Mafia II Review (Xbox 360)

Posted by Todd Vote on 09.06.2010

411's Todd Vote checks in with his review of Mafia II. Is it an offer you can't refuse, or should you just fuhgeddaboudit. Come in to find out.



Game: Mafia II
Genre: Action
Players: 1
Developer: 2K Czech
Publisher: 2K Games
Rated: M Mature 17+

Mafia II puts you in the shoes of Vito Scaletta, an immigrant from the old country who is just trying to get by in Empire Bay (the game equivalent of New York). The opening cut scene shows Vito and his family arriving on the boat, and shows different parts of Vito's young life before cutting to Vito, and his best friend Joe Barbaro getting caught lifting some goods. Well Vito get's caught, Joe gets away. With this portion of the game taking place during WWII time, Vito is offered to go to war instead of prison; an offer which he accepts.

This puts the opening chapter of gameplay right in the middle of war torn Italy, and battling the forces of Mussolini. From there Vito witnesses the end of the war, gets a leave for being shot; fake papers so he doesn’t have to go back, and we’re off and running.



Vito returns home to see his mother and sister in trouble with loan sharks due to his deceased father. Vito decides right then that he is not going to live a life of poverty. So he pays a visit to his old buddy Joe.

Empire Bay, on first look, looks like a big sprawling city bustling with life and color just begging to be your playground. In essence that is exactly what it is, minus the playground part. While Empire Bay is large enough, the open world portion of this type of game loses some flare when you realize that there are no side missions to do. The game is almost entirely linear. You have one mission at a time to do and that is it. Sure there are stores to buy clothes, and shops to buy food and fix your cars. But these are all there as a way to enhance the missions you are on.

Let me clarify, that you can drive anywhere you want and avoid the main mission, however you are not going to find anything to occupy your time short of robbing stores and going on a killing spree. This is as linear as I have ever seen a game like this be. Now that’s not to say Mafia II can’t offer a fairly engaging experience, because the story and the game play are both pretty fun. The story will keep you going and you will find the lack of side missions, while a bit disappointing, is exactly what they were going for. They had to do something to stand out from other games of this type, right? So let’s give the gamers a straight forward mission based game in an open world. However this ends up making the world of Mafia II feel like it is only there for this game, and not a much larger world that this story just happens to be taking place in ala GTA and other living worlds in these types of game.

However, 2K did a great job of recreating the look and feel of the timeframe, with vehicles, clothing and even billboards looking up to snuff. The main cast has some great character models, and the cut scenes are all well done, with some unique angles to bring you into the story. Everything looks good, but the character models really shine with the main cast, where you can really see the detail.


Like my ride?

There is some slowdown at times during gameplay, and some of the cut scenes are a bit choppy from time to time, but it is not frequent enough to take away too much from the game itself. I would have liked to see things run a bit more smoothly,

The main reason that this approach, for the most part, worked is due to a great story. I love me stories of the mafia, and the 50’s setting. The story keeps you plugging along, and spans at least two decades. Together with decent gameplay mechanics it manages to elevate the game above being a simple clone. But just. For everything I found myself liking in Mafia II there were things that left me scratching my head wondering why it was there instead of expanding the gameplay and extending the shelf life of the game. We’ll get into some of that a bit later.

I liked the gameplay, it uses a fairly smart cover system that has been used before; where pushing the ‘A’ button will dive into just about any cover you are close to. The shooting, while not being perfect is fairly easy to get the hang of, and once you do you will find yourself popping in and out of cover and shooting caps off of your fellow Mafioso’s.



In fact the controls overall are nothing earth shattering, but I’m a fan of the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, and that works here. You have a sprint button, which doubles with the ability to jump over low walls and fences. No jump button for you here, you will use that sprint button as your jump when it is necessary. I question the lack of a designated jump button as in this type of game not being able to jump just feels odd. Anyway, you are able to hold several varieties of weapons, and several types of each variety. You change these with the d-pad.

When it comes to getting yourself a car, I like the fact that the game gives you more than one way to get into them. In other games you just smash a window, and you are in. Mafia gives you that option, however you also have a lockpick so you can get in without making to much ruckus during the daylight hours. This comes in handy, because the police in this game are strict.

Yes, they are strict. This is the first time in any game of this type where I had attained a wanted level just by speeding, but there it is. I went speeding past a cop, and the next thing I know they are giving chase. Now another unique function this game offers is that even though the cops are strict, depending on your crime you can pull over and just pay the fine, or bribe the cops to let you go. From my experience this is unique to Mafia II, I don’t recall seeing it used before.

