Impressive and Addictive
The developers have obviously spent alot of time thinking about the story. I found it to be deeply interesting - I was completely engrossed in what would happen; I wasn't too worried about who the real baddie was..it was concern for the relationship between Max and Mona. Freaky eh? I blame the story writer. Max Payne 2 can easily be compared to a movie - We don't want to leave it halfway through because of how the game grabs us. I do feel that perhaps those gamers who don't have much concern for storylines will perhaps feel that it can be hard to follow. Maybe this applies to those that haven't played the first game too. However, I wouldn't say its much of a negative point; beating the game isn't the end - the other difficulty settings and game modes (such as Dead On Arrival) will ensure that any confusions on the story evaporate fast.
The weaponary in the game is standard - as usual, I found myself using only 2 weapons throughout the whole game. However, that could just be a personal thing. Being an avid Counter-Strike player, I like my headshots and as such I only used the weapon with the most accuracy. Sound in the game is amazing; sound of shells dropping, chairs flying and shooting different materials all seems to be extremely realistic. And just like the first game, the music suits the game perfectly. That old experience we all felt of darkness and loneliness in the first game makes a comeback and brings back old memories as soon as the game's theme tune kicks in.
The game could have been more diverse with its range of locations. Not that the current locations aren't good. Far from it. The level of detail is astounding and you'll spend hours grenading stuff just to see how it flies, however, having new, different and exciting environments could have added so much more.
Another point I'm going to quibble about are the enemy character models. Apart from the very few major characters in the game, everyone else looks just the same. All the baddies wear the same clothes, have the same height etc.
Oh, and the length of the game. /Me shakes a grenade at Remedy. Why oh why is the game so short! What were they thinking! Still, having said that, I'd still have bought the game had I known how *short* it actually was. It only took me 7/8 hours of gameplay time to complete. We can't have everything I guess. Max Payne 2 is definately a good game. The new bullet time is definlatey as good as the old one was - even better thanks to the wonderful Havok physics engine.