[Game] Mafia II - Megathread

[Murphy]

I don't think you really need the extra content; having your character (who is from a working class family and neighborhood) wearing a tuxedo in the streets is being way overdressed, even in the 1940s

I have neither played the game nor seen the tuxedos, but if this Mafia game is anything like I expect it to be you're not going to stay a working class boy for the whole duration of the game but you'll climb the ranks in the "family" and become a rich show-off and when you're at that point the tuxedo might make sense.

So, the cut scenes are embedded into the game, while in the original Mafia, they were used only as introductions.

Erm, no. No they were not.

Urban Atmosphere / Setting: 9.5

Character Acting: 10

Gameplay: 8 (this includes the totality of all factors, the Urban setting, the Character Acting, and the gameplay).

So I have to break out a calculator and figure out what score you gave the gameplay? How does that make sense?

Ok, here we go:
(9.5+10+X)/3 = 8
9.5+10+X = 24
X = 24-10-9.5
X = 4.5

Is that it?

It is an offer you can refuse

I was honestly waiting for reviewers to pull this but you were the first I read who did it! Congrats. Not that I've read any other reviews of the game...

You praise the urban environment, stating it's the best you've seen so far but you only compare it directly to the Godfather game, which is a last-gen game. I know it's a different period and it is also older, but how does Mafia II compare to GTA IV in this regard specifically. More authentic, less authentic? Why?

 

[Nenjin]

I think Eurogamer, and most European reviewers, take an opposite position from their colleagues on the other side of the pond. At least, they wait for their reviews, and almost always are the last to trash a game that has done relatively well according to the American gaming media. Or praise a game that the American media trashed.

Either way, if the only strong fans of the game were fans of the first....then it was a bust or a success depending on what they wanted. But since the game seems like it was made for the general public and not hardcore Mafia fans....seems mostly like a fail.

 

[Gamburd]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamburd
I don't think you really need the extra content; having your character (who is from a working class family and neighborhood) wearing a tuxedo in the streets is being way overdressed, even in the 1940s

I have neither played the game nor seen the tuxedos, but if this Mafia game is anything like I expect it to be you're not going to stay a working class boy for the whole duration of the game but you'll climb the ranks in the "family" and become a rich show-off and when you're at that point the tuxedo might make sense.

That is what I thought, but if the game is really only 10 hours long (and almost everyone seems to agree that is how long it lasts), I am getting near the half way point; I just don't see the game advancing to the point where you rise to the higher ranks or positions of power in the Mafia, but I could be wrong.

So far the tux hasn't been needed, and would look out of place on Vito.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamburd
So, the cut scenes are embedded into the game, while in the original Mafia, they were used only as introductions.

Erm, no. No they were not.

My bad; I am mistaken. C'est la vie.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamburd
Urban Atmosphere / Setting: 9.5

Character Acting: 10

Gameplay: 8 (this includes the totality of all factors, the Urban setting, the Character Acting, and the gameplay).

So I have to break out a calculator and figure out what score you gave the gameplay? How does that make sense?

Ok, here we go:
(9.5+10+X)/3 = 8
9.5+10+X = 24
X = 24-10-9.5
X = 4.5

Is that it?

This game is kind of hard to rate because to me it is more of a movie and a game combined. The numbers I gave were meant to be just ratings of certain aspects of the game.

Some aspects of the game, like the acting, I gave a 10, but excellent acting alone does not a make a great game.

In terms of a game and the gameplay, I would give the game an 8/10, but I also like games that pay attention to historical detail and give a genuine sense of atmosphere / setting (which is why I like RO), and I think Mafia II does that (with its attention to the acting, language, music, the painted signs on the city's walls, etc.), so I would add .5, giving the game an 8.5.

But if someone was not interested in the acting, the language, the music, etc., that would bump the game back down to an 8 /10.

I don't think the game is particulary difficult; maybe it is about the same level of difficulty as the first Left 4 Dead.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamburd
It is an offer you can refuse

I was honestly waiting for reviewers to pull this but you were the first I read who did it! Congrats. Not that I've read any other reviews of the game...


Thanks.


You praise the urban environment, stating it's the best you've seen so far but you only compare it directly to the Godfather game, which is a last-gen game. I know it's a different period and it is also older, but how does Mafia II compare to GTA IV in this regard specifically. More authentic, less authentic? Why?

I haven't played GTA IV; I can compare it a little more to the Godfather game.

Mafia II's urban environment looks very real. However, you cannot go inside almost all of the buildings, except for the local hangout, Freddy's Bar, the Apartment, and Gun shops (to buy ammo and guns), and Mechanics shops.

Except these exceptions and the places integral to the Mafia II's story line, I don't think it has changed much from the original Mafia.


