Mafia II did a rare thing by grabbing my attention with the pre-release trailers. After not knowing a thing about the game, I couldn’t wait to experience what looked like a refreshing change from my usual focus on fantasy or sci-fi based gaming worlds. Everyone knows the Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola mafia world, particularly for their strong characters and rise and fall storylines within a world of violence, so I was curious to explore this in a game.
Mafia II tells the story of Vito and Joe, from their struggle to beat the unemployment and poverty of the New York-like Empire City to the questionable acts they perform to earn respect from their peers. As Vito, you begin the game in the custody of police. You’re then dispatched to Italy where you fight for the US Army against the fascist forces of Mussolini in a great third-person shooter scenario. As you storm the house of the a general, a local Mafia Don calls off the fighting by convincing the enemy soldiers to surrender to the US forces without a shot needing to be fired. This shows a young Vito the power of the Mafia.
On your return to the US as an injured veteran, you again meet up with Joe who seems to be able to pull strings to have you discharged from the army and has links with the local crime bosses. After finding out that your mother and sister are in debt to a local loan-shark, you suddenly find you have a desperate need to get money quickly in order to control the quality of life you feel that you deserve.
You progress through a series of linear, story-based missions to gain money and prestige in the eyes of the local Mafia crime families. You are required to intimidate dock workers to keep a protection racket running and steal anything that can earn you and your potential bosses money. You swipe cars by either picking the lock or smashing a window and have a choice of keeping and upgrading them or crushing them for cash. Later missions even have you disposing of bodies and killing members of rival gangs. Run and gun missions use an effective cover system that allows you to quickly pop out and aim one of the variety of weapons at your disposal. Fist fighting is less successful as it involves an easy combination of attacks with little chance of failure if you are patient.
In completing missions, you quickly realise that Empire City is a fairly detailed environment full of people, traffic and police. The missions require you to travel from one end of the city to the other by driving sensibly, keeping to the speed limit and obeying the traffic lights. Failure to do so may see you being arrested and forced to pay a fine to the police or quickly find you achieving wanted status and chased until you are killed. If you earn wanted status, which is swiftly earned by killing or robbing someone, you must avoid police detection and either change your clothes in a store or ring in at a phone booth to pay a bribe. Games like Grand Theft Auto encourage this fun gameplay dynamic, but Mafia II makes this all feel a little empty as there is little reason to steal or kill or even explore the city outside of the main story missions. Simple collectables are provided for you to find, but you’ll realise that this is pointless.
The 1940s provide a rich design aesthetic for the city, with its dark snowy streets, old cars and formal clothes. It really makes you feel the dark times for the populace during the war. The cars drive badly, steering and accelerating like bricks on wheels, and you’ll certainly be experiencing the great damage effects on your car as you oversteer and clunk your way around the city. The car radio plays a selection of iconic old songs, but as you do a lot of driving you will be hearing a lot of the same tunes. The story then shifts to the 1950s where you face a bright sunny city with fast cars, updated fashion and music and a new positive outlook. This second half of the game will have you facing many extended shoot-outs and let you experience the politics of the warring Mafia families.
I played the PS3 version of the game, which appears to be graphically inferior to the Xbox 360 version. It lacks certain graphical embellishments and the game engine struggles to scroll smoothly at the edges of the screen when driving. I was disappointed with the facial animations in the game as characters have dead eyes and problems with lip synching, although every character is given evocative voice acting and a purpose in the overall story.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Mafia II and after initial concerns over its linear approach to storytelling in an open world design, I appreciated the desire to provide characters that you actually care about. Although it is a short game experience (I finished it in 12 hours), you’ll have enjoyed a strong story and engaging characters in a rich, realistic game world. If they bring out a Mafia 3, I’ll certainly be there.
