Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
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| Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne | |
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| Developer(s) | Remedy Entertainment (Windows) Rockstar Vienna (Xbox, PS2) |
| Publisher(s) | Rockstar Games |
| Engine | MAX-FX 2.0 (Windows) RenderWare (PS2 and Xbox) |
| Version | 1.01 |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2 |
| Release date | October 15, 2003 (Windows) November 25, 2003 (Xbox) January 4, 2008 (Steam) December 2, 2003 (PS2) |
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: M BBFC: 15 USK: 18+ PEGI: 18+ OFLC: MA15+ |
| Media | 2 or 3 CD-ROMs (WIN) 1 DVD (Xbox, PS2) |
| System requirements | Windows
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| Input methods | Windows
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Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a third-person shooter developed by Finnish Remedy Entertainment for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 systems.
Max Payne 2 continues the story of Max Payne, a fugitive undercover cop framed for murder in New York City. The game, like its predecessor, borrows heavily from film noir mood and techniques, from stylistic cinematography to graphic novel style cutscenes and narration.
The Fall of Max Payne was published by Rockstar Games and the Windows version was released on October 15, 2003 with console versions following later. Despite critical acclaim and an enthusiastic fanbase, the game was met with lackluster sales upon its debut.[1]
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[edit] Gameplay
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In general, Max Payne 2 is easier than its predecessor. Max is more durable now while enemies tend to be weaker, except for two bosses. This change gave the a game a more arcade "run and gun" feel instead of slower careful pace of the original.
Other new challenges include the protection of other characters. Most of the game is through the view of Max but some parts switch to Mona Sax.
The second game again revolves around the bullet time, but the concept is more worked out. When Max shoots his enemies, his slow motion bar becomes a pale yellow. The darker the yellow, the slower time flows, with the exception of Max, who is in "normal" slow motion.
The A.I. is improved, and enemies will team up, or stay behind a door, waiting for you to jump through. If a grenade is thrown, the enemies will run away rather than stand around and wait for it to explode. Headshots now instantly kill an enemy, making the Desert Eagle a more effective weapon. As it is, the Desert Eagle can now be dual-wielded, when previously it could not.
Max's arsenal is also expanded. Some of the weapons from the predecessor are removed as new ones are added. A secondary weapon menu is also added, giving the player the option to use a melee attack, grenades, or Molotov cocktails in addition to their firearm. In the predecessor, grenades and Molotov cocktails were primary weapons, making them more dangerous and less effective for use. However, the addition of a secondary weapon option made these more viable choices.
[edit] Changes from Max Payne
[edit] Graphics
Max Payne 2 features a massive graphical upgrade over that of the original game, including higher resolution textures, high polygon count models, and a facial animation system. Shader 1.1 effects have been implemented, in reflections and high detail shadows. In the original game, the characters' model only had several static facial expression that would snap from one to the other in an instant. Max Payne 2 makes fun of this and other elements of the original game in an in-game TV show in which the narrator, Dick Justice, says "I had a permanent constipated grimace on my face". The facial animation system allows for a multitude of facial expressions, so this is no longer an issue.
In the original game, most of the cast were played by the game's programmers and their friends. Professional actors were used in the sequel's still-photo cutscenes . For example, in the original game the character of Max Payne was modeled after game designer Sam Lake. For Max Payne 2, however, Remedy instead used actor Timothy Gibbs as the model for Max Payne. The voice of Max Payne was again provided by actor James McCaffrey. The face and body of Mona Sax was based on that of a professional model, Kathy Tong.
[edit] Bullet-time
Max Payne 2 introduced 'Bullet-time 2.0'. Whereas the Bullet-time effect merely slowed down time in the original game, in this one it also can increase Max's movement speed, firing rate and re-load speed. Bullet-time does not initially slow time as much as it did in Max Payne, but the player can increase its effects by killing enemies while in bullet-time, to the point where Max is able to move and fire at normal speeds while the world around him is barely moving. Some fans complain that the new bullet-time is not a simulation of heightened reflexes as it was in the original Max Payne, but has become more of a Matrix-style super-power.
Bullet-time in Max Payne 2 is not as scarce a resource as it was in the original, because it regenerates over time instead of only when the player kills an enemy. Additionally, shoot-dodges no longer cost any bullet-time at all to perform.
Max can now reload during bullet-time, doing a special rotating 360 degree turn that takes less time than a normal reload.
