The Fall of Max Payne
Developer: Remedy Publisher: Rockstar Games
Reviewed by Irony on 11/6/03

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First Impressions:

Graphics:

This is the most beautiful and technologically innovative game available on the market today. The NYC of Max Payne 2 is a sea of yellow mist, graffiti on brick walls, buzzing streetlamps, and the shadows that hide the eyes of men. The game is also the first to truly take advantage of advanced graphics processors' abilities, including amazing use of pixel shading, and demands a DirectX 9-compliant video card. Unfortunately, underpowered computers need not apply, but if you were planning to upgrade in anticipation of Half Life 2 or Doom 3, now is as good a time as any.

The best technology available can't make any difference if artistry is lacking, and Max Payne 2 delivers on both fronts. Each location is distinctive and there are virtually no repeated textures. From luxury penthouses whose terrazzo floors are smeared with the blood of recent occupants to an abandoned funhouse based on a canceled TV drama where cardboard psychos mumble recorded insanities, Max Payne 2 has gorgeous, richly textured levels. I was transfixed, watching a streetlamp's reflection slide across the hood of a slowing car; just one small detail in the visual feast this game offers.

Two additional elements make the game's visuals a treat: Bullet Time 2.0, and an unprecedented level of environmental interaction. I'll talk about these two things in more detail in Gameplay, below, but in terms of visuals, the improvements made to Bullet Time are amazing. When your hourglass is full (see below) and yellow, the Bullet Time effect takes on a different color, more of a sepia tone, and the artistry of each setting is fully visible, as ejected shells spill across the ground and bodies pirouette in mid-air. Your ability to effect the environment lets you tattoo walls and objects with bullet holes, knock over and destroy incidental objects, and leave sprays of your enemies' blood across walls. In a word, the graphics of Max Payne 2 are poetry.

Sound/Music:

The music, which is incident-sensitive, is flawless. From the sonorous cello and weeping violin of the main theme to the wonderfully goofy theme songs for "Captain Baseballbat-Boy" and "Lords & Ladies" (both TV shows seen throughout the game), the music is always appropriate, and never an intrusion.
The sound is exquisite. Each weapon has distinctive reloading and firing noises, objects make noise as they fall over, bodies slump to the ground with hollow thuds. Every step echoes off the city's pavement, or clicks across slick bathroom tile.

Let's talk about voice acting: Max Payne 2 proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that quality professional voice acting is a necessity in a story-driven game. In order to fully enjoy Max Payne 2, you have to care about Max and the other characters, which requires them to be fully fleshed-out by their actors. In both the graphic novel scenes and the game itself, dialogue and internal monologues perform this task admirably.

Gameplay:

Those familiar with third-person shooters like the Tomb Raider franchise will find Max Payne 2's interface simple, elegant, and effective. Choosing "How to Play" from the game's main menu displays the complete keyboard map. Number keys choose classes of weapons, and you will have both a primary weapon (gun) and secondary weapon (melee, grenade, or Molotov cocktail) available at all times. This makes it supremely easy to flush enemies out around the corner with a well-placed grenade, then pick them off with the pump-action shotgun as they run screaming from the wreckage.

Bullet Time 2.0 is well integrated with gameplay. You don't need to learn special tricks to use it; simply press Mouse 2 (default) to enter Bullet Time, and perform your actions accordingly as time slows down. You can use Bullet Time for different reasons: to dodge bullets, to pick multiple enemies off with more accuracy, or just to look really frickin' cool. Compared to similar "time manipulation" in other games, most notably Enter the Matrix, Bullet Time 2.0 is more easily used, flows better within the game, and enhances the game more. The upgrade from the original Bullet Time now rewards you for doing well in the game. The better you do, the faster your hourglass (where you accumulate Bullet Time) turns yellow. When it's completely yellow, you can do even more amazing effects, including specific reloading and dodging animations, in slow-motion.
As mentioned above, character and level design are incredible, with attention to details like a bobbing ponytail or the flare of a leather coat as you spin really making the game feel consistent in tone. Remedy licensed the Havok physics model, which features "ragdoll" body movement and realistic item manipulation. Shoot an enemy with a high-powered weapon and watch them slam back against the wall, or shoot them again in mid-air and watch their body spin to reflect the impact. Combined with the slow motion of Bullet Time 2.0, these effects turn the game into a lyrical ballet of mayhem. Manipulating the items in the environment means you and other characters bump against boxes, knocking them over, and signaling your presence to enemies (just as they signal their presence to you).

