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View Full Version : Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne('s sales)


Kaielen
12-09-03, 04:32 AM
I started to go off on it in a traditional style...but I'm going to try something odd and keep the rage out of it, so...

WELCOME TO THE MAX PAYNE DIOLOGUE VISUALTEQUE!

Video games. They are at the heart of what we call "entertainment". They make coming home and sitting down something different when compared to the usual patterns of lieing on the couch and letting an endless wave of digital make believe turn our brains into a prehistoric goo.

Sometimes a great one comes out. One that makes us stop and stare in awe. One that breaks the conventionality of the daily grind and doesn't fade away in a New York minute. Max Payne. That's right. The very name makes us think of bullet time and a raspy voice speaking in cliches' wrapped in riddles that when broken down have absolutely no freaking meaning whatsoever.

Sequels. Like a bad sitcom spinoff they fester like a thorn in our trigger button thumb, making every action in our world a sharp pain that keeps us from being able to immerse ourselves in the world of our choosing, making the incessant static glare of the television stand out as if it were a rogue lighthouse, guiding hapless ships into a rocky grave at the bottom of the cold channel.

Flashbacks, Flashforwards, maybe even a Flashsideways, the sequel has bad dialogue, and a cheap imitation of the original sarcastic, hopeless, sleep deprived madman voice that greeted every new level. A feature added to save in the middle of a game, making victory over a horde of grenade tossing cleaning people cheap and petty, like getting your wife drunk before bedtime.

An attempt at the old hopeless feeling that misses and lands somewhere that gives us a feeling of utter contempt for the hero, instead of a feeling of pity and remorse, almost like you'd feel if you'd heard instead that the Little Engine that Could had derailed a zoo car full of baby seals so that he could make it those last few inches that he thought he could.

With a loading time at least 4 times every level, and two more added if you decide to skip the cheesy, poorly done and oft neglected comic strip storylines. Like a cheesy hentai there is a half done love scene between Max and a supposedly deceased heroin, leaving the reader with the feeling that he has just read a romance novel with every other page torn out. With the overuse of swear words and innuendos, the storyline gives the feeling that it was written by a Chicago hooker that forgot to turn on her red light.

Of one review I heard that the game will grow on you. Grow on you like a disease or tumor, slowly sucking your body of life. Stealing away like some half hidden demon on the verge of the shadows, only revealing itself when the time comes to end your misery so that you may burn in hell for all eternity.

Other than that the game wasn't bad!

P.S. Anyone who has played Max Payne (I hope) will understand the underlying joke in the way I wrote this rant. Yeah, it's cheesy, but so is Max Payne 2. Is anyone else as pissed off as me?

Nenjin
12-09-03, 07:04 AM
Quote:making victory over a horde of grenade tossing cleaning people cheap and petty, like getting your wife drunk before bedtime.



Reading that I was like, wtf is with all the painfully constructed metaphors, it's like they came out of some badly scripted detective novel written by some bitter alcoholic...

Then I remembered I played Max Payne too

Still haven't played MP2 though.
"Nothing in this world truly comes for free."

Kaielen
12-09-03, 07:18 AM
If only one person gets the joke, then it was worth my time.

EZ_Jeshter Daggerfury
12-09-03, 07:48 AM
Cheesiness aside, I enjoyed MP2's gameplay more than MP1.

Kaielen
12-09-03, 08:23 AM
I had no real problem with the gameplay since it was almost identical to MP1. I didn't complain about that. However, they completely changed Max's looks, voice, and mannerisms. The levels and storyline were cheesy, and it was WAY too dirty. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of R and higher ratings, but good God, don't rely on a little bit of soft core to get your game beyond the barrier.

In fact, the only improvements they made to the game was the fact that now, instead of having to select JUST the grenade or molotov cocktail to throw it, you can have it as a secondary weapon and now you can bash people with your weapon as well, but they throw so many guys at you so fast and with such reckless abandon, that you don't get a chance to bash them. The badguys ALWAYS know you're coming.

