Is this an offer you can’t refuse?
I can’t compare my time spent with Mafia 2 with anything else really. I suppose its similar to G.T.A IV in regards to having a huge open world and even less to do in it apart from looking for wanted posters or Playboy centrefolds. The story itself is fantastic that being said I am a fan of gangster films in general so perhaps my opinion is biased. It almost felt like reading a good book where you just can’t stop turning pages, I always wanted to complete missions to see what happened next in the storyline.
The story will be familiar to anyone that’s seen a Mafia film. You play the game as Vito Scaletta a Sicilian born into a poor family who immigrates to America in the 20’s only to grow up in a neighbourhood where crime seems like the only option other than poverty. Here he becomes best friends with Joe Barbarrito and they both become involved in a life of crime and so on.
After a while I realised I was enjoying the cut-scenes more than the game itself and apart from a few well made missions it had that same feeling I got with G.T.A IV, where I would drive kill some people drive some more and kill some more people. That’s not to say the combat isn’t fun it is and the cover system works extremely well but it’s also a bit standard and throughout the whole game its a case of shoot some wise guys take cover regain health and shoot more wise guys. In between missions most of the time your forced to go back to your home or wherever you might be sleeping that night and sleep only to wake up again in the morning take a phone call and start the next mission.
Driving around is fun and the cars handle nicely, much better than Mafia 1, when that came out on PS2 I played it round at a friend’s house for a few minutes and it didn’t impress me much at all but only because driving around at 2 miles an hour was absolute crap. To steal a car you have a choice of breaking the window or picking the lock which would draw much less attention.
The graphics are good and while Empire Bay looks fantastic at the same time I couldn’t shake the feeling that a lot of time and effort had gone into making this beautifully realised city that nobody will be exploring as there was nothing to do outside the main story.
Closing comments
Overall I enjoyed my time in Mafia 2 but I also left it feeling disappointed as the developer’s gave me nothing fun to do in Empire Bay. I’m sure they didn’t plan it this way, it feels like they should of spent another year on it just to put more content into it. A worthy second hand purchase for fans of Mafia films just don’t expect an open world to play around in.