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For the most part, the actual game world is far more grounded in sanity. The new Havok 2.0 physics engine, which was supposed to make its debut with Half-Life 2, is pretty darn cool. Instead of taking time to record death animation motion capture, you can just plug this thing in and watch the fur fly. Bodies go flying, tumble brutally down stairwells, and go flying off precipices with satisfying realism. A particularly good hit will give you a slow-mo rotating camera close-up of the bad guy getting flung back by the killing shot, but this feature is used sparingly enough so that it never feels like a gimmick. There's also some partial map destructibility--you'll actually have to blow some stuff up in order to make progress towards your destination, but keep clear of the explosives when you do. There's a lot more explosive stuff lying around than in the first game, so you can use that to your advantage when a bad guy decides to duck behind a stack of ammo boxes. You can even set off a chain of explosions that will clear out an entire room. You'll also have a couple more "get out of the burning building" areas, but they aren't nearly as frustratingly difficult as the restaurant back in the first Max Payne, which was loaded with a string of explosives that made it impossible to linger in a single room for more than a couple seconds.