mothra on 10/8/2010 at 13:04
well, hearing that I already found a "unlock timer" crack for it....let's hope it works. I don't know why they do that, they could just lock the missions and give us the city or more locations.
242 on 10/8/2010 at 16:11
Played the demo.
IMO, it's gorgeous.
Smooth, nice driving and (fire)fight mechanics, beautiful, detailed, and realistic graphics, impressive cutscenes and living city. I loved the first game, and I'm pleased with this demo.
Sulphur on 10/8/2010 at 23:24
The bad, first: After exiting the game, it seems to have triggered some hidden UAC warning window or equivalent somewhere, so my screen's stuck at a gamma level of -50 while the mouse cursor is positively fluorescent in contrast.
Antialiasing is weird. I don't know what the default level of AA is since you can only turn it On or Off, but it doesn't seem to help much, if at all, apart from bringing the frame rate down. The game is also slightly schizophrenic in terms of remembering whether AA was set to on or off, especially if you run the benchmark afterwards. It actually runs butter-smooth otherwise.
I'm not too sure if I like the regenerating health mechanic. It just doesn't fit in; to be fair, neither does a health counter, but it just seems too easy now. Granted, this is possibly a very early mission in the scheme of things.
The original Mafia had some uncannily realistic faces on top of ridiculous polygonal bodies. In Mafia 2, they just look like they're aiming for uncanny - as in, the valley.
The good: it's Mafia, all right. The atmosphere and attention to detail's all here (just rove around Vito's digs at the start and you'll see what I mean). The one mission (yeah) seems to reiterate they still know how to execute a good mission hook.
The cars are from the 40's so there's some actual muscle under the hood, and they're a joy to drive. Until you hit the cops. The cops are less tenacious than in the original Mafia, but they still give you some pretty dogged pursuit, and are likely to swamp you if you take a wrong turn.
While I don't like the regenerating health, the combat feels perfect. The cover system works, and the gunplay's just right. I think they took out the realism in terms of the reload mechanic, though - if you reload with a non-empty clip still in a gun, I don't think you lose any of the remaining ammo in the old clip. That's a shame.
Also, apart from that uncanny valley syndrome, it looks good. Really good.
I'm probably giving this one a purchase as soon as possible. They just got to iron out those bugs I mentioned on top.
Shakey-Lo on 11/8/2010 at 04:16
The best part is the soundtrack. Going on a rampage in a bus while listening to Rock Around the Clock is awesome fun.
The second best part is that the collectable items are pictures of naked ladies.
242 on 11/8/2010 at 09:09
Quote Posted by Sulphur
I'm not too sure if I like the regenerating health mechanic. It just doesn't fit in; to be fair, neither does a health counter, but it just seems too easy now. Granted, this is possibly a very early mission in the scheme of things.
The full game may include difficulty settings, and also this demo level could be intentionally made easy.
Shadowcat on 11/8/2010 at 10:06
If a demo isn't demonstrative of what you'll get in the retail version, then it's a pretty pointless exercise.
Personally, I credit developers and publishers with enough intelligence to make a demo that is representative of the final code. I'm fully aware that this attribution is not warranted in all cases, but that's their problem as far as I'm concerned. Bad demo == bad product.
Not that I've played this one; I'm just advising against making any assumptions that things you dislike about the demo are likely to be different in the retail release.
mothra on 11/8/2010 at 10:18
the reloading, the "carry 4 guns and ammo for ages", health-regen and objectifying sex trophy hunt for pimpled-faced kids straight out of puberty all work AGAINST the original Mafia's atmosphere of a real world with real problems and real danger. Going into a firefight in M1 was exhilarating and tense. Taking a shotgun meant no way to hide it from the police. In that demo I played the whole mission without guns by just punching guys in the face, its THAT easy. who needs a gun when you can soak up 3 shots and then kick the living daylights out of the guy. Niko Bellic greets you and shoves a hotdog up your arse. I PRAY for difficulty settings and a NO crosshair or "smaller crosshair than 80% of screen" feature.
having said that I still assume M2 will be a very good game, even excellent if they can keep up or excell the quality in that slice in terms of story/characters/setpieces but in terms of "feel" and "impact" it's a much lesser title and I blame - dare I say it - the fkn "we need to sell a game to EVERYBODY AND THEIR MOM" and "dying is no fun" shit philosophy. or it's consoles - either way it's a loss for me but not big enough to not be there on release day, stroking my hat and hiding my gun collection in my magic coat.
242 on 11/8/2010 at 10:41
Quote Posted by mothra
but in terms of "feel" and "impact" it's a much lesser title
How can you judge it without experiencing the story? Start Mafia 1 in free mode and you'll also say it's much lesser than story mode.
I agree the auto-healing is bad, let's hope there will be difficulty settings that will allow to make the game really hard.
mothra on 11/8/2010 at 10:50
I played one mission. When I entered the distillery I had M1 in mind. I was roleplaying, trying to be Vito and doing the job but not getting killed, no charging in. Well, I made a mistake, I got shot 3 times, my screen turned a little red. Then I saw that my ammo never runs out and the reload doesnt waste bullets. then I ran out to the street with my shotgun and found out that I can hide the whole shotgun in my summer-shirt. When I replayed the mission I started punching the enemies in the face because the "impact" and "feel" of the old M1 was gone and I knew: you can dick around. When I killed someone on the streets it took 3 cops to kill me instead of one cop and one shot. That's how I do it. I play the game, I have a reaction, I make my assumptions and then I base my "buy decision" on that. That's what demos are for. And what that demo showed me is the promise of an good, easy and forgiving game with an menue that screams console in its lack of configuration and the biggest shit targeting reticule since ...... the original mafia. Why keep that ?
well, I still played it for 2 hours yesterday. bummer about the arcade shooting.
