Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Review

By Kristan Reed Published 16 December, 2003

The fall of the PS2 port.

Version tested: PlayStation 2

It's usually pretty pointless looking at the same game across multiple formats; most of the time it's a uniform experience no matter which platform you're reviewing the game on - but not so with the PS2 version of Max Payne 2. If games came with cigarette-style health warnings on them, Rockstar's latest would state boldly: SLOW LOADING TIMES IMPAIR YOUR ENJOYMENT.

Not since Stuntman creaked out onto the PS2 last summer have we encountered a game that the PS2's creaking DVD drive struggles so hard to cope with. You can always hear it grunting in pain as yet another elaborately rendered area is spooled off the disk and into its tiny memory banks. Initially, the only real irritation is waiting for the next area to load, and if you just keep seamlessly moving from one area to the next without dying you'll be aware that the game has to stop to load a lot, but not so much that it's particularly annoying. The most notable occasions when things get a bit jarring are when the many cinematic sequence fires up - there'll always be a jarring pause before the animation gets underway, but other than that the game stays as faithful to the PC original as anyone could have reasonably expected.

Put the kettle on

'Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne' Screenshot 1

But what will get on your nerves in the end is the way reloading is handled after a death. For example, on the fourth chapter of part one, Max has to duck gunfire by going from one window to the next via narrow ledges. For some reason it's a far more precarious experience than it ever was on the PC and easy to plunge to your doom. We're grateful for the ability to save anywhere to get around issues such as this, but on the PS2 version you're looking at a 45 second wait every time you reload - and on fiddly sections like this you're maybe looking at a cumulative delay of several minutes if you keep screwing up. Also, the game never automatically saves your progress even when you've completed a level, so if you're feeling a bit cocky - or just absent minded - and find yourself having to replay the last three levels, you'll not be feeling too chuffed. Not only that, such frustration inevitably leads to more mistakes, more reloads, and the longing for the quicksave function of the PC and Xbox.

Inevitably the visuals have taken a significant hit on the PS2 as well. On a smaller TV this degradation might not be so noticeable, but anyone with a big screen monster will be quite astonished at how much better it looks on the Xbox. Not only is the resolution appreciably lower on the PS2, but the intricate texturing that brought the whole thing to life has been toned down, while the moody palette of the original is a murky mess by comparison.

That's not to say the PS2 version looks a disgrace by any means: it'd still be an impressive spectacle if you'd never seen any other version, with impressive character models and Havok 2 physics helping to ensure superbly realistic rag doll animation and a level of interactivity with scenery items not seen before in a PS2 title. I suppose the upshot is that the other versions are just that much better looking, with very swift loading times. It would have been commercial madness not to port this game to the PS2 with its 60 odd million installed base, but Remedy must be wincing at the compromises Rockstar Vienna made in squeezing it onto Sony's console. Presumably wincing at the same time as counting a large pile of cash!

Ignorance is bliss

Completely ignoring the technical issues, the gameplay experience remains intact. The controls map perfectly to the PS2 pad, and pulling off the required bullet time ballet becomes second nature almost immediately. Apart from the aforementioned inability to jump out of a window onto a narrow ledge successfully, the gameplay felt smooth, satisfying and as good an action game as you'll play all year, complemented by a typically over-serious Film Noir tale. But the numerous self-mocking TV interludes featuring Dick Justice, Lords & Ladies and Captain Baseball Bat Boy make it fairly clear that Remedy made the game with its tongue firmly in its cheek.

Like anyone who has spent numerous hours slugging it out with the PC or Xbox version it's obvious we've been spoiled, but the point is that Max Payne 2 is an action title that relies on keeping the player immersed and focused on the game as much as possible. But if you're asked to spend literally 20 per cent of your playing time staring at a loading screen, then that sense of excitement and immersion quickly ebbs away. If it were not for this crippling issue, then we'd probably overlook the scratchy visual compromises as it still looks good enough and plays well - even if it has been made much easier than the PC original (as with the Xbox version). But the bottom line is, if you have the choice go for the Xbox or PC version over this.

7 / 10

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Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 8 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Razz #1 8 years ago

    Should be good on the PC.
    On which, I shall be getting it 1st \0/
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/03 @ 10:00

  • fozzie22 #2 8 years ago

    the ps2 surely can't be capable of running anything more than this now?
    time for a new console.....

