Available for: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Format: Third Person, Action-Adventure
Multiplayer: None
DLC: Yes
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: 2K Czech
Now I've been a fan of the genre for a long time now since The Nomad Soul came out in 1999. I was blown away how good that game was. Now games like Uncharted, Max Payne, InFamous, the GTA series, Resi 4, etc are up there as the best of the genre and also some of the finest games out there. Most of these Third Person games are usually heavy into the single player. Sometimes that's for the best cause their story is good, have great graphics and have superb gameplay mechanics. But then again there is some of them that are so linear that they forgot a lot of parts to make it more than it is, Alan Wake is a great example of a Third Person game that had potential but failed miserably at the sales cause it didn't tick any box of it's potential. So I believe that's why it's so far a flop. But this game I'm reviewing today, It's basically half tick it's potential and the other half...well didn't.
For those who haven't played the first game, it's not connected to this game at all. You play a different story, character and a whole round game in general really. So you don't have to play the first game to know whats going on in Mafia 2.
You star is Vito Scaletta, who has come back home in Empire City from fighting in WW2 (Yeah that old theme that nearly every FPS game has) as his community service kind of thing after he got caught robbing a store along with his best mate Joe. And he with his mate Joe quickly climb up the ranks in the Mafia world. Full of murder, drugs, alcohol, betrayal, girls and politics. It's pretty standard stuff to get an idea of the game. Since I don't wanna spoil you dear readers.
Basically I will say one thing about the story. It's hit in the beginning and the middle. And then it's a big miss with a lot of plot-holes, a lost of sense of direction and not to mention a very very very shitty ending. The best part of the story is when you are in prison and basically it feels like an Shawshank Redemption coming to life in a video game which is really awesome. I actually wanted the game to be about Vito and his jail mates trying to get out of prison and all that when I was playing this part since I enjoyed it so much. That will be an more interesting story. But then after you get out of jail it's downhill from there and that's in the middle part of the game. So yeah they should have worked the story better imo. It feeled like reading a book with some missing pages most of the time. Which is kinda weak. But it's not the worst story written in a video game. Trust me they have been worse than this game. Tbh the beginning all the way to the end of the prison part was awesome. So it's not all bad.
As for graphics wise, it's very well done. The Scenery is nice and Empire City looks superb. The cars are well modeled and done in every detail. As for A.I it's good but most of the time with enemy A.I it can be annoying as they do run into open fire and they sometimes can't stop running around. Which makes it hard to shoot them dead at times, especially near the end of the game.
But besides the enemy A.I being hit & miss. It's pretty good with good cover mechanics and decent shooting. The auto aim is alright but don't expect it to auto aim really. The auto aim is false, it doesn't work until a couple of presses on the aiming button. Which can get annoying and it will frustrate you. So if I was you just manually aim and that's more simpler. And it works like a charm and besides the game isn't that hard. Only two bits near the game can be a pain but there is walkthroughs on the net so that'll help hopefully.
As this game's open world has been criticized by many major critics I will say I agree. It does feel empty and not much to do around the very well detailed city of Empire City. It feels like they wasted their time making Empire City so detailed and brilliant that they forgot the life of it. You get gun shops, clothes shops and dinners but that's about it. Theirs no side missions or mini games to keep the game going for a long period of time. And the story missions alone makes this quite a short game which is pretty weak. I believe they should've added more in here but they just didn't do a well rounded job at 2K Czech.
So my final score for this game is:
6
It's a good game that's missing a lot of things and has some flaws. The story was good until after the prison chapter, then it got disappointing with a very rubbish ending. The A.I was great but some minor annoying parts from the enemy A.I. The graphics were awesome but it's still no Heavy Rain which has the best graphics out there imo as console games goes that is. The voice acting is well done and the characters are great even though I dislike the main character's best mate Joe and most of them were ruined after the jail chapter all done and dusted. So I recommend giving this a rental or a try and maybe you'll like it or not. But don't expect a lot of free roaming and a lot of freedom. It's not the open world game your used to. In fact it isn't really an open world game anyway. But do give it a go but only as a rental or a shot at your mate's copy of the game.
