While the first Max Payne successfully wooed the more sentimental of shooter fans with its John Woo-film inspirations (pun somewhat intended) in its gameplay and presentation, there were skeptics who griped about the less-than-satisfactory bits of the game, namely the outrageous visual designs of the protagonist who appears to have a silly smirk on his face almost all the time and has a bad fashion sense that detract from the otherwise amusingly somber and noir themes of the game, among other minor flaws like the adequate but unremarkable AI of the game.
The successor to the first game irons out some of the more contentious issues in this game, but also retains some of the lesser ones.
The first improvement that a player of the first game would notice is the change in Max Payne's looks. Gone is the silly grin on his face, and his jacket with leopard-spot trims. Instead, Payne's visual designs have been updated to a much more dignified-looking model, and his fashion sense is a lot less garish now (though he still has a penchant for trench-coats). As the game progresses (it is still a single-player-only, story-centric game), Payne's appearance will change as he accrues more wounds and medical dressings (thus appearing to draw inspirations from a certain other famous film franchise).
Such visual designs augment the sense of progression in the game, something that the first game's visual designs for Max did not do.
In addition to Max, players also get to play as Mona Sax, who is a character that didn't have much presence in the first game beyond the graphic novel cutscenes. Mona Sax's inclusion in the game may rankle some skeptics who may deem that this design decision is just a typical attempt at spicing up the story with a romantic relationship between the protagonists; they would not be far from being right, but spice up the story it certainly did. Describing it too much would constitute spoilers, so it should suffice to say that their relationship has an entertaining mix of simmering animosity (over their different goals) and mutual empathy over their respective personal tragedies.
As for the overarching plot of the story itself, it is no longer a set of misfortunate events that has Max pursuing his adversaries, but rather loose ends from his past and his association with some shady types that would have him embarking on another quest to dig out a conspiracy that would mar the already murky society of fictional New York even further. Again, describing this any further would constitute spoilers, but it should be permissible to mention that there would be enough plausible plot twists (though not necessarily surprising ones) to inject a sense of intrigue into the story.
In the first game, there were distractions on the side in the form of TV shows that make references to the actual story of the game or are simply manic things that the game designers had thought up and included in the game just because they can. While they are definitely distracting and somewhat detracts from the main story of the game if the player decides to have Max stand around in front of a TV that he doesn't seem to be interested in watching, their writing is such an entertaining parody of the actual themes of the game that they would have been worth the time spent following in-game.
The second game continues the tradition of secondary and entirely optional distractions. While most of the TV shows are new, they are still written in the same entertaining manner as those in the first game.
The gameplay, in essence, hasn't changed much since the first game. The player takes control of either protagonist, and has to confront and eliminate groups of armed enemies who are not going to back down until they are all dead. The protagonist also essentially moves from point A to point B in a level. However, despite the simplicity of the gameplay, the journey from A to B can be a great experience thanks to the presentation of the game (as had been mentioned above) and some improvement in the combat.
Like Max in the first game, the two protagonists in this game are lean, mean killers who can take shots without losing momentum (unless they are in the way of explosives). The health system that governs their survivability returns from the first game: a portrait of their bodies with their backs turned to the screen denotes the amount of health that they have left, and this can be refilled with painkiller bottles that they can collect and keep for later use. If their health drops below 10%, it will regenerate to this level after a short time of not taking any fire from enemies.
Aiming is as easy as dropping the cursor over enemies and spraying away; the protagonists' fantastic skill with guns does the rest. There is a bit more recoil to certain weapons like the assault rifle than in the first game, but otherwise the weapons in Max Payne 2 are the usual modern-day firearm fare – and thus not really remarkable enough to note beyond them being quite reliable in what they do.
Also, as in the previous game, the protagonists have "walking armory" designs, in that they carry a tremendous amount of weaponry somewhere on their person. The PC version of Max Payne 2 doesn't seem to do much of anything different from the first game in the way of selecting weaponry: weapons are still placed under convenient categories that can be selected like a toggle.
