Mafia 2 reviews

Hey guys!
Here are 2 reviews from Hungary for the peeps who couldn't decide yet to buy Mafia 2 tomorrow, or not:

1) First, the review of GameStar Hungary:




Pro
+beautiful graphics
+great actions
+changing seasons

Con
-it's damm short
-we can't leave the city
-missing free ride mode

2) And the second for my fellow men, the review from Miss Hungary 2007 (this one is in English)

(Click to watch Youtube video)

 

So I assume this isn't a Sand box style game similar to GTA?

I thought I read/heard somewhere that it was.

 

Yes, it is sand box style game.

 

The reviews were average but I bought the game anyways. I enjoyed the first one even with all its bugs and Mafia 2 run well on my system so i'll give it a try.

 

What does 'missing free ride mode' mean then? Surely if its a sandbox mode it will have a free roam style mode.. or will there be no gap at all between each mission? Maybe I am completely missing the meaning of free ride.

Edit: Just read this:

"Now, at first glance, Empire Bay looks like an open world – one teeming with missions and quests for you to take Vito on. It isn't. You'll have one mission at any time and it's always one that drives the story forward. All the icons on the map – clothing stores, gun stores, and so on – are just ways to enhance that mission. Outgunned and dying a lot? Buy better weapons after restarting. Cops on your tail? Go pay to have the license plate changed on your ride. You're not going to wander around the streets of Mafia II picking up odd jobs and meeting strangers; this is a world built around the missions you're doing." here http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/111/1114635p1.html

 

This game doesnt really seem worth buying if you already own GTA4 :\

 

this game actually look worse than GTAIV.. nver liked GTA so i'm not getting it.

 

its getting good reviews...
Gamespot gave it an 8.5:

Mafia II for Xbox 360 - GameSpot

 

Ohh, that makes sense.

So it's not a completely Sandbox style like GTA. Well that's kind of a disappointment, I thought it was going to basically be like GTA.

I still might pick it up though, I thought the demo was really good, and I watched some gameplays, and it looks fun.

 

I'm really enjoying it, I actually enjoy a bit more structure honestly.... I often get lost and totally bored with the story in GTA games... and I'm a guy that likes a good story... so far so good with Mafia II... was surprised and entertained from the beginning, enjoyed the flashback!

 

Gamespot has nifty rating systems . I swear if they could, they'd give Take off Your Pants and jacket a 2/10. Clearly a 10/10 in my book.

 

So Im like half way throughout the story and I am enjoying it very much. If anyone is looking for a GTA style game then this is kind of not it. Mafia II focus more on telling the story in an open world much like the console 3D Zelda. Like Hyrule is this place Link adventure in and the same in Mafia II.

Most of the reviews I seen online compares the game too much to GTA because of them both having open worlds. Thats why I seen some low scores.

 

LOL... you are gonna be more PO'd:

Mafia II Review - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

EuroGamer gave it 4 out 10.

 

It looks better than GTA IV for sure. I have the full game since it´s a review copy. Now what I don´t like is the rendering on far away objects and the lack of antialiasing. The antialiasing that is in the game is more a sort of blur filter.

However GTA IV doesn´t look better, the lighting system and physx looks really good. The textures are pretty good and pretty bad in some places. Overall the game is an open sandbox game, sure you get missions just like GTA IV and go from one spot to another, howeve you can drive to that spot anyway you want. Hope this helps some.

Scroll down on this webpage, these pictures are directly from my XPS M1730 that they reviewed the game on. Although in swedish you can see how it looks like at 1920x1200 resolution.

 

That's a real PC game, not a crappy console port. Graphics engine is nice and optimized, although not perfect. The game runs well even on mid-range systems.

 

I seem to be getting an fps drop while indoors. Any ideas?

 

They gave Mafia 4/10, guess 2K and Illusion Softworks forgot their "protection money" for the Eurogamer reviewer.

Mafia PC Review - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

 

Damn double post, anyways looks like a game I won't even bother considering.

 

Giant Bomb flatly says if you are looking for a game pass on. If you looking for a great mafia story pass on. The game simply has a generic, too typical story and frankly not a very good one. And it's more of a narrative than a game.

Impressive.

 

I'm glad I cancelled my pre-order that wasn't going to be shipped until the 30th anyways. I'll probably wait for a sale or something.

And how short is this game, compared with GTA or similar?

 

Well, the game has 15 chapters. For about 4 hours of gameplay i'm on chapter 9. I would predict ~10 hours of straight gameplay.

 

I have read many different reviews of this game and the general consensus is that it is very shallow and more of a movie / narrative than an actual game. The reviews made me think of one of those flashy movie trailers that make a film look completely epic and deep but when you watch the actual film you are disapointed when you realise that it is no more than a trailer.

