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Max Payne 2 Reviewed
Some random reader writes "Max Payne 2, the sequel to the awesome original game released years ago, hit shelves three days ago. The first review I've seen thus far is at PCSynapse. It seems to be what fans want, give or take a few quirks. Overall conclusion - 'MP2 was not designed to be revolutionary - but more evolutionary, and in that apparent goal it has succeeded with flying colors.'" There's a selection of other reviews collated via GameTab.
Yesterday's Penny Arcade weighs in with its own review. :)
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Max Payne is one of those games where you literally forget you're playing a game. It's that good and realistic. The first one had a good, solid plot, which in my opinion makes a game worthwhile to play.
It's going to be the longest short wait ever for me until Max Payne 2 comes out, I'm just hoping it's as good as it sounds and can live up to the reputation the first one got.
Thief was a game. Games that make you think and can build suspense like in a good movie. There seems to be a lack of real story telling and artistic talent at these game companies. The game are all cookie cutter now.
It's short. Think of it as an interactive movie trilogy, and expect to spend as much time on it as you would watching a movie trilogy. That said, the gameplay is fun, and the story is good, and you can always go back and replay it.
Wow!
There's another review here.
--It's Pimptastic!--
is GameRankings.com which has a lot of MP2 reviews here
As someone who does artwork for games, Max Payne is just great; gameplay-wise, not much new going on but as far as visuals, stylistically Max Payne is a major cut above the rest. Before Max Payne, stylism was there in FPS games, but not in the quanities as it was in MP. Throughout the game, I felt like I was fighting in a grungy, bleak and lonely version of NYC, much like the one depicted in comics and movies. Then include their photo-realistic textures that gave everything such grit and depth, and you end up with a visual masterpiece. Max Payne is not great because it brings revolutionary changes to the table, but because it raises the bar for the quality of art in games and not only that but the thought behind the stylization, not just 'because its cool'. Lets hope that other games follow suit (Doom3 is another example of good art direction and stylistic techniques.)
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
"Fans will love the new realism this lends to the game, as the enemy shoots out your cover right in front of your face, or when you find yourself knocking over stacks of crates in search for ammunition or painkillers."
Woah. And I thought I was the only one who hid their ammunition and painkillers inside stacks of crates. Now that's what I call realism!
the gameplay consisted of mostly save, enter the room, hit bullet time, shoot, save/reload, repeat.
You ruined it for yourself, by taking any challenge or risk whatsoever out of the game. Try playing a game without reloading when you get hurt or die. Makes it much more interesting.
Bitchslapped. Neat.
GameSpot
IGN.com
FYI, both reviews seem to think its a lot better than 'evolutionary.'
Max Payne 2 is, as you would expect of a sequel, much like the original Max Payne. Both games are short by game standards, and Max Payne 2 seems even shorter than its predecessor. That isn't a complaint, merely an observation. Max Payne 2 is a lot of goodness packed into a tight package. It does leave you wishing for more.
Firstly, I am going to skip over AI, graphics, and sound. Any other review of the game can tell you about this, so let it suffice to say that they all come together to produce a great gaming experience. What matters is how the developers use them to suck the gamer into their world.
By video game standards, Max Payne is original, but like so many games it is an imitation of movies, in this case film noir. They get it very close to right, but at times it almost seems as though they try too hard, and after a while the lines start sounding a bit cheesy. I suppose it is silly to expect a game to rise above this, as great writing/acting talent is no doubt drawn to movies themselves, but I'm still holding out in the hope that someone will put together a really great original script for a game. But again, this is a video game, and by those standards Max Payne 2 rises above the rest. I don't know about you, but I am getting a bit tired of the "aliens/monsters invade, it's your job to save the world" plot.
The idea of using comics to tell the story was a stroke of genius, as it is a perfect work around for the incapability of video game characters to act. The technology just isn't there yet, and when games try to tell a story with emotion it is more likely to come off comical than serious, as the stick figures jerk around in an attempt to appear human. Obviously comics aren't great at conveying emotion, but they certainly don't detract from it the way in video game cut scenes tend to. Film noir being the straight faced act that it is allows Max Payne 2 to flow nicely.
The atmosphere of the game is outstanding. The attention to detail put into every level is phenomenal. One wonders if the trend will be for games to become shorter in coming years, as the effort needed to build ever more realistic worlds from scratch becomes greater. There is a mad fun house level in the game that almost makes you cringe as you realize how much effort went into making all the props and setting them all up to move as a fun house does. The cringe comes from the realization that the detail must have cost the game some of its length. Apparently the developers realized this too, as you actually pass through the level twice during the games.
My gripes about the game are few. I think there could have been a little bit better enemy placement, and the difficulty of the game could have been increased to make the game both longer and more challenging. Shooting enemies in bullet time doesn't lose its charm, and with quick save and load being such an easy thing you think they would have made things a bit tougher. There were times where I would take out 2 or 3 people and turn hoping to see one more bad guy, only to find an empty corner. Another thing, I think they should have placed the bad guys in front of more breakable objects. I don't know about you, but I love to see stuff fly apart, and it just didn't happen as often as I wanted. More often they would be standing on some ledge, ready to die and give you yet another display of the physics engine. I personally don't think it is that cool to see the person you shoot instantly go limp and fall like a sack of potatoes. It may be realistic for a rag doll, but it isn't for someone who just got shot. But hey, I guess that is why it is called "rag doll" physics and not "guy who just got shot" physics. If they wanted to show it off I would have rather seen them add slow motion deaths for grenade explosions, of which there were none.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience. I hope they are able to lay Max Payne to rest however, as I don't think they can really do much else with this. Hopefully their next game will be as fresh as the original Max Payne was.
get past the first level without eating enough painkillers to kill Rush Limbaugh.
mck