PadreCowboy's review of Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne.

"I had a dream of my wife. She was dead, but it was alright." My second time playing this confirmed it might be my favorite of all time, it just clicks with everything I like about storytelling and gameplay, with both hitting like crack. This game is poetry, a film noir love story that treats the player with maturity and brings a very cinematic aura without sacrificing fun. Max is at his most complicated as a character, he's no longer a justified revenge driven vigilante. He's sad and depressed on a never ending road of self punishment, he is broken and he makes VERY grey area choices in this story. James McCaffrey gives the performance of a lifetime here and Timothy Gibbs really delivers on the facial expressions. Max has such a beautiful arc, written so well that it connects like a beautiful web with all the characters and the world itself. I was wondering how I would feel about Mona this time around and I actually love her even more, looking at her expressions in the background, how she reacts to Max, their banter and her own actions and decisions makes her this iconic character, almost a dual protagonist, that was so vague in the first one. The levels are amazing, with the show set being a favorite of mine and goddamn does the bullet time feels even better.