Well after Blokey told me to go make my own review, I did, sort of, I just reposted this from other sites. Bear in mind this was back when the game came out, from a fan of the original perspective, and was more of a hit on ignorant console gamers who never played the original, or grew up with the ground breaking title that was the first one. Without further a due, my view on Mafia II.
Well after eight long years Mafia II finally reaches the eagerly awaited fans. The only problem? Too many uneducated console fanboys who never played the original are comparing Mafia II to GTAIV. My main issue here is if any one bothered to read up on Mafia, they’d know it was a linier experience and not a sandbox game, sure, you could drive anywhere you liked but there wasn’t any real reason to do so, consequently why would Mafia II be any different? Oh right, to follow the “GTA Clone†crowd. Nowhere in the development of the game did anybody associated with the project say there were going to be side missions or a GTA Style sandbox world, so called 'reviewers' are using this as a negative point when being critical of the game. It’s like criticising Burnout Paradise for being unrealistic when compared to Gran Turismo 5.
The story begins with Vito returning home on leave from World War II. Vito had joined the U.S. military as a way of avoiding jail time for a botched robbery. The story then follows a linier fashion from there on, progressing from 1943 to 1957. The aim of the game is straight forward, to progress through a small time criminal desperate to pay off old man debts to becoming a Made Man. The structure is simple, but executed superbly in terms of script, timing and cut scenes. The story does disappointingly play it’s cards straight and leaves nothing to shock you, in fact it’s almost a homage of famous gangster films like Mafia I except a few years after most the films were based. Although there are no real shocking moments, the game does manage to pull you in and feel involved with the characters, albeit none of the characters are original but the disappointing thing here is the longing to know more about certain characters such as Henry or Frankie.
From the experience of playing on PC I can safely say Mafia is a solid title in terms of graphics. Many textures on main characters are very vivid and detailed, however on smaller character roles and generic NPCs textures begin to dwindle and become far less impressive. Another problem is the over use of the same NPC models used, if you spend even just an hour driving around you’ll quickly notice how many people all have the same character faces just with different clothes on, it distracts you from the immersion, especially when you see women all looking like your sister! Beside character models most of the game looks great though with no major complaints, cars look like the authentic models of the age, gun textures and various others all shine well too. When playing with PhysX enabled on an Nvidia card the destruction physics are truly spectacular, Vito is perfectly capable of busting into a random Diner and shooting up the place to smithereens, from glasses on tables to the chandeliers on the ceiling, everything can be obliterated! Attention to detail like that really adds fun on random killing sprees you may par take in in your spare time.
Sadly this is where Mafia II truly stumbles, before going on I’m going to reinstate what I already said at the beginning and refrain from comparing it to GTAIV as it simply is not the case. I am however going to make comparisons to Mafia I. Now, many people have criticised Mafia II for having an almost empty world outside of the missions as there is nothing to really see or do beside collect Playboy Mags and Wanted Posters, although this is true you’ve got to realise that Mafia II and I are linier games like Uncharted for example, but instead of just going from mission to mission you are given the chance to drive around places and chose when and how you’re going to get to the next mission. Empire Bay only serves as a means to an end, to get you from point A to B.
Moving on from that people have also complained about the way car handles, this seems to be a recurring theme in many TPS that include being able to drive from GTAIV to Red Faction, however the case is not bad controls but rather adjustments to different games, since 2K were after the authentic feel of late 40’s and early 50’s cars they achieve just that. Not every car handles like Sports cars but when you do gain a luxury car suddenly the car will be able to drive at faster speeds whilst maintaining control. The problem with driving is however the lack of ability to shoot out of the car is, this will become a major issue when you can’t lose the cops and they are hammering down on your car with Thompsons, it really becomes unfair on hard difficulty when you can’t fire back. As for an AI buddy like Joe shooting, you’re out of luck, Joe or Henry will never fire back against random cops but only scripted ones.
