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Old 08-27-2010, 06:46 AM   #21
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Just got to chapter 3 now and I'm loving it. The atmosphere is unbelievable. It's the little details that make such a difference.
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Old 08-27-2010, 06:48 AM   #22
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Just finished the demo on PS3. I really enjoyed it. I like that when you die, you don't start the entire mission over. The graphics and cover system are better than GTA IV. I am definitely going to get this game.
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Old 08-30-2010, 03:18 PM   #23
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I'm at chapter 10 or 11 now and I just can't get enough. I've played for hours on end these past couple of days and there hasn't been one weak moment in the game so far, at least according to me. The missions are varied and very fun to play, some of them pretty difficult. Voice acting and writing is top notch, soundtrack is perfect, characters are well done and show emotions and the city is just beautiful.
I love just driving around watching the view from the bridge when the sun goes down, simply beautiful.

Mafia 2 is easily one of the best games I've ever played and I'll probably finish it tomorrow
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Old 08-31-2010, 01:14 PM   #24
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I have finished the game, and while I loved the gameplay and story, they are almost a victim of their own success. It is really disappointing that the city is so large, beautiful and organic yet they really don't let you do much other than drive from place to place. That decision also made the game seem really short, even shorter than it really is.

Yes, the story is a bit derivative, but how could you possibly create a mafia story that isn't at this point? You can't change the core framework or personalities, if you did it would no longer be a mafia story. The game also suffers from a myriad of technical issues, bugs, freezes and some horrible screen tearing (at least on the consoles).
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Old 08-31-2010, 02:08 PM   #25
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I finished it today too. A short but highly enjoyable experience. I played it on console and it only froze once. The only glitches I experienced was a few sunken cars (which popped into position when you decided to drive them) and the car crusher seemed to just not work at times.

The story was fairly typical but the voice acting and characters in general were great. I think one of the main problems was that in the first Mafia they pretty much covered every cliche and type of activity a member of this dark underworld may experience.

I agree about how the city seems "wasted". There is a lack of extra activities but I've heard that upcoming DLC will bring 30 odd mini activity style missions to the game. The excuse is that Mafia 2 is not meant to be a "sand box" game but that doesn't really hold with me.
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Old 08-31-2010, 03:48 PM   #26
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The excuse is that Mafia 2 is not meant to be a "sand box" game but that doesn't really hold with me.
Mafia 2 is supposed to be like Mafia 1. The game mechanics are exactly the same, and Mafia was not (far from it really) a sandbox.
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Old 09-01-2010, 06:04 PM   #27
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But Mafia 1 had side missions and a free ride mode. I'm not saying the game needed to be a sandbox, far from it, it's just that without a free ride and without distractions from the main story, the game feels disappointingly short.
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Old 09-01-2010, 07:32 PM   #28
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But Mafia 1 had side missions and a free ride mode. I'm not saying the game needed to be a sandbox, far from it, it's just that without a free ride and without distractions from the main story, the game feels disappointingly short.
Yeah, i miss the free ride, although some fans managed to unlock a free roam mode on the PC. Apart from bertoni, Mafia didn't had side missions.
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Old 09-01-2010, 11:25 PM   #29
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I've started playing the game two days ago. I didn't get very far, because I'm a bit rusty, since I haven't played a new game outside the adventure world for quite a while. But so far, I'm very pleased with Mafia II (I haven't played the original game). Like Batman: Arkham Asylum, this is the game which has almost everything: good looks, good sound, good story, the variety of game play, and, of course, that overall fun factor, which IMO, many of the modern games often lack.
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Old 09-02-2010, 11:46 AM   #30
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Yeah, i miss the free ride, although some fans managed to unlock a free roam mode on the PC. Apart from bertoni, Mafia didn't had side missions.
That's not really everything though, in free ride you could drive a taxi, destroy cars, speed, eliminate gangsters, all for money.

Then you also have all the free ride extreme challenges you complete for rare cars.
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Old 09-12-2010, 10:03 PM   #31
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I've finished "Mafia II" yesterday. I'm very happy with the game. Rarely does some non-adventure game gets my attention lately. This game has almost everything I could wish for in a game. The variety of gameplay is also one of its highlights. I've also immensely enjoyed the setting: music, cars, clothes, etc. I must mention the story too, which generally isn't too deep, but it's still intriguing enough and has a few expected twists and turns. I'm only a bit dissapointed with the climax of the game; it seems a bit overforced, and the ending is abrupt and vague. But if this is prep for the sequel, I don't mind.

P.S. I've read about some addon called "Jimmy's Vendetta" on the official site and will probably get it, because I'm just craving for more "Mafia" right now. Plus, I'm waiting for "The Lost Horizon" to be released.
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Old 10-12-2010, 05:32 PM   #32
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The developer of this and Mafia I is one of the most interesting game developers around, they have put time and effort into a remarkable game engine that creates a very large and very intricate 'living" world. It is full of action and intricate activity and I have the greatest respect for them and their titles. Hidden and Dangerous was perhaps the best know of their series, a espionage series set in WWII...but they also did two titles set in Vietnam in the US Vietnam war, unique subject matter and their engine does a great job.

I have utmost admiration for both the Mafia titles and think the world that is created, the ambience and the games themselves are very very good, indeed great and they will be recognized as classics as time goes on. I totally ignore modern reviewers who have little understanding of the real issues of game development and are not to be trusted by and large, tho there are exceptions who i do respect. They are used to looking at new title thus the eyes of their own predudicies and that is a disease that has affected critical analysis and treatment of most of the creative arts of the modern age.

