Tomi on 4/1/2011 at 13:34
I got Mafia 2 for Christmas, and I just finished the story in it. I have very mixed feelings about the game, I was both disappointed and impressed. Let me try to explain...
I absolutely loved Mafia 1, I don't think I've ever played a game with a better story before or after that. It was like watching a good (mafia) film, where you can jump into the best scenes and play them. Yes, I even liked the race mission in the game that most people seemed to hate. The gameplay was solid too, driving around the city between the missions was enjoyable and fighting/shooting was fun, even if it had its flaws.
Now, let's compare Mafia 1 to Mafia 2. Just like a lot sequels, I think Mafia 2 failed to live up to the expectations and all the hype around it. But, I think it's still a good game, it just isn't as good as I wanted it to be. Then again, that's a common problem when the first part(s) of the game are so good that it's hard to beat them, all Thief fans here should know it...
What really made the first Mafia game so great and one of my favourite games ever was the story. I was hooked to the story from the beginning to the end. And unfortunately, I think that's where Mafia 2 failed the most. Don't get me wrong, the story doesn't actually suck in Mafia 2 either, in fact it was the driving force in it as well... but when you compare it to Mafia 2... bleh. Well, the cutscenes were well executed and enjoyable to watch, there were just so many things happening at such a quick pace that it was sometimes hard to tell what exactly was going on, and I got a bit confused with all the names.
As a result the only characters in the game that I actually cared about were Vito (the protagonist) and his sidekick Joe. The others were rather meaningless and it didn't really bring any emotions in me when they got killed or I killed them... and that's not what a mafia game is supposed to be like. In one scene a close friend of yours gets killed, and it's probably supposed to be the most emotional part of the story, but about 30 minutes before that I wouldn't even have remembered who that "close" friend is!
A few (or a lot) of "meaningless" missions really would have helped to make the game more immersive. In Mafia 1 you did a lot of small missions for the Salieri family, and even though they didn't really have anything to do with the main story, at least they made the family and these characters feel a lot closer and meaningful to you. And when things at the end of the game turned like they did, it actually made me feel like I had been betrayed.
Mafia 2 skips all that "meaningless" content and concentrates only on what really is essential for the story... which unfortunately means that there's not much content at all! In fact it's possibly the shortest (full price) game that I've played. I spent a lot of time just driving around sometimes and exploring stuff, but I was done with the story in about 12 hours. The worst thing was the ending though, I really had no idea that the game was about to end, when suddenly the end credits started to roll in. Not to mention that the ending itself sucked big time as well... Of course I did a lot of questionable stuff throughout the game that I wouldn't do in real life (it's a mafia game after all), but what happened in the ending sequence was a big no-no for me. I wasn't expecting a happy ending or anything (Mafia 1 didn't exactly have one either but I still loved it) but that was a huge disappointment. Perhaps they just wanted to leave things open for a possible sequel or some downloadable content...
Well, even if the story could and should have been better, I think they got the basic gameplay right at least. Driving around in Mafia 2 is a lot of fun. I was a bit worried when they mentioned the more "arcade" driving style in some of the reviews before, but I think it worked really well. I used the arcade driving mode throughout my first play through the game, the simulation mode didn't seem like a very good idea when playing with the keyboard and mouse. What I really missed though was car chases... come on, what's a mafia game without car chases?! Ok, there were a few short ones but nothing spectacular like in Mafia 1. Even the police couldn't seem to be bothered to chase me, it was really easy to outrun and escape from them, and I started wishing that they would punish you for driving through red lights as well as speeding like they did before.
I thought that the fighting and shooting sequences worked very well too (I haven't played a lot of action games lately though so my expectations may be a bit lower). The fist fights seemed a bit pointless at times and they were definitely too easy - I don't think I ever lost any of them. But shooting and hiding behind the covers was great fun. I had read that the game is way too easy, but even though there were only a few tricky places in it, I didn't find it that easy. I did play on Hard difficulty though, and I got to admit that most of the scenes in the game didn't cause me too much trouble.
The game looks really good, I was amazed when I saw the snowy Empire Bay for the first time. The music fits in well and helps to make the atmosphere more authentic. The voice acting and the cutscenes are top notch as well, even better than in Mafia 1.
What makes me a bit sad is that Mafia 2 had so much potential to be a really great game. The lack of content even makes it feel like a bit of a rip-off. I was really excited about being able to tune and modify my cars and buying new suits and food and drinks (etc) at first, but to me it seems like there's no point in any of it. You never really need a better car in the game, it's easy enough to outrun anyone even with a standard non-tuned car. I never had to buy anything from a gun store, I always had more than enough weapons anyway. And I never went to any of the cafés or restaurants unless it was essential for the story. There's a big city to drive around and explore, but you always end up driving between the same few places.
