- Deadlights911
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Too lazy to read? Then scroll down to the bottom to read the final verdict/score.
An open world, action third person shooter, set in 1940 - 1950, Mafia II puts you in the shoes of Vito Scaletta, an italian who has returned from World War II and decides that he does want to live in the ghettos, he wants to make some big money... so he joins the mafia.
Enjoy shoot em up third person shooters? Then yes, if you can stand repetitive missions of just shooting down enemies, this is the game for you. Jumping into cover behind counters and walls while getting shot at by other mafia members is quite exhilarating. Shooting at back at them is even more fun.
However, although this didn't really bug me too much, 90% of the missions are the same thing, drive to a location and shoot up a bunch of members from cover. The other 10% are stealth missions which I found... pretty boring. Melee in the game is nothing unique. All you have to do to block the enemy's punches are holding down one button (since I played this on the PC I used space) then you you simply let go of the button and spam the hitting button. Like I said, nothing unique. Because of this simple technique, fights were way too easy and boring.
Also, just one thing that bugged me about the game was that you couldn't blind fire. Like really? This is the only third-person shooter game that I couldn't blind fire in and that also bugged me a bit. But other then that, the controls of the game were smooth. Shooting down enemies from cover is satisfying but for some of you, it might get a little repetitive. As for me, I didn't really care, I thought it was a blast.
Huge fan of open world games? Then... eh... not really for you. I love third person shooter games and I'm a huge fan of Rockstar (GTA, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, etc.) but the open world in this game was lacking. You're set in Empire Bay, a fictional town that's kind of a mash up of New York City and Chicago. With the realistic graphics, the city is a beautiful scenery but after free roaming around in the city for a while, it started to feel lifeless. There were really no side missions you could do, you couldn't interact with the AIs (other then killing them), no real time events, nothing. However, if you do enjoying stealing cars and just running into fences and crowds of people then I guess you'll enjoy the open world of this game.
Actually, there was one thing I enjoyed about the open world aspect of the game and that was committing a crime, getting the cops to chase after you into a random diner or gun shop and having a little shoot out. I did enjoy that. The cops were the only AIs in this game that actually had some dynamic. Man, unlike the cops in GTA where they were kind of stupid and easy to pick off, the cops in Mafia II were ruthless, they would alert all the cops in the city to come after you. Even if you pick off all the cops currently coming after you, more will just come after you if they find you.
Do you like a good story? Don't expect to be an Oscar-worthy story, but most other critics would agree with me that this game was a a great cinematic experience. Enjoy Godfather or Good Fellas? Then you'll enjoy the story of Mafia II.
One final note, like a couple of other game critics noticed, there was a lot of driving in the game. It wasn't that the controls for driving were bad, I thought they were fine, there were just times when you simply had to drive your car from one location to another. For example, once you've finished a mission, you don't automatically move onto the next chapter of the story. You have to get in your car and drive alway back down to your house from the location your currently at. I guess 2K thought that it might help add to the cinematic experience? I didn't mind it too much, but I didn't find need to all the driving.
Final Verdict:
Pros
- If you don't find the missions repetitive you'll have fun taking down enemies with shotguns and tommy guns from behind cover
- Great graphics help make Empire Bay become a beautiful scenery
- It's fun to get in shoot outs with ruthless cops while free roaming in the city
- If you wreckless driving in a busy city then you should enjoy this game
- A well-crafted narrative made this game a great cinematic experience
Cons
- Repetitive missions with a lot of unnecessary driving
- Flawed, boring melee system
- No blindfire
- Lifeless open world with little to do
Overall, Mafia II is a fun game with an interesting story to tell. Too bad there's just a couple of flaws in this game that could have fixed to make this game a whole lot better.
7.2/10
[Edited on 12.24.2012 4:20 PM PST]