Many argue that the game is supposed to be linear and nothing like GTA IV but I would argue that it has severely wasted potential to present the gamer with an open world sandbox environment that is so closed off.

However, all of the reviews had so many mixed results I am still non the wiser and the game is not exactly cheap for me to take a risk on.

Some comments I have seen reviewers make:

 

we should hope for some DLC and maybe a free ride from next patches and hopefully with DLC we will have some country ride.

 

Well I got this game early today, and I gotta say, I am really enjoying it.

I would say it reminds me a lot like GTA IV, but with slightly less free-roam ability's (like playing pool, going drinking, doing side missions).

Only things I found kind of annoying:

Car damage and be quite expensive to repair
Cops can bust you for a crap load of things
A lot of driving in the missions/game (not sure if you can take a cab yet)
Driving controls are kinda awkward

Other than that, I am really enjoying the game.

I would give it a 8.5/10 A good buy.

 

After 7 years in development you would have thought this would have already been included. The Episodes from Liberty City DLC probably has more value than this entire full game!

 

From all the reviews, it seems that it's not worth the current price tag. I guess I'll wait for it to go on sale ._.

 

Well yes i was thinking that, what would you do when you finish the story mode.
its a nice game i am enjoying it a lot but i was expecting more from those 7 years of development. the story is OK but i think i lags a few things and i wont talk now since i have played just for a couple of hours and i am at chapter 8, after i finish the story mode i might have some time playing and having fun then i can talk what else i would like to see from mafia2.

They invested a lot of time developing engine also porting the game so that OK by me if they will make an expansion pack or a DLC that will bring our that freedom of mafia 1 also that long story mode which looked somehow endless at mafia 1 .

so far so good for me.

 

just finished downloading. Will try the game out when I get back from work tonight.

 

So I finished the game and what a great game! Now Im going back and try to get all the achievements. The guns fight is one of the most enjoyable part of this game in how the controls handle and the destructible environments.

Also, has anyone driven the armor car yet? It is fun to run things over in it and the cops can't kill you because the car is armor!

 

Well I just finished the game.

It was really good, and the ending was alright, nothing special, small twist.

Other than that, I got about 10 hours of gameplay before it was over. Only bad part is you don't have free roam at the end of the game. But you can get around that by loading old chapters and just not going to the missions start point.

Overall, it was a pretty good game.

 

Have you played the first game and did you see the reference to the first game in this one?

 

10 hours of gameplay with no multiplayer and not even free-roam after you beat it is far from worth $50.

 

No, I never played the first one. To be honest, I didn't know this tied in with the first one, because the story felt like it was the beginning and not a continuation.

True. For anyone looking to buy it, wait for a sale.

 

Some one has unlocked the (unofficial) free mode in Mafia 2 some how:

The link in the video is overloaded so if you want to try it, get it from the other link I posted. Since this is an unofficial mod, I don't know whether it is against the Steam rules so try at your own risk. If you do try I suggest you backup saves and anything else replaced.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m9UqlW7MpgQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m9UqlW7MpgQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='640' height="385"></embed></object>

 

Ok, here's my part on the thread: Great, great movie! Uh...I mean game. No, really, I enjoyed it very much. Its like watching one of those old mobster movies. It reminded me a lot of Goodfellas, The Godfather and Casino. It took a bit from each of them. Genius voice acting, realistic feel (you die fast if don't get to cover, some of the guns fights are pretty intensive and car driving is...realistic - far from a sim but realistic), has funny moments and on top of all, really good story. Yes, it has a lot of narrative moments, but you can skip them. It was a spectacular experience for me.

Pros: Very nice story, genius voice acting (I say it again), realistic feel, classic atmosphere, pretty smooth gameplay, pretty intense gun fights. Already heard of mods and it does seem mod friendly, it might have a big modding community in the future.

Cons: Short (I had 13 hours of gameplay), physix suck big time, the police car chases could have been better, no multiplayer, no free ride.

A little tip to those having problem with the performance. Go to the game's folder>Edit>make a back up of the apex folder and completely delete it. It will double your overall game performance, without noticing a big impact on the graphics (the specified folder handles the physix and effects ingame).

 

lol why would you do that? If you delete the whole APEX folder you are not even using PhysX, just turn it off in game. The issue you are really having is you are attempting to use PhysX/APEX high on a laptop when the game devs recommend a 480 desktop card and at least a 260 dedicated to PhysX alone just to run it on high.

