Mafia 2 Impressions

[EvaUnit02]

Mafia 2 suffered from significant executive meddling at the 11th hour. A LOT of content was cut, i.e. it had a full suite of side-missions and at least four different endings.

This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).

So really 2K corporate is largely to blame for the game's current state.

[henke]

Started playing this yesterday and finished it today. 12 hours playtime total. The shooting and driving and even the stealth is solid. But the story is a bit of a let down. It's not really bad so much as it is plain depressing. I guess the moral of the story is "a life of crime will get you nowhere". Which, while perhaps accurate, is not what I want to hear. What I wanna hear is "a life of crime is awesome! You get to drive cars fast and shoot people!"

Tomi, let us know what you think of the DLCs.

[Undead Gamer]

Mafia 2 suffered from significant executive meddling at the 11th hour. A LOT of content was cut, i.e. it had a full suite of side-missions and at least four different endings.

This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).

So really 2K corporate is largely to blame for the game's current state.

Exactly why in the hell gimp a game to the max has got me stumped and then woulder why people who bought the game are angry due piss poor QA testing and a storyline that jumps all over the place

[henke]

This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).

Err.... aside from that mission not being in the finished game, there's not really anything in that clip that wasn't in the final product.

Would've been nice to have the sidemissions and the different endings though.

[Yakoob]

Mafia 2 suffered from significant executive meddling at the 11th hour. A LOT of content was cut, i.e. it had a full suite of side-missions and at least four different endings.

This is how the game was as late as August 2009 (the footage is from Gamescom 09).

So really 2K corporate is largely to blame for the game's current state.

Half of those missions would break most of the time, one fourth wasn't fun at all, and the last one fourth would crash the whole game if you tried to complete them with the Tommy Gun.
And the endings? Two of them didn't make sense of the story and the third hasn't left the creative director's desk yet.

As much as TTLG loves the idea of "big mean Mr. Publisher," game content gets cut for a reason, and reluctantly so since it represents wasted time and money (which big mean Mr. Publisher doesn't like very much at all).

[gunsmoke]

And that is why you should be like Valve. Show it when it is fucking done. Or at least just a couple screenies.

[Chade]

I'm pretty sure they can't just erase Mafia 1 from the minds of every gamer on earth.

[Bastard Child]

M1 I've played 15-20 times, but M2 I've only played through once - for a $120 collector's edition. At least I managed to pick up all DLC's for $10 in the recent steam sale.

I won't rehash why the game's so fucked, but I don't think the modding community can save this one. Mafia Empire is toast and Mafia Scene is in a drawn out death.

I suppose we should be thankful ANYTHING was released... link

[henke]

Just finished this yesterday. 7.7 hours playtime. It's an extremely barebones revenge story. Instead of story or setpieces it relies on the core gameplay of Mafia 2 to deliver it's thrills, which is just fine for someone like me who just wanted an excuse to revisit Mafia 2's world. But if you're playing this just after finishing the main story you might be disapointed by just how barebones it is. There's an intro and an outro cutscene, but inbetween that the story is only forwarded by the mission descriptions.


Jimmy's back in town and paying a visit to some old friends.


Enough story, let's shoot something!





They call me Shotgun-Jimmy.


They also call me Parkour-Jimmy.


Nothing to see here, officer.





Spoiler: Jimmy gets his vengeance in the end.

I had a good time with it. I'd forgotten how good the shooting and the driving is. And the wantedsystem is great. Trying to make your way to the nearest clothes store when you're wanted by the police is fantastic emergent gameplay. Another great moment that came up dynamically was when a cop caught me speeding and chased after me. I took him for a chase through the nearby junkyard before stopping at the back of it, in a nice isolated area. Then I got out and let the cop write me a ticket. After he turned his back I pulled out my pistol and gunned him down. Then I drove his copcar into the compactor. After that I got back into my car, switched the radio over to the Delta station, and rolled out of there like nothing had happened. Total gangsta.

edit: just got the Joe's Adventures DLC as well. Never really cared for the character, but I want some more Mafia 2.

[Tomi]

Nice mini-review there, henke. I remember being a bit disappointed with Jimmy's Vendetta, the missions were way too short (and a bit easy) and they didn't seem to have so much to do with the story. Most of the time you would just drive somewhere, get off your car, shoot someone or blow up some car, and then drive to the final waypoint. It would have been nice to see some more longer missions other than the very last mission (which was pretty awesome actually), but as I was desperate for some more Mafia 2 action after finishing the main game, it kept me entertained for a while.

I thought that Joe's Adventures was a bit better actually, I can't remember much of it anymore either as it's been a while since I played it through, but I'm fairly sure that the missions were longer and quite fun, and there was some sort of a story to follow. I'll be interested to hear what your thoughts on that one are.

[henke]

I'm about halfway through Joe's Adventures. Certainly more effort has been put on a few of the missions. Like the first one, that has you stealthing through a FBI-guarded safehouse, and then a carchase across a frozen lake. After that most of the missions are as barebones as those in Jimmy's Vendetta tho, with a few more elaborate ones sprinkled in here and there.

[dethtoll]

One of these days I'll go back and finish this damn game.