Max Payne 2 is so boring compared to the first one

[Mosh]

Does anyone else feel that Max Payne 2 is bad/boring compared to the first game? The voice acting seems like it's gotten worse it doesn't feel interesting as it was in the first game, The story isn't as interesting, it's just about Mona which isn't that amazing to be honest and like in the first game there was like objects or etc in the game that had dialogue that added on to the amazing story in my expirences Max Payne 2 has none of that, The comic dialogue is dissapointing compared to how Max Payne 1 did it. On Max Payne 2 it just feels very odd in my oppinion and the level desigin is quite boring, It's just mostly buildings and etc and no level has really gotten me interested. The whole stoy design just feels stale and not interesting. Though the gameplay is kind of a plus with more weapons but I just find that it's just not that good compared to the first one and rather boring. (I'M NOT HATING ON MAX PAYNE 2, IT'S A GOOD GAME). I'm just sharing my thoughts on why I think Max Payne 2 isn't as good compared to the first game. I would like to hear other thoughts and oppinions from Max Payne players, I do love this game but I just find it to be less interesting and boring. Max Payne 1 had such a great story and his voice acting just made it so interesting. I never felt this in this game it's just about some chick half of the time. Anywyas I would love to hear other friendly comments <3

[HunterSouls]

Well, I think too the MP1 was more involved then the MP2...is like MP2 the dialogues script was rush or force somehow..,The face of Max was diferent, and the only think i really liked on MP2 was the guns (dual desert eagles more jackhammer). I think in Mp2 the Max was play without a strong motive like MP1,HERE we have avenged the dead family, so that was a strong motived to spend 3 years to find all the guilts!!! Diferent from MP2 the only strong motive he have was find Mona, and kill vlad.

[Washcloth Repairman]

Max Payne 1 is a great game. Max Payne 2 is a good game. Max Payne 3 is crap.

[Cadaver]

I agree with what a lot of you guys said. Max Payne 2 is a really fun enjoyable game. I like the tweaks to the gameplay, the new weapons, and exploring the environments. It was great to visit this world again.

However, compared to the first game, MP2's story felt much more limited in scope. The narrative in Max Payne 1 starts with a violent family tragedy which had Max jump into a twisted rabbit hole in the quest to uncover the truth. As each step seems to reveal something even more sinister, the motivation keeps building. The game did a good job of weaving various elements together to make a epic dark journey for the hero.

The problem with the second game is that it doesn't offer anything as grand. Like many sequels, it relies a bit too much on the events of the previous story and not creating anything substantially new. Because a lot of it was essentially (and literally) cleaning up loose ends, the story in Max Payne 2 felt more like an addendum to the first.

[Racuch Zawodowiec]

Początkowo opublikowane przez adams_apple:

I know exactly what OP is talking about. The writing feels weak this time around. In the first game, Max would adorn his narration with noirish grit and colorful similes, like "New York sped by on fast forward, dark rooftop water towers and a dead forest of antennas and chimneys, all a blur" or "Out in the night, the snow fell like confetti over the devil's parade." But in the second game he just kind of applies metaphors to abstract concepts like "love" or "the past" instead of the world around him. He actually used that boring "the past is a gaping hole" metaphor twice in the story. Wasn't even that clever the first time. Also why doesn't Max make jokes anymore? His snarky one liners from MP1 were really amusing and memorable. "Sure thing Jim, me and the boys have been talking and everyone's real sorry. They'll never do it again." "You're safety's off, evil twin. You could hurt someone with that gun of yours." It was always fun seeing Max and Mona meeting each other with Max's deadpan humor and Mona's playful sass, trading casual threats like they were collector's items. But instead of being occasional rivals and the best of frenemies, they're both just kind of brooding and miserable with a forced romance driving the plot forward. There's no reason to care about them.

Regarding the voice acting, it sounds like they couldn't afford to rally most of the original cast except for Max and Vinnie, so the rest of the returning characters have to resort to doing bad impressions of what the old voice actors sounded like naturally. Bravura's and Woden's voices always make me cringe. The Russian accents in this game aren't particularly good either.

Another thing that kind of bothered me was the TV shows. They started out as a one time gag in MP1 and they were pretty hilarious, but I think they expanded on them a little too much and made too big a deal out of them. The original joke behind Address Unknown was that it was supposed to be a spoof of Twin Peaks or something, but then it just became a huge sensation with lots of parallels to Max's story. It didn't help that elements of the show actually appeared in Max's nightmares, like the show was supposed to bother him that much. It's just supposed to be background noise intended as a joke. Also it doesn't make sense how a cult B-series gained enough popularity to have an entire fun house devoted to it, plus what's the appeal? It doesn't seem marketed to children or adults. I know it's such a minor aspect of the game to nitpick, but it's just one of those details that just got blown up and ran into the ground and is just another reason why it seems like they missed the point of the first game.

Also, weren't Lord Valentine and Lady Amelia supposed to be brother and sister? What's up with that?

It's funny what you say that you like voice actors from original max payne 1 better. Sam Lake on yt tells that due to small budget, most of the voice actors were members of their families or some low level rent a voice guys. It was Max Payne 2 when they had bigger budget and changed most of the voices and even tweaked some characters cast visually to resemble their voice actors more. As for Valentine and Lady Amelia, maybe she knew that their love is doomed and she tried to lie to him in the first place? I hate this stupid ending with Valentine drinking the poison like some Jonestown member without hint of sanity.

[adams_apple]

No, you're thinking about the model actors from the graphic novels, not the voice actors. Most of them were played by people from around the office, but the voice actors are definitely GTA caliber.

