Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

What made the first Max Payne game so amazing was the unique approach to the concept. While the story was tired and the game play rather quick, it was still a very worthwhile game to play. It had something about it that made you want to get to the end. The sequel was no-where near as compelling.

From the onset, the game takes the protagonist through the same sorts of issues he dealt with the first time. And while that isn't something new, character flaws are what make for good drama, it felt like nothing new had been added. In the first game, SPOLIER, Max Payne loses his family and wants to discover the truth. In this second one, he seems to basically be out to find the truth, but to what end? The story seemed hollow, Max was just a shadow of the man he'd been before. It seems trite, at best, from beginning-to-end.

The game play itself seemed exactly the same, and while that's great with games with great stories, on this one, it just seemed like I was doing the same thing, just with different backgrounds. I am sure there were new features implemented in this, but since I never used Bullet Time before, I never saw a reason to use it here either. Maybe that did make the game better, who's to say?

The overall style and feel is true to the original, and that makes it worth playing, but as sequels go, this truly was just that, greatly falling short of its predecessor.