hooooly shit okay, so, this is definitely going for a different vibe from max payne 1, much less standard vengeance noir and much more complex and multifaceted, which is great for the story, but causes there to be a lot of gameplay segments that break the flow that max payne 1 was so good at keeping up. it's not a straight line anymore; levels can sometimes turn into winding labyrinths, and you are sure to be turned around at lesat once or twice, but all of these complaints are MORE than made up for by the other aspects of the game.
the game feel and game systems:
improved across the board. if Max Payne was smooth one way yet prickly in the other like a leg gone unshaved for a week (forgive the simile, it's the best i could come up with), Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a freshly shaved leg lightly coated in vaseline. It's REAL smooth. Gunplay feels just right, and I actually had a lot of use for bullet-time in this one since I didn't have to stand still like a shooting gallery target to turn it on. You also get a lot more time to use rifles, which are by far the most useful weapon type since shotguns have also been nerfed somewhat.
With the structural changes of Max Payne 2, Sam Lake gets to exploit his writing chops a whole lot more, even introducing what would, I believe, later become a staple of Remedy games, television programs! Sometimes you can sit in front of a television in the environment which will begin playing an episode of one of three television programs which happen to relate to the current events of the game's plot and the events of the previous game, reinforcing an overarching theme of both Max's psychosis and how media sometimes happens to overlap with our personal lives at the strangest of times. On that topic, there are a lot of instances of characters mentioning video game violence, likely lampooning the " violent video games are corrupting our youth" craze of the era. Anyhow, Max Payne 2 feels both like a passion project from Remedy and an obligation to follow up on the breakout success of Max Payne 1. The story never feels like it takes any major asspulls, though, and it almost feels like a rough outline of this game's plot was already ready to go in case Max Payne 1 went well sales-wise and Remedy got to make a sequel. The somewhat vague nature of Max Payne 1's ending and the "to be continued" message at the end of that game somewhat signifies this, but certain aspects definitely seem like they were "we need to make a sequel, think of some shit quick" ideas. They never really contradict the end of MP1 though. This game also ends very similarly (although the ending music choice is a lot more elaborate and impactful than MP1's "just play the main theme that you've heard 50 times already" thing.)
To wrap up my ramblings, I just think Max Payne 2 is awesome. I hadn't really expected much considering how it seemed to throw away so much of the original game's visual identity in its transition to being a game emblematic of the early 2000s, and it would have had to follow up on a somewhat clear-cut ending with a new, even bigger conspiracy - involving a lot of romance this time, which I'd say is hit or miss - but I think it manages to do it really well. I'd certainly play this again sometime, which isn't something I come outright and say much.

"We keep driving
into the night
It's a late goodbye,
such a late goodbye"

John Woo should have just worked with Remedy instead of trying to make his own game studio. This game is VERY good, at least after you install a patch to remove the broken adaptive difficulty on Fugitive. The animations and presentation also hold up extremely well for a game from 2001. Max's animation work makes everything you do feel so responsive and satisfying. It's kind of amazing that Remedy just outright made the first good third person shooter ever as their first high-production 3D game project before RE4 would get credit for the same thing a few years later.

now thats a motha fuckin VIDEO GAME!!! Dracula and Death (especially Death) are bullshit bosses but generally the level design is actually quite fair in this game until the later levels. Played the Japanese NORMAL difficulty, not EASY. The music is good and the graphics are generally appealing, but for some reason enemies break when they near the corners of the screen, this shouldn't be a tiling issue so idk why that happens. Weird. Good game though. Both under AND overrated. Super Castlevania IV clears.