I picked up the two DLC mission packs (Joe's Adventures and Jimmy's Vendetta) on the Steam holiday sales for 1.98€ euros each, I'm going to play them next. But since they don't really have anything to do with the Mafia 2 story apparently, I expect to be slightly disappointed. Why oh why couldn't they put some more effort on the actual story mode... :erg:
Scott Weiland on 4/1/2011 at 14:38
Quote Posted by Tomi
Then again, that's a common problem when the first part(s) of the game are so good that it's hard to beat them.
Except that this time they didn't have to beat anything because Mafia 1 was already perfect. All they had to do was make another Mafia 1, but they feiled so badly that I haven't been buying czech beer ever since.
Tomi on 4/1/2011 at 17:32
Quote Posted by Scott Weiland
-- Mafia 1 was already perfect. All they had to do was make another Mafia 1 --
I don't think it's as simple as just making "another Mafia 1", unless you mean that they should have done a remake of the original with only better graphics and stuff. I'm not sure if I'd pay the full price for that...
Like I said, I really love Mafia 1, but I think it's far from perfect. Beyond the actual missions there was nothing else to do (well, apart from the side quests from the mechanic guy), the city felt more dead to me, even the action scenes and controls were a bit clunky at times (the gun reload bug, poorly balanced weapons, and the stupid AI for example were all bugging me). Oh, and the final "boss fight" was just silly and the ending credits music sounded too out of place. ;)
I liked the 50's setting in Mafia 2, the faster cars were certainly more fun to drive than the ones you had for the most part of Mafia 1. Empire Bay looks fantastic and the city feels quite realistic. It's just the story that goes wrong in Mafia 2 - it doesn't go deep enough and there's not enough to do. I don't think it "failed badly" like you say, the story in Mafia 1 was just a lot better executed (even if it recycled all the mafia cliches) and it's hard to compete with that. As a stand-alone game Mafia 2 would still have been pretty good, now it's just a somewhat disappointing sequel, but hardly a disaster.
I would have been rather happy with Mafia 2 if there only was (a lot) more content: more of those little "meaningless" missions where you get to know your friends and enemies better, a longer story with the same amount of twists, but more content between the twists to build up the story...
I just remembered that there are gas stations in Mafia 2 as well, and realised that I used the same car (the one that you steal in Chapter 2) for most of the game, and never had to refuel it. Why spend time making all those gas stations and restaurants and other shops if you're never going to need them? That smells like bad game design to me, or perhaps they had other, more ambitious plans for the game, but just had to rush things to reach some deadline or something. (Then again, I always wondered what was the point of functional gas stations in Mafia 1 as well...)
P.S. I still like Czech beer. :p
Sulphur on 4/1/2011 at 20:28
All I have to say is you hit the nail pretty much right on the head, Tomi. That's exactly how I feel about Mafia 2, and it's especially tragic considering how special the original Mafia was.
EvaUnit02 on 5/1/2011 at 01:50
Mafia 2 suffered from significant executive meddling at the 11th hour. A LOT of content was cut, i.e. it had a full suite of side-missions and at least four different endings.
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omY93dIH8pc) This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).
So really 2K corporate is largely to blame for the game's current state.
henke on 6/1/2011 at 14:25
Started playing this yesterday and finished it today. 12 hours playtime total. The shooting and driving and even the stealth is solid. But the story is a bit of a let down. It's not really bad so much as it is plain depressing. I guess the moral of the story is "a life of crime will get you nowhere". Which, while perhaps accurate, is not what I want to hear. What I wanna hear is "a life of crime is awesome! You get to drive cars fast and shoot people!"
Tomi, let us know what you think of the DLCs.
Undead Gamer on 8/1/2011 at 14:40
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Mafia 2 suffered from significant executive meddling at the 11th hour. A LOT of content was cut, i.e. it had a full suite of side-missions and at least four different endings.
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omY93dIH8pc) This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).
So really 2K corporate is largely to blame for the game's current state.
Exactly why in the hell gimp a game to the max has got me stumped and then woulder why people who bought the game are angry due piss poor QA testing and a storyline that jumps all over the place :tsktsk::weird::wot:
henke on 8/1/2011 at 18:12
Err.... aside from that mission not being in the finished game, there's not really anything in that clip that wasn't in the final product.
Would've been nice to have the sidemissions and the different endings though.
Yakoob on 9/1/2011 at 08:40
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Mafia 2 suffered from significant executive meddling at the 11th hour. A LOT of content was cut, i.e. it had a full suite of side-missions and at least four different endings.
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omY93dIH8pc) This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).
So really 2K corporate is largely to blame for the game's current state.
Half of those missions would break most of the time, one fourth wasn't fun at all, and the last one fourth would crash the whole game if you tried to complete them with the Tommy Gun.
And the endings? Two of them didn't make sense of the story and the third hasn't left the creative director's desk yet.
As much as TTLG loves the idea of "big mean Mr. Publisher," game content gets cut for a reason, and reluctantly so since it represents wasted time and money (which big mean Mr. Publisher doesn't like very much at all).