Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne [PS2]

Just as they did with the original PC version of Max Payne, Rockstar Games and developer Remedy is porting the sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne to the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The Xbox version just shipped and the PS2 version is due to hit stores Funny little fact for you: While the PC and Xbox versions were graphically superior to the lowly PS2 version, the latter statistically outperformed both versions in sales. And you know there are more PCs in homes than PS2s, right?

Silly sales facts aside, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is what Rockstar likes to call a "film noir love story," (as opposed to what we like to call a "blast-happy, bullet-time gun-love fest"), a game that takes place two years after the first Max Payne. With full production support from Rockstar's vast resources, the garage-band-like Remedy was able to upgrade every aspect of the sequel.

For instance, the face of Max Payne was based on Sam Lake, Remedy's lead writer, and the secondary characters' faces were all based on their friends and members of the team, essentially because Remedy was rather poor at the time. Now (boy, how times have changed), Remedy's art team was supported in full by Rockstar's vast production department, providing it with location shots, images of people, and the like.

Using the Havok 2 engine, Max Payne 2 has implemented a fantastic physics system that enables Max to continue his Bullet Time leaps (i.e., he continues his slides across the floor) while the enemies take bullets to the body with more realism and fall with better "rag-doll" weight, gravity and realism. The NPCs act more like virtual stuntmen, and add a whole new layer of eye-candy and experimental fun to the raucous action graphic novel.

The game is structured much like the first, with modes including Detective (Normal), Hard Boiled (Hard), Dead On Arrival, NY Minute, and the new mode, Dead Man Walking. This newest mode is comparable to the Survival mode in any good fighting game: Players see how long they can last in a moderately small environment as enemies infinitely spawn until Max dies. This will be good when a competitive friend comes by.

Besides the kinds of visual upgrades we normally expect, Max Payne 2 offers gamers new weapons and features. In addition to the shotguns, pistols and machine guns we got so attached to in the first, Max now wields a MP5 (semi automatic pistol/machine gun) and a Striker (like a high-powered gattling gun). And players can easily switch to and fro with each primary and secondary weapon without having to access the menu again and again.

The new Bullet Time provides players with layered depths of gameplay. For instance, Shoot-Dodge is a kind of Bullet Time that enables players to dive while shooting, and then to stay on the ground and continue to shoot, as opposed to before, when they hit the ground and instantly got back up. This makes Max a harder target to hit, as he skids across the ground. Also when Bullet Time is initiated and Max isn't diving, a sepia tone screen covers the screen, indicating the mode you're in, and it actually speeds your actions up with each addition enemy hit.

Lots of the little things that players loved in the first are back, such as the silly conversations, the interactive TV and radio shows (Players will encounter Dick Justice and Baseball Bat Boy), and the PS2 version supports Dolby Digital Pro Logic II as well as wide screen support.

While the PlayStation 2 version won't be the best looking version of the three, it's still Max Payne 2, and since that means a well told story, lots of killer action scenes, and superb gun action, heck, you oughta be paying attention.

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