Mafia 2 Review

!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!! DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU !!!

The year: 2003. Gathering of Developers releases a game made by Czechs, about the 1930's. Or, to be exact, about the Mafia and how it operated back then. Everything took place in the city of Lost Heaven. That game followed the story of Tom (I won't add Angelo, that last name might be a fake one, made up by the feds later), a cab driver who has the "luck" to meet up with a couple of Don Salieri's goons that he has to rescue from their pursuers. This event and the fact that by his actions Tom made a lot of enemies lead to him joining The Family and doing stuff for Salieri. Stuff that involves killing people, sabotaging race cars, rescuing damsels in distress etc. Eventually, Tom and his best friend, Paulie realize that the boss is treating them like simple pawns, even after they "took care" of Salieri's nemesis, Morello. Therefore, they decide to do something on their own, so they rob a bank without the Don knowing. Of course, Salieri eventually finds out about it and orders them to be killed. Tom, on the other hand, has a wife and daughter to protect, so he confesses everything he did on behalf of Salieri to the police in return for his family's safety. In the end, though, he is shown a few years later, in a different town, being found out by two goons who send "Mr Salieri's regards".
This was it, the main character being dead at the end of the game, the future of the Mafia series was kinda dark. But the producers weren't done yet. A few years later, a lot of small game companies, including Gathering of Developers fusioned into 2K Games. A website was launched, announcements went all over the internet and people were waiting for Mafia 2 for more than four years. Then, in August 2010, it finally came out. SO! Is it the best game of 2010? We'll see.
Mafia 2 follows the story of Vito Scalleta, a young man who came to Empire Bay with his family, immigrants from Sicily. Once in Empire Bay, he befriended Joe Barbarro, a guy who did what he had to do in order to survive: things like stealing from people's homes, or robbing stores. After one of these robberies, Vito is caught by the cops and is enrolled in the army, as the world is in war (WWII). He is send to free Sicily from Mussolini's troops. The campaign is a success, yet Vito is sent back home with an injury, after three months. He returns to find out his father passed away while he was gone and that Joe got rich in a short time. Of course, Joe confesses working for the Mafia, the Clemente family to be exact. There they meet a guy called Henry, who gives them a dangerous job. Vito has to break into a federal institution and steal gas stamps which then he has to sale to gas stations before midnight, as the expiration date is "tomorrow". After this operation, someone turns Vito in and he is sent to prison. In prison he meets Leo Galante, an old man working for Frank Vinci, another family boss. During his time there, Vito learns how to fight, as Leo runs an underground fighting club. Leo manages to get Vito out of prison earlier than he was supposed to be released. Now there's an advance in time, we're in 1951, when most of the game takes part. Vito finds out his mother died while he was doing his time, and his sister doesn't want to have anything to do with him, thanks to the fact that he is involved with the Mafia and kills people. At some point, Vito and Joe find out Clemente was screwing with them and they go to take their revenge on behalf of Carlo Falcone, head of the Falcone family. After taking Clemente out, Falcone wants to go after the Vinci clan as well. At this time, Henry changes sides, as his former boss, Clemente had been killed, and is sent to kill Leo Galante, now released from prison. Vito gets to Leo first and manages to save his life by convincing Henry not to kill him.
Being tired of getting orders from the Family and wanting their own money, Vito, Joe and Henry plan to start selling drugs (and in the same time making competition to their boss, Falcone, who had been doing the same thing and got rid of Clemente in order to avoid competition). [This action is similar to Tom and Paulie robbing the bank in the first Mafia game. They want more money so they do something without the Don's permission]. In order to obtain the drugs, they borrow 35000 bucks from a loan shark. They have to pay back 55 grand. They use the money to buy drugs off some Chinese dealer. On their way back to the car they're attacked by some fake cops (which turn out to be feds later). But the three amigos escape the feds and manage to sell the drugs. Unfortunately, Falcone finds out about their business and wants his cut, leaving them with too little cash, obviously not enough to pay the loan shark back. To top it all, when Vito arrives to a park where he is supposed to meet Henry in order to do a job that will get them enough money to pay the loan shark, he sees his friend butchered by a bunch of Chinese guys. He and Joe follow the Chinese and waste them in their bar. Later on, the leader of the Chinese reveals to Vito that Henry was a rat, and he sold them all out to the feds.
