Curious gamers who have held back buying Max Payne 2: The Rise and Fall of Max Payne can now test-drive the hard-boiled sequel. Rockstar and Remedy have released a demo version which features the first three maps from the game: "1st Hospital," "Warehouse," and "1st Vodka." The demo also contains an unidentified, unlockable "Dead Man Walking" level.
Currently available on PC (and soon to be released on PlayStation 2 and Xbox), Max Payne 2 chronicles another bloody chapter in the life of its titular hero, a grizzled ex-cop-turned-vigilante. The first game saw Max take down the drug-dealing corporation responsible for his wife and child's death. Its successor sees Max falling for a seductive murder suspect just as he's again pulled into a brutal underworld plot.
Max Payne 2 sports improved graphics and physics, but retains the same graphic-novel cut scenes, "bullet time" combat, and self-adjusting difficulty as the original.
The multilevel demo is available on DLX, GameSpot's new and improved download center, or from the link below.