Mafia II review

Mafia 2 is the long awaited sequal to Mafia, wich was developed eight years ago by a little Czhech game developer company called  Tiscali Games. Ever since have rumors been going on about a new Mafia game coming out. And here we are in 2010 finally being able to play Mafia II.


Story: The game takes place in the early 1940's right in the middle of World War II. Vito and his family originally came from Italy, but early in Vitos childhood they moved to America in hope for a better life. In the game you play as a young man called Vito Scaletta who gets arrested for robbing a store with hes best friend Joe Barbaro. Here he can choose between either going to jail or serve as a soldier in the war currently going on in Sicily. Vito desides to go to war instead of prison and ends up getting shot. He survives though and gets sent back to America. Hes father is now dead and hes mom and sister now lives alone in a little apartment. When Vito gets home he finds out that the dad had alot of debts to pay before he died that he didn't get to pay, so the  family ows a lot of money to different loaner sharks. When Vito finds out of this he asks his good friend Joe for help and Joe then gets Vito in touch with the Mafia. Of course this isn't just a game where you do everything you're told so of course there will be alot of twists in the story. I give the story a 5/5 because it's very easy to get into and will at times catch you of guard and surprise you.

Gameplay: Mafia II contains of the different types of game play. Third person cover shooting, driving and stealth. The shooting in this game is good. You basicly move from cover to cover shooting your enemies. The targeting system is fine but defentley not the thing they've been using most time on making since it feels a bit to easy to shoot a guy in the head with a gun while running around, dodging cars trying to hit you. So the shooting is a bit to easy I think.

In Mafia II you'll be driving alot, so ofcourse it's important to have a good driving system in the game. Well don't worry cause the driving in this game is fun, and realistic. When you hit the gas it doesn't just feel like you're driving regular car, no it feels like you're driving an old and really heavy car, therefore the driving in this game won't be too fast but fast eneugh to keep you satisfied. Unfortunately I just feel like there's to much driving in the game. Every time you get a mission you have to drive to it, and it's most likely to be really, REALLY far away from you, wich means that after getting halfdone with the game  you'll be bored with the driving and just want to quit.

 Now in Mafia II you'll also encounter a couple of moments where you have to be stealthy and sneak around without being spotted by the patrolling guards. Now unlike the driving I just can't seem to get eneugh of the stealth in this game, cause they've made it so awesome. Sneaking around the corridors and hiding behind objects is really frun in this game. The enemie AI is good so you won't feel that it's to easy and killing your enemies will only make you earn less money wich makes this part of the game so exciting since you have to sneak all the time.

But don't let the okay-ish shooting and the boring driving hold you back cause' the story in this games is more than eneugh to keep you motivated and that's why I'mj giving the gameplay a 4,5/5

Graphics: Now Mafia II is a next gen game, so ofcourse we expect good graphics in a game like this. Now if you're getting the game for PC or 360, you can look forward to some great graphics. You'll see stuff like realtic moving clothes and really highly detailed enviorments. But if you,on the other hand is getting the game for ps3, might be a little disapointed, since the graphics are a bit worse for ps3 than PC and 360. But you won't really be thinking about that when you're playing the game. This game uses (as many other games) the Nvidia PhysX engine. This engine makes it possible for the developers to make things (such as boxes, bottles and cover) be destroyed in a very realistic way. This ads  to the action as you can't just sit in the same spot all the time.
So based on the PC and 360 graphics with the PhysX and the very realistic clothes, the graphics gets a 4,5/5. But if we were talking ps3 grahpics it would be 3,5/5.

Conclusion: Mafia II is all in all a very good game. is it worth 60 dollars? Yes I would say it is, based on the great story you get in the game and the pretty good gameplay. The game is a little short, but there is lots of replayabilitie in this game. If you like good graphics, lots of driving, stealth and a great story, Mafia II is just the thing for you.

Story: 5/5
Gameplay: 4,5/5
Grapshics:4,5/5

Final: 4,7/5

If you're not to sure about getting Mafia II I recommend you go get the Demo right now. See ya;)