Mafia 2 has big shoes to fill and with its recently released demo 2K Czech hopes to convince the series’ fans that it’s up to the task. And the demo better be good, because the introduction of a third person perspective and cover-based shooter dynamics has many fans of the original worried that Mafia 2 will be dumbed down for the consoles.
But these are the creators of Mafia (2002) and they seem to know exactly what makes a good mob game. This may be a mere 20 to 30 minute demo that presents a mission already shown in gameplay videos, but it does include every aspect of Mafia 2 gameplay. So it’s an ideal demo to test the waters and see whether Mafia 2 has the potential to live up to its predecessor.
The demo starts with the protagonist, Vito, standing in his home and the phone ringing. Pick up the phone and he’ll be called in to join his buddies Henry and Joe for a hit on the other side of town. At that point it’s possible to explore a portion of the city within a 10 minute time limit, or head on over to Henry and Joe to actually get that mission underway.
Vito’s home is a good indicator for the rest of the city. Aside from answering the phone he can also use the toilet, grab a sandwhich from the fridge, tune the radio in on different stations, and so on. There’s an attention to detail here that’s lacking in most other games, but the developers haven’t gone overboard. There are just enough interactive and autonomous elements to sell the feeling that it’s a living, breathing, city.
This is augmented by Vito’s ability to climb over obstacles, steal cars and enter certain buildings. The in-game map highlights numerous interesting locations like bars, diners, gas stations and mechanics. And all around people go about their daily business, talk to one another, buy newspapers, drive to work and generally make Empire Bay feel like a genuine American city in the 1950s.
Beautiful graphics round out the picture with highly detailed characters and environments framed by a huge draw distance. Realistic physics again betray an incredible attention to detail as clothing moves as it should, vehicles have realistic damage models, explosions litter the surroundings with debris and bullets smash holes in walls. This makes for some intense shootouts in the distillery portion of the demo mission with breaking bottles and wood as tommy gun fire is exchanged.
Why not open the fridge and grab a cold one?
Contrary to expectations, the third person perspective adds a lot of atmosphere to the game and fits perfectly. There is the occassional awkward angle, but the close-up camera provides visual feedback that simply wouldn’t be there in first person. For instance, when explosions rock the distillery, Vito is nearly knocked over and crouches down to maintain his balance.
The cover system is a similarly pleasant surprise. It’s a definite improvement over Mafia’s slightly clunky gunfights, as Vito runs smoothly from cover to cover and fires guns that behave and sound as they should. Pistols, tommy guns, shotguns and even a MG42 are presented in the demo and they’re all very deadly weapons. A few bullet suffice to kill anyone, including Vito, and characters respond realistically to damage. A headshot is an instant kill, a leg shot may cripple an opponent and a crotch shot is so painful that they’ll go down instantly.
If Vito gets hit then staying in cover will automatically recover some of his health, but the remainder has to be regenerated through eating or drinking. It seems like a great mixture between medkits and full regeneration, but it does become problematic in that there’s no actual health indicator. So it’s impossible to gauge exactly where Vito’s total health is at.
The driving mechanics are fairly similar to the original game in that it’s a semi-realistic affair. It’s another instance of attention to detail, where every car has its own unique handling properties, but not too much so. There’s no clutch control, for example, but the handbrake can be used for cutting corners at high speeds. Vito can store these cars in a garage next to his house, or simply steal whichever car strikes his fancy.
Always shoot the fuel tank!
The mission presented in the demo won’t be presented in the same way in the full game, but does seem very promising for its potential. Upon arriving at the distillery the game automatically cuts into a cutscene with solid dialogue and then cuts out straight into a gunfight. These seemless cutscenes are par for the course during this demo and make for a very engaging game that presents its story in a compelling way.
It seems as if 2K Czech has retained the original’s varied and intense gameplay sequences. This demo includes a shootout behind a mounted MG42, a running gunfight through a multi-story building, a swift escape from that building as it comes crashing down and a high octane car chase as the police arrives on the scene. And it all happens in just 15 minutes.
The draw distance is vast, but details pop in only at close range
But while the demo might have had me place a pre-order the moment it ended, that does not mean Mafia 2 is flawless. At maximum detail it still suffers from pop-in while driving and becomes a surprisingly demanding game. It also includes an option for anti-aliasing, but this is an on and off switch that’s limited to 2x AA, which is barely anything.
Mafia 2 also promises to be an extremely demanding game when turned up to maximum detail, to the point where even Crysis is far more manageable. When PhysX effects are set to high it becomes unplayable even on a Geforce 8800GTX, which up until now has always been sufficient to play any modern game comfortably in maximum detail. It does become very playable and stable after turning off these PhysX effects however.
Saving cannot be done manually and there are no checkpoint indications so its impossible to gauge exactly when the last autosave occured. It’s an archaic and unfriendly system that can easily result in large segments of lost gameplay if emergencies (food, bio break, sleep, burglars, air raids) pop up during play. It also makes it impossible to determine when its save to stop the game, because there’s been no indication of when the last save was made.
And I don’t particularly mind the inclusion of 50 collectible nude pictures spread around the city in Playboy magazines, which I suppose adds some authentic flavor, but some game critics will. The Witcher already received a great deal of, unwarranted, criticism for its handful of sex cards, which were at least drawn tastefully and somewhat related to the game experience. Mafia 2′s pictures are included just for kicks and are liable to get a fair few American and British critics raging about the horrors of nudity in a game that includes copious amounts of blood and violence.
We'll have to wait for the full game to know how Vito gets out of this one ...
The Mafia 2 demo oozes Mafia from every pore and if its any indicator of the quality of the full game, then Mafia 2 may well surpass the original and be a big contender for the Game of the Year title. It’s certainly one to watch and with my pre-order set to unlock on the very day of release, the 27th of August, you can be sure it’ll see some coverage on GameDrone!
So I’ll see you in a few weeks for a review of the full game. Until then, grab the demo over here and get to shooting!
Loading ...