So, EA's Godfather beats Mafia II in this regard because you could go into the banks, churches, bars, stores, clubs, brothels, and gambling joints in Godfather.

Basically the difference is in Godfather, you could explore the town a lot more; however, the non player characters just said dumb things to you and the whole town and the characters in Godfather looked arcadish and cartoony.

Mafia II, you can't explore Empire City that much, but the whole town and the characters look quite life like. Most of the non player characters in Mafia II will say flippant things or nothing, but once and a while you'll hear some conversations, and you'll hear some of the accents and also some of the slang words that were used back then in the 1940s.

__________________

 

[Amerikaner]

Mafia II, you can't explore Empire City that much, but the whole town and the characters look quite life like. Most of the non player characters in Mafia II will say flippant things or nothing, but once and a while you'll hear some conversations, and you'll hear some of the accents and also some of the slang words that were used back then in the 1940s.

Yeah they look lifelike but they don't do anything other than walk and drive for the most part. The few conversations they do have are dumb, uninspired, modern social commentary seemingly catering to young kids or idiots. I'm basing this on the demo btw. The game certainly looks like a Rockwell painting but theres not much to it when you dig deeper. I'm not saying its a gamebreaker because the basic gameplay elements that are in there like shooting and driving are very polished. It just doesnt seem like it's the truly great game people were expecting.

 

[Jono]

9/10

imo.

 

[Murphy]

I see what you mean about it being difficult to isolate "gameplay". For example, the "gameplay", as I understand the term, in Fable II isn't too hot, but "playing the game" is very enjoyable to me because the world is so much fun and so much fun to explore and goof around in.
It was just worded funny so I made a little joke.

Hmm, not being able to enter buildings is to be expected from free-roam city games. If a game lets you inside buildings that's the exception that needs mentioning.

Anyway, unless you're not into the period at all I think you'd like GTA IV. The city is very life-like. It looks very authentic, for one thing, but pedestrians also behave realistically. In some places they'll hang out in little groups, in others they'll just walk alone, in others they'll shamble along. Sometimes they sit around, they go to the ATM, they'll even get into accidents. They react when you bump into them, aim at them or sometimes even if you just walk by. As far as video game cities go GTA IV's city is the most realistic feeling city I've encountered yet.
Add to that the excellent mock radio stations...

I have not played Mafia II though, so I can't compare the two.

 

[Amerikaner]

Anyway, unless you're not into the period at all I think you'd like GTA IV. The city is very life-like. It looks very authentic, for one thing, but pedestrians also behave realistically. In some places they'll hang out in little groups, in others they'll just walk alone, in others they'll shamble along. Sometimes they sit around, they go to the ATM, they'll even get into accidents. They react when you bump into them, aim at them or sometimes even if you just walk by. As far as video game cities go GTA IV's city is the most realistic feeling city I've encountered yet.
Add to that the excellent mock radio stations...

Reading that really makes me wish the port didnt suck so bad. Thats another plus for Mafia II, it runs exceptionally.

 

[Harb]

It's so frustrating because it has so much opportunity to be a game changer but ends up retreading the same ground as Mafia. On-rails set pieces and story driven.

That's no bad thing as the attention to detail, voice acting, cut scenes and story are all what I expected and are superb. Driving through the city feels far more authentic than GTA:IV even with it's lack of interactivity. Driving to the speed limiter and obeying road laws again feels intuitive and doesn't feel forced. I think I've only run when there is combat, the rest of time I've spent walking, taking in the atmosphere.

However as I'm playing all I can think about is wouldn't this be great if....and I have that feeling the entire way through. From wanting greater freedom over the simplest things to wanting to have control over the choices I make effecting the story. So many great moments are cut short or rushed through.

So my only real disappointment thus far is that it didn't turn into something greater, something resembling an RPG sandbox-style hybrid with real depth. The opportunities are there.

 

[Jono]

Well i just finished the game, and it was great from beginning to end. Admittedly there were a few flaws here and there but nothing you cant ignore.

Fantastic story and atmosphere. Nuff' said.

 

[RO.Player]

like others have said, great game. but it could have been the best game since RO :IS2: if they made it a believable open world game(not GTA4 open world, but more realistic)

 

[Zips]

Mid/late game spoiler ahead.

But I found this hilarious that the old lady was just outside smoking, watching as it all burned...

Spoiler!

