Mafia II: Definitive Edition review

    Mafia II is one of my picks for all-time best story of any video game ever. The other picks are well-known ones like Red Dead Redemption, Deus Ex, and Grand Theft Auto IV. Mafia II never achieved those kind of heights but I think it is one of those rare video games that would work every bit as well as a movie as it would as a video game. While there are plenty of those games, Uncharted and Tomb Raider come to mind, they tend to be action-orientated genre pieces. This is the rare game that functions like a gangster movie. Which, given it's called Mafia II, isn't really a surprise.

Vito and Joe's friendship is the best part of the game.

    I've played both the original Mafia II and the remake. I played Mafia II on my Xbox 360 and thought it was an excellently told story but incredibly clunky to play. I didn't think the graphics were that bad in the original game and held up pretty well actually. They made ample use of the snowy environments and grainy atmosphere to cover up the limitations of the software. Either way, the biggest draw of the game was the story and people who know me will attest that I often overlook gameplay problems for the sake of a good story.

    As I understand, the only changes of the Definitive Edition are to the graphics as well as removing some of the lesser-used physics like clothing as well as fire. So how do the two games stack up? Well, that's a complicated question that I'll get into after I discuss the game as a whole. However, the short version is that I don't think the Definitive Edition improves on Mafia II in any real way. It's still the decent game with a great story it always was.

Empire Bay is a beautiful 1940s New York reproduction.

    The premise is Vito Scaletta is a WW2 veteran in the Italian campaign against Mussolini. Vito is injured during his battle against the fascists and sent home in 1943 to Empire Bay. Empire Bay is a barely fictionalized New York City akin to Grand Theft Auto's Liberty City. Vito's family is dirt poor and heavily indebted to the mob with his father having been possibly killed by them. Nevertheless, Vito accepts the offer of his friend, Joe Barbaro, to make some "real" money by stealing cars as well as doing odd jobs for La Cosa Nostra.

    Part of what makes the game so effective is the gritty unsympathetic take on mob life. If your typical video game mobster is Michael Corleone or Tony Montana, Vito is closer to being Hank Hill from Goodfellas. He's dirt poor at the start of the game and doesn't ever quite reach the highest aspirations of wealth that he's been promised. Indeed, the game makes it clear that low-level soldiers like Vito are as expendable to the higher-ups as civilians.

The frozen New York City is my favorite part of it.

    Vito wants to make a fortune but the game makes it clear that, while crime may pay in the short run, you're more likely to end up paying a horrific price for a few extra bucks. Indeed, "Time Well Spent" is the first time a video game ever showed one of the most realistic consequences of mob life. It eventually all comes together in an ending that I felt was really powerful and worked well for the character (who gets a bit of a denouement in Mafia III).

    Gameplay-wise, it's a cover-based shooter and Grand Theft Auto clone. You drive around the city in stolen cars, shoot up bad guys, and occasionally do a bit of stealth or lockpicking. It's not a complicated game and there's nothing in the way of activities here. I remember constantly fleeing cops in the original game but here, they just kind of ignore me and are easy to avoid. This makes the game less frustrating but is rather noticeable. The cars are very easily busted up and health regeneration has to be managed with eating food in-game. Its serviceable but nothing to write home about.

A romance was set up in Mafia II but sadly goes nowhere.

    Graphics-wise, I don't think the game has actually improved. Yes, there's some scenes that are much more vivid but the character models actually seem worse. They also didn't replace the reused models in the game so now you're seeing the same hookers from Joe's crew in every crowd scene, sometimes in multiple places. I feel like this is the bare minimum of what qualifies as a "re-master" and it doesn't really succeed at that either.

    The Definitive Edition comes with all of the DLC, which mostly consists of new cars and a handful of costumes. There's also an adventure set where you play as Joe Barbaro that I really enjoyed as he's easily the best character in the game. Really, the most surprising set is "Jimmy's" adventures that have you play as a Ed Harris-looking hitman that slaughters his way through Empire Bay in an adventure that has nothing to do with the main story. I feel like some more crimes for Vito like a bank heist or more content with the Black Mob ("Bombers").

None of these guys can be trusted. Shocking.

     Unfortunately, these are hurt by the fact that they're not fully animated games but mostly just a series of busy-work tasks that are inferior to the main game. I also think Joe's Adventures could have been incorporated into the main game. The game has some bugs too, some of which haven't been fixed by the Definitive Edition or were even made worse. At one point, I followed the recommended route to my goal only to completely fall off the map (and get an achievement for traveling 125 mph).

    In conclusion, Mafia II is a fun game. It is a painfully average one in terms of gameplay, though. Likable characters and atmosphere can make up for a game's flaws, though, and this game has it in spades. Joe Barbaro is one of the best supporting characters in games and a character you'll wish you knew in real life. Vito manages to evoke Ray Liota and Al Pacino both, which is an impressive feat. The story of Mafia II is a tale of ambition, greed, friendship, betrayal, and the perils of organized crime. If my biggest complaint is that Robert "Harvey Bullock" Costanzo voices two major character with the same accent then that's a minor one.

7.5/10