Also, why the hell can my MOM take a fall twice as far as Max and not get hurt, but it apparently breaks Max's legs and takes away half his freaking health. Also, I was completely lost as to where I was in the storyline after the first level. Return to the Ragnarok? Give me a break, make something NEW please! New characters at least, and maybe a bit more depth to the storyline. Like R.A. Salvatore, he ALWAYS gives you a new introduction to his characters, so that every single book can stand on its own without having to go back and read every single other one.

Without having played Max Payne 1, I wouldn't know what the hell was going on. It's a bit frustrating to say the least. Also, if you're going to require jumping and action like that in a game, then give me a bit more control over my jump and fall. Max could have an enemy break wind and he'd fall off a ledge and die. I hated that. I want to be able to run and jump through the air backwards and sideways and dodge bullets and blast badguys to hell, not have to play a half-crippled Lara Croft in a bad suit and tennis shoes.

Bleh.

I just have to say that I hope the PC version is better than PS2 version.

freonsmurf
12-09-03, 08:58 AM
Took me about 4 weeks of casual play to finish it. Could of finished it in two days if I was serious. Just uninstalled it last night.

One thing, with a DFzone mod the game was alot more fun. You could shoot a bullet, run to the bad guy and watch it the impact.

New york minute and the other mode are poor forms of extended replayability. Luckily there are some killer mods out there that make the game replayable.


This game is great for all the 11 year old console kiddies who missed the first release, but for PC its just another bland title for the holiday season.

Kaielen
12-09-03, 10:55 AM
I still say the bare boobie and the guy saying, "I'd @#%$ her" was a bit much. Lol. So sad, too...Max Payne had so much potential.

Elerion
12-09-03, 03:52 PM
I liked MP2 a lot. The story wasn't quite MP1, but that would have been a fricking miracle. The story was still decent, and the funhouse was so incredibly fricking cool on my first run through that it made up for any minor faults in the story. They changed his appearance? Yes they did, they added a bunch more polygons, and he has a different expression (actually, multiple expressions! GASP!), but it's still the same face. And is the voice different? If it was, I couldn't tell. The gameplay was significantly better, the bullet time system was so much smoother this time around. And are you really trying to suggest that the storytelling should be more R.A.Salvatore? Really? Ouch ;(

Lisboa
12-09-03, 04:00 PM
He doesn't look the same.

Elerion
12-09-03, 07:13 PM
patrick.lemaire3.free.fr/...e%2001.jpg
image.com.com/gamespot/im...een019.jpg

Same facial features (same jawbone, same nose, same chin), completely different expressions (oh noz he's not constantly constipated anymore!), different haircut, way way more polygons. That a bad thing? I remember Larry looking pretty different in Larry 1 and Larry 5 too.

freonsmurf
12-09-03, 07:46 PM
the dream cut scene crap that was un-skipable really sucked.

EZ_Dahne
12-09-03, 10:01 PM
After 3 minutes of watching my cousin play Max Payne, it was starting to get on my nerves. Maybe I'm just weird that way.

Nenjin
12-09-03, 11:01 PM
Quote:I remember Larry looking pretty different in Larry 1 and Larry 5 too.

Oh come on, you weren't watching Larry. o_0

Kaielen
12-10-03, 03:54 AM
I just think they could have developed the characters better.

The funhouse was alright, but the fact that every single badguy had a grenade and semi-automatic assault rifle was annoying.

There were no rat infested dives and no crazy junkies around every corner saying, "I think I died...I think I'm dead...Ahh...AAHHHHHH....uh..."

Plugging the rats with a shotgun was just all around good fun in MP1.

And, no, Max Payne looked totally different. I remember the half cocked smirk he used to wear...it was gone.

DarthEnderX
12-10-03, 12:18 PM
Maybe he's run out of Zoloft.

Kaielen
12-10-03, 12:49 PM
Me or Max?