Mafia II Hands On

Due for international release on 27 August, Mafia II was available at the 2K stand today for select journos to play first-hand. The demo began with a cutscene in black and white, evoking the sort of through-the-lens feeling one gets from watching old gangster films: everything on the other side of the screen is dangerous, yet you the observer, is completely safe. We all know about the popular legends built around organised crime, particularly the Mafia, and their operations in the United States during the late forties and early fifties. These preconceptions come with us to Mafia II, but that's not a bad thing at all.

The first thing I noticed about the game was its brilliant sound, although I could put that down to the very expensive-looking headphones attached to the unit. In the first demo scene, the player walks out of his home in Empire City (based on New York and Chicago) and into the garage to take control of one of three classic automobiles. A phone call made to his house has him set off to meet some nefarious guys for some nefarious doings. The sounds of city and suburbia, both, have been fully realised and sounded great coming through those massive earpieces. As I drove through town and into the city, I listened to the radio, complete with advertisements for the kinds of products and services Americans enjoyed post-war. The fantastic sound effects and scene-suited music continued to impress throughout the demo.

Driving the city was limited to 10 minutes, so when I started to run out of time to make my marker (shown on the map a la GTA, with places of interest also displayed) I put my foot down. Crashing my car showed a delightfully destructible environment in many respects, and the ability to get out of a smoking wreck and have a quick tinker with the engine to set it right was a noticeable feature.

I trailed a path of carnage to where I was to meet my cronies, then found myself at the trigger of an MG-42, ambushing members of a rival family. My target was the “fat f_k”, but first I had to take down his bodyguards. Again, the sound really stood out, but the graphics played their part also. Mafia II isn't the most jaw-dropping game I have seen on the show floor, but the world and its characters are faithfully built to period. The combat effects were nice and crisp, too.

I needed to follow my target into a distillery, along with a couple of friends, but the machine gun left some of my enemies alive. The cover system was a necessary part of taking out the other bad guys (or maybe, they're just the badder guys) as I dashed across the street and among the boxes of hooch. There was a veritable army waiting for me, and I worked my way forward taking shelter behind concrete pillars. These pillars spat shattered concrete under gunfire, and looked especially good when I got a hold of my shotgun.

The AI managed to knock me off multiple times before I was done, and it's clear that Mafia II is unforgiving in its treatment of battle wounds. You'll have plenty of great weapons with which to protect yourself, including the classic Thompson; you might know it as the Tommy Gun.

Fantastic gangster banter, period music, cars and environments, and a rich history from which to pull the story all make Mafia II a game to get lost in. Everything you love about crime games, and everything you love about gangster movies is all rolled into one.

It has been a long time coming, too. I saw footage when I had my first BioShock 2 eyes on back in 2009. You can check out a bit about the story and some early impressions there. Being a bit more forward looking, NZGamer.com is very keen to see a preview build in the next couple of months.