  • UncleLou #3 8 years ago

    Razz, I wouldn't have mentioned it, but it's the second time you make a comment that leads me to the conclusion you might not be aware of the fact that MP2 has been out for a while on the PC. :-)

    edit: and I even wrote that before your edit
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/03 @ 10:02

  • Tiger_Walts #4 8 years ago

    "PS2 suxx0rz, Xboxx0rz roxx0rz."

  • itamae #5 8 years ago

    45 seconds! Holy crap!

    And I thought the load times in Tomb Raider 1 were long.
    /remembers loading Silent Service from a two-sided tape...
    On second thought, perhaps 45 seconds aren't that long ;)

  • Razz #6 8 years ago

    I know it's been out on PC for a while. But I haven't got any crimbo money yet.

  • CyberClaw #7 8 years ago

    You are talking about loooong loading times? I don't want to call Bethsoft big TWATS for creating the most ugly craptacular experience for the XBox, with the biggest loadings ever, but the truth is... that Bethsoft are big TWATS for creating the most ugly craptacular experience for the XBox, with the biggest loadings ever.

    I'm talking about Morrowind for the XBox. Not only does the characters look ugly, the animation looks very bad (go arround naked and look to the ground, your torso will disconnect from the legs (not just a little slip neither, I'm talking about very noticeable thing, on the running animation)), but the game is extremely bugged, and, we have the worst loadings ever. I didn't time them, but some can take easly 2 minutes.
    That was the most half assed port everyone ever did. I mean, seriously, what is Bethsoft excuse? Why does the game take that long to load? Visuals? Big models and animations? If anything, it might be reading the position of the items you interacted with in the world, but, that is saved on the HDD, so, it can't be that. I honestly think Bethsoft are big jerks. DaggerFall was their best game. Their erratic programming was noticeable with the numerous bugs back then, but I mean, we have Morrowind, which lacks half of the stuff DaggerFall already had (DF had horses; you could climb any wall provided you were good enough; day/night cicles affected merchants (they'd close during the night); you could become a vampires, a werewolf, a wereboard, and there was this HUGE, I MEAN HUUUUGE DRAGON, that took 2 years to be found by a player (since the game was released). The map had also easly 100-500 cities per province, with arround 10 provinces, and 10 times that in dungeons). The clothes in your character could be layered, and they could be pulled up/down
    DaggerFall was the roxor. Morrowind is just a small ant on it's shadow. Quite in fact, I'm getting so addicted just by talking to myself that I'll reinstall it today, and play it all night long. URRAH!

  • Killerbee #8 8 years ago

    Loading times - anyone remember playing Gauntlet on the Speccy where you had to load - from tape - each new level you moved onto. Amazingly I had the patience for it then, but now...

    I can put up with long initial loading time (like GTA), but not when they interrupt the flow of the game itself. A 45 second loading wait after you die? That's not funny.

    PC version it is then.

  • countlippe #9 8 years ago

    Xbox does it again, shame about the mirrors not being very mirror-ey

    Morrowind was a half decent port of a buggy half finished PC game

  • elevenses #10 8 years ago

    Quite enjoyed the admittedly buggy Morrowind on xbox and it is the only game that I've ever had a magazine to hand so i can read something during loads (no, really).
    And as for Gauntlet (or indeed any speccy game) - thats always assuming you could actually get it too load. Must have spent more hours trying to load games than actually playing them..and as for the alleged hyperload on Jasper.

  • pjmaybe #11 8 years ago

    So, pretty much the same as Max Payne 1 on the PS2.

    Ah well, ye'd have to be nuts to buy the PS2 version of a cross-format game these days, what's that great british game buying public? You are nuts? Oh well in that case carry on..

    Peej

  • CyberClaw #12 8 years ago

    Ecomp, That's not an excuse. DaggerFall has maps 100 times as big, and it doesn't take a seccond to load. DaggerFall also has more NPCs and objects scatered arround.
    And the GOTY only hads the 2 expansions, and currects some errors, but it doesn't make a bad engine good. It doesn't make good animations and good player models either... Fable! :p

  • Plob #13 8 years ago

    " Loading times - anyone remember playing Gauntlet on the Speccy where you had to load - from tape - each new level you moved onto. "

    Yes I was thinking of that as I read through the review. other multiload classics were r-type, New Zealand Story and strider. I didnt really have the patience then either! Like Deus Ex on PS2, 45 sec loading times for this really is unacceptable.

  • Aurifex. #14 8 years ago

    What about soldier of fortune on the dreamcast, that was slow.

