Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Preview

Developer	Remedy Entertainment
Publisher	Rockstar Games
Genre	Action
Release Date	11/3/03

The game that spawned a wave of slow motion, bullet time-imitating copycats is back to show the competition how it's really done. But can Remedy do it?

When Remedy Entertainment released Max Payne for the PC, they were expecting to do okay. They put together a game that they thought, had what it took to compete with the big boys of the business. But never once did they believe that they would enjoy the success that they ended up achieving. Max Payne, which was released first on the PC (with the Xbox and PS2 versions following up) sold a worldwide total of 4 million copies.

Why was Max Payne such a success? Several reasons, if you ask us. The most prominent of Payne's features was the now-abused use of "bullet time" gameplay; a mechanic that players could use to slow down time around them while Max still moved in real time. For one, it looked insane, and it felt equally satisfying. We also think that Max Payne's sad, gritty tale of deception and murder helped to lure gamers in. The mature themes were indeed something that made gamers feel totally immersed in the dark world that Max Payne was forced to live in. We felt sorry for Max, and we wanted to see him get his revenge.

It's been more than two years, and Remedy Entertainment has been hard at work on the new Max Payne sequel. But if the developers are going to surprise the world again, they're going to have to do a lot more than tweak around their "bullet time" gameplay mechanics. And though the jury is still out until it's December release, we're pretty much convinced that not only will Max Payne 2 match the impact of it's predecessor, it may very well surpass it.

Why Do Fools Fall in Love?
One of the biggest surprises that remedy springs on GWX is the idea behind Max Payne 2. Of all things, The Fall of Max Payne is a love story. But not just any love story. A dark love story. Tragedy is the one cloud that has been hanging above Max Payne since his first adventure, but here, it's taken to a whole new level. Allow us to explain.

Max Payne is guilty of killing his partner. For once, the accusations against him are true. Emerging from his first endeavor looking like a hero (thanks in large part to Senator Alfred Woden), Payne leaves his DEA job in favor of taking up his former position in the New York Police Department (which would make Lt. Bravura -- the guy that was after Payne in the first game -- his boss). Working mostly in homicides, Max stumbles onto a case that involves the professional killer, Mona Sax. Believed to have been dead, Payne discovers that Sax is the prime suspect in the case. He also discovers just how much he wants her. Dangerous? Certainly. And that's why we're intrigued.

Bigger, Better, and More
It sounds cliché, but the "bigger, better, more" labels really do apply to Max Payne 2. For one, Remedy has access to a much bigger budget, as well as the New York GTA production team, that handles the voices, motion capture, facial digitization, etc. In the first Max Payne, Remedy was very limited, and the character models were from friends and relatives of the Remedy staff more often than not (Max Payne and Max Payne 2 writer Sam Lake was the model for Max in the first game).

What has a bigger budget gotten them? A stunning piece of work, graphically, for one. Remedy has been able to add loads of new visual tricks by rewriting their own graphics engine. There are now facial animations, as well as much more effective light and shadow. The whole picture is just that much better that we don't think we'd be able to go back to looking at the first game. It's like night and day. Where there was one initial expression of Max in the first game, there will now be full facial animation. The team is also utilizing a licensed physics engine (the Havoc rag-doll engine).

In all, how does The Fall of Max Payne look so far? Judge for yourself by taking a gander at these shots.

Bullet Times 2
So, here you are, realizing that a game that you've made has not only sold 4 million copies, but pioneered a form of gameplay that has since been copied by almost everyone in the business. We know that, being bluntly honest here, "bullet time" has been done so much that the concept isn't fresh anymore. And when the idea gets old, can you ever catch that wave of success again? Well maybe not by doing the same ol' thing, and both Remedy and Rockstar realize this.

Bullet Time isn't a novelty, and it never was. One of the reasons that the first Payne rocked so hard was because that seriously cool-looking bullet time gameplay was an important mechanic. It was easily Max's greatest weapon, and it felt just as good as it looked.

In order to achieve the same impact, a fine-tuning was in order, which is exactly what Remedy is doing to insure that their version of bullet time is the best. Coupled with the new physics engine, the slow motion looks substantially better, with enemies flying, spinning in mid-air, and other such effects. The player/enemy time scales have also been separated, meaning it's much more effective in slowing the enemies down, while keeping Max closer to real time.

No Payne, No Gain
While the team is keeping their action-oriented focus with the sequel, Rockstar is promising that that will be less wandering around, and much more intensity; scene-by-gritty scene. But rather than just pound players will action sequences, Remedy is introducing a new element to the Max Payne experience: NPC interaction. As Max, players will be able to actually do Max's job as a cop. He gets to interrogate suspects, and interview witnesses to crimes. He gets to answer the phones and communicate with other police officers. How this will play out, or if it somehow affects the story, we're not yet sure, but the idea itself is interesting enough. More gameplay variety is always a good thing.

For the Console Lovers
At GamingWorld X, we're all about the consoles. The fact remains that Max Payne 2 is primarily a PC game. And that means that, without all that gentle loving care, ports generally don't do the PC original justice. In fact, only the Xbox console seems to handle ports from the PC with ease (largely due to the Xbox's PC-style architecture).

But, Rockstar is insisting that both the Xbox and PS2 versions of Max Payne 2 will get equal treatment that the original PC build is getting. Unlike the first game, where the PS2 version was more of an afterthought than anything else, the fact that Max Payne on PS2 sold so many copies had Rockstar thinking ahead for the sequel. This time, the original PC code is being developed with the console versions in mind from the beginning. Rockstar Vienna is working behind Remedy on the PS2 version, but Vienna has all the same assets, and are working closely with Remedy to insure that all three versions are as close as possible.

Risky Business
Is Remedy feeling the pressure? Good question. Rockstar seems confident enough that Max Payne 2 will be of the same caliber as the original was over two years ago. It's got all the right ingredients: Stunning new graphics, which, as you can plainly see, make this seem like a totally unrelated game when looking at the first; refined and perfected bullet time, that should have the effect being executed better than anyone in the business; some all-new gameplay elements to spice things up; and a new, mature story involving some of the steamiest subject matter ever to grace a videogame. Sounds like a winner to us.

Find out soon enough when Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne ships this Holiday season.

Preview by Brendon Hivner