There are notable changes to the ways that the protagonist can attack enemies with, though these won't impress players who were already avid followers of the shooter genre. The protagonist no longer needs to actively equip explosives and incendiaries to throw them, because they can now chuck these with a press of a button, not unlike what the Halo franchise has done. He/She can also perform a melee attack using the same button that throws said munitions if the player unbinds them from it, though this is at best just a novelty, as melee attacks are too weak to take anyone out in a jiffy. (It is worth noting here too that melee weapons like the first game's baseball bat are gone, though they would be hardly missed, considering how impractical they were.)
Like in the first game, there are a lot of cover pieces in the environments. While the sequel hasn't included much of any mechanics that allow the protagonists to make better use of cover (though AI-controlled enemies certainly will use them), it appears that the protagonists are more fluid at vaulting and jumping over low obstacles than Max was in the first game, thanks to the sequel's use of Havok physics. The use of Havok physics also allows enemies to be knocked down in a believable manner even if the shots that hit them weren't fatal, though this is at best a thematic improvement as it makes spotting dying enemies a bit harder.
The most notable changes in combat mechanics concern the changes in Bullet Time (which still bears Remedy's trademark). Like Max in the previous game, either of the protagonist (including Mona Sax) has the ability to enter a slow-motion mode in which everything but the protagonist's aim is significantly decelerated. The longer that the player character stays in this mode, the more Bullet Time "energy" that is expended, as depicted by the hourglass icon (that returns from the first game).
However, unlike the first game where the player must slay enemies to refill the hourglass, it now also slowly refills on its own, thus allowing more opportunities to use Bullet Time before the start of combat. Furthermore, unlike the first game, shoot-dodging does not cause the protagonist to waste time getting up after throwing himself/herself to the ground (and thus rendering him/her vulnerable to retaliation); as long as the player does not press any directional button, the player can have the protagonist lying down on the ground and shooting away.
Remedy has also included some designs to reward finesse. Killing enemies, either in Bullet Time or outside of it, gradually accelerates the protagonist's movement and the speed of his/her gunfire to normal rates, thus giving the player even more advantage over enemies. This is especially useful in the hairier moments of the game, where the game gives enemies the edge by placing them in advantageous locations, such as floors above the player character.
Outside of such scenarios though, the more careful and prudent of players would notice that enemies are rarely troublesome to the point where players need to use Bullet Time to overcome them. Of course, they are not brain-dead, but their AI scripts do not appear to be any more advanced than those used for enemies in the first game (with the exception of them being more eager to throw grenades and Molotov cocktails). They are difficult enough to give a semblance of a challenge, but they are otherwise yet more goons to blow through. Moreover, the new designs for Bullet Time would make it far easier than ever for a skilled player to bulldoze hordes of enemies.
There are a couple of boss fights in the game that are more challenging than the scenarios involving regular goons, but these are only so few.
Yet, fighting regular goons is not exactly a boring experience, as they have amusing and satisfactorily varied taunts. In addition, there is entertainment to be had from hearing out their banter before attacking them, as they have interesting things to say that tie into the progress of the story. This also happens to be one of the better parts of the first game, so it would be pleasant to a fan of the first game that it has been retained.
If the player is somehow hard-pressed, he/she would be glad to know that the designs of the default difficulty of the sequel (which is the only one available before the story mode is completed for the first time) still follows those of that in the previous game. A player that is not performing well and getting the player character slain carelessly left and right will find that the game deliberately increases the number of painkiller bottles that can be found in medicine cabinets, tables or kitchen counters (among other places that the wonder drugs can be found) and also hold back the AI scripts of enemies, making them more sluggish.
The environments in the game are expectedly set in a fictional (and darker) version of New York, and the events in the game are invariably set during the night. This thematic design is a carry-over from the first game, so it cannot be denied that there are limitations to the aesthetics of the levels that the player will play through. However, the environments are far from being recycled from one level to the next (though the enemies that the player will face certainly are): there are wide city streets to run (and gun) down, warehouses, cheap flats and apartments, theatres and an abandoned (and rather creepy) theme park.