  • Dizzy #15 8 years ago

    Morrowind was smaller because they wanted it to be a bit less generic, with handmade dungeons and handmade quests. IMHO one of the best RPGs ever and I never got bothered too much by the bugs. Of course NOTHING can beat Darklands!

  • CyberClaw #16 8 years ago

    Dizzy, but that's just crap talking, and you should know it. Why? Because in DaggerFall each province had different architecture for it's houses. In Morrowind all I see is generic land, and some generic houses, lightly hinting at different cultures. If their excuse was to make it by hand, at least thye could have made it good. I don't see anything remarkable. I mean, what is that excuse good for when they have that STUPID SHIT-ASS TOWN BUILT BY MONKEYS ON DOPE erm... what's the name? Vivec or something? The town full of piramids with boats carrying you betwen them. I mean, at least DaggerFall didn't have THAT. UGH... and they excuse themselves saying they made it by hand. AH, what's the excuse for Vivec then?

  • Singularity #17 8 years ago

    Hexen on the PSone. I'm still waiting for level two to load...

  • krudster #18 8 years ago

    It's not a poor game, it's the PS2 that's the problem - the game simply can't work properly on it. The game itself is very good. Giving it a 5 would be ridiculous.

  • redemption #19 8 years ago

    cyberclaw, morrowind on the xbox had a two minute load when it booted and then all of the environmental data was streamed from the hard disk. there was no loading in the game, other than interiors/exteriors (couple of seconds) and fast travel via the striders (20 seconds max). it was a fairly seamless experience, given it's scope.

    i'm all for the eradication of loading times when they intrude on gameplay, they killed the new broken sword. but that had a +30 second load between each area, and each area was very limited in scope.

    that 2 minute intial load was a b1tch, tomorrowind.

  • redemption #20 8 years ago

    the same was true for max payne, muddy textures, long load times. and recently on the xbox, what is with links 2004? i was sure the hard drive was supposed to eradicate long reload times, no need to recache the date etc? the dev team could learn some lessons from amped 2.

  • BLACKSHEEP #21 8 years ago

    SCEE when the fcuk are you gonna release that bloody HDD???? There is no point dodging the issue as all the space & connections are waiting & how can anyone take Central Station seriously when you have to put a DVD in to access it every time!

    Come on, get with it or die! Even EA is fed up with your european mess that it dropped online features on several games.

  • Merefield #22 8 years ago

    One of the greatest reasons to get this on the PC is the fact u can now pick it up for less than £20 - £15 somewhere I heard...

    Oh, and my ATI 9700 Pro has a little bit more grunt than my XBox...win win.

    In my oppinion this game is near perfect. I thought the length was right too - I personally have too many games where I have never seen the cool final level...
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/03 @ 23:35

  • CyberClaw #23 8 years ago

    I disagree alot. Morrowind doesn't have any kind of sniffy AI (the pathfinding is awfull, and we are never suprised by any element of the AI, so it's pretty straigtfoward), and the polycount is very low, the drawing distance is very very short (come on, look at Fable, with a 8Km drawing distance. The moutains you see on the far, you can WALK there). You see, Morrowind didn't have any reason to pull so much the PC.
    Wanna see one example of crapy Bethsoft programming?

    In the betas, the game had rain, snow, etc. You might have noticed that we don't have those effects in the final game. They asked why in a interview. They awnsered that the rain would go through houses (simple hit detection), and that stoping the rain from going through houses (once again, simple hit detection), would take much of the processor power. Why would it take that much? I mean, I can make it in 5 code lines tops, provided they have a good hit detection (which they haven't to begin with).
    The only thing that looked good in Morrowind was the water. Everything else had been done better and shinier. Look at the main character model, and look at the animations. Enough said. They could at least have tried. Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, is much older than Morrowind, and the model is better, and the animations is million times better. This is important in a game like Morrowind, which tries to blend action with exploration (and it fails miserebly in the action side). Look at the animations and flowing hair/clothes and phisics in Fable. Extremly top notch. In a standart strategic RPG (Baldurs Gate for example) animation, and apresentation come after the RPG element. But in a game where you have direct control over the character (Morrowind), the animations become a serious worry (you want to feel good controling the character. Look at Super Mario 64 animation/control - it's perfect, but it only feels that way after much tweaking. And this is important, because we don't want to get bored controling a character)

  • amitar #24 8 years ago

    I loved the first game but this just felt tacked on. I could even be arsed completing it.

  • amitar #25 8 years ago

    Oh and Spiderman hope yet remains in bioware. Or thats what I keep telling myself.