The mobster genre is a difficult beast to wrangle. While there are facets that come standard in any gangster tale, to tell a unique story and tell it well is something very tough to pull off. Mafia II makes a valiant effort at undertaking the seven year saga of one man's rise through the ranks of organized crime, but comes up short in several ways. There's no denying that the title rings true to classic mafia ideas and scenarios, but some elements just don't fit together in the end. You're going to have fun in the game's fictional Empire Bay, but you're going to wish that the city held more for you to undertake.
While it is a sequel to 2002's Mafia, this new tale takes place with a fresh cast of characters and its own story. You play as Vito Scaletta. As a teenager, he was arrested for theft but chose to enlist in the army rather than do hard time. The game opens in World War II where Vito is injured and subsequently sent home on leave. That leave quickly turns into a permanent absence when his old friend Joe pulls a few strings through his more questionable acquaintances. And thus begins the journey of Vito and Joe as they work their way up in the criminal world trying to become the powerful forces that they both strive to be. But other problems abound as well, such as unpaid debts Vito's sister and mother are slaves to and the death of his father left a few questions unanswered as well. But Vito's driven and determined to make his name mean something and earn some money along the way.
The ambiance of Mafia II's game world is simply perfect. At wartime in the 40s, fighter planes fly through the cloudy winter skies out across the Atlantic, the radio blasts the tunes of the day; classic hits that everyone can recognize and instantly feel transported to a different time. Rats populate different warehouses and apartment buildings, as well as cats jumping into windowsills, eying you suspiciously as you pass. Neighbors peek their heads out of doors as you pass, only to slam them once they discover they've been found out.
The cars in the game handle just like the multi-ton beasts that they are. These definitely aren't the lighter cars of today, and the game makes sure you know it. You're given the option to use a speed limiter, because unlike other sandbox titles, the cops will (attempt to) pull you over for speeding. Chases all start off slow as these behemoths don't record any kind of zero to sixty record. But it all wraps up into an experience true to the period. The game world is a testament to the development team's reverence to the era.
2K Czech pulled off some great scenes with the game's graphic engine. Some of the cut scenes are absolutely beautiful, showing the pock-marked and scarred faces of these gangsters while also showcasing the sharp dressed tiers of the mafia's power structure. I found the voice acting throughout the game to be solid, without any characters taking me out of the experience with their extreme annoyance or simple bad acting. But there were some graphical remnants popping into my cut scenes, with a mesh-like covering revealing itself through the skin of various characters different scenes. It wasn't a deal breaker for my admiration of the game's graphics, but it certainly was an odd thing to observe.
The game's engine also showcased a few other quirks for me. You're given the option to stealthily kill certain characters, and there was oftentimes a lag in the execution of said move and the animation. For example, one character I needed to kill was sitting down, and rather than kill him in his sitting position. The actual death animation consisted of me miming strangulation in the air, while the enemy undertook his standing up animation. But at the height of his rise, he dropped dead. Additionally, you're often tasked with going with another characters through doors to enter another area. These doors are often reload points from interior and exterior for the game, but the restart on the other side is always the same. For example, many missions start of from Joe's apartment. By the second or third time you know exactly where his garage is, so you'll rush straight to get to the car quickly. But no matter how far ahead of Joe you're running from his front door to the exit, he'll always be right outside waiting for you after the loading jump. I found it jarring to see this character leap. Because if the person goes outside before you, you get the same result.
The general ebb and flow of gameplay is enjoyable. You're thrown into a large open-world city with cars and a period-specific arsenal at your fingertips. You can buy clothing at various shops around town, purchase ammunition and new guns from gun shops, upgrade your favorite car in the shop, drop in on a diner for some health, fill up your tank at a gas station or just wander the streets starting fist fights. You're also given the ability to rob these places of business for a small profit. As the story unfolds, you're given options to sell cars to one character or use a junkyard to crush other cars for scrap (and cash). The game world also hides a number of collectibles, from vintage issues of Playboy Magazine where you're treated to a full-screen centerfold upon finding each one, to Art and Wanted Posters scattered about. My collection stats were quite low at the end of the game, so the developers have done a solid job of hiding these things around the game world rather than throwing them all right in front of the main character.
Mafia II is all about the narrative. Every element of the game is part of the greater tale of Vito Scaletta. So at any given point in the game, you always have a giant red bullseye on your map telling you where to go as part of your next task. This constant element of “being on a mission” leaves very little downtime and in the long run gives the player very little motivation to explore Empire Bay outside of the few collector's elements I mentioned above. Even if you save your cash to buy every element of clothing in every shop, various story points throughout the game force your wardrobe (and wallet) to reset. Thus it can be a frustrating affair to lose what you've worked to acquire (but of course Vito feels the same way). But in addition, I also found gun shops unnecessary as every action segment of the game provided me with more than enough ammo to bring demise to those that stood in my way. I never spent a dime at one of these stores (though I did take home around six hundred dollars for claiming ownership of the cash register in one).
