I was a big fan of the original Max Payne. It was very much a pick-up-and-play game for me, mainly because the plot was so convoluted and twisted I couldn't remember how it began when I finally finished. I was more than eager to get my hands on the sequel, and I wasn't disappointed.

In the first game, our hero Max suffers the loss of his wife and child to killers high on a drug called Valkyrie, and eventualy traced the drug through a vast underground network to a United States senator and the CEO of a massive corporation. The end of the game leaves only a few possibilities for extending the plot, but they are well exploited for the sequel. The game starts with a chance meeting with Mona Sax, a love interest from the first game (who either lived or died depending on what difficulty you finished the game on). After an armed attack on the local police station, the plot quickly spirals out of control and into familiar Max Payne territory, though it isn't nearly as warped and confusing as it was the first time around. It does screw with your head just as much, though.

The controls are just as dead-on as in the first game. The game's auto-aim tweaks bullets just a tiny bit, not even enough for the player to notice, but enough to turn a near miss into a kill shot. Bullet-time has been tweaked too, to give Max a slight speed advantage while the adrenaline high is active. Controls in general are basically identical to those used in the precursor, and while this means nothing new comes to the table, it also means Remedy opted to keep the nearly-perfect setup and not fix what isn't broken. As in the first game, the third person shooter formula is occasionally broken up with a few first-person sniper missions that manage to shake things up without being too different.

The greatest improvement over the previous game was graphics. Lighting effects have been vastly improved, Max's perpetually constipated grin has been replaced by a more chiseled, time-worn stare, and his movements are more natural and more detailed, including his jacket flapping as it hits his knees while he runs. The game also features Havok, one of the first to do so--and it's obvious, in the very well-animated ragdoll physics seen as bodies hit the floor and Max dodges and jumps.

There isn't much replay value in this title, but that isn't terribly important. It's a bit like a movie, in that you've wanted to see it for some time but once you've seen it you've seen it. That shouldn't be surprising given both Max Paynes' cinematic roots and styles. If you enjoyed the first Max Payne, then you enjoy a game for its plot, and not graphics or replay, and you should easily enjoy this one, too.