The NPC AI is stellar, as it was in the original Max Payne. Enemies coordinate their attacks, back off when hurt, avoid thrown grenades (when they can), and use cover to protect themselves. At several points in the game, NPCs will join you in a coordinated attack, behaving according to their "personalities". One NPC, named "The Cowboy", consistently ran into the middle of firefights like a crazed desperado, while several mobsters used available cover and shouted obscenities at enemies while helping Max. The difficulty level is dynamically scalable, too, at least according to the Remedy website. In other words, rather than choose from Easy, Medium, and Hard levels of difficulty, the game adjusts the skill of the enemy AI based on how well you're doing in the game, how many times you Quick Load, and other criteria. This all happens behind the scenes, so to speak, so I wasn't really aware of it, but I was never so frustrated by the difficulty of the enemies as to become disenchanted with the game.

Once you've won through the game on "Detective" level, several other modes are unlocked. These include "Dead Man Walking", an option to play through the game without any painkillers (without any healing, basically, so the damage you take is the damage you endure throughout), and "New York Minute", where speed is of the essence.

Enjoyment:

"Enjoyment" is such a tough subject with games like Max Payne 2. Did I enjoy the game? Immensely. I'm heartbroken that it's over, and hoping there will be many more sequels (although Max has really been through enough, the poor guy). On the other hand, the game's story is heart-rending, dark, tortured, and depicts morally ambiguous characters on the brink of madness. Embodying Max Payne is like sitting in a tenement bathtub so long that the water is lukewarm and murky. In a review of No One Lives Forever, I liked the main character, Cate Archer, so much that I found myself wanting to do well so I didn't let her down. Max Payne, on the other hand, is such a lost and lonely man that I wasn't sure doing well in the game was going to help him; I felt like an enabler. My main goal, playing him, was to make sure he didn't die. I, like Max himself, wanted only for him to survive, because I knew there would be no happy ending. Max Payne 2 is game noir at its finest, and if you enjoy that genre in film, you will enjoy it just as much in this medium. The tale told is full of love and betrayal, loss and pity, and if you immerse yourself in the story of this game, you might just shed a tear or two, as I did, for the humanity of it all.

Multiplayer:

There is no multiplayer feature in Max Payne 2, and given the unique effects of Bullet Time 2.0, I don't know how multiplayer would work even if they wanted it.

Overall Impression:

I've spoken at length about the game already, so I'll keep my overall impression short: Max Payne 2 is easily one of the top story-driven shooters, and in my opinion, one of the best games made to date. This game has the total package: from the moment you open the box (DVD-style packaging which should really be the direction all games go), simple black-and-white art introduces you to the characters. The graphic novel cutscenes are evocative and stylish. The levels are well-organized, a good length (I didn't find any one level tiresome, although I'm particularly bad at sniper levels), and look absolutely amazing. The camera never became onerous, and I didn't find myself clipped into a wall or ceiling at any point. The controls are intuitive and elegant. The writing is better than some Oscar-winning films of recent years, even though it's genre-specific so phrases like "It was kissing the mouth of your dead love, a hole gaping behind her lips ready to swallow you in darkness," are par for the course. My only lament is that the game is so short; I finished it in approximately 15 hours. I compare it to being a fan of Alan Moore's graphic novels: each time you devour one, you feel a little sad because you know it could be months before there's another. Remedy should consider complaints about the game's length to be the highest of compliments.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

Max Payne 2 is that most wonderful of things: a game with a mature storyline that doesn't emasculate its characters or their emotions. The game is subtitled "A Film Noir Love Story", and tells the tail of Max Payne and his attraction to femme fatale Mona Sax. Much of the art and loading screens in the game show still shots of Mona and Max in various embraces, usually with guns prominently held. It's all very much in keeping with the film noir feel. Mona is a powerfully conflicted character, and her relationship with Max is never treated cheaply or exploited. She is formidable in terms of game skill as well, shown as Max's equal in every respect, and possibly his superior in others (they both have trouble avoiding getting shot, for some reason). Mona is beautiful, but her sexual characteristics aren't exaggerated. She has a body very much in keeping with her profession's athletic demands, her attire is businesslike. Mona is sexy because the character is sexy, not because her model is based on a Playboy Playmate. Seen in that respect, Max Payne 2 might be more refreshing in its treatment of female characters than many story-driven shooters to come before it, and its creators didn't sanitize the story's passion to achieve that.

Official Site