to so that we can be on the same page. Otherwise, it just feels like we're out of the loop in seemingly every cutscene.
See what I mean? This old guy was introduced, with a caption no less, as Jim something-or-other, as though we really should know him. But I don't, and he doesn't look like he's in the position to job my memory any time soon, what with being gunned down in the middle of a hospital by another masked individual.
Just what is going on?
All I can gather from this is that remembering what happened at the hospital didn't help Max in the way he hoped it would. It's not far back enough to be useful or something. We need to go to some other memory and piece it all together from there.
Alright... if you say so, Max. I'm just along for the ride. I'm sure it'll be as action-packed as the last one.
That's what I'm talking about! Awkwardly diving into warehouse shelves in slow motion as we gun down perps in disguise. What are they doing in this warehouse? What's with all the weaponry? Max is on the case, mostly because he knows who the warehouse belongs to from the previous game - at least, that's what I gather.
The controls are nice and straightforward, WASD stating the obvious and the Shift key launching you into the acrobatics of diving and rolling. Your mouse does all the aiming and bullet-time triggering, almost making Max feel independent from his weaponry, and yet, of course, really rather connected.
For the most part, my bumbling play looked awful and inefficient, but the joy of picking out screenshots yourself means that you wouldn't know that...
If I'm following along with the plot correctly, this woman works in weaponry somehow. Customising them? Manufacturing them? Not too sure, but she knows her thing. Well, she knew her thing.
Oh, Max, you've not had the greatest of lives, have you? What have you gotten into this time?
Further Frustrations
More to the point, what have I gotten into? That health bar isn't 95% full, it's 95% empty. One more hit will kill me. Diving around like a lemon will do nothing when you're armed with a shotgun that needs reloading.
Much like the first game, death seems to be just a single bullet away. While I will admit my strategy of diving into the walls in slow motion is not helpful, I did hope that all the lead I sent towards my targets was at least aimed in the right direction.
Turns out that wasn't the case, and when you're on the floor after a cinematic dive, and there are still three guys with guns aimed at you, you're not going to have the greatest of times. The quicksave key is F5, by the way. You'll either be pressing that often or finding out where God mode can be activated.
Aha, a name to a face. Who are you, Mona. We've met before, definitely. But where? When? In the first game? Are you someone I can trust? Is anyone? I really think these games need to be played to completion in order...
I also really think I need to work on my bullet-time shenanigans. And save more. Where's God mode...
Final Word
After the struggles I had with getting Max Payne 2 going, I was delighted to have gotten this far. I had gotten the section just before catching sight of Mona on the PS2 port and inexplicably found myself restarting the entire game. I don't even know how I did it. A combination of button presses? A quirk of emulation?
I had no idea, but it was such an awful looking and feeling port that I just had to get the PC version up and running instead and to see even this much of it was great. It looks and feels like a beefier, more involved Max Payne. It's got the style, it's got the look, it's got the gameplay. It is more of the same, but better.
But what the hell is going on I do not know. The previous story segment told me nothing, the time-hopping, memory recreating nature of the opening to this tale is throwing me around, and the utter lack of information I have on any of these characters makes me feel like a complete outsider.
It's like trying to watch a TV series a few series in, when you don't know what the history between the characters is, but you know there clearly is one. You either slowly work it out - because it sure won't come up every five minutes (there's a new story to tell, you know) - or you insist on going back to the start and catching up with everything.
Sometimes that's not possible. Luckily, for Max Payne, it is possible, owing to the short nature of the games. The game length happens to be a criticised point with this sequel, too. All the graphical improvements are for nought when they come and go in such a short time.
For me, that's not too big an issue. I'll gladly play short games. I'd prefer them to be self-contained and not so reliant on the story of previous entries to a series, but at least, if I put the effort in, I could get through both Max Payne games in a short while and see what they're all about.
If you've not played either game, Max Payne 2 will be the better game in probably all aspects. But, like me, you probably won't have a clue what's really going on unless you've gone through Max Payne first. And that's assuming you're competent with the controls and have the patience to make it through the difficulties the game will throw at you.
It's not easy being Max Payne, but I do want to find out just who he is. Somehow. Cheats, videos... I don't know yet.
Fun Facts
The introduction of the Havoc physics engine meant that players could take cover behind boxes and crates, but they'd be just as susceptible to gunfire as Max himself would be, getting destroyed and broken to the point where diving into the open in bullet-time would probably be a better option than hiding.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, developed by Remedy Entertainment, first released in 2003.
Version played: PC, 2003.
PlayStation 2, 2003, via emulation.