Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

When Mafia II was first announced a year or two ago, I jumped out of my seat.  Well, actually, I got up and got a soda, but I was pretty damn excited about the return of the Mafia franchise.  Mafia was a defining game for the Godfather lifestyle, and Mafia II continues that trend, with a solid story, mixed in with excellent combat mechanics, albeit with a few caveats.

Mafia II sets up its grand story with the gamer playing the part of Vito Scaletta, a fairly normal guy that comes home from World War II to find his mother in debt and his sister cracking under the pressure of all the bills.  Vito, lacking any marketable skills, decides to hook up with his childhood pal, Joe, to ensue on a career to make a little cash doing “odd jobs”, hopefully with the chance to make his way into the upper echelons of the mob family. 

Sure, the story takes a lot of its tropes from classic mafia movies, like Goodfellas, Godfather and the like, but it tells the story in a way that just engages you as a player, hooking you in with simple mechanics in the beginning, but slowly wrapping you up with a narrative that keeps you guessing at who is out to get who.  It never feels like it is color by the numbers, and the game is very gutsy with the ending of the game, never exactly wanting to leave you on a high note, but instead make you feel the cost of the choices that you made in Mafia II.

While Vito is the star of the game, it should be noted that Empire City is probably a close second.  The developers at 2K Czech have created a great living world that you move around in.  Everyone seems to move about as if they have a purpose, whether it is sitting on the side of the road, trying to fix their car, or watching someone as they try to sell someone clothes in a store.  All of it feels far more alive than in most open world games.  You get the sense that each person means something, and I feel far more remorse killing an innocent civilian in Mafia II than I ever have in a GTA or Saints Row game.

The only problem with creating such a wonderful open world is that we never really get a chance to see it for what it is, as Mafia II is extremely linear when it comes to its mission structure.  Sure you can opt to delay your journey to the next waypoint, but there is absolutely nothing for you to do in the world, beyond stealing a few cars, or robbing a few shops.  That is it.  Unlike a normal open world title, where you would have several side quests and mini-games, there is nothing to keep you occupied if you want to step away from the story for a few minutes.  You are always being driven to continue the main story.  Sure the main story is miles ahead of most open world stories, but it feels like all these great little details in the world are lost on the player because there is nothing to do there.

One place where the game does shine is when you get to wrap your hands around some of the hardware in Mafia II.  Each mission will normally present you with at least one weapon, as well as a few basic melee abilities.  As you move forward in the story, you start to unlock more weapons, like different shotguns, tommy guns and the like.  New to the game is a cover system that works pretty well.  Press the cover button and you will snap to the closest piece of cover.  I was a bit upset that you could not move away from cover, instead having to push the cover button again to release from cover, but that is a nitpicking detail.  A bigger flaw comes in the melee combat system, which feels a bit awkward.  You can throw two different punches, a block and a block breaker, but none of these attacks feels right, and most of the times, the attacks seem sluggish, or on a delay.  Many times, I would find a block missing, even though I was clearly pressing the block button with time to spare.  Worse still is that Mafia II is saddled around this melee combat for the first half of the game.

The story of Mafia II does take place over a decade of time, and it was nice to see the change in the middle of the game, when you move from the 1940’s into the 1950’s.  The clothes, attitudes and music change and it’s amazing to see how the world evolves.  It is like a new city to wander through all over again, except for the above mentioned lack of things to do.

One thing that may kill off some interest in Mafia II is the complete lack of a multiplayer component.  I for one do not come into the Mafia franchise with the need to play multiplayer.  Co-op would have been nice, but the game does not tailor itself around having death match battles in Empire Bay.   Besides, the single player story will keep you occupied for at least 15 hours, and there is enough replayability to find all the collectibles, that you could play this game several times over before you want to put the game away. 

With Mafia II, you will get the chance to play a high end mobster, complete with the girls, the glamour and the money.  The story will engage you from beginning to end and keep you hanging on with each detail.  Missions and combat mix things up rather nicely, and a great assortment of collectibles will keep you coming back a few more times.  The lack of a reason to visit the expanses of Empire Bay and the below average melee combat will leave you scratching your head, but never kill the experience as a whole.  Mafia II gets 4 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out Mafia II and other Xbox 360 reviews at Test Freaks.