Last Wednesday I embarked on a journey to upstate NY to the town of Saratoga Springs for five days of watching a house and a Spanish Waterdog. During my first day alone with both the house and the dog, I used my time after walking the dog and stocking up on food to feed myself. I ventured to the nearby Wal-Mart (couldn’t find a gamestop) and purchased Mafia II. I do not know about you, but I am the type of person that when I get a new game or video I get giddy with excitement. So after making my purchase and heading back to the house, I fired up the PS3 and popped in the disc. So far so good, and I was not disappointed, visually and audio wise it is a very beautiful game to behold. The story is compelling and makes you invested in the character you are about to take charge of. The story of Mafia II takes places during and after WWII, so for those of expecting a GTA style fast sport cars and motorcycles you will not be seeing any motorcycles and the fastest car you get doesn’t really come until toward the end of the game. You play as Vito Scarletta a World War II paratrooper who prior to the war was leading a life of petty crime and ultimately given the option Army or Jail, while your best friend Joe runs off Scott free.
The tutorial of the game takes place during the war, where it goes over the basic movement and gun using controls to get you acclimated to the controls. If like me you are used to the PS3 controls for GTAIV then be prepared for shock, however once you get used to the controls you find it to be a rather smooth system. There is an auto-lock on targeting for the guns, but (there is always a but), you really only get it for a split second, if you time it just right you may pull off some quick one shot kills. One thing you will notice right away in Mafia II that is different from GTAIV, you heal partially after taking damage. Even if you are in the red, if you stop behind cover, you health gauge will rise to a point where you are stable. When you take a lot of damage you tend to notice the fighting mechanics tend to worsen the lower you are before stabilizing, your vision gets hazy Vito’s breathing increases rapidly making your shots more erratic.
Another neat feature, I like about this game is that it gives you the option to lock pick for those of you have played Splinter Cell, you will be used to the lock picking system which is similar to the splinter cell system just slightly dumbed down. The lock pick feature will come up a lot so be prepared to use it. Just saying, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Now for the all important question which is on a lot of gamers’ minds when they ask about this game. What are the cops like? Well dear readers, all I am saying is that they are a lot smarter and a lot easier to tick off in Mafia II then they are in GTA. You can and can’t be a speed demon in Mafia II, breaking the speed limit draws the cops’ attention and they will give chase, hit and run from an accident they will give chase. Run a red light, no they won’t chase you; all cars in Mafia II come with a speed limiter option. This will help you keep your car in the speed limit and keep the cops off your tail. Use it when you can, cause there is only a few timed missions in the game.
The cars themselves handle a lot better then the cars in other games of the same genre. You can also tune the car and change the license plates (this helps you get rid of wanted statuses on your car). Tune the cars as much as can because like I said earlier you don’t get faster cars until toward the end.
Length wise, I felt this game could have been longer, I got this last Friday and beat it in eighteen hours (looking back it was really a Minimalist run). I didn’t go out of my way to rob the stores for cash and free goods, I didn’t do odd jobs for the junk yard guy, nor did I go around looking for the magazines. The magazine collection gets you playboy centerfold pics (just so you are aware). There is also a wanted poster collection but I didn’t go lookin for those either. A minimalist run may take you a short time to beat this game, but the story totally makes up for it.
So besides for the somewhat repetitive mechanics and lack of length that is really my only beef with the game. I recommend you give this game a rent. If you are looking for a game like GTA this is it but it pales in comparison to the length of GTAIV so again a rent will suffice. I hope you enjoyed this review please, leave comments, rate it, share and follow me. If you have questions leave me a question in the comment section.
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