Mafia II: Cinematic Lightning and Gangster Tropes
Surely we have all been in the cinema, have we not? The tailor-cut suits, murmurs, and abrupt bursts of violence: Mafia II appears to be a sincere attempt to bottle that cinematic lightning to let us relive those familiar gangster tropes. It gets some aspects right-there were no shortage of sharply dressed men and, yes, gunfights in abundance. However, it stumbles occasionally with some subtleties, chiefly those calling for the supposed wisdom of these wise guys.
One good example: early on in the mission, I had to follow a fellow mobster. This guy had given some really violent jobs lately; he drove away without giving a glance in his rearview mirror. He should have, for there in the backseat Vito Scaletta—World War II veteran turned fledgling gangster—was following quietly in an eye-catching Hawaiian shirt with a hot pink corvette, complete with a license plate that said "BUMS12." At this point in time, the word "wise" really had no place in the minds of either one of us.
Trying Too Hard, or Not Hard Enough?
For a while, I rather stupidly threw an attempt to become an undercover operative into the pot. The mission briefing counselled against conspicuating; hence, I took a humble 1950s sedan. My target's car literally dusted me. I watched him smash his car into everything in sight among laughter; then it dawned upon me that perhaps I wasn't overthinking after all. Sometimes, the illusion of a living, breathing world is shattered spectacularly by AI characters who behave like pre-programmed automatons rather than sentient beings.
Perhaps Mafia II's greatest accomplishment is that I acted that way exactly since I inherently wanted to believe in that illusion. I can see playing the drama with very little sympathy for Vito. He returned from a war he had no real stake in (where if you weren't in service you got jailed for a robbery gone wrong) straight into ignoring his mum's pleas by joining the local mafia. Then everything he did was standard mob fare: fist, bullets, and intense stare intimidation. Joe, his best friend, occasionally half-heartedly pretends to be the comic counterpart before going on to emulate violence once more.
The rest of the cast feels like a procession of stereotypical gangster caricatures, a sea of dark suits and stiff expressions blending together. As Vito climbs the ranks of the mafia in a bloodbath, he finds fresh faces, which feel like they've been pulled straight from central casting for "Generic Mob Movie." The stuff screenwriters love-much of the delivery is crisp, and the voice acting is really pretty good; it can seem like it's coming from some kind of high-tech AI programmed to give "lightly-accented macho menace."
Empire Bay enthrall
The charming hero of yesteryear gets us in the door, but for many it is the city itself that held and captivated them. Empire Bay is a mélange of the grit of New York and the glamour of Hollywood. Though it suffers from many of the interactivity-limiting characteristics of other open-world cities of its day, it is rendered with that special patina of life. You may hear out-of-window quarrels, see people gossiping-small details that go a long way toward giving the city this rhythm, this pulse, often lacking in its kin. And the lighting: The game, especially on more capable hardware, often looks breathtaking, be it the crisp bright white of winter snow, or the golden glow of the streetlights adorning rainy evenings of the 1950s.
Now for the catch:
for all its beauty and atmospheric detail, Empire Bay frequently has the feel of being an elaborate, gorgeous movie set with not much for the lead actor to do in between major plot points. Each chapter opens with Vito waking up (in the same clothes for nearly ten years, poor guy), picking up a mission, and driving to a location. Getting there usually means more shooting, punching, or cruising. Sure, you can rob some stores or harass civilians, but the yummy rewards truly suck, and the cops will be on you in no time. Too bad that a world so ripe for exploring has nothing much in the way of interaction beyond a tightly controlled storyline.
Embracing the Unscripted Mayhem
Unless, of course, you started making your own entertainment. It gave me some odd delight to watch the citizens of this city move, their situational awareness somewhat akin to that of some startled woodland creature. Get within too close a distance, and pedestrians would just spring off in utterly unpredictable trajectories-very often, right into the path of oncoming traffic. The understated pleasure of watching some anonymous pedestrian suddenly decide to plunge in front of a van, causing it to jolt aside and crash into another dozen cars, was far more entertaining than that storyline about killing 50 goons.
However, getting too frequent was the starting of those missions. The fighting relies on a cover system, resulting in heavy gunfire combined with sometimes imprecise shooting. Their creativity on the AI side shows itself behind the steering wheel, and there is not much room to talk about gun handling, as they mostly pop up and down from the same cover spot like a shooting gallery. That said, early on, the game loathed the idea of being a mindless slaughterhouse, but the third act leans heavily on wave-based battles that seem to be in opposition to the narrative's early character-building attempts.
An Offer You Can (Probably) Refuse
Mafia II processes like a fine gangster movie, gloriously imperfect for any of its shortcomings, and, in the process of becoming one, has achieved almost the best sewing method. The compares do well and widely paint a picture that is somewhat akin to Mafia II. Get this-they won. The game begins to lose its illusion in places as cheesy game cliches pile up; mainly by this point, everything does become a comment on games.
When you strip the picture from the movie, one finds a passing mix of the more ordinary-walking, driving, and shooting-that never amount to anything too much above average. Despite a reasonably superior script and great voice acting accompanying it, Mafia II traverses territory heavily tackled by many a great film. On this basis, it fails to actually impress. Where it could have impressed would really be in the setting of the colorful world of Empire Bay, but it seems to hold back. It's a great ride, no bones about it, but in the end, an offer perhaps too easy to refuse.
Rating: 9.5/10