So while Mafia 1 got a full remake, Mafia 2 settles for a remaster, Although calling it that seems generous.
Starting with the positive; The game is now in 4K on the newer consoles. Some of the textures are improved, and a few of the main cast have more detailed character models. That's about it though, and even this comes at at cost. There's far more visual glitches and bugs in this than I remember from the 360 version and the still 30fps framerate frequently stutters (even on Series X). It's also missing quality of life improvements that are in both the Mafia remake and Mafia 3, like road signs appearing to direct you to your objective so you're not driving staring at the mini map.
The game itself is still decent. Although it was a little jarring coming from Mafia 1 remake. The first entry has gentleman gangster Don "No cursing on the premises. There's a million words out there, and the man who needs to resort to "fuck this" and "fuck that" is just ignorant or lazy." Salieri easing you in to the game where as Mafia 2 has foul mouthed, whore obsessed Joe "When you measure seven soft, you don't got to be good with words" Barbaro with you for the whole game. That drop in classiness extends to the whole game.
Mafia 2 ramps up the misogyny and has a solid amount of racism (especially against the Chinese). Now I know this is a game about criminals in the 50s but the way the game handles this stuff just feels...immature. It wasn't in Mafia 1 and Mafia 3 approached it in a mature way. here it just comes across as there for the sake of it.
The gameplay itself is mostly good although the majority of my deaths felt cheap, Vito can only take a very small amount of damage and the game frequently drops you in front of multiple enemies nowhere near cover or an enemy through a doorway you can't see 1 shots you. It's made more frustrating with the long gaps between checkpoints.
Overall it's still a fun game but I enjoyed it a lot less than I remembered the first time around.
Starting with the positive; The game is now in 4K on the newer consoles. Some of the textures are improved, and a few of the main cast have more detailed character models. That's about it though, and even this comes at at cost. There's far more visual glitches and bugs in this than I remember from the 360 version and the still 30fps framerate frequently stutters (even on Series X). It's also missing quality of life improvements that are in both the Mafia remake and Mafia 3, like road signs appearing to direct you to your objective so you're not driving staring at the mini map.
The game itself is still decent. Although it was a little jarring coming from Mafia 1 remake. The first entry has gentleman gangster Don "No cursing on the premises. There's a million words out there, and the man who needs to resort to "fuck this" and "fuck that" is just ignorant or lazy." Salieri easing you in to the game where as Mafia 2 has foul mouthed, whore obsessed Joe "When you measure seven soft, you don't got to be good with words" Barbaro with you for the whole game. That drop in classiness extends to the whole game.
Mafia 2 ramps up the misogyny and has a solid amount of racism (especially against the Chinese). Now I know this is a game about criminals in the 50s but the way the game handles this stuff just feels...immature. It wasn't in Mafia 1 and Mafia 3 approached it in a mature way. here it just comes across as there for the sake of it.
The gameplay itself is mostly good although the majority of my deaths felt cheap, Vito can only take a very small amount of damage and the game frequently drops you in front of multiple enemies nowhere near cover or an enemy through a doorway you can't see 1 shots you. It's made more frustrating with the long gaps between checkpoints.
Overall it's still a fun game but I enjoyed it a lot less than I remembered the first time around.