Max payne 2(sort of spoiler)

[davi]

I have to say, this is an insanely fun game... very very short but they did alot of new things that max payne 1 didn't touch. I really hope people make mods for it because it really seems that max payne 2 just layed down the foundation for a good engine.

Here's a screen shot teaser for people that are interested in the game

http://www.creatureone.com/non/mona.jpg

[MrMojo]

I heard from a lot of people that it's uber short, with a pretty bad story and is basically Max Payne 1 with better graphics. Is that true? Do they even have a demo for it?

[Payback]

I don't care if it's another Daikatana... I played the first one five times over, so there's no questions really.

[Wetterschneider]

I've been playing it for a couple of hours each day it doesn't seem to short to me - maybe because I like replaying certain dynamic sequences to try different strategies and watch the awesome physics engine do it's thing over and over again in slow mo.

The interiors look beautiful and I like the "boss" character titling. Where is the multiplayer?

[davi]

i wouldn't say the story is bad, alittle drawn out. I really like how unique each mission is, they did a very well job there.


i think it's one of the coolest engines out right now, but i can't picture people mod'ing quality mods for it since the single player won't catch on too well.

I'd die to see a ww2 single player game with bullet time.


what bugs me about max payne 2 is that the game MAFIA came out like 2 years before it and it really doesn't even come close to bring as much content as mafia did.

It would have been nice if there were car chases and such in the game. They have tons of car in cut-scenes but you never get a chance to drive. In MAFIA the world is much larger and free to roam around. you didn't have to stick to the writen path every time. You'd think that would be impossible since max payne's story line is so hardlined but so is MAFIA's.

Here's a matrixy screenshot

http://www.creatureone.com/non/mona2.jpg

[Neil]

I posted my review on another forum but from what I gathered my personal impressions. I've played most major games over the last few years so thats what I based comparisons on and games and that are due on the next year.

1) Graphics are amazing. Texture mapping is probably best out right now short of Half Life 2, the flame, fire and other effects are nothing short of spectacular.

2) The bullet time effect is better this time and when you kill more enemies the slower time moves for the enemies and faster for you. Its really great. Also when you reload you do his crazy spin move which I love but I can see some people will say it gets old after a while.

3) The voice acting is good, actually above average for what you usually get in games. I'm not too crazy about how he pronounces some of his words sometimes and he seems at times to emphasize the wrong parts of a sentence.

4) Speed. Wow amazing but this game with all options turned to full and on a decent resolution runs near flawlessly on a GF4 card. Thats good coding for you. Take halo as comparison which has worse visuals and chugs on the same card. Its really about the polishing.

5) The story. Well its a love story albeit a bit twisted. *SPOILER*


There is of course your typical bad dude but there are some twists thrown in, not anything too spectacular because I was able to guess what the twists would be fairly early on. However I actually by the end really did have a connection with Mona Sax as a character and thats what a good story is about. I usually get this connection in RPGs like Baldur's Gate or with Half Life and Gordon Freeman for example.

6) Artwork. The cutscenes have a very great gritty style to them and I believe having a comic book no animation approach worked well. The drawback was they were a bit long at times. Also the game was a bit confusing in the beginning.

7) The actual difficulty. Well lets see it took me about 1 day and 8hrs to beat the game. Once you beat it, thats it. There are more difficulties unlocked but no other modes other than a timed mode. I understand multiplayer is next to impossible with everyone having bulletmode, it would just be rediculous but at least add a map single player mode where u can play against bots or something. Very disappointed in the easy beat.


I dont understand how anyone can compare it to Diakatona. It doesnt make sense as Diakatona was a game that took longer to produce than the company said and when it came out it was years dated. As far as I've seen MP 2 came out exactly on schedule and far exceeded what I thougtht it would be except for the length of it.


I'm glad you mentioned Mafia davi. That was a spectacular game IMO with possibly one of the best intro sequences in all of gaming history again IMO. I really loved that game and I thought that Mafia as good as it was could have been better. I had a big list of suggestions for it. Hopefully they will make it very nonlinear with multiple paths if they make another one. I was really letdown by their "extras" after you beat the game. I was hoping for a world where you climb the crime ladder by quests or perhaps can be a policeofficer where you can take down criminals if you desired or even switch gang sides and start gang wars etc.

But yeah it would have been nice to actually use some cars or have a more open world in Max Payne 2. Very very few games are nonlinear, only ones that come close in my mind are the GTA series or some RPGs.

[davi]

I completely agree with basicly everything you said.

The main thing i like about the reload bullet time spin is that you get a full view of the room.

as for MAFIA, the extras at the end of the game was kind of boring but i mean...... at least it had it! It was alittle boring though, I really wish the game had a 'hidden package' type feature, but that would have too similar to gta.

I mean mafia even had the cool side roll that would be similar for max payne fans.

I suggest picking up MAFIA instead of max payne 2 if you are looking for a new game to pick up. It's like a year 2, but it doesn't show, probably better graphics than 90% of the newer games anyways.

[K-10]

If you guy's are looking for a nonlinear game, try Deus Ex, it's not as nonlinear as GTA and the engine is from Unreal (the first game) but it has a certan roleplay feel to it.

Try it out, you wont be disapointed

[Payback]

I think the story in Max Payne made up for the loss in hours of gameplay cause it's such a great story, and the design is (or was) so original (when it comes to games anyway).

I like to see Max Payne more like a very interactive movie or comic book if you will, than a game. :D

[Neil]

Yup deux ex was good game and the sequel is coming out soon too. Will def get that when it comes out.

I'd really like to see a full Max Payne 2 world with people in the streets and a city you can wander instead of just levels but itd probably come on a couple dvds :D

[davi]

it really bugs me that games like this don't have a random level generator of some sort.

it wouldn't be that hard honestly, just a bunch of streets, maybe a few open garages and a few unique objects around like vans and such + Misc scattered bad guys.

The game vietcong had a feature like this. The levels weren't randomly done but they would randomly put enemies in the map, so each time you would play it, the game play would be unique.

[Skank]

i loved this game
i blitzed thru it the first da i got it, but i had a complete blast doing so =) im on my second way thru it now on hard boiled.

and i agree, this game steps it up with the amazing physics ("rag doll" engine i think they call it) and overall graphics. you can knock shit over, shoot stuff out of the way, HAVE stuff shot out from in front of you (hehe, pesky AI) and bullet time 2.0 is great! it refills for you the faster you kill your opponents and gives you more of an edge.

i must say the MP5 was my fav weapon =)

great game, very fun to play