[edit] Physics
One of the most notable improvements to Max Payne 2 over the original is the inclusion of so-called "Havok physics." Max Payne 2 is one of the first games to use the Havok physics engine 1.0, enabling sophisticated collision handling for ragdolls and rigid bodies, making interactions between the player and various objects feel more authentic. Most loose objects in Max Payne 2 have their own weight and mass and can be manipulated or knocked around. Ragdoll physics allows dead bodies to interact realistically with the world geometry and contort into realistic positions. In addition, an enemy body will fall in different positions varying on where and how rapidly the player shoots them.
[edit] Soundtrack
The Fall of Max Payne features a single titled "Late Goodbye" from the Finnish rock group Poets of the Fall. The song is based on a poem written by Sam Lake.[2]It plays during the game's end credits, and several characters in the game also sing or hum snippets of the song to themselves during the game. One character, a "cleaner", is even seen playing a piano version of a part of the song during the game.
The game generally does not have any music for most of the action sequences, although there are a few major musical themes that play during cutscenes or particularly intense shootouts. Major themes include a slower variation of the original Max Payne theme, a new action/love theme for cooperative firefights with Max and Mona, and finally a new version of the "nightmare" theme for nightmares and scenes involving the game's main villain.
The cello in the main theme of Max Payne 2 was performed by Perttu Kivilaakso, one of the cello players from the cello rock group Apocalyptica.[3]
[edit] Characters
- Max Payne - Max Payne is the main character, a homicide detective working for the NYPD (formerly DEA), to which he was transferred after all the incidents in the first game. After meeting Mona Sax in a gun workshop owned by Vladimir Lem, he is assigned to find out who is behind the Squeaky Cleaning Company, a group of shadowy assassins that form one side in an oncoming gang war. Max's partner is Detective Winterson, who is meanwhile assigned to solve a murder case involving a Senator. Her case suspect is Mona Sax; for an unsaid reason, Mona is helping Max to find out who is trying to kill him. In critical and commercial circles, Max Payne has been cited as an exceptionally developed video game character, with his behaviour encompassing the exaggerated action of his situation and developing with it.[4]
- Mona Sax - Mona, a character from the previous game, and the tragic love interest of Max in this game, is the suspect in the murder of Max and Winterson's Senator Sebastian Gate, an investigation assigned to Detective Valerie Winterson, Max's new partner. After Max stumbles on Mona during a case he aids her repeatedly instead of turning her over to the police, though he is repeatedly warned. Together, Max and Mona discover a gang war within New York's criminal underground, apparently instigated by Vinnie Gognitti over the black market gun trade. Mona teams up with Max at various points in the game and is a playable character for four missions. She is later revealed to be hired by Alfred Woden to kill Vladamir Lem, anyone in the Inner Circle associated with Vlad, & Max, but due to her feelings for Max, she cannot do so. She is later shot by Vlad and dies in Max's arms (or survives, depending on the difficulty level).
- Vladimir "Vlad" Lem - Vlad is the main villain who opposes Max. At first Max is a friend of Vlad's, even saving Vlad from Vinnie during a raid on his new restaurant, Vodka. However after visiting Alfred Woden, Max finds out Vlad is the leader of the Cleaners and is trying to kill him. Max then spends the rest of the game trying to find and kill Vlad. Eventually, Vlad meets Max at Woden's mansion. At the end of the game, Vlad is killed by Max in a firefight between the two when Max shoots the support wires holding up the huge platform that Lem is standing on and sends it and Lem plumeting to the ground. Lem dies almost instantly. He was a member of the Inner Circle and Woden's one-time apprentice before breaking away into his own faction. His catchphrase is "Dearest of all my friends. .. ", which he sarcastically uses upon nearly everyone, including his enemies.
- Vincent "Vinnie" Gognitti - Vinnie Gognitti is the leader of the mobsters and Vlad's rival. Max encounters Vinnie at Vlad's restaurant (his first encounter being in a hotel in the first game) in which Vinnie has staged an attack and is trying to kill Vlad. Vinnie is also a fan of the Captain Baseballbat Boy cartoons. That would later lead to his demise as Max bumps into Vinnie finding him trapped in a Captain Baseballbat Boy costume in which Vlad has placed a bomb that will go off if Vinnie tries to get out of the costume. Having both been tricked by the Russian, Max and Vinnie make a truce, and Max protects Vinnie while Vlad's men try to kill them. Eventually, they escape to the abandoned theme park to find Mona, but instead find Vlad with the detonator in hand. Vlad shoots Max in the head and detonates the bomb inside the costume, killing Vinnie.
