By Sam Coles:
It’s been six years since the last Mafia game was
released and it is one of my favourite games on the Xbox 360 and PS3 with its
excellent story and fun and tense gameplay set in a believable world. With my excitement
for Mafia 3 which is out in October I’m going to review Mafia 2.
The story is told from the perspective of the main
character Vito Scaletta who retells the events of the game. The first part of
the game sees you fighting in Sicily during World War II where you’re fighting
off the last of fascist regime. I have to say that this opening to the game was
unexpected for a Mafioso story because I was expecting the usual trope where
the main character is a normal law abiding citizen then turned into a thug.
Vito eventually goes home to his hometown of Empire Bay where he is greeted by
his best friend Joe Barbaro who finds a way to get Vito discharged from the
military through less than legal means.
Vito is then finds out after his father’s death he
had a huge debt of money who he owed to some thugs who keep intimidating his
sister and mother, he has an altercation with one of the thugs and starts to
find a way to make money fast which is where Joe comes in. Joe introduces him
to his boss Alberto Clemente, who he then proceeds to work for, but one thing
leads to another and he ends up in prison as he takes the fall for a robbery.
The story is engaging and well performed from start
to finish with twists and turns with a few shocking and emotional moments with
great voice acting and well-crafted cutscenes coupled with the beautiful
musical score.
Gameplay is a mixture of shooting, driving and
exploring on foot as it is an open world game (sort of), but the overall
structure is very linear because there is nothing to do when you drive from
mission to mission except buy new clothes, cars and collect Playboy magazines
(not joking). Driving feels fantastic with the 1950’s sports cars as you throw
them around corners they feel weighted and realistic with the physics and are
just satisfying overall to control.
Shooting is functional it’s nothing mind blowing it’s
your typical third person shooting akin to Gears of War with a good cover
system where you pop out and shoot enemies until they’re all dead. The guns are
great from the 1940’s all the way up to the 50’s and are modelled with exquisite
detail and all sound fantastic.
The visuals still hold up after six years with
excellent detail on the car models you can really tell that the team took the
time to analyse and research the cars of the 40’s and 50’s no stone was left
unturned. The character models and animation are brilliant with subtle raises
of eye brows to a slight twitch as they smile. The city looks beautiful with
superb weather effects to the dark snowy winter to the sweltering hot summer;
the weather effects make this city feel alive.
The only problem I have with this game is that the
frame rate has a habit of dipping in cutscenes and gameplay when things get
busy because this is a visually demanding game it happens here there and it can dampen my
overall experience sometimes.
Mafia II is a wonderful game and it has got me
excited for the third instalment that is coming out soon. If you haven’t played
this game I would highly recommend it, it fairly cheap and easy to find so go
get it!
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