Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

First released for the PC back in October 2003, the sequel to the renowned Matrix-inspired, film noir shooter has finally made the port to the PlayStation 2. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne delivers a new chapter in the grisly life of the titular protagonist, whilst retaining the original game's concepts of strong narrative, cinematic visuals, mature content and oh, that bullet time thing as well. Not only this but, as is traditional for sequels, the game sports a few new features and also benefits from some tarted up visuals.

The game's story sees Max back working for the NYPD and begins with him responding to a police dispatch. Soon after, he heads off to an old warehouse to investigate where, as is not uncommon for the poor guy, things take a turn for the worse, and he finds himself embroiled in another dangerous pursuit.

The gameplay itself throughout takes the cue from the first one, appearing in the form of a third-person adventure. An array of dark and gloomy environments again play host to the action, this time benefiting from an even greater level of detail, featuring photorealistic textures and enhanced radiosity lighting. As you would expect, the heavily-featured bullet time of the original makes a return to the proceedings, this time significantly overhauled and now dubbed - wait for it - 'bullet time 2.0'. The general concept remains the same, with an assigned button causing Max to dive through the air in slow motion, but this time around there's also a second bullet time button, which causes enemies to become even slower with each kill and subsequently allows you avoid even more mayhem.

Again, the production quality is pretty high across the board, having benefited from the likes of a motion picture stunt crew, professional voice actors and authentic source material from New York City throughout the game's development. The result is a highly polished action game that delivers its fair share of thrills and spills in its own unique - and increasingly imitated - style.