Then Joe and Vito get the job to eliminate a guy who ratted out his Family and head to their target. The target is none other than Tommy Angelo, whom they eventually whack, after delivering the message. They get their payment but it's not enough to pay the loan shark. When they finally pay their debt and Vito goes to report to Joe that everything's OK, he finds out Joe is nowhere to be found. Eventually Vito tracks his friend to a construction site, where he is being tortured by Vinci and his men who want to know why the Chinese Triads are on to them. Vito and Joe manage to escape Vinci, but Joe is hurt, so Vito has to take him to the doctor.
In the final mission, Vito gets a phone call, asking him to go to Falcone's Observatory, as the boss wants to talk to him. On his way there, a car parks in front of him, and his old friend, Leo Galante calls him in, asking him to make things straight by killing Falcone. So Vito goes to the Observatory and gets ambushed. His best friend, Joe, holds a gun to Vito's head, but eventually decides to help him get rid of Falcone. After completing the job, they both get out and are taken away by Galante in two different cars. On the way to the "celebration", Vito sees the car carrying Joe take a different turn and then the credits roll.
SO IS IT OVER?! I guess so, since there's really nothing else to do around there. Of course, there are a few side missions and stuff to collect, but the game is really linear. Jeez, they left space for a sequel. I sure want to know what happened to Joe! But I hope this time I won't have to wait seven fucking years in order to find that out.
Anyway, back to the review. The story is awesome, kept me hooked up to the PC for 14 hours and a half - as long as it took me to finish the game. Of course, I didn't finish the game in one continuos play. I mean, who'd be nerdy enough to do that?! I finished in in three days. It's still a lot of time dedicated to playing a game, but it was totally worth it. I loved it. The first mission takes you to the army, then you get to the city, then you get to the can (that's what they call the prison) and then back to a more modern city. The evolution of the main character is something interesting to observe. I won't get into details, but you should be real careful at his actions. One last thing about the story - it's structured on 15 chapters that can contain one or more missions in each of them.
The soundtrack is amazing. And I mean both the 40's and 50's radio songs and the orchestrations. I just loved the atmosphere they made.
The graphichs are stunning. OK, they kinda remind me of GTA IV, but here they're far better and the characters are far more realistic.
The gameplay is great. This game has the best cover system I've ever seen in a shooting game. The AI is not as stupid as it usually is in a shooter. Your friends actually help you killing your enemies and your enemies actually TRY to kill you instead of shooting blindly in your direction. I had fun playing this game. I also notice your health meter gets refilled every time you get back into cover. That's good (I guess it only happens in Easy mode, I don't know, haven't tried the other difficulties yet). The driving is great, I loved driving 40's and 50's cars. I missed good driving in a Mafia videogame ever since the first Mafia came out. OK, maybe The Godfather I had decent driving but in Godfather II (FUCK THAT GAME!!!) the driving was a joke.
Fun fact! Jack Scalici, one of the game creators was asked in an interview if you're the boss in this game and he replied, I quote, "being the boss is boring". That's a punch in the face of the EA Games team that made Godfather II. I totally agree with Jack. Being the boss is boring. I'd rather grab a gun and perform the hit myself any time than having to send the guys to do it and manage my family and shit like that.
One thing they forgot to add in this game is robbing a house. There was a mission like that in Mafia I and I would have liked to see Vito and Joe stealing documents or cash from some asshole's safe. Anyway, the game has diversity when it comes to the missions, so I haven't got any reason to complain.
What else is left to say? Ah, yes, for being the best game of the year, Mafia 2 lacks a feature that's going to piss a lot of gamers. It doesn't have multiplayer! I'm OK with that, my friends aren't exactly hardcore gamers, at least not as I am, so I'd rather play by myself any time. Other people may have a problem with the lacking multiplayer, but I don't.
Overall, I LOVE THIS GAME! It's the best game ever! The shooting scenes are awesome (WHERE'S THE FUCKING SAWED OFF SHOTGUN?!), the driving is awesome and the story is great, except for the finale, as I don't understand what happened to Joe and I'm looking forward to Mafia 3 if it will ever come out.
One more fun fact before the final judgement. On some hungarian site, I found a comparison between Vito Scalleta and Marlon Brando in his youth. Check it out here.


Story: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
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Overall: 10/10 --> PERFECT! This is a must-play for all gamers!

PS! There's a new Mafia type game, set in the 40's coming soon. It's called LA Noire, you can check it out here, but don't get any hopes up, it's being published by Rockstar Games, so it might not be released on PC, because these guys, for some reason, hate the PC as a gaming console.