"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
God, this turned out to be such a relatable game and also a great follow up to the original Max Payne. It had been years that I had been familiar with the first game, it was the first game I ever played as a kid and I eventually went back to it, enjoyed it and had a sense of nostalgic bias for it. It made me fall in love with Sam Lake as a writer and an industry icon. I had heard from certain corners of the internet that it's sequel was a "fall from grace" and quite literally "the fall of Max Payne," but having played it now... where were they even coming from?
It goes above and beyond what the first did, the narrative is much more hard-hitting, the gameplay is an insane improvement over the first and the style is so refined that it's very easy to notice the birth of Remedy's signature in gaming. Fragmented answers, mind fuckery and some ambitious level design that would go on to solidify Remedy's identity.
I think that, overall, this is a very important shooter, a milestone in the third-person shooter genre. While sometimes bullet time can be a broken mechanic and some of the design choices are a bit questionable, I think that for it's time it was ahead of it's time. The ragdoll physics are really good, Max Payne feels even more unstoppable than in the first, the weapon selection is pretty good and the atmosphere is genuinely amazing. The world feels so lived in, the NPCs have these long conversations that seem never ending that really adds depth to the world and the dialogue is genuinely really good when it comes to the NPCs and of course, the overall writing. Payne is still as dark, gritty and serious as he was in the first, reciting things in metaphors never gets old. I don't know if I can even go back to the original Max Payne, even when I had nostalgic bias for it, Max Payne 2 just completely dethroned it in every aspect.
A great sequel, something Sam Lake seems to have a knack for considering how good Alan Wake II turned out to be, and this marks probably the last Remedy game I will be able to play for awhile so I'm really hoping that Control 2 holds out this insane trend of Sam Lake and sequels.
God, this turned out to be such a relatable game and also a great follow up to the original Max Payne. It had been years that I had been familiar with the first game, it was the first game I ever played as a kid and I eventually went back to it, enjoyed it and had a sense of nostalgic bias for it. It made me fall in love with Sam Lake as a writer and an industry icon. I had heard from certain corners of the internet that it's sequel was a "fall from grace" and quite literally "the fall of Max Payne," but having played it now... where were they even coming from?
It goes above and beyond what the first did, the narrative is much more hard-hitting, the gameplay is an insane improvement over the first and the style is so refined that it's very easy to notice the birth of Remedy's signature in gaming. Fragmented answers, mind fuckery and some ambitious level design that would go on to solidify Remedy's identity.
I think that, overall, this is a very important shooter, a milestone in the third-person shooter genre. While sometimes bullet time can be a broken mechanic and some of the design choices are a bit questionable, I think that for it's time it was ahead of it's time. The ragdoll physics are really good, Max Payne feels even more unstoppable than in the first, the weapon selection is pretty good and the atmosphere is genuinely amazing. The world feels so lived in, the NPCs have these long conversations that seem never ending that really adds depth to the world and the dialogue is genuinely really good when it comes to the NPCs and of course, the overall writing. Payne is still as dark, gritty and serious as he was in the first, reciting things in metaphors never gets old. I don't know if I can even go back to the original Max Payne, even when I had nostalgic bias for it, Max Payne 2 just completely dethroned it in every aspect.
A great sequel, something Sam Lake seems to have a knack for considering how good Alan Wake II turned out to be, and this marks probably the last Remedy game I will be able to play for awhile so I'm really hoping that Control 2 holds out this insane trend of Sam Lake and sequels.