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Mafia
II
is the second
installment of 2K
Games’ Mafia
franchise and it
doesn’t disappoint
with beautiful
textures and
environments, solid
voice acting, and a
great story. It’s a
little
unsatisfactory that
it’s not more of an
open-world game like
we’ve seen from
other games like
this, but It’s still
pretty fun.
In Mafia II, you’re
Vito Scaletta,
you’re a WWII
soldier that’s just
come home to find
out that life at
home isn’t quite
what you wanted it
to be. So naturally,
Vito and his friend
Joe take the route
of doing crime for
easy money. You go
along with Vito as
he does a few small
jobs and then works
his way up the crime
ladder.
That’s really
Mafia
II
in a nutshell. Vito
and Joe follow a set
path of missions,
(some trivial) to
complete chapters
and then finish out
the story. The story
is excellent, and
the way it tells the
story is solid too
with some great
visuals and
production values.
Even gameplay and
fighting the cops
and other criminals
isn’t terrible. The
camera struggles at
times (third person
action games all do)
but the mechanics
for fighting and
shooting aren’t bad.
They’re serviceable.
Where this game
struggles is how
linear it is.
Mafia
II
takes place in
Empire Bay… it’s
basically New York.
Empire Bay is a
pretty big place.
There are lots of
different
neighborhoods and
places to explore
including lots of
shops to check out
and purchase outfits
and guns. But the
problem with it is…
you can go into the
shops wherever but
from mission to
mission- everything
you’re doing is
linear. There are no
side missions to do,
no ‘hours of extra
entertainment’
there’s just the
mission and what’s
next until the game
is done. That makes
this game slightly
disappointing. If
you compare it to
EA’s
Godfather II
game where there are
tons of side
missions and lots of
things to do- then
you’ll be left
disappointed. Mafia
II looks better than
that game… by quite
a bit… but
Godfather II
is a deeper
experience.
Mafia
II
does several things
right. Great story,
everything looks
good, mechanics are
solid, but by
leaving out some
options for some
open-world exploring
2K games lets us
down slightly.
That’s not to say
that it’s not a
great game, because
it really is. Play
this one and love
this one if you love
action games, but
there are deeper and
richer experiences
out there to be
played.
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