Product Details
 | Mafia II |
| List Price: | $49.99 |
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Product Description
Was there ever a Mafia? Mafia 2 is a gritty drama that chronicles the rise of World War II Veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will join a crime family and become a made man. The story begins with the player character Vito returning home on leave from World War II. Vito had joined the U.S. military as a way of avoiding jail time for a botched robbery. Vito reunites with his old friend, Joe Barbaro, and the two quickly embark upon a life of crime. Their criminal ascension starts with Mikey, a car mechanic who gets in a conflict with Joe. Mikey also needs a certain type of car to chop for parts, and will pay $400 for one that the police are not tailing. Soon enough, Vito, Joe, and Henry Tomasino (already a made man in the Clemente family) find themselves battling with, for, against, and around three crime factions: the Falconi, Vinci and Clemente families. The player is later introduced to Eddie Scarpa (a capo in one of the three crime families).Another character is Marty, a young, novice getaway driver who takes Vito and Joe to the Empire Arms hotel in the mission "Room Service" involving the assassination of the Clemente family's don. Brainwash Him to Become Your Personal BodyGuard Invent your own Ammo Types to Prey on his Vulnerabilities Turn his own Security System Against Him Light Him on Fire and Launch Heat Seeking Missiles At him Torment Him with Plagues of Insects Take Research Photos of Him to Learn his Weaknesses Send Him Flying into the Ceiling to Knock him SenselessProduct Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1923 in Video Games
- Brand: 2K Games
- Model: 710425314087
- Released on: 2010-08-24
- ESRB Rating: Mature
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
Features
- Players will be immersed in the Golden Era of America as Mafia II features tracks from some of the era's most influential artists
- Through strong, authentic characterization and compelling narrative, the mature storyline will make you understand the pull and impossible escape of life in the Mob
- Take part in car-to-car gunfights, hand-to-hand combat and gunplay, forming an intense and exciting experience
- 2K Czech's next-generation engine, allows gamers to travel from outdoor environments to intricately designed interiors without the need for loading times
- The writing team from Mafia I returns to deliver another powerhouse script that portrays a tale of survival, camaraderie and the pitfalls of pursuing the American Dream
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Product Description
Customer Reviews
A very enjoyable 7-8/10 game, but with some glaring flaws.
Opinions on this game have
certainly proven to be as divisive as the initial reaction to the
original Mafia in 2001, right down to the 4/10 Eurogamer review. It's
understandable because while Mafia 2 does far more right than it does
wrong, the wrongs are difficult to ignore.
Mafia 2 is a linear
story-driven game set in the 1940s-1950s with an open world city as a
backdrop for immersion purposes. This game is not a GTA4 clone and has
never advertised itself to be one, any expectations for it to be so are
entirely the fault of uninformed gamers. The city is about 10 square
miles in size and highly detailed, it's a beautiful recreation of the
time period and the devs use it effectively during certain story
segments to give the impression of a city evolving with time. There are
gas stations, clothing stores, diners, gun shops, body shops and a scrap
yard/docking area to interact with throughout the game, along with
different living residences depending on where you are during the
storyline and locations that only open for missions. You will not find
GTA-like mini games like throwing darts or anything like that, but that
doesn't mean the open city is devoid of things to do. You can steal cars
in multiple ways (breaking the window, picking the lock, or even
shooting the lock) then take them to a body shop to change the plates
and paint color to legalize it, then customize it further through engine
upgrades for better handling and changing the tires for looks. You can
pick fights with the various gangs that have established holds on
various parts of the city, rob stores, or anger the police to see how
long you can hold out. Just like the original Mafia, the city is all
about creating immersion and giving opportunity for the player to create
their own experiences rather than fill it with mini-games.
Mafia
2's story runs anywhere from 8-15 hours of game time, depending on
difficulty level and how quickly you move through it. You play as Vito
and are often accompanied by his childhood friend Joe, and spend most of
the game in some state of proving yourself to one of the Mafia families
in Empire Bay. My initial impression of the story wasn't a good one,
but after playing it again it finally hit me what the story was about
and my opinion changed drastically. Unlike Mafia 1, this is not a rags
to riches story and this is not about the fall of an honorable man. Vito
is not Tommy and he's not meant to be. Vito is a guy that is entirely
driven by not becoming a loser dockworker like his father: he wants
money, cars, women, the nice house, and the nice clothes. To him
everything hinges on possessions and thus everything and everyone
becomes possessions to him. It's the story of a destructive, selfish man
who goes out and takes what he wants and how that devastates everyone
around him. I really, really enjoyed the story, including the ending I
originally found abrupt, once I realized that.
