Max Payne was an incredible game. It had a deep involving storyline, an empathetic main character, and more exciting action than a John Woo movie. It was lauded for its use of “Bullet Time” and “Shootdodge”, and it’s use of comic book cut scenes that emphasised the dark story.

Max Payne 2 : The Fall of Max Payne begins shortly after where the pervious game finished. Max Payne’s world is dark, sinister and twisted. It creates a sense that no one can be trusted, that everything is dark and dank and hopeless. Yet, even through all this, Max Payne finds hope and indeed love, albeit at a price. It is classic film noir – a story of romance and betrayal. It has all your favourite characters, Chief Bravura, Vladimir Lem, Vinnie Gognitti, Mona Sax and of course, Max Payne himself, with a few surprises both story wise and gameplay wise.

Bullet Time and Shootdodge make a welcome return, and although they’ve been used to death in other games, Max Payne slightly reforms them time around, giving the game a slightly easier feel compared to the first game, whilst still looking ultra cool. The first thing to take note of is Shootdodge, which is a slow motion dive Max performs. Whilst in this dive, time slows down, but Max can shoot in real time, and reload even quicker. It’s fantastic to dive into a room and kill every bad guy before than can even react! What’s added this time is the ability to remain prone after the dive and continue shooting… Finally, a real sense of taking cover! Furthermore, Shootdodge no longer consumes your Bullet Time meter. Bullet Time is where the action slows down Matrix style, allowing Max to aim or position himself out of harm as well as dodge bullets and explosions. The more people Max kills, the longer he can stay in bullet time, and the more awesome the animations as he runs and swings about look.

But don’t let this fool you; the AI is by no means easy. They will hear you and react to your weapons fire or you opening a door. They will take cover from your fire, run away and re-group, and they can also spot you from quite some distance, and open fire with some precision. However, apart from your survival, there’s another incentive to kill the baddies – the havok physics engine. Bodies are given ragdoll physics, and react to the surrounding environment. Max can run into a room and shoot an AK47 round into an enemy thug, and that thug will go flying back into boxes, making a stack fall down around his dead body. Grenades will rock shelves, and goods scattered on those shelves will fall off and roll away. Taking enemies out near doors leaves them in a shuddering heaped mess, not half hanging through the wall or door, and if they fall off a balcony they spin and bounce as they fall in an eerily realistic fashion. The levels are set up to take full advantage of the physics, being large, multi-layered and full of things to knock over and blow up. The abandoned fun park level is an absolute corker, as you’re already on edge just from the atmosphere, and this almost sets you (and Max) over the edge.

Another great addition to the gameplay is where you have to protect someone, with the best mission being the one with Vinnie Gognitti. Without giving too much away, it is absolutely hilarious as Vinnie flops about in an oversized character suit, his shoes squeaking as he dodges enemy bullet fire. Another level starts when you as Max fall out a window. You see a cut scene of max falling, and then play as Mona Sax, armed with a snipers rifle, defending Max from encroaching enemies. Mona has the same moves as Max, and a great little tactic to take out pesky guards taking cover is to go into Bullet Time and wait for them to stick their head up to fire upon Max, and then Wham!

The real killer of Max Payne though is its story. It’s contrived, it’s formulaic, but it is incredibly engrossing. The story told through Max’s eyes as you play through the missions, obviously, but there’s always some kind of subtext running through the game, and this can be picked up by listening to the conversations of the police when at the station, be heard on answering machines, from overhearing a couple of guards before you pop them, and even from the various TVs in the buildings. Some of these missions are dream sequences, where it pays to look and listen for information and clues to what is really going on. But like the original, the story is also shown through comic book panel vignettes, dark and grainy, and when it all comes together it is a wonderfully dark tale of love and loss.

However, the length of the game ruins all of this. I played through in two sittings, coming in at just under 6 hours of gameplay. I was really, really disappointed. Once you finish the game on its default setting you can play through the game on a greater difficulty, or play a mini-game which allows you to kill lots of bad guys in a short amount of time. But with the game being so story driven, and thus quite linear, is there really a need to play through it again? You may pick up more of the subtext, but this is kind of ruined, as you already know the ending. When played through again, it’s like when someone tells you the end of a book or movie, and there’s a real sense of apathy about it all. And, with this apathy comes the flaw finding. The jumping puzzles are just exasperating. It’s hard to see exactly where to jump, and Max feels cumbersome when jumping. The dream sequences are just annoying, and you want to get through them so you can shoot some bad guys. There’s more than a few levels which are repeated, and it’s like “oh no, not this again”. So, OK, this only starts to sink in second time around, but these flaws are still present and you do feel a little cheated.

Conclusion:
Max Payne 2 has a great story, even if it is a little contrived, but you do become engaged in the characters’ and their intertwining lives. There are some absolutely hilarious moments, and some totally warped levels that capture and amplify the unique film noir mood greatly. The physics of the Havok engine are quite simply stunning, with the ragdoll physics being some of the most realistic of a game to date.

However, when it’s all over, it’s over too quickly. The story drives the game, and once it’s finished there’s not much else to be said or done. Re-running through the game will not enhance the story. You may find extra little clues, or notice a subtext within the TV shows, but you will not face new and interesting twists, nor will you really find the game’s difficulty more fulfilling. The fact that it’s so, so short that it leaves you disappointed and wanting oh so much more.

Pros:
+ Awesomely involving story, albeit a little contrived.
+ Fantastic atmosphere.
+ Unbelievable Physics Engine

Cons:
– Too damn short
– Once you’ve played it through, there’s no real point to continue.
– The levels are quite linear.
– Jumping puzzles still leave a lot to be desired

86/100