Techtite's PC Game Reviews!

"environmental realism enhances the action...Every single door, window, cardboard box, or even a stray piece of newspaper, all react to the nearby environment, and vice versa. This makes gun fights all the more enjoyable, as boxes go flying around, glass shatters, machines get broken and all lightweight objects nearby get thrown all over the place."

---from the review

---------------------

You may also wish to buy: Max Payne 2: Official Strategy Guide.

-----------------

Sidebar :

-----------------

Should all games be sold like "DVDs" now...? Much like the original Max Payne, this game is sold in DVD packaging, only this time in cardboard "two disc set" packaging, not the standard plastic DVD casing. If this better than the little boxes and CD caddies most modern games are sold in...? I'd say so. First of all, if games were sold in DVD packaging, they'd fit in any typical DVD tower, or similar piece of furniture. Second; very rarely does any PC game box require all the space in its box; a lot of "empty space" means the disc is just rattling around with no reason for that much space at all. It also is pretty snazzy looking, to show friends Max Payne 2's box; a box for an "interactive movie" that deservedly is sold in "DVD" packaging. Pretty cool.

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

Max Payne 2: 

The Fall of Max Payne

Click picture to order this game (PC/windows version)

A Techtite Review

Maybe I'm a little out of the loop lately, though this was a sequel whose release was a complete surprise to me. This in itself is a surprise, since Max Payne was a very widely touted release back in 2001, just two years earlier. Shouldn't the sequel of the game that premiered "bullet time mode" be given far more publicity than it's received so far...?

Publicity notwithstanding, this is a very well-made sequel, even by movie standards (let alone a "mere" video game, as Hollywood often refers to them). Old characters return, "unfinished business" is settled, action scenes abound, and even a poignant romance is present; everything a good sequel needs. 

The story picks up soon after the prior game. In case you missed the party, Dirty-Harry-style-cop Max Payne saved the city from a crooked drug mastermind, and along the way met hired hit-woman Mona Sax, who, yada yada yada, now has a bullet stuck somewhere in her skull, after ticking off the wrong sort of people. She's back, and so is Max Payne, each to settle an old score...

If only things were that easy. Although Max did effectively "save the day" last time, he did so using questionable means, so he's still persona non grata with many people. Meanwhile, Mona is wanted by the police, since she killed a few bad guys, but isn't a real cop! These hurdles only make this latest job more complicated.

All the best aspects of the prior game are still here. Yes, this includes "bullet time" (where clicking the right mouse button sends you into a slow-motion action mode, with bullets slowly whizzing past). It also includes Max Payne's penchant for a dark sense of humor. One level has you save your friend, who at the time happens to be dressed as a cartoon character! Speaking of cartoon characters; once again, all levels are linked within a story narrated via "pages" of a modern graphic novel. People interested in more of the same should be very pleased.

Not that there aren't enhancements. The best of these: no longer is this a "barren" city, where the only people around are you and the bad guys. Payne will meet  the occasional "NPCs" along the way, and best of all, some of them will even help you! In one level, at least two hotel tenants will grab a gun and help defeat the gang that has overrun their apartment complex; how's that for "Neighborhood Watch"...? In another, talking to an old lady will reveal that she has a whole gun arsenal stored in her living room cabinet (!), and Max being such a nice young man, you can take whatever you need (!!!). This may not happen often, though it's still a cool addition to the original game schematic.

This is just one of many areas of this game that's very "real". Nothing is just a simple prop; be it a character, object, or piece of furniture. Yes, as in the prior game, even the TV's work (as do the answering machines and other electronic devices!), so feel free to turn on any video or audio device you see, for an added joke or two. In fact, many machines work, even if they mean nothing to the mission per se. In one level, I clicked on nearby security monitors and saw various locations I'd visit later on. It meant nothing to completing the level, and yet it is one of many signs that this game's environments aren't filled with mere static props.

This realism enhances the action as well. I had to laugh in one level, when I was running away from an enemy because I had no gun at the time, only to run through a swinging door and send the enemy on the opposite side flying through the air as I ran past. This is just one taste of the real-time kinetics of this game. Every single door, window, cardboard box, or even a stray piece of newspaper, all react to the nearby environment, and vice versa. This makes gun fights all the more enjoyable, as boxes go flying around, glass shatters, machines get broken and all lightweight objects nearby get thrown all over the place. This is a very "real" action game; far more than any I've ever played.

Adding to the fun is Mona Sax herself. Not only does she provide (ahem) a sort of NYPD Blue cheesecake in a scene or two, though you are placed in control of Mona for a level or two, whenever the story requires it. If you are the type who sees Mona run off to do a separate part of the mission while you say, "Aw, her mission sounded cool," don't worry. Finish your mission with Max and the scene backtracks to when you left Mona, so you can control her part of the mission as well. This is what "interactive movies" are all about!

The problems with this game are minor, yet worth mentioning. Although Max Payne 2 takes great pains to be just like a cinematic sequel --and succeeds-- it brings in the same flaws. Much like any movie sequel; the story is too linear. I would have preferred alternate routes to solve a mission, or perhaps the chance to choose between Mona Sax or Max Payne in later missions, for alternate results. Consider: in Jedi Knight Academy, you can choose the path of either a Jedi or a Sith. It matters little if you tinker with the "dark side," because all future games will obviously presume you chose the "jedi" path. This game should have something similar: regardless of the finale the game designers preferred, they should've allowed for alternate finales, just for fun.

Other aspects of the game may be seen as "gripes" only to those who know little of Max Payne's ongoing formulae. Yes, the game has campy dialog, and yet that's a constant element of Max Payne games that make them so fun (and often, quite funny!). Yes, bullet time is still limited (darn it), though this is the way it was in the first game (though not in games like Bloodrayne, FYI) so I guess the game designers didn't want to change too much, too soon. However; could you get rid of that pesky "stamina meter" next time...?

Spoilers kept a firm secret, it also deserves mentioning that the ending to this story is very controversial, as many online message board threads have proven by now. However, this finale isn't as bad as other game finales, particularly in the 1990's. Remember when every single popular adventure game used to have at least one "cliffhanger" sequel, making you feel like you bought only half a game...? Well, say what you will about this ending but it holds back no punches; it's a good ending, if just because it's an ending. All your questions are answered. The end.

This isn't to say that there isn't a possibility for Max Payne 3. I'm all for it, myself. However, could you make "bullet time" unlimited in the next go-around? Please...? Other than that, everything is pretty good. Max Payne is back! If he keeps coming back, I have no complaints.

---Techtite