There has been
some criticism leveled at Mafia 2 for racism and sexism, but most of it
is not being looked at properly. Yes, the main characters are racist and
sexist and there isn't anybody there to tell them off for it...because
this takes place in the '40s and early '50s, from largely uneducated,
ignorant, poor characters involved with the Mafia. Their attitudes were
normal for the time period, social circles, and social stature. And as
already said, Vito views women the same way he views cars and money;
they are things to be obtained, not people to establish relationships
with.
Yes, there are vintage Playboy covers/centerfolds as
optional collectibles in-game and feature the nudity you'd expect from
them. These have earned quite a bit of ire and are used as support for
the game being sexist, but I -- as a female gamer -- don't agree with
it. For one, they are completely optional and very easy to miss even if
you're looking for them. They don't float above the ground and spin and
glow and have a "CLICK ME!" sign above them like collectibles in other
games. Instead, they're stashed on desks or half-under beds and other
places you'd expect someone to leave them. They blend in perfectly with
the environment and look only slightly different from other
decorations...they're practically pixel hunts. They don't offer any kind
of tangible reward outside of an achievement and completion percentage
that would force you to collect them if you didn't want to. They also
tie in perfectly with Vito's attitude...he's *exactly* the type of guy
that'd grab some poor late night security guard's dirty magazine while
robbing the place, and reflects his view of everything being
possessions. It's just like the other collectible, the Wanted Posters.
Vito would be just as inclined to yank down Wanted Posters as he would
steal Playboy mags, there's nothing random or out of place about them.
If they were required to unlock guns or cars or something from a
gameplay point of view, I'd understand the furor over them, but as is I
have no problem with their implementation.
For better or worse
the difficulty is nowhere near the original's occasionally punishing
level, and veterans of the first will want to skip right to the Hard
level to avoid falling asleep. I honestly can't imagine who they tuned
the Easy/Normal difficulties for, as I am nowhere near an amazing third
person shooter player but even I blazed through Normal as if nothing was
even shooting back before turning it up. On Hard if you don't make use
of the cover system you'll end up very dead very fast, usually within
three shots from a typical pistol. The cover system is standard fare
nowadays, if you've played Mass Effect 2 or Gears of War you'll be right
at home. The shooting missions all take place in unique areas of the
city that you normally don't have access to and the set pieces are
great, but just like Mafia 1 you will spend a significant amount of time
driving to and from locations, doing escort missions, drop off
missions, and so on.
The amount of time spent in the car is both a
blessing and a curse, as the city and music is all a fantastic
experience, but it also means you get a lot of opportunities to see the
quirky AI at work and some people are going to be annoyed at having to
obey the speed limit or risk the police. Yes, while they've removed the
requirement to stop at red lights, police will still come after you if
they catch you speeding. They've added a kind of cruise control to keep
your speed under control this time around if needed though. Some of the
AI for the other motorists can be very strange. I had one civilian car
randomly decide to slam into me on a bridge and send me plummeting to my
demise, while another didn't acknowledge my existence and slammed into
me and caused the police to chase me for a hit and run. On the other
hand, there have been some pretty fantastic moments just watching the AI
interact. One occurred while I was stopped at a red light (habit), and
one car rear ended another. The victim jumped out of his car to drag the
offending driver out to start pummeling him...not noticing the police
car that witnessed the entire thing, who also jumped out to break up the
fight and issue fines/arrests. Yes, the AI has flaws, but it's worth
putting up with it's quirks to have completely unscripted moments like
this occur.
So that's been a lot of praise, what went wrong?
It's
mostly down to what seems to be cut or just plain held back content.
The story is pretty short and there is no option for an after-the-story
free roam, so you have to load up previous chapters and ignore current
mission objectives to do so, which causes problems with the saving
mechanics (more on that soon). Not having a free roam available is
pretty hard to forgive, as this was in the original and worked great.
There
is also a complete lack of side quests in Empire Bay...but the
introductions and NPCs for them are suspiciously still present, and even
tell you to come back later for more jobs that don't actually exist.
These side missions were either outright cut due to time or held back to
release as DLC packs. There are at least four NPCs that are prime
candidates for future DLC that the game desperately needed to begin
with, and it doesn't stop there. There are shockingly few available cars
to steal and clothes to buy in game, so that makes it hard to see all
of the pre-order exclusives held back. It's even to the point that one
of the car models (the Hot-Rod in the Greaser pack) appears once
in-game, and there is no possible way for you to store that car in your
garage...even if you go to pains to get both the mission related car and
it's variant out into the open world by using one car to push the other
out of the mission zone. It's perfectly drivable, upgradeable, and
everything else, but if you don't have the pre-order pack, too bad.
