story timeline is hard to follow ... but i get why

[elteaser]

I am playing MP2 for the first time. I thought I had played it, funny, but I don't think I ever did.
Anyway, the story is super confusing. I'm not really paying attention to every tiny detail. It kinda turned me off from playing. Then I got it. This game is designed to be replayed. Thus, the story timeline and events are confusing, but make sense as your play through it a couple times. Perhaps, it was designed this way.

[Lord Cyphre]

The story is actually pretty straightforward.

[Jinn-Gon Qui]

Have you played the first game, let alone aware there's a first game?

[retro_Ed]

...just remember. Don`t skip end credits !

[elteaser]

Originally posted by retro_Ed:

...just remember. Don`t skip end credits !

sounds good. yeah, its coming together as i play farther into the story.

[elteaser]

well, i didn't skip the end credits. there wasn't anything at the end except "max will continue his journey through the night"

which is cool i guess. lol.

[retro_Ed]

I was referring more toward ending music and band:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poets_of_the_Fall (...skip to Album "Twilight Theatre")

Alan Wake is also made by Remedy like MP1&2.
Highly recommended.

[elteaser]

Oh yeah good call. I like the little cameo of the cleaner guy (maybe the only legit cleaner in the story) singing their song. And then he is in one of the dream sequences as well.

[🥤ʑ ɨ ł 🌊 ✡🔯☪ bȍgъdȃrъ 👌]

I know I'm really late on this but spoiler warning: Max Payne is still investing the drug ring for "V" from the first game, which turns for the worst when Max discovers that the drug ring is also a secret group(Inner Circle) of powerful people like bureaucrats, law enforcement, and organized criminals.

After a bunch of loops and turns we find out Alfred Woden is the main villian and leader of the secret group(Inner Circle). Mona Sax is Woden's personal hitman & bodyguard. Valerie Winterson a homicide detective working under the same NYPD as Max, is in bed with Vladimir Lem and leaks any information of the NYPD to him. Vladimir Lem is revealed to be the anti-hero; his goal is to kill the leader of the inner circle. His intentions are unexplained but till his last breath he believed he was the hero: "Ha ha ha, that was...Max, dearest of all my friends, I was supposed to be the hero..."

In-short Max falls in-love with the guardian(Mona Sax) of his families killer(Alfred Woden) & main antagonist(Alfred Woden). Valerie Winterson is a strict, diligent, and devoted to her work, she is described as one of the best detectives on the force; she falls in-love with Vlad and perceives him as a good guy. Vladimir Lem is a Russian mobster, high-ranking Inner Circle member, and former student of Woden. Vlad's main goal is to kill Woden and anyone that gets in his way. Max gets played by both Woden and Vlad as a pawn, but ends up crossing the board and becoming a queen destroying both of them.

Personally and this is mainly speculation with in-game facts. I do not think Vlad would of killed Mona or Max if it was not for Max killing Winterson(Vlad's lover) or both of them being roadblocks in Vlad's plan. Vlad's goal was to kill Woden which he couldn't because Mona was guarding him, and Max was guarding Mona. But Vlad is a Mob Boss at the end of the day and him being with Winterson could have been a ploy to get in deep into the NYPD to help get rid of Mona. Vinnie Gognitti was wacked by Vlad, and Vinnie had no direct involvement with the Inner Circle; killing Vinnie was purely business for Vlad. In the end we don't know Vlad's true intentions; was he staging a coup d'état against Woden or was he killing the villain in good virtue. Vlad sure did convince Valerie Winterson "one of the best detectives on the force" that he was a good person, but Vlad is a very convincing person. "Dearest of all my friends!" -Vladimir Lem.

[elteaser]

I like that, clears it up a bit. I still think the first few opening acts in MP2 were a bit confusing, but make far more sense on second playthrough. I partly forgive the designers of the game for that because I know the game is meant to be replayed. By making sense of it through a few playthroughs.. it makes the playthroughs feel more interesting.

In MP1, the playthroughs were just about increasing challenge. Exponentially, I might add! Lol. The story itself, was a bit more straightforward.

[elteaser]

Interesting addition to this discussion. I wonder how the actual MP2 release is different from the steam release as the video in this discussion explains:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/12150/discussions/0/2295094308077460430/

I doubt the differences are major, if any at all, but interesting.

[Lord Cyphre]

Originally posted by S M O K I N G L I Z A R D S:

I like that, clears it up a bit. I still think the first few opening acts in MP2 were a bit confusing, but make far more sense on second playthrough. I partly forgive the designers of the game for that because I know the game is meant to be replayed. By making sense of it through a few playthroughs.. it makes the playthroughs feel more interesting.

I really don't think that's the intention here. Max is consumed by grief and guilt plus he eats painkillers for breakfast. If the opening bit is confusing it is because Max is confused and the palyer is put into his shoes as he tries to recap the events that led up to that point to unravel the plot.

The player wants to know what happened just as much as Max does, intrigue is buiolt up this way.
The main plot isn't all that complex or special imo and if the narrative was structered differently the story might've come across as being a bit bland and predictable.

I guess it might be a bit more confusing if one hadn't played the first Max Payne prior to this as one wouldn't be too familiar with events and characters estanlished in that game.

[★nd★]

Playing the first and second game back to back helps with understanding the characters. Also, there are hints of what is going to happen throughout the game in the comic part.