Decent game but overall stepdown from the original

+The game is just fun to play

+A lot of the things that i like in the original are here,the bullet projectiles,bullet time,comic intermissions,wide variety of settings with a similar overall aesthetic (last game was snowing this game is raining)

+Plenty of quality of life changes

+Way better graphics than the original,especially physics wise,now you have good ragdolls and every object has physics,not only being fun but also serving a purpose in combat as cover.

+The new bullet time mechanic is cool af,dodging bullets matrix like will never not be dope

+There are some pretty cool levels like the dreams or part 2 finale

-Game is WAY to easy,the new bullet time mechanic is cool af,is way to op,you can basically always suffer no damage since you can dodge bullets because they are projectiles.you dont have to be half as paranoid and alert as in the first game and that was one of my fav things about it

-Game is way to short,even the last one was a little short,this one is a whole 2 hours shorter,this is the reason for a lot of the errors that the game has

-You get almost all of the guns out of the bat,making progression almost non existent,this also makes some guns unviable or useless,like why would i ever use the double berretas when i have double deagle,and why would i use the double deagles when i have double ingrams and why would i use the double ingrams if i have the ak 47,or did you remember that you had a sniper rifle with max?,they nerfed tf out of it in this game putting it with more than 5 bullets in like the last level,and in that level it isnt that useful.

-That ties to another problem that is that the new guns feel to samey,like the mp5 apart from the scope has the same use that the ak,also the m4 feels way too like the ak,and you get way more bullets in the ak so you will never use it,double barrel shotty is still trash,melee is useless,you most of the time will be using the same 3 or 4 guns and the explosives

-They give you way to many consumables,making surviving and managing resources a joke,especially with the painkillers,i basically have whole health near full playthrough with painkillers to spare,or with the ammo that you can pretty much just use 2 weapons for the whole playthrough if you wanted

-That also ties to another problem is that projectiles just kind of suck,since they give you like ten of them at all times they have to nerfed them and neither of them one shot enemies so most of the time they only serve to finish of enemies,shot them while they are stunlocked or to throw multiples at a choke point

-Way too many characters introduced,most of them dont get any progression or screentime,and are killed off in a matter of minutes,making them forgettable and take time of the story.

-One of the best things of the original game was the amount of intricate metaphores and funny liner or moments,and this game just doesnt have a lot of that,it takes itself too seriously and is too linear in its writing

-The romance story line can get a little annoying sometimes

Overall,even though i gave it a lot of shit,it still has fun to play gameplay and an decent story
Light 7 to Decent 7

I mean, it's almost as if they traveled forwards in time, read my review of the first game, saw the things I wished were improved, saw the things I didn't like, and just improved all of them.

The gameplay feels so much tighter than the first one, the graphics are frankly beautiful, the voice acting is better, even the story is better. My biggest issue with the first game's story was how generic it was due to it being so influential to future games. This game, while it still has some classic beats of detective thrillers and crime dramas, had a much more compelling and unique story. I was engaged the entire time.

This is also where you can start to really see the Remedy branding come in to play. The first game had a lot of features that are absolutely reminiscent of modern Remedy, but this is where you really see that flower blooming. Specifically, the various TV spots like Lords and Ladies and Address Unknown really add so much character, there are so many fun dream sequences/set pieces, and without spoiling anything, the Vincent Gognitti part screamed Remedy.

I described the first game as having a lot of potential to be one of my favorite games of all time if the remake irons out my issues with it. I dare say that Max Payne 2 COULD be on that favorites list, and I will say with certainty that it's going on my Honorable Mentions list as soon as I post this review.

Review EN/PTBR

Max Payne 2 really followed up the legacy of the first game, so much so that they even made bullet time much more fun, however, I still prefer the story of the first game.

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Max Payne 2 realmente seguiu muito bem o legado do primeiro jogo, tanto que até fizeram o bullet time muito mais divertido, porém, ainda prefiro a história do primeiro jogo.

eu pensei que ia gostar menos desse, já que eu tinha perdido o interesse quando joguei pela primeira vez uns anos atrás, mas dessa vez acabei me divertindo. foi interessante observar os pontos fortes do primeiro jogo sendo expandidos, como a tatilidade dos cenários, os combates divertidos e a história (geralmente) bem escrita. tais pontos não foram expandidos ao ponto de tornarem max payne 1 obsoleto, mas acaba tornando o segundo jogo como a sua própria coisa, quase que divorciados entre si, seja por bem (como os combates mais frenéticos e o aumento de objetos interativos no cenário) ou por mal (o camp perdido com o aumento do orçamento e a narrativa que mantém a boa escrita mas se torna mais esparsa).

self-loathing as a broken funhouse mirror, distorting and reflecting back everything you hate about yourself; you see it everywhere; on billboards, on tv, in everyone else. It all seems to reaffirm the ugliness you see in yourself; you can run from it but it'll always be there, right behind you. The only way to escape is to confront the man in the mirror, to look at the twisted parody you've become and choose to do something about it; as max says "It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free"

a masterpiece

Marvelously written, Sam. Beautiful balancing of idiosyncratic Runyonesque darkly-comedic screenwriting onto hard-hitting, sentimentally drowning Shakesperean tragedy. Every swing hits to the chest in the best-worst way possible for majestic Noir glory. Technologically polished too, added physics and guntotting madness for our trigger-happy amusement which just clicks abundantly satisfying to distract us from the emotional damage. Seems awfully more downing if we say goodbye to Sam Lake's Payne from here onto the Rockstar sendoff. There's no reason for that incredible catharsis that final Poets of the Fall needle drop to hit so tremendously by the end. The witchcraft of evocative storytelling.