Mafia II Impressions - Exclusive First Preview
The sequel to the cult-classic 2002 open-world crime drama game will offer a huge open world, a deeper story, and much more brutal gunplay. Join us for the first preview.
Fans of the 2002 PC game Mafia agree that the game never got its due. It was an open-world mob drama with third-person action, driving, an outstanding soundtrack, and a memorable story (and a not-as-fondly-memorable frustrating car race that was later corrected with a patch). But 2K Czech and 2K Games are gearing up for Mafia II, a sequel to the unappreciated crime drama with a new look, enhanced engine, better driving, deadlier shootouts, and a brand-new story. We had a chance to see the game up close and personal, and we have much to report.
Mafia II will offer shootouts, car chases, and the story of one person's quest to become a made man.
First of all, Mafia II is being developed from the ground up as a cross-platform sequel simultaneously on all three platforms (PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3). You may remember the not-that-great Xbox and PlayStation 2 ports of the original Mafia--that won't be the story with the sequel, which is being worked on by a sizable team of some 120 developers at 2K Czech. The developers have been upgrading the game's basic technology, the Illusion Engine, for some three years. The game will take place in an open world some 10 square miles in size (twice as big as the world in the first Mafia) and will stream the world's geometry in real time. Consequently, you should see no loading screens while playing, even when entering any of the game's more than 100 interactive indoor areas, such as diners, auto garages, and swanky high-rises, all of which will be packed with destructible environments.
Although the original game took place in 1920s America (better known as the Roaring Twenties), the sequel will take place within a 10-year time span between the 1940s and 1950s. This new time period will set the table for faster-paced action on all fronts, now that better guns will be available, and far better cars. The autos of the '20s were utility vehicles that struggled at speeds of 30 miles per hour or better, whereas the 1950s ushered in the era of high-performance muscle cars that were built for speed and racing. In addition, the game will have a more lenient, more realistic way of handling incursions with the law. Instead of chasing you to the ends of the earth on a minor traffic violation, the police in Mafia II will be "fat cops" who may tire of chasing you after a few blocks if all you've done is commit a traffic infraction, but they will definitely call for help if you've been gunning down civilians willy-nilly. You probably also won't want to be pulled over for a traffic ticket if you have some wise guy's body in your car's trunk. Then again, the story of Mafia II is one man's 10-year odyssey, from humble beginnings under the thumb of his hardworking but unsuccessful father to entering a criminal syndicate and eventually becoming a made man, so later on in the game, the police will be on the take and will actually help you on your way.
The demonstration version that we saw took place partway through the game during a mafia mission. Vito, the game's main character, has come up through the ranks with his childhood buddy Joe, a violent hothead who will play the mouthy Joe Pesci to the DeNiro-like straight man Vito. As a newly made man, Vito's mission is to drive downtown with Joe and the teenage driver Marty to a fabulously decadent mob party in the penthouse of a downtown high-rise, disguise themselves as a cleaning crew, infiltrate the party, plant a bomb in the boardroom to assassinate a rival gang boss, and get out alive. This entire briefing takes place in real time, narrated by Joe as you make your drive, after which you arrive in the building's parking lot and tell young Marty to stay put.
We watched as Vito and Marty hit the elevator to meet their inside man, change into their disguises, and then head up to the posh penthouse. The joint was a highly detailed, fully stocked piano bar with a handful of mobsters in expensive suits cracking wise as we walked through the party to head to the boardroom, which lay behind the bar's wall of frosted glass. After we were waved into the boardroom on the pretense of cleaning a stain off of the carpet, the game switched to a brief cinematic sequence during which Joe armed the bomb underneath the table and then waved us out the window to a window washer's platform, where the two were to make their escape.
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