(Of course, such environments would not do much to endear to those who are already tired of urban environments , though the product description of the game would have been fair warning.)
The graphics of the game would not have impressed those used to having the latest bells and whistles in the games that they want to play, though the graphics have definitely been designed to emphasize the noir themes of the game and are certainly better than those in the first game. Many places have dark and oppressive atmospheres, as noir environments tend to be. The shadowing and lighting effects in this game particularly contribute toward this.
In the previous game, kills are often presented with cinematic camera angles and a deliberate slow-down of the action to show off the motion-captured animations. This tribute to John Woo's direction of films would have been appreciated by the fans of his movies, but to others, it may be an annoyance, especially considering that the game takes the convenience of rendering the player character invulnerable to prevent him from being harmed during these scenes, which also take control away from the player. In the sequel, there are fewer of these cinematic kills, and they can be toggled off too if the player would rather not see any.
The graphic novel sequences of the first game were marred by the use of live actors who were too enthusiastic in their roles as the characters in the first game, not least of which was Sam Lake, the writer of the stories for both games and whose smirk was on Max's model in the first game. Of course, such problems were due to a tight budget that required some of the developers and writers to act out the graphic novel scenes.
The second game, fortunately, had more financing to license the use of better-looking persons for the in-game models and the scenes in the graphic novel, such as a certain Timothy Gibbs for Max's in-game looks. The result is much more serious and engaging graphic novel scenes compared to those in the first game. There are also more monologue, dialogue and music than sound effects, the opposite of which occurred for the previous game and which resulted in some scenes having a campy and corny impression when the sound effects do not reflect the occurrences in the panels. Overall, the graphic novel scenes in the sequel are much more in conciliation with the noir themes.
Like the first game, the sequel benefits from sound designs that go beyond the obligatory gunfire and explosions that are typically in shooter titles. Most of the voice talent from the first game returns, including Max's brooding voice-over. The voice-overs for the main story are plenty satisfactory in projecting its themes and the brevity of its plot, but perhaps the best voice-overs belong to the ones used for the TV shows interspersed throughout the game; the melodrama and campiness of these contrast amusingly with those for the main story, and yet the contrast would be one of the main draws of these distractions.
The soundtracks are the moody and melancholic sorts that one would expect from a story with noir themes. There are few upbeat soundtracks in the game (and these belong to said TV shows), and even tense scenes are accompanied with ominous, foreboding soundtracks instead of ones that suggest urgency. Of course, these soundtracks do appropriately contribute to the noir themes of the game.
Max Payne 2 is mainly a single-player experience, and completing the story mode would unlock additional modes that test the skill of the player. These difficulty designs were nothing new at the time. Then again, they are there for the fans who want to see if they can earn some recognition among other fans or who happen to be of the completionist persuasion.
One of the modes, the returning but redesigned New York Minute, requires the player to breeze through the game as quickly as possible to set and break time records for bragging rights; story-centric moments do not add to the time record, fortunately, for those who want to relive the story while striving for best times. Nonetheless, the time records that can be made can be rather unbelievable to those who do not know that the game reduces the time record for shooting down enemies.
Another mode, Dead Man Walking, is a survival mode where the player has to survive as long as possible against ever-respawning waves of goons. While this is fun for a while, this mode can exacerbate the impression that enemies in the game are recycled copies of themselves, regardless of their appearance.
The two higher difficulty modes introduced after the completion of the game for the first time takes away the adaptive difficulty and replace it with harsher odds, such as more enemies and less painkillers, though there does not seem to be any reward from playing it. The highest one outright restricts the number of saves that can be made in a level, though a small treat awaits fans that can persevere through this one.
In conclusion, Max Payne 2 may not seem like it is leaps and bounds above the first game in terms of gameplay, but much more improved presentation and more and better writing make for a terrific experience at living the next act of Max Payne's bittersweet story.