Max Payne 2

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-11-23 04:08am

So, anyone tried it yet?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-11-23 04:15am

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-23 06:16am

I played the demo, and I'm not going to buy it until it's cheaper.

A couple different keys to press and an improved bullet-time (okay, and better graphics) do not a completely different game make.

It's like Max Payne:Redux.

Especially since one of the levels in the demo freaking takes place in a place from the first game.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-11-23 08:00am

The first game was ridculously short, and I hear the sequel is no different. As such, I refuse to pay full price for a game I'll play than less for 24 hours (in total, of course).

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2003-11-23 08:05am

I played it through on an difficulty levels, so yeah I'd say I have tried it. One of the best shoot'em'ups I have ever played.

It's greatest flaw is that while it is in many ways better it's predecessor it doesn't differ much from it. The graphics are a little better, bullet time has been tweaked a bit (to it's improvement), the plot and story line are better and I like the weapons more, but at the core it's the same game. Also it's too short for my liking, a week and a half to finish it three times is too little, after that there is nothing left but to start racking up records in 'Dead Man Walking' and 'New York Minute', but those didn't hold my interrest for long.

Basically if you liked Max Payne, you'll like Max Payne 2 even more, but the game lifespan is about two weeks.

Embracer Of Darkness · Post by **Embracer Of Darkness** » 2003-11-23 09:23am

Completed it on all difficulty levels, damn fine game.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2003-11-23 09:27am

the game is awesome... completed all teh things you can do with it... then uninstalled it to free up my harddrive a bit before it kills itself...

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-11-23 11:42am

Max Payne 2 is just as fast as Max Payne. It just seems quicker for those who already played the original because you have more experience. I can beat MP and MP2 in the same amount of time.

Anyway I think Max Payne 2 is a fairly good game. The plot has some nice twists and the improvements are noticable. People actualy have real faces, lips move with talk, etc... My only gripe is they decided to remove much of the graphic novel element for cut scenes and instead use more and more ingame cutscenes. The graphic novel feel from the original is part of what made the game so fun. Removing it wasn't such a good idea. Also the plot of MP2 really plays on the original but it challenges everything you thought you knew from the original.

The weapons are nice. The M4 Carbine over the Commando is good. The shotgun is MUCH better and can sweep through rooms. Duel Desert Eagles (and 100 rounds this time) is super fun. Having a clip fed sniper rifle is nice. And of course having a scoped MP5 is damned nice.

All in all Max Payne 2 is a good game, but not quite as good as the original. Max Payne was ground breaking while Max Payne 2 used improvements but was somewhat of a rehash.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2003-11-23 02:36pm

Alyeska wrote:Max Payne 2 is just as fast as Max Payne. It just seems quicker for those who already played the original because you have more experience. I can beat MP and MP2 in the same amount of time.

The original was too short as well.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-23 03:14pm

On average, Max Payne (1 & 2) takes about 6-12 hours to complete. It has a slightly longer lifespan when you factor in the mods that are made for it, but overall I wouldn't suggest buying it until it drops to $30 or below. In reality, the game should have started at $40, as that would have made it much more tempting than $50.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-11-23 07:18pm

In reality they should have made the game longer.

MP2 would actualy have been a longer game had they gone back to graphic novel cutscenes for everything.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-23 08:36pm

Alyeska wrote:In reality they should have made the game longer.

MP2 would actualy have been a longer game had they gone back to graphic novel cutscenes for everything.

I'm afraid I don't see how that would have effectively made the game itself any longer. The length of the cutscenes do nothing for the length of the actual game, and in fact, had they gone back to the graphic novel cutscenes, the game would effectively be shorter to play, because you could skip past them all if you felt like it.

In any event, gameplay would make the game longer, not cutscenes, in-game or otherwise. More gameplay means more levels, or longer ones. Then it comes down to pacing, which would suffer as the game gets longer and longer. Granted, they could probably work a good 20 hours or so out of the game, maybe even as high as 30, but what would have to be sacrificed in order to achieve that? Less attention to details in level design? Repeating cut-and-paste rooms? It's tough to say, really.

Post by **weemadando** » 2003-11-25 05:57pm

As much as I might get lynched for it, thus far Max Payne 2 is the Game of the Year for me.

Graphics are nothing short of astounding.

Sound is brilliant - both voice acting and music are top notch.

Gameplay is the same old, but refined to a wonderful degree. The storyline is great, with many twists and turns, old characters coming back, new characters arriving and all of them being brilliantly written into the plot. Most of what happened I did not see coming, which makes me a happy gamer. The dream sequences are back and are beautifully integrated and much easier to deal with. It is also not afraid to push the boundaries, this is the first game that I'm well and truly able to say IS intended for mature audiences, and not just because of a per-pixel damage location system.

Game stability is amazing - I'm running it on a theoretically below min-spec system (my graphics card is carrying my CPU and RAM) with the majority of settings switched on (including most of the CPU intensive ones) in 800x600 with all graphical settings on medium and I VERY rarely get slow down and have had a single crash, which was caused by an auto shotgun/molotov party which caused a few too many particles for my CPU to deal with. And even then it only crashed to desktop, not a complete lock up.

I find it hard to fault this game, sure, its more of the same, but the original Max Payne was a well polished game. Max Payne 2 just makes it better. Yes its short, but I'm on my second run through and still well and truly compelled, watching all the cutscenes and graphic novel sequences again, to pick up on the little things I missed the first time.

This game immerses you completely, I have to give it a 9/10. Sure its nothing new, but its as close to perfect in the shooter genre as you're ever likely to find.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-11-25 06:52pm

weemadando wrote:As much as I might get lynched for it, thus far Max Payne 2 is the Game of the Year for me.

Graphics are nothing short of astounding.

Sound is brilliant - both voice acting and music are top notch.

Gameplay is the same old, but refined to a wonderful degree. The storyline is great, with many twists and turns, old characters coming back, new characters arriving and all of them being brilliantly written into the plot. Most of what happened I did not see coming, which makes me a happy gamer. The dream sequences are back and are beautifully integrated and much easier to deal with. It is also not afraid to push the boundaries, this is the first game that I'm well and truly able to say IS intended for mature audiences, and not just because of a per-pixel damage location system.

Game stability is amazing - I'm running it on a theoretically below min-spec system (my graphics card is carrying my CPU and RAM) with the majority of settings switched on (including most of the CPU intensive ones) in 800x600 with all graphical settings on medium and I VERY rarely get slow down and have had a single crash, which was caused by an auto shotgun/molotov party which caused a few too many particles for my CPU to deal with. And even then it only crashed to desktop, not a complete lock up.

I find it hard to fault this game, sure, its more of the same, but the original Max Payne was a well polished game. Max Payne 2 just makes it better. Yes its short, but I'm on my second run through and still well and truly compelled, watching all the cutscenes and graphic novel sequences again, to pick up on the little things I missed the first time.

This game immerses you completely, I have to give it a 9/10. Sure its nothing new, but its as close to perfect in the shooter genre as you're ever likely to find.

That pretty much sums up my feelings.

BTW, Max Payne had minimum specs of a 450 Mhz and I ran it on a 300 Mhz. Sure it was slow for most of the game but it was still surprisingly smooth and it was acceptable. Of course I had to crank down ALL of the settings.

Embracer Of Darkness · Post by **Embracer Of Darkness** » 2003-11-25 09:39pm

One of my friends was able to run Max Payne 2 in quite decent detail on a Voodoo 5 5500 PCI, I'm not sure what res he was using but it looked decent. His processor is also as dated as the card, I think it's in the 300mHz range.