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Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a violent, film-noir love story. Dark, tragic and intense, the in-depth story is a thrill-ride of shocking twists and revelations. Love hurts.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
51 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Leather coats. Empty hallways. Berettas barking in slow motion. Cigarette smoke and tragedy. Max Payne 2 might honestly be my favorite game in the trilogy. After finishing the first game I expected more of the same.…”
“Even better than the first. The bullet time is more refined and the story hits harder.”
“They call this game The Fall of Max Payne because of how many balconies, floors and bits of scaffolding his ass manages to plummet through. A pretty nifty sequel to the first game for sure. It gives a lot more of the…”
25 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Great Classic story/shooter! Even though it says controller is not supported I was able to use my Xbox Controller. The controls are good a little touchy and some buttons are in odd places but overall works like a modern…”
“Even better than the first. The bullet time is more refined and the story hits harder.”
“The first two Max Payne games are classic titles that will appeal to modern gamers. The game's plot is a perfect example of the neo-noir genre. It's a cynical crime story that chronicles the experiences of a man who has…”
12 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“4/5 Just like the original Max Payne, Max Payne 2 does many things right. “It has that weird effect where something dark and depressive can feel cozy, like a cold winter night”. Max Payne 2 doesn’t stray from this. It…”
“"Max Payne 2" is pure art when it comes to atmosphere and music, it’s honestly a masterpiece, and with Mona involved it basically feels like gaming paradise. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”
“The first two Max Payne games are classic titles that will appeal to modern gamers. The game's plot is a perfect example of the neo-noir genre. It's a cynical crime story that chronicles the experiences of a man who has…”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Leather coats. Empty hallways. Berettas barking in slow motion. Cigarette smoke and tragedy. Max Payne 2 might honestly be my favorite game in the trilogy. After finishing the first game I expected more of the same.…”
“They call this game The Fall of Max Payne because of how many balconies, floors and bits of scaffolding his ass manages to plummet through. A pretty nifty sequel to the first game for sure. It gives a lot more of the…”
“"Max Payne 2" is pure art when it comes to atmosphere and music, it’s honestly a masterpiece, and with Mona involved it basically feels like gaming paradise. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I love this game. Trully a classic splendid art of making games. They don't do games like this anymore, what is sad. I play it so many times and everytime I think same thing. I play it from time to time. Just to remind…”
“Better gameplay than it's predecessor and a lot easier to get running on modern hardware. Still a fun game if you enjoy playing old school shooters and there's a ton of great modded campaigns you can find online.”
“I beat this game so many times (mostly before I bought the game on Steam), I could recite 97% of the lines as a kid. This is where Remedy peaked and have been slowly but surely sliding down since.”
10 of the 104 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“They call this game The Fall of Max Payne because of how many balconies, floors and bits of scaffolding his ass manages to plummet through. A pretty nifty sequel to the first game for sure. It gives a lot more of the…”
“rly rly difficult to say if i prefer this over the original, and i suspect i will flip back and forth a few times. the actual gameplay experience is a bit one step forward two steps back imo...it begins very…”
“I just finished DOA difficulty. If I'm being honest, this game sucks. Levels are reused, as many as three times during the short campaign. I love Max Payne, but coming back to this game after a few years and seeing just…”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“If a game requires you to install an unofficial patch from the internet to EVEN RUN IT, then it's automatically garbage. Don't buy this game, it doesn't work.”
“Game won't even launch, rockstar games are sodomites for their deeds.”
“masterpiece. although had some issues while running it for the first time but after downloading some dlls it worked. love the story love the gameplay a solid 10/10”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“I just finished DOA difficulty. If I'm being honest, this game sucks. Levels are reused, as many as three times during the short campaign. I love Max Payne, but coming back to this game after a few years and seeing just…”
“Much shorter than the first game, but still pretty good. Wish they kept the same model for Max though, he's missing his signature smirk. 8/10.”
“A bit shorter than the first game and the story is weaker. And the narration somehow became much cornier, but the gameplay is a GIANT improvement. +better gameplay -worse story”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“It's Max Payne 1 but with twice as fun gameplay and half as good vibe”
“Much shorter than the first game, but still pretty good. Wish they kept the same model for Max though, he's missing his signature smirk. 8/10.”
“Great game, again, like when I played the third one, I didnt know what to expect from either this or the first game. This is honestly truly impressive for 2003, and the gunplay improvements over the first game are very…”
3 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Good game but a noticeable step down from the first story wise. The gameplay is way better but the story fell really flat for me. There are some interesting ideas but none of them are fleshed out and are instead just…”
“Yes it's a good PS2 game, and the first Max Payne game that actually has Max Payne looking cool, like an action hero. Shooting, dodging, slowing time down, moving through the levels gunning bad guys down, that's the…”
“A bit shorter than the first game and the story is weaker. And the narration somehow became much cornier, but the gameplay is a GIANT improvement. +better gameplay -worse story”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 94.5% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“a dark and rainy New York doesn't prevent it from being a video game like a film noir with good action and a story that is both romantic and interesting”
— a player, Steam review · 27 hrs played“Old good classic. Still as good as when it came out in 2003. Despite its age, it still amazes with enemies behavior, an actual mirrors reflections and interactable environment ([i]things which in many of modern AAA games are "somehow" unachievable[/i])... Gunshots, explosions,…”
— a player, Steam review · 13 hrs played“How is the gameplay still so fun? With Widescreen Fix and some tinkers here and there this game is still an evergreen classic masterpiece. Diamond never loses it's shine I guess. I will never stop glazing this series”
— a player, Steam review · 7 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-23 23:34 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action |
| Player tags | Action · Noir · Third-Person Shooter · Classic · Bullet Time · Story Rich · Shooter · Singleplayer · Atmospheric · Third Person · Dark · Great Soundtrack (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English |
| Estimated owners | 500,000 – 1,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne2/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP Processor: 1Ghz PIII/Athlon or 1.2Ghz Celeron/Duron processor Memory: 256MB RAM Graphics: 32MB AGP graphics card with hardware transform & lighting support DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 Hard Drive: 1.5 GB hard drive space Sound Card: DirectSound compatible sound card Input: Keyboard and mouse Recommended: OS *: Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP Processor: 1Ghz PIII/Athlon or 1.2Ghz Celeron/Duron processor Memory: 512MB RAM Graphics: 64MB DirectX 9 compatible AGP graphics card with hardware T&L support DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 Hard Drive: 1.5 GB hard driv