The first Mafia game was one I neglected to spend much time with. I remember playing it briefly while still enamoured with Grand Theft Auto, something I’m sure happened to many of you out there. Even so, Mafia senior was critically acclaimed and has a large fanbase. The Godfather-style dialog and plot, coupled with sandbox violence and action was a popular combo.

Mafia II chronicles the life and times of Vito Scaletta, a proto-mobster. Any more about the story is a mystery to me at this stage, I simply sat down with 2K Interactive and had a jam.

The game itself is beautiful, a colourful and bright rendition of the fictional city of Empire Bay. Post-WWII optimism fills the streets, while behind the scenes slick mobsters take care of the dirty side of business. The levels I played through were well scripted and executed shooters. Switching between cover, firing set-piece weapons and swapping gun for gun across a working distillery is all part of a day’s work for Vito. The control system is stock standard and feels well implemented.

 

The dialog and cutscenes were top notch, accents and exclamations just on the right side of exploitative. The cutscenes are especially effective as they use the game engine and are fluid and fantastically well animated. While the original Mafia was billed as the Scorsese film that never was, what I saw of Mafia II could easily be taken from the halls of Hollywood history.

The gun violence was satisfying and gory, blood splattering and guts flying just the way it should. The guns sounded particularly good and had a satisfying ‘weight’ to them when fired. Other than the casual mowing down of people I had no reason to kill (I jumped into the story at a mid-way point), the game offered some extra fun in the tweaked driving mode. The city of Empire Bay is 10 square kilometres of city and suburb for you to explore.

It all looks like great value for fans of mob stories.