Mafia II Hands On

I first saw Mafia II at E3 back in 2009. We weren’t allowed to play it at that stage, so it was hard to assess just how well its open world hung together. Now, however, the game is (finally?) nearing release, and we were given a taster of four different chapters to chew through. There’s certainly a lot still to see, but what I did experience has left me wanting more.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with this sequel to the 2002 PC game (and later ported to consoles) Mafia II can best be described as Grand Theft Auto in the 1940s and 1950s. Oh sure, there are a few differences here and there, but if you’ve got a hankering for a GTA-like period piece, then Mafia II will happily scratch that itch. You’re a young American-Italian who has just been discharged from the war. You ignore your mother’s plea to work honestly, and pretty soon you’re an ever-richer errand boy for a bunch of mobsters in New York City.

All the major features of an open-world title are here. You’ll be running around, hijacking cars, fleeing from cops, engaging in both indoor and outdoor firefights, saving prostitutes from bad men with your fists, escaping from collapsing buildings… you know, the usual. There’s also the typical collection of cinematic story setpieces, complete with your usual bunch of (sometimes) likeable criminal goons and masterminds.

But the single aspect I liked most about Mafia II was the music. Whoever chose the songs really knows their stuff — you’ll be treated to a fine selection of what must be the most subversive pop, jazz, and blues songs to come out of the 40s and 50s. Seriously, I just cruised around the streets for ages with my mouth open, listening to people sing about forcing themselves on women, drinking themselves to death, crooning about war rationing, and... I don’t know, singing about Mr. Sandman.

The music provides a wonderful backdrop to the game, but it’s only one part of the general period piece atmosphere. Again, this is one of Mafia II’s strongest aspects, and helps hold everything together. The first major section of the game has the city gripped in a powerfully chaotic winter, with snow covering every surface. Sure, it’s mainly a background thing, but combined with the music, the 1940s cars and clothes, and the general chatter (“Soon you could have a phone in your car!”), it creates something very immersive. In fact, I was actually pretty disappointed after winter left later in the game — it helped bring everything together, somehow.

This attention to the time period also comes across in the cutscenes and characterisations. While nearly every character seems made from the stock standard “Look at me, I’m a big bad mafia-type person” mold, what’s here is done well. The characters are nicely detailed, although they do suffer from the now-common “dead eyes” syndrome (although that’s perhaps better than the “freakily shiny eyes” syndrome found in Uncharted 2). Voice work ranges from solid to very good, as you would expect from a game of this caliber.

One other thing I liked: you can toggle a speed limit enforcer, which really comes in handy if you don’t want cops chasing you for speeding. It’s a small thing, but well appreciated by the sort of guy who just wants to drive around listening to music…

Combat and driving, two of the cornerstones for an open-world game like this, are both adequate in their implementation. I wouldn’t say they’re anything special, although firing a shotgun at a rival mobster at close range has a satisfying feel to it. Aiming could feel a little too twitchy at times, although that’s no doubt something that could be fixed in the options menu.

One thing that’s starting to feel stale is the dichotomy of carefree roaming and structured missions. As in GTA, you can do all sorts of low-key side-tasks in the big city, from grabbing more weapons to running down pedestrians. However, the game never advances based on anything you do outside of the linear story missions, as if it’s saying, “Oh, are you ready to stop fooling around now? Good, then let’s get on with the real experience”. This divide between what ‘matters’ and what doesn’t is endemic to the genre as a whole, so I’m not just singling out Mafia II here — I’d just like to see a GTA-like game evolve with the player in everything he/she does.

Overall, I played four disparate missions cherry-picked from the full game, so I couldn’t get a feel for the general flow of things. But what I did see was encouraging — Mafia II certainly appears to be ticking things off the GTA feature list with confidence, and its setting should help set it apart for fans of the genre. Here’s hoping things can stay interesting throughout the whole game.