Genre: Third-person shooter
Year: 2003
Developed by: Remedy Entertainment
Published by: Rockstar Games
Platforms: PC, Xbox, PS2
#117
Feeling Like: A late goodbye
The weather just turned in Victoria, finally. After an unseasonably warm September and first week of October, I finally can feel the air getting crisp and hear the leaves crunching under my feet. No more sun in my eyes while I’m driving, no more lathering up sunscreen for a simple walk, no more sweating in my condo. The 500 could be focused entirely on why I like cloudy weather but too many people like summer and I don’t want to risk alienating my friends.
Reason number 117 why I love the cold on the non-existent weather blog would be because games like Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne cannot be played when the sun is shining. It simply won’t do. This is the kind of neo-noire that leans into every trope available; the femme fatale, corrupt politicians, a storm rolling in, gangsters of every ilk, betrayals around every corner and a narration from somebody who refuses to quit smoking or smile.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When I see a damaged soul lamenting his existence, I don’t want them wearing flip-flips while they sip their coffee outside at a cafe. I want to see their reflection in the mirror as they gaze out towards the snowy evening. I want them to feel mild appreciation for the temporary warmth as they prepare to take on the madness outside. It doesn’t matter what or who the enemy is, that’s not really important in the grand scheme of things. What I want is a mentally tortured, tough as nails cop barely keeping their own life together, but is willing to put their life on the line for the greater good. Or, at least, to quell the internal demons.
It’s a slightly different game from the original Max Payne, only slightly. The graphics got a major overhaul, they’ve got that wonderful early aughts look to them – lines are very sharp, but it creates a wonderful sense of atmosphere and clearly lays out what’s what. I don’t think the above hallway is the most realistic one I’ve seen in gaming, but it sure as hell paints a perfect picture about what kind of world Max is in.
But Max is still Max. The city is still a hellhole, even if he did get his job back with the police. The gameplay still involves running and gunning, mostly in disgusting alleys, or grand vestibules, or buildings under construction. I never forgot what kind of story I was in.
The gameplay was refined, and the shooting felt tighter, but the dodge + bullet time slowdown was rendered slightly obsolete. There wasn’t ever really a reason to do the dodge dive, only trigger bullet time and become a merchant of death against your enemies. Despite this overwhelming power, I still found myself dying a lot. That much hasn’t changed, no matter what the temperature is outside.
This is a more morose story, and I couldn’t help but get pulled in regardless of the familiar territory it was treading. I loved the comic panels, and they were a real step up from the previous Max Payne. I heard they were able to score a bigger budget for the writing and got professional actors and it shows. Mona is what makes the plot tick, the contract killer’s design works from top to bottom from her ruthless ability to remove thugs from the mortal coil, to how she looks and sounds. It was nice to see Max finally have a relationship with anybody other than the ghost of his dead wife. The alternate ending you get by beating the game on the hardest difficulty is nonsense – the canon ending, as confirmed by the developers, is the tragic one. C’mon, haven’t you seen a hard-boiled detective story before? No happy endings here.
Out of all the memories I have with this terrific game is the end theme. “Late Goodbye” by the Poets of the Fall continues the tradition of Remedy’s games having original songs with lyrics to punctuate an emotional high. I know it’s not the main theme of the game (this is, and it’s equally good) but it may as well be. They did it in Alan Wake, they did it in Control. And they did it masterfully here. I still have a listen now and again when I want to feel a little sad, or a littler mysterious. I think it helps I’m reading a murder mystery right now – not the same thing, but the perfect way to begin the autumn season.
I don’t know how necessary the whooshing camera reload animation was, I did get a little tired of seeing it every time, but I think that was a preliminary step towards making games more cinematic and it hardly ruins the experience. In my head, I can’t really differentiate this game to its predecessor to a large degree, but I think Max Payne wins out due to the novelty of the premise and a slightly better story.
I’m glad they took Max Payne 3 in a different direction in almost every way, but I still prefer the New York setting with winter evident on every breath, and the grime of the subways in every corner. That’s Max Payne, at least to me.
The 500 