In my humble opinion Max Payne 2 for its time was the closest thing to a video game being a peice of art. It is stylish, clever in its narrative and narration, as well it's ablity to be postmodern and intelligent without alienating people.
It's just my view but this game has stuck in my mind since it came out on the Xbox.

I completely agree with you. Every once in a while I'll see an article or a post about Max Payne 2 by someone like me who I feel "gets" it, and I'll always smile and go "yeah, I'm not the only one." I absolutely adore this game, it has such a mature and amazing story, and it's so rich thematically. Max's musings on choices, fatality and love just click with me... No game has writing as good and 'deep', thematically, as Max Payne 2. The story itself isn't even that amazing, but just the character of Max, and his development, and the writing, it's so incredibly f-ing good... Unbelievable. I have still yet to see a game with a better narrative than this game. That's why I felt compelled to write the story section on the game's page. It was kind of a rush job, there are some typos in there, and there's definitely room for improvement, but it was all done from the top of my head. I must've finished the game close to 10 times though, haha.

I completely agree with what you guys have said and truly think this game is amazing. The dialogue was great and the delivery of the lines by the VAs were fantastic. It's always been one of my favorite series and I hope there is a sequel someday (if Remedy ever finished Alan Wake). I am really hopeful that the movie can capture all these aspects and from the trailer it looks like it may actually do that. I love Max Payne, the games and the character....and it's nice to see other people who love the series too.

Yeh I love the Max Payne games and they are under-rated too.

I'm glad there are people out there that also 'get it'.

If Remedy comes back to the series after Alan Wake is finally finished. I can't wait to see what they do next...and what they do with this current hardware...please just don't have the series go to some new developer and have it made exclusively for the Wii :P

"I completely agree with you. Every once in a while I'll see an article or a post about Max Payne 2 by someone like me who I feel "gets" it, and I'll always smile and go "yeah, I'm not the only one." I absolutely adore this game, it has such a mature and amazing story, and it's so rich thematically. Max's musings on choices, fatality and love just click with me... No game has writing as good and 'deep', thematically, as Max Payne 2. The story itself isn't even that amazing, but just the character of Max, and his development, and the writing, it's so incredibly f-ing good... Unbelievable. I have still yet to see a game with a better narrative than this game. That's why I felt compelled to write the story section on the game's page. It was kind of a rush job, there are some typos in there, and there's definitely room for improvement, but it was all done from the top of my head. I must've finished the game close to 10 times though, haha.
"

Max's dialogue is as good as it gets. I swear its like someone dumped a few dictionaries into his brain. I love Max Payne 2's story. Not many games have better characters than MP2. Vinny (That was f'king funny, in a not-so-funny-at-all way) Vlad and Mona were incredible. I like Max Payne 1's story so much more (and consider it to be my #1 TPS. It took MP2's spot after I finally got it on pc a few years ago) but Max Payne 2's characters are better. Once I think about it, the only problem I had with the characters is Vlad's and Max's friendship. I loved how they got along at the beginning of MP2 and Max working with Vlad was one of the absolute coolest things in Max Payne 1. We all know what happens to that...

I just rescued this game from my friends house. i lent it to him about 4 years ago and i kind of forgot about it. I agree this is one of the more mature tittles out there. it was a story that made a impact on me and even influences my own writing to this day. I also what to quickly point out that the art on the box for the game is just fantastic! epically on the PC version. its stylish and dark and even romantic. I love Max Payne, I still have yet to see the movie though but it does look like it could be good.  

Just played this. It's been a while since I played the original, so maybe this is nostalgia talking, but I felt the writing was not as strong in this one. It had a few good lines (I liked the one about looking back on your choices), but I got the feeling it was taking itself too seriously most of the time (where the first was very tongue-in-cheek) and the romance between Max and Mona was not convincing to me. Wasn't a "love story", really... more "action with a hint of sex".

Primarily though, I didn't like how they destroyed the friendship between Max and Vlad. "He was one of those old-fashioned criminals with honor and morals", remember? It just didn't seem believable for the character to change so completely. It wasn't the same person.

Maybe I should have played this when it was new. Compared to today's titles I suppose the limited animation and expressionless faces look very dated and get in the way of the storytellling. Maybe if they'd made ALL cutscenes comic-panels it would have aged better, and maybe I'm being too harsh on the writing... but for me it didn't capture the magic of the first.

I have yet to play the sequel. Shame on me.

MP2 and MP turned me into a "Games are Art" pretentious douchebag, and I wouldn't go back for the world.