PlayStation Archive

Mafia II is the story of Vito Scaletta and his family immigrating from Sicily, growing up in Empire Bay, serving in the American army, getting beat up by mobsters, and killing a substantial amount of people on his own. This results in Vito Scaletta becoming the ultimate mobster! But is it really that good that he did? Well…

Presentation:

While the setting is different then most open world games, the 40′s & 50′s theme does not work in many aspects of the narrative. First the script and the characters are not deep or interesting on any level. The story itself is good for what it tries to do but a lot of writing quirks made some of the dialogue awkward. While the story or the characters are not that compelling, the weapons, cars and outfits really do make you feel like you are in the 40′s & 50′s time period.

Visuals:

Great particles and visual effects are a plus, especially since you can use it to your advantage in the actual gameplay as well. It is a really good engine for physics, but sadly, everything else is rough. Some of the environments look like a proper current generation game, but most look really un-inspired and bland. On top of that, the facial models and lip syncing both in-game and in the cut-scenes are just horrendous.

Sound:

Going with the 50′s vibe, the background music in the action sequences is really good and fitting. Unfortunately though the music that is played in the radio is also from that time period and really not my thing. Even though I recognized a few songs most of them were just not interesting to me. The voice-overs are good but inconsistent at points and with the theme of the narrative, it is a big campy at points.

Gameplay:

As an open world game, with cover based shooting, the game fails at everything it tried to do gameplay wise. Initially the game was designed as a narrative driven game, but because of the style of the story and missions, it would be quite weird. On the other hand the mission design is absolutely abysmal! There are fetch missions, timed missions, and some horrible driving missions (not racing) that just take forever to go through and most of it was not streamlined at all.

Which leads me to my other problem. The checkpoint system is just appalling! There is nothing to do sometimes since the game fails to let you know exactly what you need to do and that leads to constant deaths. Also the decent, at best, gunplay is only making everything even worse! Its in-accurate, clunky and I would say the same for the un-fluid cover system that is in the game.

Then there is the driving in the game which feels really stiff and un-intuitive. It makes some of the missions really frustrating as they are timed missions.

On top of all that there is some good on paper fighting mechanics that were not implemented well into the game. There are quite a few fighting scenes and the odd choice to force the player to hold the button to counter, is just baffling! Especially since it is fun and challenging at with the harder enemies. Sadly though some camera issues make the fighting frustrating.

Even though its a small thing, the font size for the objectives and subtitles really make the game problematic. Also the game has a weird mechanic that regards the cops and enforcing the law against you.

Replay Value:

It takes about 11-12 hours to finish the game, which is quite disappointing for an open world game; especially since there is nothing do it in the world (besides a few side missions). The biggest problem is the fact that at least 40% of the game is you just driving from X to Y with no real explanation. It’s the consequence of making a linear chapter based game in an empty open world game.

Conclusion:

Mafia 2 failed to deliver a good story; it failed to provide a good narrative; and it failed big time with all the odd and frustrating design choices that were in the game. In the end Mafia 2 is everything you do not want to be: a shallow game and story with horrible design on top of a decent shooter.
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