Looks like crap, sound is all over the place, the game is just boring and tedious, this game isn't much better than MP1
The story picks up from Max Payne, the previous title, of course. After the event's of the first game Max has gone back to the NYPD, along the way we find that somehow Mona Sax is still alive, you get caught up in a war between the cleaners (Rusians) and the Mafia, while trying to take down the Inner Circle (established in the first game). I wasn't a big fan of the first game's story and this one didn't really get me interested either.
Gameplay is identical to the first Max Payne, the control is still bad and it makes navigating through tight or thin walkways a real headache because Max accelerates too fast and it takes away precision. The hit detection is still bad and often times head shots do not register and other times you hit enemies even though your aim is way off. Bullet time is back and it's pretty much the same, except now when you reload in bullet time you get this slow motion camera pan that looks cool at first but gets old really fast. You collect pain killers for health again so this game is in many ways just a slightly updated sequel. You also play as Mona Sax from time to time and it's not that appealing either.
Graphics, as mentioned earlier, they are horrific. Considering this game came out after Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Manhunt, etc you'd think that this would look pretty good right? Wrong, this game is graphical diarrhea, I am in no way a huge graphic junkie but this game is butt ugly. The textures look awful and grainy, sometimes the items laying around look too pixelated, especially ladders and papers on desks. The game graphically gets even worse when everywhere you go seems to be a run down dump or place under construction, it's just boring.
Sound is terrible, sometimes the leveling isn't right and you can hear sound effects over your voices, the sound stutters and cut-scenes end abruptly cutting lines off mid sentence.
All in all this game is a total disaster, had I known this would have been such a terrible port I would have gotten the Xbox version. Then again maybe not. I have completed the first 2 games on PS2 and never actually enjoyed either one. They became more of a chore than any kind of fun, it's tedious, poorly put together at times, redundant, repetitive, boring to play and look at and all in all just a crappy port of what I have heard is a great game on any other system but the PS2.
If you have the option of the 3 versions go with Xbox or PC, just like the first game the PS2 port is a disaster