The Burrow

Following up after finishing his freshman outing, naturally, I decided to poke around in Max Payne 2. Often, people talk about sequels as a chance for developers to work on missed opportunities that they missed the first time around. You will hear about Assassin’s Creed 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, and a game I have talked about before with Fable 2. Fable 2 is an example of a game that Lionhead themselves talked about being the game they wanted to make the first time around but couldn’t due to one thing or the other.

So how does Max Payne 2 fair among these titans? I say very well. Remedy opted to hone and refine the wheel instead of reinventing it. Everything presented in the first, the noir setting, the poetic writing, and The Matrix-inspired combat. Max Payne 2 takes what you loved about the first game and dials it up. It looks better, sounds better, and clearly has a production budget that dwarfs the original. I opted to play this on a Series X again due to its enhanced visuals; the PC version of the game is still the premier way to play it, though it lacks controller support. The original Xbox port was excellent and still holds up today as a great way to experience the game.

Visually, Max’s model sees an upgrade to reflect the appearance of his voice actor more closely; the company now has the money and technology to render faces with more than just an image of Sam Lakes’s face. All the environments see real improvement. Lighting and geometry are varied, and you will see greater variety in the locations you visit. Though the game is very much set in New York and its underbelly. The real star of the show, however, is the new physics model. Which was all the rage in the early aughts. Games like Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Doom 3 all shipped with complimentary physics simulation. Something that many gamers probably take for granted now. It really was a spectacle to behold in 2003. Chairs, tables, coffee cups, buckets, whatever it may be, you can knock nearly everything in it around all you want. Enemies die and fall into shelves, not only collapsing the shelves but also through objects on them all over the floor and in the air. This is more than just fun. It adds real weight to the combat in ways the first game lacked.

That is not all, either. Remedy must have seen the widespread disdain for those unusual platforming dream sequences because, while we do catch Max snoozing, he does not have to run on the blood of any loved ones while they are screaming for help. This alone makes Max Payne 2 a huge improvement. In fact, many of the trial-and-error elements from the first game have been amended or removed, though not entirely. You will still find yourself walking into rooms with mobsters patiently waiting with shotguns ready to send you back to the nearest checkpoint or building falling on you, giving you clear instructions on how to get out of them. The general gameplay saw a lot of refinement. Max himself pulls off many flourishes during combat, and while many of the weapons return, we get some new toys as well. Despite the platforming trails of the blood being removed, we do see some light platforming, Max walking on ballasts, and fire escapes, but these are kept simple in order to not slow progress.

Even with its few shortcomings, Max Payne 2 is a worthy follow-up to a phenomenal initial outing. It polishes off the rough edges of its predecessor and carves out enough new to make it fresh. The story is well told, and the gameplay complements it brilliantly. It is a somber tale of a cop’s fall but eventual rise. Does that mean there is a happy ending? I will let you find out for yourselves, but I will say this; It is the story we deserved, and it is the kind of story that we too seldom receive from games. Someday I hope we get more of them.