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Mafia 2
Release Date: August 28th, 2010
Reviewed On: Xbox 360
Also Available On: PC, Ps3
Developer: 2K Czech
Publisher: 2K Games
ESRB Rating: M
PEGI Rating: M
OFLC Rating: M 18+
You can polish a turd, but it is still a piece of ****. These are words spoken as a gamer that was promised something great, but received something lousy. Mafia 2, through all of its trailers and hype, looked like something that would’ve been incredibly enjoyable for someone who likes epic game experiences. What the game delivered though, was a ho-hum series of mandatory driving sequences interspersed with gameplay that can only be described as serviceable at best.
STORY
Mafia 2 is heralded as a love letter to The Godfather and others Mafioso type stories. Usually the words “love letter” imply that there’s something here paying tribute to something else, but Mafia 2 takes another route entirely. Vito Scaletta is a WW2 veteran (tossed into the fray because of his criminal behavior) that comes back to try and make good on his mistakes and lead a good life. On paper, that sentence is the perfect set-up for a fine Italian crime story, but how it plays out is another story altogether.
Like I said, this is supposed to be a “love letter”, but rarely does the game make living the life of a mobster seem any fun at all. Most of the time it appears to be a hellish time if anything. Vito’s life story is that he’s a mobster because he’s “not good at anything else”, but we never see Vito TRY anything else, and he often complains about the hassles of mob life. Vito may be the most apathetic protagonist I’ve ever had to play as in a game. When the story’s somewhat predictable twists start to make themselves apparent and you begin working for different respective crime teams, you never get a sense that you’re actually in control of Vito. You’re much more a follower than a leader, and that is something that melts into the other areas of the game as well.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay really doesn’t seem to add up in Mafia 2. What we have here is yet another cover-based third-person shooter, this time set in the fictional city of Empire Bay. Over the game’s 15 chapters, you’ll do some shooting, some talking, some incredibly sparse RPG elements like buying clothes, but mostly you’ll be driving. I cannot think of a single mission in the game where I groaned about the amount of driving I had to do just to 1) get to the mission start 2) do during the mission or 3) end the chapter. Every chapter ends with your character needing to drive to his safehouse to go to bed. Sometimes this commute takes an additional 7-10 minutes (because if you speed, the cops chase after you) and can be increasingly aggravating as time goes on.
Speaking of being increasingly aggravating, the checkpoint system in this game is a complete spit in the face to whoever plays it. You can spend 5 minutes driving to the mission start, spend 5 minutes in non-prerendered cutscenes receiving the mission, and then die inexplicably for some reason. When this happens you’ll be sent back to the start of the chapter and left with a very sour taste in your mouth, at least I was.
2K Czech have spent 4 years developing, writing, re-writing, and releasing Mafia 2. My biggest gripe with their endeavors is that the game clearly is the child of bad parents. Parents who seemed to disagree on what the game/child should be and ended up making a horrible abomination. Mafia 2 is built like an open world game begging to be explored, but the horribly rigid mission selection lets you only observe the action and take part in some bits and pieces. I would have to say that possibly more than half the game is spent in a car driving to and from missions on a very linear path. It is so linear in fact that other characters will berate you for diverging from the set path.
Your world map shows several icons like clothing stores, gas stations and the like, but none of them dole out missions like they would in Saints Row or GTA. I hate to throw the comparison in there, but it almost seems like Mafia 2 is trying to compete with games that clearly aren’t in the same category. Mafia 2 comes off as a driving simulator with some functional combat segments thrown in, while GTA/Saints Row offer immersive cities where you can actually LIVE in. It is almost like the developers changed horses in midstream about what type of game they were making. Some must have wanted an open-world game, and other must have wanted a linear action title. These ingredients do not mix to make an enjoyable experience.
GRAPHICS
What kills me the most is that the game looks pretty decent. 2k Czech nailed the 1940’s/1950’s aesthetic and it is a pretty sight to see. Buildings and architecture echo the end of World War 2, and the cars driving around on the streets look like they were ripped right out of my dad’s scrapbook pages. The characters models move as if they’ve had life just breathed into them fresh from the design pages. The way that Vito, Joe, and Henry move in particular is unique, fluid, and believable. There are a few animations here and there that seem unusually stiff, but those are few and far between.