[tofu.]

It's still better than Max Payne 3.

[Ezekiel]

Max Payne 1 is all over the place. It lost me when it became about government conspiracies and super soldiers. The sequels are more consistent. They also have full soundtracks. Max Payne 1 only has a few tracks that play over every cutscene. And the nightmare platforming sections are lame. Dying in a dream is stupid.

[Racuch Zawodowiec]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ezekiel:

Max Payne 1 is all over the place. It lost me when it became about government conspiracies and super soldiers. The sequels are more consistent. They also have full soundtracks. Max Payne 1 only has a few tracks that play over every cutscene. And the nightmare platforming sections are lame. Dying in a dream is stupid.

Not quite. Dying in a dream could be metaphore of being overdosed by drugs. In first scenario, Mona spices whiskey and you could just die because of all these painkillers which they could gone wrong because of that and in second, you took lethal dose of V, but somehow you got over it, probably painkillers numbed it down, but still the second dream sequence is more difficult and longer.

[Trapped in Purgatory]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mosh:

Does anyone else feel that Max Payne 2 is bad/boring compared to the first game? The voice acting seems like it's gotten worse it doesn't feel interesting as it was in the first game, The story isn't as interesting, it's just about Mona which isn't that amazing to be honest and like in the first game there was like objects or etc in the game that had dialogue that added on to the amazing story in my expirences Max Payne 2 has none of that, The comic dialogue is dissapointing compared to how Max Payne 1 did it. On Max Payne 2 it just feels very odd in my oppinion and the level desigin is quite boring, It's just mostly buildings and etc and no level has really gotten me interested. The whole stoy design just feels stale and not interesting. Though the gameplay is kind of a plus with more weapons but I just find that it's just not that good compared to the first one and rather boring. (I'M NOT HATING ON MAX PAYNE 2, IT'S A GOOD GAME). I'm just sharing my thoughts on why I think Max Payne 2 isn't as good compared to the first game. I would like to hear other thoughts and oppinions from Max Payne players, I do love this game but I just find it to be less interesting and boring. Max Payne 1 had such a great story and his voice acting just made it so interesting. I never felt this in this game it's just about some chick half of the time. Anywyas I would love to hear other friendly comments <3

The guns don't pack the same punch as the first one but this one is way better in terms of graphics, bullet time, and graphics

[Say Vandelay]

For me it's the opposite. I love the story of 2 and 3, but 1 was meh. I'm glad the writing became more down to earth as the series went on. 1 was just a bit too weird and wacky for my liking. Max seems too lighthearted, and that James Bond villain underground base? Come on.

I don't even care if it bothers all the Max Payne purists out there, the first game is my least favourite of the series.

[nonce basher]

It's much better imo. The bullet time in the first really sucks, plus I hate the fact that in the later the levels headshots don't instantly kill, sometimes even point blank shotgun blasts. Some levels were just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful aswel, the shipyard, foundry and secret base level especially.

I've completed MP 2 about 10 times, whilst i've only beaten the first like twice. I probably would have beaten it more though if it wasn't for compatability issues.

I love all 3, but 2 is probably in my top 5 games. I just wish it wasn't so easy.

[ArthurDent]

I just replayed and completed MP 1 and i'm in the process of completing MP 2 for nostalgia's sake (also, these games are great, even in 2017). I wouldn't call it boring. But it's ridiculously easy. Having just replayed and completed MP 1, on Detective difficulty level (MP 1 forced you to finish this before trying the harder difficulties), it was nail biting difficult. I'm usually not the save scammer type but this game practically forced you to abuse the quick save key at every turn. With that being said, every situation was like a puzzle. For exameple, you just cleared a room. Quicksave. You advance to the next room, 3 baddies, dodgejump into bullet time and dispatch 2 of them, the third one almost gets you but you manage to put a bullet through his head--when a 4th one pops up behind a column and--shotgun blast to the face, you're dead. Argh. Quick reload, try again. And again. Think. Ok, i have this grenade here, what if i throw this into the room first, then (now, that i know about the 4th guy) i jump over there and kill the 4th guy?
Tactical.

MP 2? In detective mode, you're the Terminator. After the first couple of missions i though i had accidentally switched on cheats or something. Then, at the police station raid, i decided to just test how easy this mode is. I stood in a room with 5 enemies and after 5 minutes, i still wasn't dead. I just stood there, watching the enemies accidentally killing themselves and my health magically regenerating itself. I JUST STOOD THERE. In the middle of the room, taking hundreds of bullets and didn't die.
In Mp 1, you'd die from a well placed bullet to the head (especially later in the game) and were constantly limping on your last leg. In MP 1, even on detective mode, my bullet time meter was never full. At best, it was half full, ususally a quarter. My health was constantly dangerously close to zero.

In MP 2? On detective mode, my bullet time was always full, my health always full, i had max. number of painkillers at all times. I ran through the levels like on god mode.

The good news is, on Hard Boiled, it comes a bit closer to what MP 1 detective mode was like.

Still, both are great games. MP 2 is smoother, has slightly better graphics and, if it had the well thought out level design and enemy placement (making everey encounter a sort-of-puzzle, forcing the player to use tactics) of MP 1, it would have been the #1 action game ever.

[VERSAT1L]

I find it way better than the 1st.

[Klesk 🌈 Нептун 🇺🇦]

I played MP2 years before MP1 because the first one was not sold in Germany. So my view on MP2 is a bit nostalgic, but MP1 was more intense because of the snowstorm setting and Max lost his family.

[lesi]

can someone pls explain all the hate for max payne 3 to me?
i played it and i enjoyed it tbh....