Well done i say to this new title.
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Old 10-12-2010, 09:55 PM   #33
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Mafia II has set a new F**king world record for saying a certain f**ing word over 200 f**king times.

Can you guess the word?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6pM...layer_embedded

LOL.
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Old 10-14-2010, 04:42 AM   #34
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Quote:
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The variety of gameplay is also one of its highlights.
Say what?

Maybe I should have played Mafia (1) to really enjoy this title. The atmosphere is great, the cars, the music, the clothes, the scenery, the skin mags.

The story never clicked with me though and I certainly missed the part with varied gameplay. Drive, shoot from cover. Drive, drive some more, more driving, shooting from cover again. Where was the variety bit I missed? Are your referring to sneaking, which was necessary once in the game, really early? Oh wait there was that chapter about boxing to save your man cherry.

I enjoy mafia stories, and mostly for the tropes/cliches most critics harp on new mafia stories for using. I kept waiting for the part where Vito moves up in the family, marries a beautiful Italian girl (possibly a relative of a Capo or higher) and then it crashes down.

Instead Vito never makes it above the rank of pawn. Being criticised in the game's climax for not realising I was a pawn all along? They might as well have said "The sky is blue" for all the impact those scenes had as a result of the gameplay.

If any setting would benefit from a free play type element, its a mafia story. The entire premise of being made and moving up in the family is you bring new income to the family. Just being a pawn gets you nowhere.

The one time the game does encourage any freedom of decision regarding the making of money. The options are a pitiful A) rob stores at gunpoint or B) crush cars. That whole finding 20k+ on the desk of the Capo who I was stupidly forced into killing to progress the story felt like a cop-out (and when does that @#$% run out of molotovs, worst fight in the entire game).

Mafia II takes as long as an entire trilogy of movies to tell the first part of a mafia story. It doesn't just hold your hand but has it's lodged firmly in your posterior and is directing your movements.

I was feeling very meh at the meh ending, and not inclined to pick up any sequel till I read a detailed synopsis and hear the story (and gameplay) actually goes places.

I was hoping for optional missions that led to doing better/worse in the eyes of the family, enjoying the high life a little before the crash (Vito gets his suburban castle for what? 10-20 minutes before losing it?). Instead the game feels entirely on rails and I felt nothing for 'my' character Vito at the end.
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Old 10-14-2010, 05:08 AM   #35
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Mafia II and Vito's story is not about going up the Mafia organization like in the first game. In Mafia 1, Tommy was a honest guy involved in the mob because he had no choice, Vito's story is not about the high ranking structure of the mob, is about the "soldiers" in the organization, the guys that are destined to be an instrument. Vito choose to be involved, he is not an honorable man like Tommy, he's scum and has no life goals besides money and lifestile. Vito will always be a pawn because... thats what he is... he would never had the guts and honesty to do what Tommy did.

I think the mission where both games connect is very clear about that, the player, playing as Vito has to kill the only emotional atachment we have in that world, because like Vito we are simply a pawn. I think it was a clever meta-reference by the developers.
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Old 10-14-2010, 09:36 AM   #36
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Tommy, he's scum and has no life goals besides money and lifestile. Vito will always be a pawn because... thats what he is... he would never had the guts and honesty to do what Tommy did.

I think the mission where both games connect is very clear about that, the player, playing as Vito has to kill the only emotional atachment we have in that world, because like Vito we are simply a pawn. I think it was a clever meta-reference by the developers.
Which brings me back to, "Maybe I should have played Mafia (1) to really enjoy this title." As an alternate view of an established story, maybe its a better experience.

As a stand alone story/game I was left underwhelmed. Tommy neither evolves or changes (one possible path), nor gets to spiral into a self indulgent crisis from trying to live a life of success based on money/things.

If I went the anti hero path, I'd still have married him to a crime daughter, have him heavily pressured to move up, but be ultimately incapable of doing so due to over spending/poor judgement/bad luck.

His story is as one note as the gameplay often feels.
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Old 10-16-2010, 07:20 PM   #37
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Mafia I is one of the most remarkable games i have studied and i have just begun. Plus there are some remarkable mods for it as well..some still in development.. so there is a lot to explore in both titles and I am very glad that the developer has survived the travils and challenges of the modern Game universe to make II.
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Old 10-18-2010, 03:49 AM   #38
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I'm currently playing this game on my PC (wow at the graphics, it looks beautiful!), but have encountered a bug at the (end of) chapter 11, where I'm stuck in Joe's apartment. I restarted the mission three or four times yesterday, and the same thing happened every time. Really annoying. I'm gonna try again tonight, hopefully it will work. If not, I doubt I'm going to finish this game for a while.

Other than that, I love it. The story is so-so, but the rest is great. The first Mafia is at the moment a better game overall, but Mafia II is more polished I think and ironically a lot less buggy.
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Old 10-18-2010, 07:38 AM   #39
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http://mafiascene.com/

This is the longest running forum for the Mafia titles and has great community support for problems and issues...check there for that bug.
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Old 10-18-2010, 11:16 PM   #40
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Thanks, I checked that. Unfortunately, I've never seen a proper fix for this bug, I've been googling it and have seen only one or two other occasions where this has happened, and their "fix" was to approach the mission differently, and that didn't work at all for me. Still, I haven't had time to play since sunday.
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