Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Do you feel lucky, punk?

In 2001, Remedy released a third-person shooter called Max Payne. The story of a despairing New York cop seeking retribution for the brutal murder of his wife and daughter, Max Payne was something of a departure for the shooter genre. Driven by a strong story and eschewing the full-motion video cutscenes of other games in its peer group in favour of beautifully rendered pages from a graphic novel, the original game delivered action, some clever new twists to conventional shooter gameplay and a plot stronger than anything since Half-Life. Aside from strong narrative, the main innovation the game brought was “bullet time”. This feature allowed Max (for reasons never explained beyond his being in the adrenalin “zone”) to slow down time for short periods – he and his enemies would move in slow motion, but he remained able to aim and fire at a normal speed.

Two years later, the next chapter of Max’s story has been released. Remedy have promised a great deal for this game – enhanced bullet time, an even better story, improved graphics and action sequences, and superior enemy AI. Given the undeniably high quality of the original game, these are some bold claims to be making for a sequel. Is there really as much room for improvement in Max Payne as Remedy have suggested?

Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Max’s love interest, Mona Sax.

The most obvious improvement over the original is the enhanced bullet time feature. In Max Payne, you accumulated bullet time by killing enemies, now you only have to wait a while for the gauge to fill up. This is indicative of how much more important bullet time is in the sequel; there are plenty of areas in the game that are all but unbeatable without it. As well as Max’s “shoot dodges”, set moves which allow him to jump and roll through the air in slow motion while firing at his enemies, you have the option of simply toggling bullet time on and leaving Max on his feet. In the first game, this was an invitation for enemies to perforate you thoroughly, since Max’s movement was just as slow as his enemies’. In Max Payne 2 this feature is made much less suicidal (and more useful) by the fact that, as he guns his foes down in set-pieces, Max gets further and further into “the zone”. The more focussed he becomes, the faster he is on his feet – to the point where Max can actually see and dodge bullets as they’re fired. This refinement delivers some truly amazing, cinematic action sequences and proves that any idea, no matter how original, can be usefully improved.

Pretty as a Picture

Now you really have annoyed me…

Remedy promised us improved graphics for Max Payne 2 and they have certainly delivered. The game environments are beautifully rendered, with detailed textures, long draw distances and advanced lighting showing the Xbox’s capabilities to great effect. Most impressive are the wonderful translucent explosion and fire effects, especially in bullet time. Your enemies’ guns flash great tongues of flame as the bullets fly towards you and this coupled with the excellent surround sound immediately makes the game more immersive than a run-of-the-mill shooter.

Sad to say, the character models are not terribly detailed; don’t expect anything like Splinter Cell – there aren’t enough polygons to create that realistic an effect. This lack of detail is more than compensated for by the animations; the production team made extensive use of motion capture (yes, just like the movies) and this shows in the fluidity and realism of the characters’ movements. There’s some facial animation, but it’s limited to blinking and basic lip-synch. In choosing to get the movement just right, though, Remedy have concentrated on the right thing; detailed facial animation doesn’t really matter if you’re in a firefight.

Cry “Havok!” and Let Slip the Dogs of War

Together at last.

The game uses the Havok physics engine, which makes objects in the game world behave realistically; you can knock chairs over, blast boxes off shelves, even knock bad guys down if you charge into them. Character models use “ragdoll physics”, so bodies (of which there are plenty in this game) fly about, arms and legs flailing, with a somewhat ghoulish realism. This effect is compounded by the fact that when you make a particularly cinematic kill – say, sniping a bad guy off a tall building or blasting a mobster backwards into a cupboard full of glassware – the action is suspended for a loving slow motion replay of the carnage. It’s all very John Woo and it contributes to the overall feeling that this isn’t so much a game as an interactive movie.

It’s worth noting at this point that, although there’s no Soldier of Fortune-style graphic dismemberment of enemies, the body count is astronomical and the game is very violent indeed. Along with some “mature themes” arising in the story (little things like love, sex, anger and death) and the unashamedly Tarantino-esque profane script, this makes Max Payne 2 a game for adult audiences only.

What’s the Story?

And this… is bullet time.

The story of Max Payne 2 follows straight on from the end of the first game; having used his connections with a shadowy, vaguely Masonic organisation known as “the Inner Circle” to avoid prosecution for the bullet-fest that was Max Payne, our hero is back in service as an NYPD Homicide Detective. For those who haven’t played the first game, there’s an optional cutscene which recaps the original story; then the game runs straight into an intensely disorienting scene set in a New York hospital. Battered and bleeding, pursued by faceless commandos, Max starts to tell his story.

The plot is extraordinarily complex for a computer game. Building on events in Max’s dark past, it has more twists and turns than a Manhattan sewer and retains a resolutely melodramatic, film noir-ish flavour throughout. At its heart, Max Payne 2 is a love story with action sequences, with love interest provided by the beautiful professional assassin Mona Sax. Mona cropped up in the first game, trying to cheat Max of his revenge; when we last saw her, she was a bloodied body disappearing in a lift. Now, she’s a murder suspect, and Max finds himself torn between his duty as an NYPD Detective, and his inexplicable attraction to Mona. Throw in a heady mix of gang warfare, conspiracy, and betrayal, and it’s a story you’d more normally expect to find in a truly compelling Hollywood thriller. Think The Usual Suspects for a rough indication of its complexity and cleverness.

The plot also allows for shifts in the player’s point-of-view. Unlike the first instalment, which forced you to identify wholly with Max himself, Max Payne 2 has a couple of levels where you take control of Mona Sax, and see another side of a sequence you’ve already played through as Max. This adds tremendously to the depth of the game and reinforces the filmic feeling. The level design is excellent, and the environments are truly absorbing. There’s always a clever radio or TV show to enjoy and you can listen to people’s answerphone messages, fiddle with the air conditioning or go through desk drawers in search of painkillers or ammo. You can, of course, just canter through the game at top speed, but to do that is to waste a great deal of the nice touches that set this game apart.

The Sound of Success

Max and his Russian friends.

The voice acting is perfect for the game, with James McCaffrey’s deep, bleak and occasionally slurred delivery once again providing Max’s voice. Other characters are voiced just as convincingly – Mona’s voice is tough and sexily precise while the supporting cast of Mafiosi, Russian “businessmen”, weary NYPD cops and civilians are all brought to life in a way that speaks volumes about the game’s high production values. Environmental sounds like rain on a warehouse roof, the distant sounds of New York City or the resonance of a concrete car park are subtle but highly effective, while the weapons sound suitably dangerous.

I loved Max Payne 2. The story is gripping, intense and requires some concentration to truly enjoy. Indeed, I’d recommend playing through the game at least twice, as there’s so much to see, you will inevitably miss some touches first time around. The gameplay is every bit as immersive as the original’s, with extra bells and whistles, and the graphics are beautiful. Sure, the character models could be more complex, but they move so well, you really won’t notice this shortcoming.

My one and only gripe about this game is its length. I played through it in about 12 hours, and you could extend this to 14 or so if you stopped to explore every room. There’s a lot of replay potential here, if only to hone your bullet time technique and bask in the wonderful storyline, but fundamentally I would have liked to see a longer game. This is offset to a considerable degree by the high quality of that 12-hour play. There’s not an ounce of filler here, and on balance I’d rather play a brilliant 12-hour game than have it doubled in length by padding.

Overall, I’d tell everyone to buy this game. Even if you haven’t played the first one. In fact, if you haven’t played the first one, you should buy them both. A classic for our time.