The cars manage to maintain the feel of driving a car made in the 40’s or 50’s they take wide swooping turns, they take longer than 3.5 seconds to reach speed, and they are big lumbering beasts. Get yourself flying across a bridge, and it takes you a good 37 miles to slow the beast down to a stop. In all there are over 30 different cars and trucks for you to drive.

I stated above that there were shops to customize your cars, but that the customization is more to enhance the missions you go on than anything else. Well that wasn’t entirely true, as you can use these shops to beef up a car, and make it a bit faster (tip: you will have to do this with one car to get several achievements if that’s your bag.) You can customize your paint, your license plates, and to repair any damage you have done. I should point out that painting your car or changing your plates will get the police off of your car but not necessarily off of you.

That is where the clothing shops come in. Just as your car can become wanted by the police, you can also become wanted separately. So yes you can fix your car up and that may get the cops off of you until you go to get out. The cops in addition to looking for wanted vehicles will look for people matching a description of what you are wearing due to you wearing that for whatever crime you did. Just go change your clothes at home or any of the numerous clothing shops to fix that. Sadly this covers the extent of the usefulness of these shops. Though I must say, I did buy several of the suits, just because I didn’t want my Made Man walkin’ around town in a leather coat.

Remember earlier in the review I mentioned some things that just made me scratch my head at their inclusion? Well those things would be something that I can only assume the developers put in the game to add a realism to it. You can open and close most any window you come across, shut off or turn on any light. Hell you can even turn water faucets on and off and flush toilets. I understand that these are all things you can do in real life, and are more than likely designed to add a sense of realism, but I question the inclusion of them instead of adding perhaps a couple of side story missions to keep the game a bit more engaging. The only thing I can think of is they were going after the OCD demographic and are counting on those affected with the disorder to spend hours upon hours flicking light switches and flushing toilets. If that is what they were going for, good on them, but I still have to question adding that sense of realism, instead of more gameplay to keep the gamer intrigued.



So this brings us to the music and sound of the game. Let me just state that I hate my car radio in the 40’s but I love it in the 50’s. The big band sound of the 40’s just was not my cup of tea, and I found myself doing most of my driving in silence. Once the game shifts into the 50’s the music, and the story both pick up immensely, with your radio playing some of the biggest hits of the era, and I found myself loving it. You’ll hear classics from Buddy Holly, Dean Martin, Chuck Berry, not to mention Bing Crosby. I’ve always been somewhat of a fan of this type of music, so it’s inclusion is a nice change from most games.

The radio announcers will from time to time interrupt the music to bring you breaking news, either about the end of the war, or to bring updates on some shoot out or robbery that you are in the process of fleeing. I know it’s not the first time something like this has been used, but it is worth mentioning because I really like it when games do this type of thing.

The voice acting is incredible. From top to bottom the cast does a great job of displaying the era in which the game takes place. From veteran video game actor Rick Pasqualone voicing Vito to the always awesome Robert Costanzo’s work as Vito’s best friend Joe, every one does a fantastic job. 2K did a fine job casting this game. Well done to all involved.

The 411:
Mafia II is a fun game, with great story that will keep you plugging away till the end. With no side missions, or really anything else to do in Empire Bay, make no mistake, the story is the star of this game. It’s a unique approach for what is billed as an open world, but it really drives things forward on the first playthrough. Where it is going to hurt the game is on replay value. I’m afraid finding nudey pictures of playmates past and wanted Posters is not enough to bring most gamers back for a replay of the game. The story however may bring you back for a second go round. The game is engaging, and very well acted, that is the bread and butter here.

PROS:
+ Great Story
+ Top notch acting
+ Fun engaging gameplay
+ Smart cops

CONS:
No side missions hurts the replay value
Some slowdown during game play, and some cut scenes are a bit choppy.
Light switches and toilets?

Graphics	8.0	Everything looks good, but there is some slowdown. Some cut scenes are a bit choppy.
Gameplay	7.5	While fun, the gameplay really offers nothing we haven’t seen before.
Sound	8.0	Good in one portion, and honestly, my dislike aside, good in the other. Great acting.
Lasting Appeal	5.0	I’m afraid there is just not much to bring you back to the main game after finishing it.
Fun Factor	8.0	The gameplay is standard, though fun. The great story really brings this one up to where it is.
Overall	7.3   [ Good ]

Screenshots
All 14 Mafia 2 Screenshots