Max Payne 2 Member Review for the PC

Life suddenly becomes much more clear...

....While staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

My beretta’s metal butt that was once cold to the touch was now warm and covered with sweat. It seems I was losing my grasp on life itself, but not on the gun that has been my only saving grace for what seemed to be going on years now.

It had been a couple of years since my last rendezvous with death. I was back on the force, but that didn’t erase the pain. Nothing erases the pain of the loss of your family, especially when they were lost at the hands of cold blooded murderers. The painkillers still slow it down however, helping me get by day after day.

Well, here I am again, looking down an all too familiar road. A convoluted story that no matter how much I wanted to go my own way I was stuck on this path. Not necessarily a bad thing however. I’ve got friends this time. A femme fatale who put a gun to my head the first time round keeps me company. I swear that woman will be the death of me. But, with friends come enemies. I don’t know who to trust or who to go to. At least I know some of the civilians are on the level. An eclectic mix I may add. They often added humor to an otherwise dark occasion.

The plot I’m wrapped up in this tim however isn’t so light hearted. The conversations I have with people screams “noir film”. You know the type…Where Humphrey Bogart is the lead and Lauren Becall the dame. Yeah…I was Bogart and Mona was Becall. A match made in heaven but destined for hell.

But hey, at least I have something pretty to look at. Mona sure does look good. Hell, for some reason everything looks good for such a dark, gritty world. The walls are marked with bullet markings from my guns blazing, and I see enough variation in the dregs of society Im hunting down. The fire burns so bright and hot it looks like it can make even the Devil’s skin burn and bubble.

Granted taking on the Devil within or without is never an easy task. It certainly doesn’t prove to be easy this time around either. I’m not dealing with your average run of the mill “V” junkies this time. I’m out of the frying pan and into the fire. Mobsters, corrupt cops and elite commando types are crawling all over the place like cockroaches. I’m ready to stomp on them just like the insects they are. Like I said, it isn’t an easy task by any means but at least I have my trusty adrenaline on hand again. This time when I want to go John Woo on these supposed “badasses” it wont cost me either, just the simple release of adrenaline into my blood. Of course if I want to let it run at great length it’ll cost me, but for every guy I kill, the more the more I feel it coming back. Not a bad deal since theere's plenty of em to feel my bullet pierce their flesh. I must be getting used to the white knuckle action that I seem to be longing for. It seems even more so that the world around me slows but I’m moving at an accelerated speed. It sure does make aiming and combat maneuvering easier for me.

Aim just right and you can wreak some “Havoc” as easy as taking candy from a baby. Nothing better than shooting a scumbag in the kneecap with a sawed off and watching him slide down the stairs. Or shooting a guy so hard he lands into a rack of barrels and they all come crashing down. Kind of like Humpty Dumpty...They will fall...Every last one of them.

I just wish I had more time to exact my revenge. But, with the brass on your tail you have to do things fast and gritty. Six hours just isn’t enough for any real police work to get done. Then again, paper work is such a bore.

Reviewer's note: This was my first review I had ever done, and it was made years ago when MP2 first came out. I just copied it over to GR and cleaned up a few words. The comments about the visuals are based on when the game first came out.