THIS HAS SPOILERS!!!!!

Story Max Payne One

Max Payne, a normal family man and successful NYPD police officer, with a wife and a baby girl, suddenly had his world turned upside down. 3 ex-military killers who were high on the mysterious drug 'V' or Valkyr, murdered his family after returning home from work. Max Payne, in his desperation and grief, turns to the DEA. He sets out to find the source of the drug and its distributors, killing everyone and all who stood in his path out of vengeance. He met and became assosicated with the Russian mobster Vladimir Lem, who convinced Max that his best vengeance would be dealt if he tracked down and murdered over a dozen syndicate bosses and underbosses of the Punchinello crime family, all the way to the top of the chain; to Don Angelo Punchinello himself. Max then meets Mona Sax, a deadly, cold, and calculating, professional assassin shrouded in enigma which whom he falls for.

Max Payne one is full of the creepiest and most paranoia-inducing nightmares combined with the use of dark piano music, and the cries of his baby girl dying, while running through his own house, passing through long and twisting corridors and hallways, soon leading to a pitch-black room with trails of floating blood which you must stay on to make it to the next side of the house and find Max's baby girl's room. Although no one is chasing you, the setting and music will give you that feeling, so naturally you will hurry.

This game is very dark and emotionally cold, twisting your mind with misleading assumptions and predictions, while taking you on a roller coaster ride filled with intense shoot-outs, the new and innovative invention of the helpful and climatic 'Bullet-Time' dodges and slow-motion, gut-wrenching story plots, and unexpected nightmares with the horrible paranoia feeling ensues the player.

If you watch the T.V shows in both games, you will find that they reflect Max Payne's life and what he is going through right now. Each T.V show shown gives a different perspective.

In Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

After taking down Nicole Home as promised in the first Max Payne game, Alfred Woden removed the charges as promised, and returns to the NYPD. His nightmare's do not pass away though, and is still haunted by his past. He recieves a police message of a shooting at a warehouse, and investigates. What he finds leads him back to almost exactly where he started..fighting the last Punchinello underboss, Vinnie Gognitti, and reconnecting with Mona many times on iffernt occassions. The Cleaners infested the warehouse, where Max murders all of them except for their boss and a few other assailents. The connection of it all restarts there.

The beginning of Max Payne 2 is very misleading. You actually are not in the beginning of the story, you are almost near the end of it.

Mona and Max, after they teamed up and went after the Cleaners, who were actually led by Vladimir Lem, met up with Detective Winterson, who has been hunting Mona Sax since she is a criminal. Max fires a round into Winterson's chest and walks away, but as he is, Winterson fires a few rounds into Max's back. He, who is at a tall construction site, falls on the ledge, and nearly dies. Directly after this, he is taken to the hospital, where you first start out, where reconnects that incident to the "begginning" and solving that part. Jim Bravura, who has been hunting Max because of his killing spree in the first Max Payne, is killed in the hospital before Max's eyes.

Vinnie, who has been helping Max find Vlad and through the game, is held hostage by Vladimir. He tapes on a mascot head of Gognittie's favorite cartoon character, Basball Bat Boy. Vinnie is an avid collector of Baseball Bat Boy. The mascot head has been rigged with bombs and Vlad has the remote. Vlad now takes the fight directly to Max, blowing up Vinnie and shooting Max in the head. With a miracle, he survies and awakens in a pool of his blood. Max head to Alfred's mansion, where Vlad has invaded it. Vlad kills Alfred and Mona (his lover), and is then killed by Max.

Nightmares in this game have more a use of flashbacks, and dialogue and other familiar aquaintances as well, such as Mona, Bravura, and Winterson. They are not as intense, but have a much more creepy and unsettling mood. They also do not have the paranoia-induced feeling, and lets you interact with objects to bypass the nightmare. You must also use your guns in most cases.

Bullet-Time in Max Payne 2 is actually must faster, but get slower with every kill you get. The maximun slow-motion is achieved with the Bullet Dodge move, which is actually probably how most players kill their enemies to avoid their high accuracy.

Bullet-Time in Max Payne 1 is set on one extremely slow speed, and the Bullet Dodge move motion lasts ironically shorter than the Max Payne 2 Bullet Dodge.

This game is my favorite shooter of all-time, due to it's innovative slow-motion and excellent and superbly structured storylines combined the use of plot-twists and confusing the player with nightmares, unexpected events, and a new course of combat utilization. Max Payne 2's ragdoll physics engine adds to the excitement and creativity of the kills done by the player and often they replay those events to kill the enemies in new ways.

Discuss your likes and dislikes about this game, and feel free to include details I did not post due to my rushed self to shower before I got to bed. I'm sorry I did not want to include every detail about the story. Post any screenshots from the game on the PC if you want. That would be a miracle if some of you actually had some still!