Mafia II review - Xbox 360

Mafia II starts you out as Vito Scaletta a wanna be mobster.  Set in the fictonal city of Empire Bay, the story starts you out in the 1940's and continues though the 1950's. From the trailors and screen shots, the game look like a massive open would game but in realty, it a thrid person shoter with a lot of driving.

The story can be interesting and fun at times, but I found it to be pretty predictable.  It does a good job at making you feel like you're a mobster in the 40's and 50's. If you enjoy classic cars, the stealing and driving, along with the soundtrack of the game may be something you enjoy. The game is split up in to 15 chapters wtich gives you a scen of acoplisement. The would is larg but it can feel vary empty at times. The only buildings you can go in are the ones that are in the story and the faue stors that you can robe.

The cut scenes look great, but the rest of the game is just okay. I had a couple of frame rate issues. There are some rendering problems, from a distance the graphics lack detail, and seem very unpolished, but the close up shots, for the most part, looked great.  As far as glitches, they weren't major but a enough that I did take notice.  For example, the game did freeze on me once. While doing the immense amount of driving, take note of the scenery, the cars and the city are pretty good looking.

The sound has to be the high point of the game. The music is nice and the voice acting is great. All of the weapons sound very realistic, the only complaint I have is with the voice sync, it was a little off at times.

The game play is what you would expect from a standard first person shooter. You take cover then you pop out and shoot. The auto lock on doesn't always work, it will work about 50% of the time. I found myself not even using it about half way though the game.  When you're not shooting,  you're driving (which is about 80% of the game) or your boxing. I went 2 hours without firing a single shot, all I did was box (not too hard to do when its just a few maneuvers, dodge, weak punch and strong punch)! If I was playing Fight Night, that would have been okay. The boxing is one of the easier parts of this game. There are missions where your objective is just to drive to your house to go to sleep and wake up to answer the phone. If you can make it half way through the game without getting bored, hang in there, it gets a little more exciting.

The game doesn't have too much re-playability,  I went through it in about 10 hours. There are Playboys and wanted posters to collect through out the game. You can also rob stores and steal cars for money but I found my self never needing the extra cash.  There are a lot of easy achievements or trophies to get.  I would be a little more impressed if it had a multi-player mode.

Over all I have to say that Mafia II is a rent for me. Its nothing more then a average third person shooter, with sub par game play and not much re-playability.  Even with the great cut scenes that play out like a mobster movie, good voice acting, in the end this predictable story is nothing to write home about.


I give it a  7.2 out of 10