With the mention of AI I’ve already set myself up for the next issue, the AI. Mafia I had a sense of realism in its A.I, police were capable of stopping you but had their limits, they wouldn’t open fire at you and would only fine you if you went over the speed limit. The police in Mafia II however don’t seem to care. You can speed past at 80MPH on most occasions and the cops won’t take notice of you, if however you lightly bump another car whilst less than 30MPH then suddenly every cop nearby will be throwing fines at you, it really becomes silly when moments like this happen. Speaking of cops the system for how they determine how to handle Vito is an interesting concept first explored in Mafia I. Its return to Mafia II is welcome but doesn’t bring about everything well. The Wanted system whereby Police hunt down Vito based on description is flawed when you can shoot down an officer who’s all alone with no other witnesses but somehow the police know a rough idea of who shot him. Other times the Police will also instantly know you’ve stolen a car and will also know the exact license plate even though there were none in the vicinity. Moments like that will easily bring a look of “Wtf?†on your face.
Once you get past the driving and Police chases all you’re left with is gun fights, and boy Mafia II has a lot of them. Gunplay in Mafia is sadly a weak point in terms of today’s standard TPS. You can snap into cover and smoke down all the goons with ease, but it’s a shallow form of killing as you’re either glued to a wall in cover or running to the next crate or wall, especially on Hard mode. There’s no option to blind fire, limiting the combat again, and within a few missions you’re given the best machine guns to use anyway, so the difficulty never increases regardless. Most of the environments you have shoot outs don’t allow for much flanking techniques for you or your enemies either, so a lot of the time you can kill everyone just by sticking to a pillar for ten seconds or so. Last negative mark about the gameplay has to be the actual length of the game, with the linier story you can complete the game in just over 10 hours depending on difficulty and how long you spend free roaming, the problem there is there isn’t simply enough to see and do in missions, if you take out the two hours’ worth of cut scenes and always drove straight to your objective it can be breezed in almost a day if you really fancied a speed run.
Finally, an aspect of Mafia II where it hands down is outstanding. Voice acting is superb amongst the main characters, and in many cases the voice actors are almost perfect for their characters (Henry’s voice actor is in my view one the best, and suits him perfectly). This is really one of those games that could easily had renowned actors from big movie franchises and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Music score is superb too, the orchestra music that appears in dramatic scenes along with the main menu and pause menu are great too. Then you have all the 50’s music ranging from Louis Prima to Little Richard with three different radio stations dedicated to Rock & Roll, Jazz and Doo-Wop. With the amount of licensed songs from the time it really does make driving more enjoyable, with in its limit of how much you enjoy 50’s music.
As for game sounds from gunfire and vehicles it’s all top notch, no complaints. However a certain someone makes an unwelcome appearance (in my opinion) to the game that is of course Nolan North. This is where the game does lose marks on the so far outstanding audio though, Nolan North pretty much voices every generic NPC male, from young white male to middle age black man to old age homeless white man. This leads to bumping into clones of Nolan around every corner and conversations being held between Nolan and Nolan. With the amount of time in development and money spent on the songs, you’d think they would shell out for another male voice actor for generic NPC’s. Controls Mafia I was renowned for how bad the controls were for driving, fortunately Mafia II is vastly improved. Although many people still find the controls difficult they are solid and far more responsive, once you get out of the 40’s and start driving the grand automobiles of the 50’s in better road conditions it becomes easier. Outside of driving running around on foot and getting into gun fights respond well, it’s easy to move from cover to cover and Vito can snap onto any suitable cover with ease of a flick of a button and just as easily remove once you’re done. Overall Impressions
Mafia II is a mixed bag, it has the great story along with strong Audio but flaky gameplay. It falls short though as the gameplay is somewhat lacking in many places, more work should have been done, it’s disappointing for fans of the original to play the sequel to a game that pretty much brought new depths of innovation the genre on PC, only to find that it’s no longer the case in the sequel. It’s just a shame that after 8 years of waiting we were treated to just 6 hours of gameplay (A few more hours if you want to shell out a few bucks on DLC that should have been in the game to begin with – thanks 2K).
If I was forced to give a numeric score for this game I’d probably give it a six or seven if you’re a fan of the first, I avoid giving numeric scores though as it seems to be the general conception that a six or seven in most “professional†reviews means the game is average. This is not the case though, Mafia is a fun experience, but it’s lacking in too many places to hold you in for any longer than it needs to be, which is a sad thing for the fans who’ve been waiting for eight years now, but otherwise check it out, especially if you love gangster films (except God Father III).
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