Mafia II from Czech developers Czech 2k is the followup to, amazingly, Mafia 1. Ok so their naming skills weren’t exactly tested.
It doesn’t really pick up where the last one left off but then I never finished the last one so I can’t really say if it did or not, but basically it’s the story of Vito, you play Vito, from his time in the war (which is basically a cool tutorial type level where you learn the ropes).
Having learnt the ropes, which are you basic over the shoulder 3rd person shooty type WASD type affair with a bit of ‘f’ to interact and rightMB to zoom in, ctrl to duck behind cover (very useful*)…
*when I say useful for cover, cover is a bit of an IWIN button, you can stay in cover indefinitely and just pop up and boom headshot people. I think the entire game I died like 12 times.
Anyway the game. You’re basically charting Vito’s rise through the ranks of the Mafia, starting out as a noob underling, through to…well I won’t spoil it. It’s a bit like a 1950′s Grand Theft Auto without so much free roaming.
That is the games biggest downfall tbh, it’s a gorgeous setting, they’ve rendered 1950′s (and later early 60′s) New York gorgeously, from the weather effects through to the shiny stuff, light effects etc But…and this is a massive but…you never get to experience much of it unless you take up the massive 2 side quests, that of stealing cars and crushing them and one other which I really couldn’t be bothered to find.
The game feels like you’re on rails the whole time and whilst the story is good and entertaining in equal measures it’s lacking in several areas :-
Continuity – halfway through the timeline shifts to sort of late 50′s early 60′s which you think is cool I’m gonna experience the whole of this guys life kinda like the Godfather rise to power thing. You start thinking I’m gonna be a godfather, the capo of all capos’ this is cool….
Stop right there, that’s it you get to early 60′s and that’s it, I won’t tell you the end but I will say IT SUCKS!! just as it’s getting good (the story not the game) it just stops, you’re begging for more. I mean seriously when it ended I was a) WTF I finished a game! (I never finish games 
) b) WTF that was just getting really good I need more.
And then you read about all the downloadable content that’s coming out. So what you have is half a game with DLC content coming really soon. Lame lame lame if you want more ££’s from your players then make the entire game don’t cut it in two and then sell the other half as DLC. Epic fail.
So in summary, good game, lovely looking, quite funny in parts, some really good story telling. It’s easy though, melee combat is soooooo basic, guard and swing when they miss you, shooty combat is a little tougher but the aforemention ‘cover’ mechanic gives you almost godmode.
That aside it is a good story and I had fun, but it left you wanting way more than it ever gave you.
Sadly that gives this game a rating of 4/10 - not enough value for money, good fun but way too brief.
Wait for it to come out on a cheapy on Steam if you want to check it out is my advice!
