Reviews// Mafia II

It's a reviewer's conundrum. Are you having fun with a game, or is the game fun? This is a question that I had to keep asking while playing Mafia II. Is the game actually any good? Do the various elements work together to form an enjoyable experience or am I just ignoring the faults and forcing my own enjoyment?

The flaws are there for everyone to see. The first of which becomes apparent in the opening chapter, the checkpoint system. It's an issue that pops up from time to time within the gaming world and it's always one that I've never quite understood seeing in a finished product.

Checkpoints play an important part in an overall impression of a game. Have them too close together and the player will feel no fear in dying. It removes all sense of tension from a large gun battles and can leave you detached from the protagonist. Have them too far apart and you're left with a frustrating experience that'll see you fall short of the credits.

Mafia II falls so close to being the latter. There are moments where the slightest glance out from your cover will mean you'll have to watch a cutscene, steal a car and make your way to a firefight just to get back to where you were in the first place. It's a complaint that is easily avoidable, and it's a shame the problem was overlooked.

Then there are the little niggles that irritate throughout. Like the frame dropping during most cutscenes. The terrible traffic AI making travel resemblie journeys I've taken around central London on a Sunday. Getting constantly cut up and pulled out on is enough to wish that Boris' rent-a-bike scheme was invented in New York circa 1945.

Character models can look a little dated, ruining the hard work put in by the animation team. A foe being shot may stumble to the ground realistically, but when coupled with a lack of expression and detailed facial features, it can count for nothing when you're involved in close combat. There's also a problem with lip syncing within cutscenes which harp back to the N64 era.

So why, then, did I have such a huge smile on my face as the credits rolled? Had I simply forced fun out of a very average game or was this a hidden gem with just a few flaws holding it back from being a classic?

Despite the story being a straightforward tale of a man's climb up the criminal ladder, it manages to surprise throughout. It's a simple case of an average story told well. The majority of the game is set in a crime-ridden abstract version of New York City, so it was quite an eye opener to start out in war torn Italy. It's something that could have easily been done in a cut scene, but Mafia II decided that it wanted the player to experience lead character Vito's war days and it works.

That's not the only departure from the main game world throughout Mafia II and it makes a refreshing change from the free roaming third-person action games that have come before it. With a simple change of environment Mafia II manages to keep the story fresh. It adds a welcome break to the constant run of missions, driving and shooting and is something that the rest of Rockstar might want to take note of.

Due to the surprises in store and the interesting story threads throughout, Mafia II manages to create an experience that is hard to put down. On many occasions I found myself having to turn leap for the off button on my Xbox to avoid another four hour session. The pace sits just right. No drive is too long or uneventful and no chapter too short giving you the perfect opportunity to walk away from your games machine.

Some are complaining that the main campaign is too short. I disagree. A narrative-driven game should only be as long as the story being told. There's no need to bulk out missions just to add to the total hours of gameplay. I want to play out a story at the pace at which it is meant to be received and after 11 hours I felt that Mafia II had offered me enough to satisfy, and to be honest the game only felt short because I was so interested in getting to the end.