The tale is broken into fifteen chapters and across seven playable years. Without spoiling what leads the full narrative from point A to point B, I found that the game used one factor to screaming success as far as telling a story was concerned. To show the passage of time, Mafia II uses clever montages to move the story forward. I'm not used to seeing that cinematic tool in the world of video games, but it works expertly in this instance. At various times we see Joe and Vito moving up in the mob through a short burst of clips that wouldn't necessarily add to the experience if they were under player control. Compounded by the excellent soundtrack, these vignettes were one of my favorite parts of the game's story.
The length of the chapters was extremely inconsistent, but in general each chapter featured a drive-around and meet element that lead up to a big shootout or chase. The game featured several fantastic set pieces where these battles took place, my personal favorite being in an atmospheric slaughterhouse. Gun fights are quite intense. Cover disintegrates as Tommy Guns rip wood to shreds, and you're forced to find shelter behind more solid objects. I was often frustrated by my disappearing health as I stood behind concrete barricades. It made the fights feel cheap and almost impossible in certain scenarios, though in actuality the idea that you're never safe rings quite true to the character's life. But as far as gameplay is concerned, I'm hiding behind this metal beam because the bullets should not be going through it. Car shoot-outs are another difficult gameplay element. One chase in particular left me infinitely frustrated. There was a split-second decision in timing that would leave me dead in the first hail of gunfire every time. While it's realistic that the driver gets downed with a single stray bullet while driving, the easy death was a stark contrast to the game's other segments that felt relatively easy.
The game features a fantastic looking melee combat system that actually emerges as quite shallow by late in the game. The shallowness comes from a single point: if you hold down the A button, you'll never get hit. Never. So as long as you're patient and let go of A at the right times, you're going to win every single fight in the game. But the brutal nature of the finishing moves that drop your opponents to the ground make you feel like a true tough guy. Seeing blood fly out of a chump's mouth as you deliver a swift kick to his jaw in slow motion never gets old.
The police and civilians that populate the game world both succeed and fail in different areas. In certain parts of town people will call out your name to say hello, even if you're about to draw your gun and rob a shop. If you yank someone out of their driver's seat in order to acquire a new set of wheels, they'll beg for their life but never fight back. If you speed while driving, the police will attempt to pull you over. You'll gain a small amount of notoriety and if you stop, you'll either have to pay them a bribe or attempt to evade them. I quickly developed an almost fool-proof escape plan that was as simple as this: if you stop your car when a cop wants to pull you over for a simple crime, the policeman will get out of car and approach your vehicle. By stomping on the gas pedal as they approach on foot, you are all but guaranteed to escape the police as they have to hustle back to their car in order to pursue you...but you're already gone.
I car-jacked plenty of cars with a police vehicle in sight to no effect, but I was constantly stopped by the cops while attempting to lock-pick my way into a parked car. On one occasion, I was held at gunpoint after trying to break into a car, paid a bribe, went right back to lock-picking, got stopped again, paid the bribe again, and then realized that I was at the beginning of an endless cycle of petty crime and bribery. While it could be argued that the crooked cops were using it as an opportunity for self-gain, the complete erase of the crime per the bribe just didn't seem right. At a certain point I should have been locked up for sheer criminal incompetence.
The game tries to tell a big story, but as the final line of dialog was delivered I couldn't help but want to hear just one more line to wrap everything up. It's difficult to cram so many years into just a few chapters without making the entire saga feel rushed. Certain chapters covered such little ground that it made it odd that other chapters dragged on for so long. The story arc is definitely there and features some satisfying twists, but there are definitely some cliches from the genre and cut corners where questions might be asked. But I will say this: Mafia II features one of the most gruesome and surprising hits I've ever seen in any iteration of mobster fiction. You'll know it if you see it.
I completed a full playthrough of the game on medium difficulty in a sliver under ten hours. As the credits rolled I felt like I had experienced everything I'd wanted to see in the game, as the open world didn't offer me more to do than crush a few cars, rob some stores, collect a few items of clothing, and seek out vintage issues of Playboy Magazine. While the game world is a beautiful testament to a bygone era, the full experience just needs...more. You're all but guaranteed to enjoy many parts of this game, but the full experience just isn't there.
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