Mafia II

[fletcher21]

It drops tomorrow. I have had a PS3 for 2+ years and only own The Show 10, Bad Company, Red Dead Redemption and Little Big Planet. I am looking to pick up a few games soon, one of them being Mafia II. Has anyone played a demo or anything? Will this game be solid, or is it a wanna-be GTA type game and not worth the 60 bucks? Please post reviews here.

[Teal]

The demo was pretty damn good.

[JRod]

Demo was too short to get a feel for. I will admit, I didn't roam the city because I didn't understand what the timer was there for. (You can only roam for 7 minutes in the demo). I really liked how gunfire destroyed the environment.

My only concern is that movement feels a bit sloppier than GTA and not refined. There's a cover system that works well and the AI in the demo was smart enough not to be outflanked but not dumb enough not to recognize what's going on and move away from gunfire.

I didn't play Mafia I. To me it just feels like GTA: Godfather but I hope I'm wrong in that assessment. I would like it to bring something more to the table.

[vader29]

Played the demo and enjoyed it, but for me it will be one of those games that I will wait a year or two to get at a reduced price. I just have way too many games that I don't play much because of not having enough time.

[Danimal]

Getting kind of poor reviews

[Teal]

Yeah, I just noticed that. I'd say it's a rental.

[Rodster]

I read the IGN review it didn't sound too bad other than it's a 10 hour game.

[MizzouRah]

Yeah, rental or when it gets cheap.. the part I don't like is that's it's a lifeless world.

[TheTruth]

Yeah, rental or when it gets cheap.. the part I don't like is that's it's a lifeless world.

What do you mean by lifeless?

My copy shipped from gamefly this morning. I really liked the demo and supposedly it is based off a E3 build. I changed the driving model to simulation and enjoyed it much better than the normal driving model. The soundtrack is pretty nice too. The shooting in the demo was very satisfying as well. Looking forward to playing the full game.

[Danimal]

I don't have the game but the reviews say while the world is impressive there is nothing to do.

No side quests
No ability to just go around short of after a mission.

I think that is what they mean by lifeless

[10spro]

From Kotaku's take:

"The worst example of Mafia II's imbalanced design came in a chapter in which you're tasked to warn someone of an impending hit. I timed it: 7:40 combined cutscene time, 8:49 combined driving time (three minutes of that was rushing to the scene, but there was no pursuit), and just 44 seconds of action trying to help the guy escape. The amount of interactive time spent on setup is simply too high for a game this short..."

When you put that much time in a cut scene, that alone would kill any interest I have in a game.

[pk500]

Getting kind of poor reviews

That's a shame. The first one was really fun. I played it on the PC.

[MizzouRah]

I don't have the game but the reviews say while the world is impressive there is nothing to do.

No side quests
No ability to just go around short of after a mission.

I think that is what they mean by lifeless

Yes.. exactly.

Unlike GTA, RDR,.. the reviews are saying the world does not come alive and there are no side quests to bring it alive.

[TheTruth]

Brett over on OS got the game early over the weekend. Below are his impressions he posted.

Quote:
Game is an absolute blast, IMO - I'm a little under 60% complete.
The story/music/atmosphere/etc... meshes quite well.

I'm a fan of the combat system in this game - some pretty neat melee attacks. I'd suggest (I believe blzer mentioned this) switching the driving option from Normal to Simulation.

As far as negatives are concerned, the game froze a few times on me and I've come across a few bugs/glitches.

Once I finish the story, I'll go back chapter by chapter and find the rest of my Playboys.

[slyguy]

Where has it got bad reviews the one's i've seen so far are
IGN 7
GI 9
Gamespot 8.5

[10spro]

Where has it got bad reviews the one's i've seen so far are
IGN 7
GI 9
Gamespot 8.5

Here's one:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... -ii-review

Kotaku was meh about it I think. As some may have posted, this would a rental for me at this point, or wait until it gets cheap.

[slyguy]

Where has it got bad reviews the one's i've seen so far are
IGN 7
GI 9
Gamespot 8.5

Here's one:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... -ii-review

Kotaku was meh about it I think. As some may have posted, this would a rental for me at this point, or wait until it gets cheap.

4/10 now i did not read the review but a 4/10 no way. I have the game and i like it very much. People who like GTA and games alike will like Mafia 2, granted its not as open ended as GTA but its still a fun game. I am still scratching my head at 4/10

[Teal]

I picked up the greatest hits version that had all the DLC with it for about 17 bucks earlier this week, having never played it. I have a soft spot for the whole "Godfather" mafia thing, but never pulled the string on this one when it first came out. Glad I didn't. Not because I'm not enjoying it, because I very much am. But because I got one helluva deal for 17 bucks!

I love this game. Love it. Not a lot to do outside the main story, other than the DLC, which I haven't gotten to yet, but I don't care. Much like LA Noire, I love what's there. In fact, a game like this would probably suffer IMO with a bunch of throwaway "open world" crap. Very good voice acting, cool story, nice controls overall...nothing here to complain about at all.

I love the transition from the 40's to the 50's, in the environment, the music, the cars, the duds. Just a really well-made game.

[Macca00]

Teal,

I'm glad you're diggin' this game - I think it's one of the more underrated games of this gen. Your thread actually prompted me to play through it again on the PC!

[Teal]

It really was compelling and a lot of fun. No, there's nothing much to do when the story is over, but that doesn't matter to me much. I'm a sucker for italian mafia stories, and this was one voice acted as good as it gets.