Mafia II is a fun game, and a great sequel, but why is it so short? Here's my honest review of 2K's awesome sequel to an already awesome game.
Mafia II is finally out on the PS3, and it's great. I played through the game two times I enjoyed it so much. However, therein lies the games main problem: it is way too short! I beat the game in about 4 hours, and you could probably beat it faster if you're really good at shooting. Basically, Mafia II is a story-driven third-person shooter set in the 1940's to 1950's. The story follows a war vet named Vito, and you play as him throughout the entire game. You'll stay in your apartment, and call your friend who tells you about your mission, and you eventually join the mafia. The shooting part of this game is the best one. You have an on-screen reticule you can move, and you basically push a button to pull out your weapon, and then fire it with another. Your character can crouch, and the aiming is also extremely precise and accurate; you can shoot an enemy from over 100 yards away and hit him with a pistol. Very nice!
Other gameplay moments involve driving all kinds of vehicles around 'Empire City', the games fictional city that resembles New York City in the 40's, and after a few story moments I won't divulge here, you end up in the 1950's. It's cool because now the cars are nicer and handle better, and everything in the city looks different. You can hide behind obstacles and use a simple button press to interact with things, and it all works really well. It is very obvious that 2K has spent a lot of time with this game.
The music and sound in Mafia II really stand out, because the radio plays old time hits from the era which you'll know right away, seamlessly mixed with some commercials that sound just like they're from the 40's. There are only 3 radio stations to choose from, however, so not a lot of variety. But the game's awesome orchestrated soundtrack for all of the cut scenes and other parts out of the car, are amazing and make the game more real. Sound effects in this game are some of the best I've ever heard. The gun shots actually are loud and sound real, and the voice acting is top notch, another great part of this game. I enjoyed playing the single player mode just to hear more of the story and voices.
The story is what will really propel you to play this game all the way to the end, because there isn't anything else to do in the city. This is not a Grand Theft Auto game, and I can't stress that enough. The only thing you can really do in the city is look around, and maybe rob a few clothing stores or gas stations if you need the cash, but not much else. The NPCs however do say things when you walk by them on the street. But that's about it.
I almost forget to mention probably the single greatest thing about Mafia II: the graphics. If you want a nice new PS3 game to show to all of your friends about how great the graphics look, Mafia II would be a great game to do that with. This game looks better than some games that haven't been released for the system yet, and that's saying a lot. At times, when you're driving on the roads, it looks realistic. The characters mouths move when they talk, and they're animated really well, both in the cut scenes and when you're playing. Textures on objects are very realistic, and polygon counts on everything seem very high. This is a beautiful game, and I think even better looking than 2K's Bioshock.
Mafia II will please the gamers looking for a solid story single player game with strong characters and good 3rd person shooting gameplay. There are some pretty good downloadable content available, but it's just too bad the main story is so short.
Graphics- 9.8 out of 10
Sound and Music- 9.8 out of 10
Presentation- 8.9 out of 10
Gameplay- 8.9 out of 10
Overall- 9.2 out of 10