There’s a nice sense of life flowing through the city, even though at times the streets don’t hustle and bustle at the rate you’d think a NYC-rip-off would. Some nice saturation effects compliment missions occurring in the early morning and the lightning in the tunnels is quite nice, if a bit ethereal at times. It is a shame that the Xbox 360 can’t seem to maintain a decent draw-in rate though. Even though the game clearly knows where you’re going (because it won’t let you go elsewhere) the console versions can’t seem to manage to load textures in quick enough. It’s a minor thing sure, but a game this badly structured can’t afford any more losses.
AUDIO
I have been on a hot streak lately for reviewing games with good voice acting and Mafia 2 doesn’t break that streak. 2K could have easily hired actors to do lousy Brooklyn/gangster accents but these voices are the real deal. Not only do they capture the authentic Italian mob sound and feel, but the range of emotions they display whilst maintaining the accent is superb. If you couple the voice acting with the nice nostalgic soundtrack then you can close your eyes and imagine you’re back in the late 40’s.
There’s also a full score that has been written for the game that actually doesn’t totally come up short. The main theme is quite haunting but aside from that there’s nothing to write home about. It is still nice to see a game acquire a full score to round out its proceedings. It is obvious that 2K was going for a movie feel with their game, and a dramatic musical score helps that.
OVERALL
Mafia 2 is a very successful driving simulator surrounded by a mediocre third person shooter with very expensive window dressing. At times I swore at the game for not having a better checkpoint system, more mission variety, and most importantly, not having any sort of warp system for starting and ending chapters. Any attempts 2K Czech made to re-create a brilliant mob story were wasted away by boring and all-too frequent trips to and from mission starts. A game with such passionate fans behind it deserves better game designers. The Mafia would put a hit out on whoever decided to kill off the last remaining ounce of intrigue the mob stories of the 40’s and 50’s provided for us today.
Written by ChristianOfTheWired for Total Gaming Network
Release Date: August 28th, 2010
Reviewed On: Xbox 360
Also Available On: PC, Ps3
Developer: 2K Czech
Publisher: 2K Games
ESRB Rating: M
PEGI Rating: M
OFLC Rating: M 18+
You can polish a turd, but it is still a piece of ****. These are words spoken as a gamer that was promised something great, but received something lousy. Mafia 2, through all of its trailers and hype, looked like something that would’ve been incredibly enjoyable for someone who likes epic game experiences. What the game delivered though, was a ho-hum series of mandatory driving sequences interspersed with gameplay that can only be described as serviceable at best.
STORY
Mafia 2 is heralded as a love letter to The Godfather and others Mafioso type stories. Usually the words “love letter” imply that there’s something here paying tribute to something else, but Mafia 2 takes another route entirely. Vito Scaletta is a WW2 veteran (tossed into the fray because of his criminal behavior) that comes back to try and make good on his mistakes and lead a good life. On paper, that sentence is the perfect set-up for a fine Italian crime story, but how it plays out is another story altogether.
Like I said, this is supposed to be a “love letter”, but rarely does the game make living the life of a mobster seem any fun at all. Most of the time it appears to be a hellish time if anything. Vito’s life story is that he’s a mobster because he’s “not good at anything else”, but we never see Vito TRY anything else, and he often complains about the hassles of mob life. Vito may be the most apathetic protagonist I’ve ever had to play as in a game. When the story’s somewhat predictable twists start to make themselves apparent and you begin working for different respective crime teams, you never get a sense that you’re actually in control of Vito. You’re much more a follower than a leader, and that is something that melts into the other areas of the game as well.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay really doesn’t seem to add up in Mafia 2. What we have here is yet another cover-based third-person shooter, this time set in the fictional city of Empire Bay. Over the game’s 15 chapters, you’ll do some shooting, some talking, some incredibly sparse RPG elements like buying clothes, but mostly you’ll be driving. I cannot think of a single mission in the game where I groaned about the amount of driving I had to do just to 1) get to the mission start 2) do during the mission or 3) end the chapter. Every chapter ends with your character needing to drive to his safehouse to go to bed. Sometimes this commute takes an additional 7-10 minutes (because if you speed, the cops chase after you) and can be increasingly aggravating as time goes on.
