Cada jogo dessa saga foi jogado em uma fase diferente da minha vida, então é um grande desafio decidir um favorito. Sobre esse meu último capítulo, tenho a impressão que ele engloba perfeitamente dois aspectos que amo.

O jogo é do final de 2003. Antes mesmo de Half-Life 2, temos foco nos cenários com física, interatividade e simulação. E o jogo é da Remedy.

Sinto falta de um pouco do "amadorismo" do primeiro jogo, mas as séries de TV (que parecem se conectar até mesmo com Alan Wake 2), a escrita, a trilha sonora e a ambientação linda são como uma exposição do charme do Sam Lake. A dublagem e as cenas de quadrinhos me pegam tanto que tô até produzindo uma paródia. Pena que há tantos cenários repetidos, ao invés de termos mais e mais dessas exposições maravilhosas.

É muito bom, mas falta alguma coisa.

Gun mecanics are simply WONDERFUL. The bullet time is straight on point, and the level design is precise enough to create an action game in which you feel endangered. Guns are varied, so are the situations and objectives. One mission is an escort mission, another one is a sniper assist mission, another one features a lot of plateforming, another one is a giant ghost train featuring small puzzles, another one is a race to find back your weaponery...

Characters are iconic and quite well written. It is as goofy as parodistic as... I don't know, serious? Sam Lake does seem to be serious about it... Boss fights are great, mise-en-scène is inspired. The pace is 20/20, the game length is ideal. Art direction is strong even nowadays.

I see no reason for you not to play except the PC version is, apparently, bad. Like really bad.

awesome! while this is a shorter experience than the first game, its packed with tightly designed gameplay and a more fleshed out story. the gunplay feels a bit more refined. better hit detection and whatnot. it just feels good to play! bullet time is very cool. the introduction of mona gives max a foil, and her involvement gives max a reason to push on. i had a good time! i think i prefer the alan wake games, but that's not to dismiss these. they're rock solid action games. looking forward to the third one! (i understand why sam lake isn't max payne anymore but i miss him)

Starting to realize that I just don't gel with Remedy's style, be it 20 years ago or today (up to Control, I haven't played Alan Wake 2 yet). I'd only ever played the first Max Payne prior and found it pretty mid but assumed that the sequel would deliver the experience everyone claims to have had back when. It was, against all odds, a bit worse.

I could write an entire diatribe taking MP2's story apart, why it fails at being noir or whatever sort of subversion it believes itself to be, and why its legacy is entirely a product of nostalgia for a time when games that so much as attempted any kind of consistent tone were a rarity. Maybe I will someday, but not today. Point is what's here is stupid. Max is a moron. Mona sucks. Everyone else is irrelevant.

The tour of locations you go on is less visually varied than the first game's while also playing worse. You like hallways? What if they were in a funhouse that only a tween gifted an M-rated game would find impressive? How about escorting an obnoxious stereotype in a mascot suit? Sometimes you're given a bigger space to get shot in, which only serves to make you wish the hallways would return faster.

And god, the gunplay. I know good and damn well there were better third person shooter options in 2003, I played them! No amount of slow-mo or John Woo dives makes this gunplay feel good, and the platforming can go straight to hell. Fucking Dead to Rights has a better system and that game shouldn't be a benchmark of anything beyond how to handle animal companions (functionally an airstrike).

I remember people being super pissed about MP3 being completely different. Maybe that one's actually good. I won't be in a hurry to find out.