Fantastic game in it's prime... (spoiler free!)
The game picks up from where the origional Max Payne left off. Which every good sequel should do. This time you're not out on revenge. You've been dragged into a gang-war between Vinni Gognitti, Vladimir Lem and The Inner Circle. Why? You've fallen in love again, this time with a criminal. (A woman by the way, not a man, you sick person).
I'll be honest. The first time i played the game i wasn't very impressed. All the features from the first Max Payne are still there, bullet time, shootdodge etc... That was until you kill the first enemy, it goes into a cinematic-type camera, showing him fall backwards onto a hospital table. I was very impressed, the interactive enviroments and ragdolls physics were well-implemented into the game. It then became a case of not waiting to pick off your next enemy just too see him go all floppy and fall over.
The graphics were improved on much. Soft(ish) lighting made the game look very nice. The character models were quite well-polished in my opinion, though sometimes in cut-scenes it looked like Max had a watermelon shaped head. Maybe it was his hair or something.
The storyline for this game is much more dramatic and "emotional" than the first. I can't really go into the story, as i will give spoilers away to people who haven't played this game. Even though it's been released for over 3 years.
I don't usually talk about mods in my reviews, but Max Payne 2 has some great ones. Some real gems such as the Cinema Mod and The Punisher. They can add a fresh breath of life into the game and stop it from going stale after you've completed it on all the difficulties.
To round this all up. I'll say that you won't be disappointed if you fell in love with the origional Max Payne like i did. If you didn't, you might be disappointed by the slightly dated graphics. The game is really directed towards older gamers (16+ in my opinion) the story might be hard to pick up, and there is alot of swearing in the game. So if you've got a mom or dad that is strict about that stuff. I would stay away.
The game is very cheap, considering it's age. You can pick it up at Gameplay.co.uk for £7.99.
Hope you enjoyed my review.
Thanks for reading.
-Ub