The rise has a price!
Version tested: PS4 Pro
Mafia II it does not romanticize the mafia's lifestyle, nor the degrees of passage needed to level up and reach the top of the pyramid of power. It's a stern and stark admonition that the road to success may be paved with good, very good intentions, but, sometimes, as the game's protagonist will let us know later, it can turn into a living hell and be paid dearly.. For a "cheater" turned war hero like Vito Scaletta, buried up to his neck in the debts of his deceased father, a life of "easy money", made up of beautiful women, power and cars, may seem tempting.
What follows is not a standard ascension tale without consequence, Vito's rise is offset by the alienation of those closest to him. Eventually, Vito rises through the ranks of a prominent Italian mafia family by demonstrating his loyalty to the mobsters above him. It's a "Goodfellas”, A sort of biopic that details rise, glory and the inevitable fall.
What began as a means of necessity to pay off his family's debt has grown with the misplaced ambition of Vito, and a sadly dead mother with her only son behind bars. A naive boy but subjugated by the catalyst "trap of selfishness" that constantly guides the narrative of Mafia II while Vito and "Joe" (his closest friend) incessantly perform chores, crimes, murders in a superb Empire Bay, the city of vices, the city of sin. Soon the city will be too small for the two and will really have nothing left to offer.
The miracles? They don't exist in Empire Bay
As this is not a rebuild from scratch like the Mafia remake, this definitive edition does not differ particularly from the original released for PC, PS4 and Xbox 360 in 2010. It still has something to offer despite the "dated" game mechanics and inconsistent with today's standards. 2K and Hangar 13 proposed a vast and whole open world, so beautiful to look at but that ultimately it doesn't do much to encourage exploration. Mafia II was released in an unripe period for open worlds. You can change clothes, customize the vehicle and look for some collectibles: classic Playboy magazines and wanted posters (some added from scratch in this definitive edition).
“There are no stereotypes of the villain becoming the hero. Not all gangsters have to go out like Scarface, sometimes you just need to see the dawn of a new day "
Also, ten years ago, this game introduced, for the first time in the series, a roofing system, which added a tactical element to the firefights. Vito is able to protect himself from enemy fire and fight back from cover in levels of play that are still impressive today. The clashes work, net of some slight deficit of the enemy artificial intelligence. The shootings mostly take place in narrow corridors in places such as distilleries, hotels, skyscrapers and Chinese restaurants.
They instill a dramatic sense of action whenever production tends to get boring. However, the pace is very uneven, especially if it stops abruptly every time Vito is forced to drive for miles from one point to another in the city, but this does not particularly bore the player due to the speed with which the narration proceeds. Even though Mafia II always moves at a dizzying pace, it often struggles to maintain the initial momentum. Too many chapters are put together and fed to the player by completing humble and boring tasks. That said, the narrative, although inconsistent at times, on the whole, manages to be compelling and convincing.
An Empire Bay that amazes… but with some missteps
The most "criminal" of Mafia II's missteps is that developer Hangar 13 has created an incredible fake New York / Los Angeles: Empire Bay. A huge city by the standards of the time, but it could have offered more secondary activities. The beautiful skyscrapers, visible in the distance, on a bridge that resembles that of Brooklyn, are contrasted by areas characterized by racial divisions and social classes, but most of these end up being confused with the others, losing much of their own identity that they should have. Empire Bay is a city in which you would like to immerse yourself with all your strength, especially in the initial intro, made of snow and gray sky, but Mafia II gives no reason to spend your time interacting with the meager game world , especially when the winter environments are replaced by the particularly anonymous summer ones.
Mafia 2 Definitive Edition - the conservative remastered
As for the remastering work, there isn't much new. The revisiting work has been entrusted to the skilled hands of d3t, a team that also collaborated with Shenmue. The visuals have gotten the necessary overhaul to offer an improved resolution and in 4K. 60fps are now supported and motion is smoother. The lighting system is more realistic than the original and in general a greater graphic cleanliness is perceived. However, the increase in resolution has brought to light some defects on the polygonal models of the protagonists, nothing particularly relevant, but which we must necessarily underline. The game boasts one of the greatest licensed soundtracks ever seen (sorry, hear) being able to count on singing performances by great artists such as: The Andrews Sisters, Chuck Berry, Roy Hamilton, Little Richard, Bing Crosby and many more.
It was certainly a strange choice to publish the "out of phase" trilogy. The 2 and 3 available for € 29,99 each or in the Mafia Trilogy pack for € 59,99 which will also include Mafia, the total remake of the first chapter of the series. Given that the final offering of Mafia II is based solely on a slightly improved graphics and extra content that were available a decade ago anyway (The Betrayal of Jimmy, Jimmy's Vendetta and Joe's Adventures), the decision to publish this definitive edition, ahead of the Mafia Remake (which will be available at the end of August), it makes sense.
Final comment
Mafia II looks like a relic of a bygone era. Video game design has evolved over the years, adopting new approaches and mechanics. However, we hardly remember such memorable plots. Mafia 2, has something that attracts and intrigues and its weaknesses, which so irritated ten years ago, now seem more forgivable. Perhaps because somehow we knew we were faced with an experience, which years later, would prove to be imperfect, or perhaps because we are becoming more indulgent. Whatever it is, we enjoyed this blast from the past, made of intrigues, shootings, sad epilogues, wild races through Empire Bay. In many respects, Mafia II has not aged very well but we are here to advise you, if you have never done so, to play the 2K and Hangar 13 production or simply relive it if you have already had the opportunity to try it ten years ago.
