Mafia 2 is a Goodfellas skin over Grand Theft Auto 4 that hasn’t aged so well, but hits all the right notes even today.
We follow Vito Scaletta, an American-Italian from a poor Sicilian family trying to make an honest life in Empire Bay’s poorest neighborhood. After Vito’s father drowns while drunk, Vito becomes frustrated and resorts to petty crime in tandem with his best friend, Joe. Petty crime begins to escalate towards Vito and Joe making made men of themselves.
Vito’s story is a great hook into the era of The Great Arrival of 1910, where many Italians fled to America toe scale the internal conflict as Itaity worked towards becoming a unified nation. Many of these families came without a.cent to their name, and would take up any work. This back breaking work would keep workers alive, but not out of poverty, and many Italians looked to organized crime to enjoy the American dream. Take2 Czech did a fantastic job of taking such rich history and making it into a world you could become part of.
That story can get you through this game alone, especially when you include all the fun driving around you can do in 1940s cars, the 1900s weapons of the time, and even experience the same Wanted System from Rockstar’s more famous titles. What took five stars from this game for me is that the more grounded mechanics this game experimented with was often at odds - one time I had to restart a chapter because my car was out of fuel and the mission was time based - and another time because the car the game gave me wasn’t fast enough — and its these things that quickly grind your gears.
Generally, I think this a great game, but not one I would go out of my way to play again.
We follow Vito Scaletta, an American-Italian from a poor Sicilian family trying to make an honest life in Empire Bay’s poorest neighborhood. After Vito’s father drowns while drunk, Vito becomes frustrated and resorts to petty crime in tandem with his best friend, Joe. Petty crime begins to escalate towards Vito and Joe making made men of themselves.
Vito’s story is a great hook into the era of The Great Arrival of 1910, where many Italians fled to America toe scale the internal conflict as Itaity worked towards becoming a unified nation. Many of these families came without a.cent to their name, and would take up any work. This back breaking work would keep workers alive, but not out of poverty, and many Italians looked to organized crime to enjoy the American dream. Take2 Czech did a fantastic job of taking such rich history and making it into a world you could become part of.
That story can get you through this game alone, especially when you include all the fun driving around you can do in 1940s cars, the 1900s weapons of the time, and even experience the same Wanted System from Rockstar’s more famous titles. What took five stars from this game for me is that the more grounded mechanics this game experimented with was often at odds - one time I had to restart a chapter because my car was out of fuel and the mission was time based - and another time because the car the game gave me wasn’t fast enough — and its these things that quickly grind your gears.
Generally, I think this a great game, but not one I would go out of my way to play again.