She literally just stood there for the longest time... mocking me, pleased with her actions.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

Perhaps its just me who feels this way. But a montage belongs in a MOVIE not in a game. My biggest gripe ( other then removed side missions ) was the fact that the story took all the 'happy' or possibly good parts, or lastly parts where vito was more successful and packaged all of them into montages. leaving you to play the rest when vito is down on his luck or in trouble; thus the whole story has no contrast. Mafia 1 had slow missions and fast missions, and missions with no shooting at all. All contrasting each other and adding flavour. Mafia 2 just feels more generic, you know there will be combat in each mission. In a way thats almost a downer, I remember reading an article about how some games would be better with less combat; mafia 2 fits that bill. ( or atleast spaced out with more slow paced filler in between ).


Other gripes would be the inability to save when you want ( pimp out all of your cars then decide to drive one fast and if you die you loose that all ). Time does not progress rather you play in frozen instances of time.


So yeah long story short, my only gripes are with how the story is told, gfx are good, attention to detail is beautiful, everything but how the story is told. perhaps thats because the game has been consolized...

 

[dogbadger]

i haven't had time to play more than an hour of the 1st one..
seeing as that and the godfather have been mentioned can i have some mob-game insight -
I have mafia on PC cos i heard it was much better than xbox (the latter is the platform i'd rather play games like this on tbh)
is the godfather a decent game when compared to mafia?
if i try it I don't know which platform on cos i have on both pc and xbox...

 

[Colt .45 killer]

I always thought the game felt like it had something that had been removed ( side missions ). Well some people did some digging with the recent release of jimmys vendetta and guess what.

Jimmy is veto with a new head, all your side missions from mafia 2 were ripped out and packaged to be sold 1 week later with a new head for an extra 10 $. Mad yet? jump on over to the 2k czech forums to read a bit more of the rage...


This is personally the last game I will ever buy from 2k or 2k czech, perhaps if i had bought a box copy i could ship it back filled with feces...

 

[Nenjin]

It's not unprecedented. Konami basically did the same thing with RE5. The extra content was shipped with the disk, iirc, and you had to purchase the rights to use said content...even though it shipped on the disk you already purchased for full retail price.

Konami made some implausible excuse for it being there, but it's essentially the same thing. Charge people extra for what you can, even if the content was completely finished when the game went gold. It's almost like we get penalized because a dev house can work faster. Instead of getting more content with our purchase, we have more extra content immediately available for purchase.

Looks like 2K paid attention and made a point of removing the side missions before the game shipped. They didn't cover their tracks well enough though.

 

[Amerikaner]

It's not unprecedented. Konami basically did the same thing with RE5. The extra content was shipped with the disk, iirc, and you had to purchase the rights to use said content...even though it shipped on the disk you already purchased for full retail price.

Konami made some implausible excuse for it being there, but it's essentially the same thing. Charge people extra for what you can, even if the content was completely finished when the game went gold. It's almost like we get penalized because a dev house can work faster. Instead of getting more content with our purchase, we have more extra content immediately available for purchase.

Looks like 2K paid attention and made a point of removing the side missions before the game shipped. They didn't cover their tracks well enough though.

Yep a complete crock of ****. AvP did the same thing. This is why I will wait until they're both like 10 bucks during the Christmas sale or something.

 

[Zips]

However, unlike with RE5, Mafia II isn't enjoyable on its own without anything added on. Ok, that's not fair. It's somewhat enjoyable but it's a horribly butchered experience and a mere shadow of what it could have been.

RE5 at least offered up a solid and enjoyable single player and co-op experience, despite the multiplayer DLC fiasco which sucked anyway.

Mafia II is just... bad. Even Jimmy's Vendetta is... bad.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

the sad bit is going back now and watching many of the released cut scences, all of them for the side missions were hacked out so it wouldent be too obvious what had happened. They should have just released it as extra side missions for vito for a replay through the game instead of treating the community like blind bats who wouldent notice quickly removed side missions.

Not to mention by all counts the promised number of cars includes DLC cars. So once again all suits and cars for DLC's were pulled from the full game.

Lastly there is a free ride mode in M2, it is however disabled. ( look aorund for the un official free ride mode online , its basic but techincally free ride ). Im guessing it will rear its head in the form of more DLC.

End lesson to be learned?

TWI, do you guys feel like making a mafia game any time soon...?

 

[Nenjin]

I think if developers were more up front about stuff like this, it would go over far better with gamers. As in saying "We wanted to release a solid single player experience with Mafia 2. We have side missions and a lot of other stuff that can be purchased for very little."

It would be better than gamers ALWAYS having to find this stuff out for themselves, especially when it feels like a last minute marketing decision.

If they didn't always act like they had something to hide, gamers might not object to being milked for an extra $10, for features they could have/should have gotten with their original purchase. But when they're sneaky about it, it makes a slightly unpalatable thing that much more objectionable.

 

[Shepherd]

Beat the game two days ago and I have to say it's definately a rent and nothing more. I'm glad I got this game cheap for the 360 and was able to sell it with 3