Mafia II - My first review

[Jaynestown]

Since I finally completed the full 1000G on Mafia II today I thought I'd write a quick review:

First of all I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game, it's a game in the style of Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV which meant it had a good head start anyway, even if it wasn't made by Rockstar. The graphics are good, the storyline and set pieces are well written and despite all of the characters basically being villains I found myself really routing for the lead, Vito, which made me put extra effort in to trying not to get him killed over and over (something I don't usually worry about). The city of Empire Bay where the story takes place is vibrant and looks especially nice in the snow in the first few missions. Another massive plus point was the 50's music that is piped through the radio stations as you drive around the city, it made me dig out my old Buddy Holly records again.

As a single player experience it is an enjoyable game, but it falls way short of being anything like a classic it was being hyped as for a number of reasons

To begin with there is very little free roaming involved, there are massive amounts of the city you just don't get to see during the single player campaign because none of the missions are set there. It's only today, when I went wandering the city looking for the 159 Wanted Posters that you actually get to see how much effort has been put in by the games developers in creating Empire Bay. Had I not been missing that one last achievement I wouldn't have bothered going to all the effort to find them all. And it's a really tedious task searching for them, had I not got a guide off the good old internet it would have probably taken me 24 hours instead of just 5!

Further, the game is way too short, it took me about 11 hours to complete it on Normal and a little over 9 hours on Hard! As you all know I'm not the best gamer in the world but I found this game extremely easy. I'm sure more experienced and better skilled gamers can probably finish the game in 6 to 7 hours The only difference between the Normal and Hard settings that I could tell was that the bad guys don't show up on your minimap, but if you've played it through on Normal once already you'll know where they are anyway so there wasn't much of a challenge.

Also, the "maneuverability" of the characters whilst walking and running is not that good, in much the same way as RDR and GTA IV fall down. Trying to control Vito, especially in combat situations, often finds him bumping in to things, or walking the wrong way, or simply not being able to line him up to walk through a door which leads to immense frustration. It did occur to me that this may be semi-deliberate to extend the length of the game, since there were numerous ocassions where I had to re-start from a checkpoint (which by the way are a little thinly spread out in the latter "harder" missions), purely because instead of taking cover, or running away, I ended up staring down the barrel of a shotgun because Vito didn't respond in the manner I intended him to!

The other big disappointment with the game is there is no multiplayer at all, nothing, nahda, zip! This to me would have helped extend the life of the game, especially considering how short the single player is but for whatever reason it's totally missing.

Finally, some of these complaints are apparently addressed in the DLC that was released less than 2 weeks after the game's release. This is clearly a blatant attempt at getting us gamers to part with even more of our money on DLC that obviously could, and should have been included in the main game. I for one am not giving the developers the satisfaction of taking any more of my money.

Overall the game gets a 6 out of 10, I would advise anyone who hasn't played it to give it a go, but only if you can pick it up cheap (£15 or less) or simply hire it instead.

Thanks

Marty

[DFUSIONITE]

excellent review marty, you should do them more often really enjoyable read, a bit on the short side though but so is the game so i suppose it fits! 
I took your advice and stuck it on my lovefilm rental list, god knows when they will send it me though.

[nCogNeato]

Great review, JT.  Thanks for a good read.

Mafia II is on my list of games to buy ... when I find a good deal.   

[Jaynestown]

Thanks guys, I was inspired by D-Fuzz's review of Singularity. I deliberately kept it short because I thought most people will already know if they are likely to want to play it or not, so I just thought I'd focus on any reasons not to. I guess I'm a "glass half empty" kind of guy

[GamerMan316]

Good review mate, much better than Eurogamer's 4/10 review.   

I'll be renting this at some point thats for sure.

[Failed]

great review JT

you've got too much time on your hands, get back to work

[dfusioness]

Thanks guys, I was inspired by D-Fuzz's review of Singularity. I deliberately kept it short because I thought most people will already know if they are likely to want to play it or not, so I just thought I'd focus on any reasons not to. I guess I'm a "glass half empty" kind of guy

dont worry about it, ignore him- short review to match his short attention span !!

[Jaynestown]

Good review mate, much better than Eurogamer's 4/10 review.   

I'll be renting this at some point thats for sure.

Some of that review is spot on (the dialogue is a bit "crap" in parts) but it's overly harsh. I enjoyed playing it, it was just too short!

[Jaynestown]

Thanks guys, I was inspired by D-Fuzz's review of Singularity. I deliberately kept it short because I thought most people will already know if they are likely to want to play it or not, so I just thought I'd focus on any reasons not to. I guess I'm a "glass half empty" kind of guy

dont worry about it, ignore him- short review to match his short attention span !!

Ha, ha, that's another reason why I kept it short, I know people get bored reading long reviews because that's exactly what happens to me. I hardly ever read the reviews in the magazines that go over more than a double page!!!

[dfusioness]

Thanks guys, I was inspired by D-Fuzz's review of Singularity. I deliberately kept it short because I thought most people will already know if they are likely to want to play it or not, so I just thought I'd focus on any reasons not to. I guess I'm a "glass half empty" kind of guy

dont worry about it, ignore him- short review to match his short attention span !!

Ha, ha, that's another reason why I kept it short, I know people get bored reading long reviews because that's exactly what happens to me. I hardly ever read the reviews in the magazines that go over more than a double page!!!

me too, i tend to zone out lol

[Failed]

it all depends how you paragraph it, you should write in short paragraphs and keep each one about a unique object of the subject.

So you'd write a little about graphics, sound, gameplay and keep each short, witty and fluid.

[DFUSIONITE]

Thanks guys, I was inspired by D-Fuzz's review of Singularity. I deliberately kept it short because I thought most people will already know if they are likely to want to play it or not, so I just thought I'd focus on any reasons not to. I guess I'm a "glass half empty" kind of guy

dont worry about it, ignore him- short review to match his short attention span !!

Ha, ha, that's another reason why I kept it short, I know people get bored reading long reviews because that's exactly what happens to me. I hardly ever read the reviews in the magazines that go over more than a double page!!!

so you are saying my singularity review bored you, after already saying it inspired you! Make your mind up marty, 

[Failed]

it inspired him not to write his aslong ?? no one can match up to your length dfuzz

[sambo]

Good review JT.

[Windedprism]

Very good review,one for the summer c-list I think.