What you need to do is delete the entries in the cloth folder for the civilians, specifically ending with l for ladies. Every NPC in game has PhysX enhanced clothing. Really not necessary, but pretty cool to see. If you delete just that you will get great performance and the rest of the PhysX enhancements which are really amazing. Gun fights are really amazing.

 

I read that 2K was planning on making Free Ride a DLC later on, and that they are working on a patch to fix it.

 

Is it going to be free? Lately it seems that games are leaving out feature, maps, etc., just to make more profit down the road.

I've been liking the game so far. The downsides for me are: No Free mode(Yet) and generally nothing to do outside the main missions. Would it kill them to put some online stuff like gta4?

 

I'm almost finished the game and love the story. For a game, it is one of the best stories I've played, its more like a movie.

The problem I have with this game are the controls (or lack of them) and the AI.

Some of the problems I have is when you are in a car, you cannot shoot out when you are driving. Now I'm not saying being able to shoot while doing 60 mph, but just being able to shoot while sitting in a car. This is a must, because when the cops are chasing you, they shoot at you and you have no way of defending yourself (unless you want to stop the car, get out, kill them, then drive away)

The AI is also terrible. They are not a challenge, and I've seen many glitches with AI trying to walk through doors instead of opening them, or walking through a ledge instead of jumping over it.

The AI (example joe) will not shoot at the police when he is in the passenger seat. He will only shoot at the cops when he is out of the car. This makes getting chased by the police very annoying, because the only way you can get rid of them is by losing them, or getting out of the car to shoot them.

Also, the lack of controls (jump, melee, spray around corners) are a real letdown. I hate having to stick my head out when an enemy is right around the corner when in cover.

All in all, this game has a great story, and has amazing potential, but these few glitches/ abilities really get annoying, and almost ruined the game play.

No matter how good the story is, the controls are the whole game.

 

Yes 2K are planning to release DLC content that is likely to include free mode but it will not be free. Many feel that they purposely left out many features in the game so they could charge us for it in DLC. I think the DLC in GTA IV on its own was probably longer than the entire game of Mafia 2, has more replay value and had more features than it.

 

Ya, more than likely they will charge us for it as a future DLC.

I mean cmon', charging to download Free Roam mode on a supposed "sand box style" game?

Thanks for ripping me off even more.

 

2K would score much higher if they had remade Mafia 1 with the new graphics engine and released the two games in one package. Like The Chronicles of Riddick for example - The Assault on Dark Athena and the older one - Butcher Bay. Since I hadn't played the Butcher Bay before I really enjoyed it. I even think that it was better than the new one.
I see a lot of people haven't played the first Mafia, so I'm sure they would really enjoy it with the new graphics engine. IMO it was much better and longer than Mafia 2.

 

I wonder how many realise that Mafia 2 was originally supposed to contain about more missions, that you were supposed to be able to break of chair legs to use in melee combat, that the original city was bigger, characters were cut out and some of the devs confirmed all of the above but then denies ever mentioning it.

Have a read of this and see what you think. The game is a huge waste of potential

 

friend bought it so i played it a little bit. def is a nice sandbox game like GTA except set in the 1940s.

graphics are nice and everything else to my knowledge was nice. Especially the way you can get caught by the cops easier than in GTA where u can go kill a million people and no cops come.

the only thing i wish they had in the game was a motorcycle, but i dont know for sure if they do or not, just played for like 1hr on the beginning zone.

 

It is not a real sandbox game, it is very limited and only gives the illusion of being open. You will find that out when you play more.

 

Wow, that's really to bad.

I really enjoyed the game to, and if it would of included all of that stuff, it could of easily topped GTA.

What a shame.

 

Too bad most of you haven't played the first Mafia. Except for the inferior graphics, it easily beats its successor in every possible way - much longer story, very interesting missions, awesome music score, bigger city, free mode, etc.
Since it was released almost a year before GTA Vice City, you'd be saying that GTA looks like Mafia, not vice versa.

 

I saw a brief gameplay video of the first Mafia and noticed the player shooting from his car driveby style. You can't even do this in Mafia 2 and I noticed a lot of other features included in Mafia 1 that the sequel does not have. Mafia 2 has made me want to play the first one and it is clear that it is much better than the sequel.

 

Really?? So it doesnt even expand like GTA does? lol thats horrible if you only get the beginning map.

Played mafia one through. Wait so... you dont even get the option to shoot out the car once u get further into the game or something? I would have thought a drive by mission would have unlocked this...man, thats no good.

All that said, very disappointing.

 

I read about the upcoming Mafia 2 DLC called Jimmys Vendetta, more interestingly was the sentence ''the game features 30 new quests that run the gamut of assassinations to car chases''

I am sure many feel that those 30 ''extra'' quests should have been already included in the game.