selenicseas

Purchased through: Steam

Hours played: 6 (game complete)

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is the 2003 sequel to 2001's Max Payne. The game uses the same engine, with improved graphics, in-engine cutscenes, a fancy reload animation while in combat, and rather amusing ragdoll physics. There are still plenty of graphic novel sequences with voiceovers like in the first game.

I did not need any mods to run this game; it worked just fine loading it from Steam (well, aside from it popping up on my second monitor at first). Given that it was released in 2003, it ran just fine using the integrated graphics on my PC's CPU rather than the GPU. It should run just fine on any relatively modern laptop.

There are actual subtitles in this game, although if multiple groups are talking – voices on TV and voices of NPCs in the area – then the subtitles seem to default to the TV voices. Fortunately, this only happens a few times and the conversations really aren't too important.

A flamingo on a television saying 'Mirrors are more fun than television'.

One difference from the original Max Payne is that there are multiple television shows to watch – Dick Justice, Lords and Ladies, Captain Baseballbat Boy, and Address Unknown. All of them comment on the events in Max's life in some way.

That pink flamingo above is from Address Unknown. A very similar pink flamingo shows up in Control.

A graphic novel sequence where Max listens to Address Unknwon on the television while having a breakdown.

Also from Address Unknown is John Mirra, the evil doppelganger of the protagonist (also named John) who kidnaps John's girlfriend. This all happens in Noir York City.

If you've played Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2, this should all seem pretty familiar.

Combat definitely felt easier in this game – or maybe I just got used to it. Overall, I'd say that Max Payne 2 was a definite improvement on the first game, despite being shorter and having a harder plot to follow.