Trying to improve upon Max Payne was a monumental task but I think Remedy managed to do it. The story is just as well done. The characters are as good as ever. The voice acting was a delight. The graphics have been improved over the original. The clothing detail; hair; gun detail; object detail and ground detail were all noticeably better than the original. They added a few new guns like the MP5 and the AK-47 both of which are fun to use. They did nerf the sniper rifle for some reason. It takes multiple shots to kill an enemy compared to it mainly being a one hit kill weapon in the original. You get to take control of Mona Sax for a few chapters which was a nice change. My only gripe about that was that while I was controlling her Max would not use any pain meds to heal damage even though he had some when I was last in control of him. Speaking of that one other part I didn’t like was that you have to keep an eye on Max and Vinny at different points in what are basically an escort mission where if they die it’s game over. Not my favorite type of mission for sure.
I played Max Payne 2 on Linux using Valve’s Proton. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any bugs. The performance was fantastic, which was to be expected with the game’s age. Aside from one short dip to 82 FPS the game was always over 100 FPS. The game has 3 AA options; 3 AF options; and 15 other graphics options. You can manually save whenever you want and there are 10 slots for it. There are also 3 slots for auto saves which the game uses periodically if you prefer that. Alt-Tab works. You can choose from a variety of crosshair options. You can pause and skip cut scenes.
Game Engine: Renderware
Save System: Manual (at any time) and Auto
Settings Used: All Highest; 8x AA; AF; 1920x1080
Disk Space Used: 1590 MB
VRAM Usage: 714-851 MB
CPU Usage: 10-18 %
RAM Usage: 2.4-3.0 GB
Frame Rate: 82-144 FPS
Like the original, Max Payne 2 rates as an all time classic for me. It has a fantastic story which builds and improves upon the original. The characters are all worth caring about and fleshed out. The graphics got an overhaul. The voice acting remains superb. The music was wonderful. I finished the game on detective difficulty in 6 hours. That’s a tad shorter than the original but it in no way feels rushed. If you enjoy third person shooters at all or games with a strong story you owe it to yourself to try this out. I paid $2.55 CAD for the game on Steam as well as having bought the physical copy back in the day. This game is worth whatever they want to charge, well above the $10.99 CAD it currently retails for.
My Score: 9.5/10
My System:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 5700 XT Gaming X 8GB | Mesa 20.1.8 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 20.1.1 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.8.11-1-MANJARO | AOC G2460P 1920*1080 @ 144hz | Proton 5.0-9