Which is a real shame and feels like a really cheap move by 2K.
They
also cut public transportation and melee weapons, along with all sorts
of little touches (sitting down on benches or chairs, newspapers, all
kinds of interactive stuff). The melee weapons are especially missed, as
the fist-fights often feel very anemic and simple without them.
The
save/check point system is also problematic. It's pretty much the
mirror image of Mafia 1, but this is something that was a negative back
then, too. They didn't need to implement quick saves, but a more
thorough auto-save feature would have been a huge bonus. As it is, one
of the AI drivers randomly sending you off a bridge can result in a lot
of lost progress. In addition to the auto saves being sparse, which can
make trying to do a free roam game difficult all by itself, reloading a
previous chapter wipes your current progress. There are no save slots,
so you either continue from your last auto-save, load up a previously
played chapter (thus replacing the auto save), or start a new game (also
replacing the auto save). This, quite frankly, sucks. It wouldn't be so
bad if there was a free-roam mode unlocked after finishing the story,
but add that to the skimpy amount of auto save points and no free roam
mode and it's a major oversight.
I also really dislike the health
regen mechanic. I realize that this was mostly a change made to try and
appeal to the Halo-generation, but in a lot of ways it makes the diners
almost useless. Between the regen, the free food at your home, and the
auto-healing between chapters, it's very rare that you need to use the
diners or food stands unless you're doing some free roam mischief. And
(yes, I am harping about it) since there is no free roam mode, this is
pretty glaring.
As a side note, Mafia 2 does use Steamworks as
it's DRM, so there is no getting around attaching it to the Steam client
even if you buy retail and negates whatever used market that still
exists for PC games. Steamworks enables some very comprehensive stat
tracking (including an amusing stat for time spent looking at Playboys),
a smooth DLC store experience (even though you'll likely end up angry
at what ends up there), and achievements for the OCD to collect. I do
realize that it'll be a dealbreaker for some even if it doesn't bother
me at all, but that is something everybody needs to decide for
themselves. If you're unsure or have never used Steam before, you can
try the demo and see how it works...just make sure to delete your
progress on the demo before starting a new game on the full version, as
there's a progress-related bug with the save data.
Despite some
(pretty major) complaints, I still enjoyed the heck out of this game and
recommend it if you enjoyed the first or are just a fan of single
player story-based games. I'd actually put the star rating at a 3.5 if
possible, but rounded up due to genuinely enjoying the story and game
despite the flaws.
Fun story
Fun story but that's exactly
what it is a playable story. Linear with no story line branches.
Graphics
are great. Sound and immersion factor are good. Controls are so so.
No
option to use a racing wheel for driving. Over all still work a play
through.
I highly recommend "The Saboteur" Same era with just about
as good graphics but
many more options, free play, etc.
Mafia 1 was a piece of art, Mafia 2 is a piece of
S....!!
I was crazy about MAFIA 1, so
I bought MAFIA 2. And here's my experience.
When I inserted the DVD I
found that I have to wait for 18 hours of download from the Internet so
that the game starts. than after 2 days the download is over but when i
double click on the icon, it's getting ready to launch MAFIA II then
nothing the box disappears and nothing happens. I waited for 5 days, I
sent a couple of emails to the support but they didn't even bother to
reply. Just a notification that they received the email and they will
answer within 48 hours, but nothing till now. As an IT guy, I checked
the files and the directory structure. i found missing files so I
download it from the internet and at Last the game begun.
The
good points:
- very nice sound track
- remarkably high tech
graphics
- Landscape is nice and good 3D modeling and texture
-
It's nice to take a ride in the streets at the beginning.
- a red
path on the mini map so you can find your way
The Bad points:
-
You can't have different profiles for players. Just the steam account.
-
A lot of cinematic, a very very few game playing. So it's like watching
a bad animation movie not playing the game.
- You don't have any
options to do anytrhing except what it's planned for you. It's like you a
tool that obey the 2K guys. You don't anything you want. you just do
what they want. So it's them who's really playing
- no side mission.
If you get in a taxi nothing happens. in the police car the same also
-
Eating and getting dressed is for nothing
- when at home, you can't
even open the door if you are not dressed.
- Nudity and bad words
just to give you the impressions that you are not playing a game for 3+
boy
- What is Playboy doing in this game
Conclusion:
-
Never gonna buy a game that uses the steam technology
- I throw a 50
box in the sewer
- the DLC add ons is better for a barby game ( who
cares what is he wearing)
- the website and the trailers are more
entertaining than the game
- 2K should apologize for customer abuse
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