Speaking of being increasingly aggravating, the checkpoint system in this game is a complete spit in the face to whoever plays it. You can spend 5 minutes driving to the mission start, spend 5 minutes in non-prerendered cutscenes receiving the mission, and then die inexplicably for some reason. When this happens you’ll be sent back to the start of the chapter and left with a very sour taste in your mouth, at least I was.
2K Czech have spent 4 years developing, writing, re-writing, and releasing Mafia 2. My biggest gripe with their endeavors is that the game clearly is the child of bad parents. Parents who seemed to disagree on what the game/child should be and ended up making a horrible abomination. Mafia 2 is built like an open world game begging to be explored, but the horribly rigid mission selection lets you only observe the action and take part in some bits and pieces. I would have to say that possibly more than half the game is spent in a car driving to and from missions on a very linear path. It is so linear in fact that other characters will berate you for diverging from the set path.
Your world map shows several icons like clothing stores, gas stations and the like, but none of them dole out missions like they would in Saints Row or GTA. I hate to throw the comparison in there, but it almost seems like Mafia 2 is trying to compete with games that clearly aren’t in the same category. Mafia 2 comes off as a driving simulator with some functional combat segments thrown in, while GTA/Saints Row offer immersive cities where you can actually LIVE in. It is almost like the developers changed horses in midstream about what type of game they were making. Some must have wanted an open-world game, and other must have wanted a linear action title. These ingredients do not mix to make an enjoyable experience.
GRAPHICS
What kills me the most is that the game looks pretty decent. 2k Czech nailed the 1940’s/1950’s aesthetic and it is a pretty sight to see. Buildings and architecture echo the end of World War 2, and the cars driving around on the streets look like they were ripped right out of my dad’s scrapbook pages. The characters models move as if they’ve had life just breathed into them fresh from the design pages. The way that Vito, Joe, and Henry move in particular is unique, fluid, and believable. There are a few animations here and there that seem unusually stiff, but those are few and far between.
There’s a nice sense of life flowing through the city, even though at times the streets don’t hustle and bustle at the rate you’d think a NYC-rip-off would. Some nice saturation effects compliment missions occurring in the early morning and the lightning in the tunnels is quite nice, if a bit ethereal at times. It is a shame that the Xbox 360 can’t seem to maintain a decent draw-in rate though. Even though the game clearly knows where you’re going (because it won’t let you go elsewhere) the console versions can’t seem to manage to load textures in quick enough. It’s a minor thing sure, but a game this badly structured can’t afford any more losses.
AUDIO
I have been on a hot streak lately for reviewing games with good voice acting and Mafia 2 doesn’t break that streak. 2K could have easily hired actors to do lousy Brooklyn/gangster accents but these voices are the real deal. Not only do they capture the authentic Italian mob sound and feel, but the range of emotions they display whilst maintaining the accent is superb. If you couple the voice acting with the nice nostalgic soundtrack then you can close your eyes and imagine you’re back in the late 40’s.
There’s also a full score that has been written for the game that actually doesn’t totally come up short. The main theme is quite haunting but aside from that there’s nothing to write home about. It is still nice to see a game acquire a full score to round out its proceedings. It is obvious that 2K was going for a movie feel with their game, and a dramatic musical score helps that.
OVERALL
Mafia 2 is a very successful driving simulator surrounded by a mediocre third person shooter with very expensive window dressing. At times I swore at the game for not having a better checkpoint system, more mission variety, and most importantly, not having any sort of warp system for starting and ending chapters. Any attempts 2K Czech made to re-create a brilliant mob story were wasted away by boring and all-too frequent trips to and from mission starts. A game with such passionate fans behind it deserves better game designers. The Mafia would put a hit out on whoever decided to kill off the last remaining ounce of intrigue the mob stories of the 40’s and 50’s provided for us today.
Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 3/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 8/10
Total Gaming Network Rating: 6/10
Gameplay: 3/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 8/10
Total Gaming Network Rating: 6/10
Written by ChristianOfTheWired for Total Gaming Network