Mafia II Review
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 4:02AM GamerZitch
PROS
· Incredibly detailed game environment
· Well thought out and articulated world
· One of the most engrossing stories to ever be told in a video game
· The soundtrack is my favorite of all time.
CONS
· Combat system can grow tiresome after a while
· Female character models done poorly
· Little to no reason to explore the city outside of the main missions
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Mafia II has joined the ranks of Red Dead Redemption in 2010’s category of incredible period piece games. Both are taking the visions we have of their respective timepieces and turning them into a reality we are able to experience for ourselves. Where as Red Dead Redemption gave us the opportunity to live out our childhood dreams of being a cowboy back in the wild west, Mafia II lets us finally feel like the Tommy Gun wielding mobsters we’ve come to know through stories of Al Capone or movies like The Godfather.
YOU COME TO ME WITH A FAVOR…
You play as Vito Scaletti a young Italian-American man from Empire Bay (New York) who leads a young life of petty crime straight into being sent off to Europe in WWI, only to be injured and shipped back in 1945. As soon as you set foot back in Empire Bay you meet up with your childhood friend Joe who gets you out of the service and starts you off in the criminal underground. From here the story could branch off and have you running odd jobs for various people tracking the rise and fall of the American gangster much like Scarface.
Mafia II takes a very different approach while still holding true to this mobster image. Almost every game released has something major at stake, whether it is family, home, city, country, or the entire world. Mafia II is simply about the choices that Vito and Joe make and the ramifications that come with those choices. This take on story telling allows the story to play out in a more mature natural way allowing Vito’s facial expressions and uncertainty in his voice to broadcast his own concerns with his career choice.
WELCOME TO EMPIRE CITY
Mafia II’s real differentiating point from Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto is in the way the story is delivered. While Empire City is fully traversable there is no reason to do anything besides the main story, side missions as well as buying new weapons and clothing are there for little if any reason. Each mission is doled out in order as you complete them, this allows the story to be more tightly woven and delivered to the player.
Empire Bay serves as the perfect backdrop for the tale being told and gives every event a sense of place and context. This daring approach will not appeal to all though and a lot of driving later on in the game with no type of fast travel option may drag on.
The same attention that was given to the games story has also been given to the incredible detail of the games presentation. Taking place from the late 1940’s to the early 1950’s you will get a glimpse back into the time that our parents and grandparents lived in. Your first drive through of Empire Bay, it’s a dark, snowy night, with Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” on the radio. This will eventually turn into driving in game equivalents to ’51 Chevys while listening to Buddy Holly and Bill Haley. The cutscenes which are used to deliver the games story have a deep level of detail as well, the lighting, music, settings, and overall tone sets up the feel of what is on screen and delivers foreshadowing in the “Ah oh I know what’s going to happen why doesn’t he see it” way.
Mafia II tries so hard for the realistic feel and for the most part excels in every way you could imagine. However since the realistic style is so prevalent minor gripes, which would be unnoticeable in other games, shine through glaringly. For instance male character models are well detailed and fun to look at, female models on the other hand don’t fare as well and look as though someone took a belt sander to their face. Many scenes also involve characters eating food, which end up being flat textures. As I said this would be a non-existent thought in other games but in such a detailed world where you will accumulate dirt and rust on your car as you drive through the snow it is something you’ll notice.
BADA-BING BADA-BOOM
The gameplay portions of Mafia II consist mostly of cover based shootouts which (for the most part) are plentiful and fun. The destructible environments really add to the battles as you’ll rip apart buildings, shattering bottles, and putting holes in the walls with your tommy gun.
The enemy A.I. is by no means stupid, however the enemies use stop and pop method which doesn’t allow them to switch from cover to cover or perform flanking maneuvers as is possible in other games of the same ilk. The aiming does not give quite the precision you need to hit targets at a range.
The heavy cover based gameplay means that if you aren’t behind something heavy, solid, and at least waist height you will soak up bullets like a sponge and then proceed to die. Your health will automatically recover as is common in games nowadays, but when you take damage the screen will turn black and white, which can be hard to notice since many of the games battle areas are already dark. I can see why the devolpers wanted to use this method for their health system but it only seems to at time lengthen the firefights which could at times benefit from proceeding at a speedier pace.
Cars handle as well as you would expect, not racing game good but not quite GTA4 bad. One noteworthy addition is the speed limiter, which is exactly what it sounds like. It will keep your vehicle driving the speed limit, now that seems like a drag but once again serves to add to the level of realism the game delivers.
While the combat leaves a little to be desired the story and atmosphere that Mafia II delivers is well worth the price of admission. If you have ever wanted to see the “realistic” side of the mobster life you can not go wrong with this one.