- Alfred Woden - Woden is a one-eyed leader of the Inner Circle, an elderly criminal mastermind dying of cancer. He hired Mona to kill Max. Vlad, a former protege of Woden, intends to kill him to take over the organisation. Max, Vlad and Mona all arrive at his mansion while he is safe in his panic room. After Vlad shoots Mona, Woden emerges from the hideout, apparently motivated by his conscience, apologizes to Max, and attempts to attack Vlad, but is killed.
- Detective Valerie Winterson - Winterson is Max's co-worker and partner, and mother of a blind son. She has an affair with Vlad, but hides it and later agrees to kill Max and Mona for Vlad. However, while attempting to so, she is gunned down by Max. Just before fainting, she manages to shoot him. She dies shortly before arriving at the hospital.
- Jim Bravura - Lieutenant Jim Bravura is Max's boss and former deputy chief of police (he arrested Max during the end of the first game). Being fed up with Max's cooperation with Mona and interrupting Winterson's case, he assigns Max to a desk job. When Max is attempting to escape the hospital, he finds Bravura in the lobby. Bravura suspects that Max killed Winterson and tells Max to stay out. While he is talking to Max, the Cleaners open fire, hitting Bravura several times. If Max turns on the TV in Woden's office, a news report will confirm that Bravura has survived the attack.
[edit] Modeling and voice
- Max Payne was modeled after Timothy Gibbs, and voiced by James McCaffrey
- Mona Sax was modeled after Kathy Tong and voiced by Wendy Hoopes
- Vladimir Lem was modeled after Peter Giles and voiced by Jonathan Davis
- Vinnie Gognitti was modeled after Stephen Gregory and voiced by Fred Berman
- Jim Bravura was modeled after Michael Arkin and voiced by Vince Viverito
- Valerie Winterson was modeled after Andrea Leigh and voiced by Jennifer Server
- Alfred Woden was modeled after Edward James Hyland and voiced by John Braden
[edit] Plot summary
Two years after the events of the first game, Max is a NYPD detective. While investigating a series of murders by a group of hitmen known as The Cleaners, Max comes face-to-face with Mona Sax, who was thought to have been killed in the first game. When he returns to the station, he hears his new partner, Valerie Winterson, talking on the phone about Mona. Soon after, the station is attacked by unknown assassins looking for Mona. After fighting off the assassins, Max begins hunting down the people responsible for the attack.
The search leads him to a construction site, where he and Mona defend themselves against these same hitmen. After the hitmen stop coming, Detective Winterson arrives and holds Mona at gunpoint. Mona claims that Winterson is there to kill her, and after several moments of consideration, Max shoots Winterson, allowing Mona to escape. Before she dies, Winterson shoots Max, putting him in the hospital.
After Max leaves the hospital, he finds Mona, and together, they begin looking for answers. Max gets answers after he is captured by Vladimir Lem, head of the Russian mob. Max learns that The Cleaners work for Lem, removing competition to his various businesses. He then learns that Lem is part of the Inner Circle with Alfred Woden, who ensured that the charges against Max were dropped at the end of the last game. Lem wants to kill Woden and gain control of the Inner Circle. He also learns that Mona is a hired gun for Woden, with orders to kill Lem and Max. Finally, he learns that Detective Winterson was Lem’s mistress, for which Max is shot and left for dead in a burning building. Mona rescues Max, and together, they go to Woden’s mansion to try to save him from Lem.
At the mansion, Mona knocks Max to the ground in an attempt to follow her orders to kill him, but discovers that her feelings for him keep her from doing so. Lem appears and shoots Mona. Woden then appears and lunges at Lem, resulting in Woden’s death. Max and Lem then begin to fight, while the mansion begins to burn around them. Eventually, Lem is killed as the floor under him collapses. Max returns to Mona’s side as the police arrive, where she dies in his arms. If the game is played on higher dificulties, she survives.
[edit] Sequels
- See also: Max Payne#Sequels and spin-off
The end credits of the game explicitly hint at a video game sequel with the line "Max Payne's journey through the darkness will continue", and a Max Payne 3 has been confirmed by the developers as in the pipeline.[5][6]
[edit] References
- ^ Guttridge, Luke (2004-02-03). Max Payne 2 sales 'disappoint'. Play.tm. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
- ^ POTF - Poets of the Fall - Lyrics - Late Goodbye
- ^ Game Credits for Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
- ^ http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/maxpayne/player_review.html?id=409374 Max Payne "was as much a tale of blood bathed revenge as it was a study of Max’s sane but confused psyche"
- ^ Take-Two confirms Max Payne 3. gamespot.com. Retrieved on 21 May 2008.
- ^ Max Payne 3 hinted for 2009. play.tm. Retrieved on 21 May 2008.
[edit] External links
