Overview
Mafia II is an action adventure developed by 2K Czech, the sequel that all Mafia movie fans have been waiting eagerly for. It was always going to be in good hands under 2K developement who always bring high quality games. Mafia II immerses players in the Italian mob underworld in late 1940′s-early 1950′s. Experience the said period through the life of the likable ‘Vito’ who starts off small, but with best friend Joe ”vouching” him – Vito embarks on a series of heists, mob wars and other Mafia duties to gain the respect of the major mob families of Empire Bay. The grand city is modeled on New York City from that period.
Gameplay and Features
Any self respecting mob movie buff will instantly love the cinematics, great voice acting and characters who all give the game a ‘Godfather’ or ‘Goodfellas’ vibe, which makes for an authentic ‘mafioso’ experience. Mafia II is nothing less than a gorgeous triumph aesthetically. It depicts the time period perfectly, from the memorable music which features some of the best tracks from that era, to the clothes people wear and the accurate looking cars. It looks and sounds great with very few visuals flaws not even worth mentioning. Empire Bay is well detailed and destruction of it is stunningly realistic, all contributing to a lively feeling city. The characters are strong, well modeled, have believable animations and are all together memorable. The narration is top class and the storyline all add up to a very polished, well crafted title. So again I say, Mafia II is an aesthetic triumph.
The controls are good with regards to the camera and player movement, but the shooting mechanics were not my favourite. I only found excitement with the shotgun and found it a bit of a task to be accurate, so the shooting feel was not on par with that of pure shooters, but certainly still decent. Vito’s fighting skills are brilliant though, well thought of and for once I actually enjoyed the fighting bits more than the shooting bits. While the fighting mechanics only uses a few buttons, they were well designed for combos and great looking cinematics. The fighting is way less arb than is usually the case with this type of game. Then the driving was as expected, good but not what the game is about despite the large amount of driving you actually do. The cover system to is very well designed and implemented with players able to remain in cover whilst moving around corners and shooting. All very sharp, accurate and fun.
Mafia II versus GTA comparisons will be obvious talking points, but the two games are actually not that similar. Mafia II is way more streamlined without numerous side missions or diversions to extend the gameplay time and make the city feel more robust. Mafia II is a much more linear experience - complete a task and drive the story forward. There are places to repair or paint your cars, places to buy new weapons and tailors for clother, but no much that Vito would not need to do with the story. For me this was great, I like to get on with things and not get side-tracked which is usually the case with open world game. My favourite GTA title was Ballad of Gay Tony for the very this very reason, so I definitely consider this a plus. Those looking for the traditional GTA experience will probably not like this aspect of the game and could be left wanting.
Where Mafia II let me down is on variety, with not too much separating one challenge from the next. You get to drive from A to B, shoot em’ up, fight and a few other tasks, I suppose nothing you wouldn’t expect a mafioso to do. While it was fun doing them, a little more variety or surprises would have taken this good experience for me to a really great one. There was almost no surprises in challenges and while I enjoyed doing them, they really did eventually feel like a means to an end, getting me to that next great cinematic. Then there were some tasks that could be associated with mob work, but I found them pointless like stacking boxes, scrubbing urinals or selling cigarettes by the cartons. You spend a lot of time driving from point A to point B for example, but being olden day cars, they are generally uninspiring and made driving something of a chore in Empire Bay after a few hours. You can upgrade them to a very small degree which never help the old cars to get to an exciting level. Full marks for authenticity though.
What I loved
- Storyline
- Cinematics
- Glorious soundtrack
- Great voice acting
- Strong characters
- Engaging and subversive storyline
- Cover system
Not so much
- Not enough variety is challenges
- Some might not like the linear aspect
- Not enough weapons
Conclusion
I found myself very involved in Vito’s world, it was hard not to with the quality of the game. Mafia II is polished, engaging, subversive and well written. It’s a good game but never outstanding in delivery. It seems like a slightly uneven effort, like more effort was placed on the design rather game mechanics or mission element. I would go from an epic fighting scene to some arb task which would take it down a notch for me. That said, I have no doubt that I will seek out anything more from the developers, and I would easily recommend it, because at the end of the day the good far out weighs the bad. While I can complain a bit and I probably won’t remember many of the challenges, I will certainly remember the stunning story and memorable characters.
Zombiegamer rating:
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Mafia II is available on Playstation 3, PC and Xbox 360. For more visit the game’s official site.
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