Mafia II Demo

Mafia II demo

I didn't see a thread for this, and I'm sorry if I overlooked it.

The demo hit the Marketplace, PSN, and the official website Tuesday. Over the last three days I've gotten a feel for the game and honestly I'm disappointed. Mafia II is no Grand Theft Auto IV killer. Granted this is not a representation of the final product, but I would feel a little more comfortable if the demo hadn't hit the wire just two weeks before the games release.

One of my first gripes is the lack of melee weapons. To me this is completely unacceptable. The mafia wasn't JUST about going in guns blazing. They also had scare tactics, and that included but was not limited to beating someone near to death with a ball bat, brass knuckles, tire iron, etc. The melee combat is decent and certainly better than Grand Theft Autos, but I just can't get over the lack of melee weapons. This was enough to piss me off, but not change my mind.

The gun play is decent, but shooting someone and even killing someone is just completely lackluster. Take for instance the Euphoria engine used in Rockstars Red Dead Redemption - at least when you shot someone in the leg they reacted accordingly, or if you shot someone in the chest with the 12 gauge at 20 ft. they rode the momentum of the shot and their bodies went flailing which was absolutely satisfying. In Mafia II if you shoot someone they pause for a brief second, and if you kill them they more or less just fall over dead and it's just so disappointing. And once they're dead you can no longer shoot their body as the shot carries straight through and hits the object behind them.

The graphics are decent, but I'm not saying they're great. The PC version is clearly the superior version as if typically is with multiplatform games. Most of the people that inhabit Empire Bay are pretty monotonous. Actually what little part of Empire Bay that's in the demo is relatively monotonous itself. It's not teeming with as much life as say Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption. I'm sorry to keep comparing these games, but there's not too many games in this genre that can compare to Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption. Hell even Just Cause 2 felt more alive than Mafia II. Just because it's based during the early and mid 20th century doesn't mean that that era was monotonous and boring.

I did however love the driving even though the cars occasionally spun out a little TOO easily. The cars seemed to have driven like what I had assumed cars of that time would have driven. The lack of being able to shoot out of the car kind of pisses me off. I love the Auto Body Shoppe though because you can pretty much make your car however you want it provided you have the cash. The A.I. drivers are flat fucking retarded. You can't even pull out of the garage and onto the street without getting into a head on collision and God forbid it was a cop. Fortunately in Mafia II if you have the cash you can bribe your way out of just about anything. I also liked the speedometer, and regulating fuel. That added a very nice touch to the driving aspect.

Speaking of customizing you can choose from tons of different outfits for Vito which is nice. In the demo you have three outfits you can choose from home, but if you visited a clothing store you could purchase a few outfits, and I think if I'm not mistaken there are two clothing stores in the demo and each one has different outfits. Granted in Grand Theft Auto IV you could actually choose the articles of clothing whereas in Mafia II they're limited to outfits specifically. There are some pretty nice outfits though. So you'll have swagger when you're out on a hit.

The actual mission is alright, but it's linear which I have a problem with because I want to have choices of how I'm going to accomplish my goals. Honestly what's going to sell this game is going to be the story because I have to admit it's pretty intriguing, and I'm interested in finding out more about Vito and Joe, and seeing how the game changes throughout the various time frames.

2K Czech cut so many things out of this game last minute, and it's a shame that they cut out some of the most important features of the game. I was very excited about this game, but after spending time with the demo and playing through a handful of times I think it's safe to say that this has gone from a must have to a weekend rental and potentially a bargain buy. Yes I am basing this off of the demo alone, but I would expect a developer to release a demo of a near complete project and at that a demo that showcases the best features of said project and I'm just not seeing Mafia II as a must have at the moment.

Well please share yours thoughts of the demo and feel free to criticize me all you want I suppose because I'm sure some of you will.

I'll start off by saying that I actually liked this demo more than I thought I would. And I will end this train of thought by saying that I liked the demo more on 360 than I did on the Ps3. I deleted it from my Ps3's HDD after two playthroughs. I will keep it on my 360's HDD until I end up playing the retail version of the game.

Maybe the lack of melee weapons is a by-product of it only being a 10 minute demo, and a mission in the game that's been officially cut from the retail version. That would be my guess. Definitely something missing that I, personally, wouldn't get myself worked up over. I might be willing to bet that there will be melee weapons in the finished game.

Also, I completely disagree with your thoughts on the gunplay being only decent. I noticed pretty realistic death and gunshot animations on both versions of the demo that I played from watching Vito's enemies as I filled them full of lead with my tommy gun. TBH, I just think that at the end of the day, RDR's death animations were slightly overexaggerated, in keeping with the spaghetti western sort of theme that game really is. They're just completely different sandbox type of games, IMHO. Mafia 2 appears to be going for a more realistic feel, while as great as RDR is, it's a little more over-the-top in its overall presentation and feel.

But at the end of the day, I thought the game was honestly crappier on the Ps3. I dunno what it is, perhaps it's the controller, but GTAIV and both of its expansions could very well be the last sandbox games that I ever play on my Ps3.

Melee weapons were cut from the final game and it's been confirmed on the official forums. Here's a link to the thread: Answers by 2k Jack and 2k Dan - 2K Forums

I've not played the PS3 demo, but I've played enough of the 360 demo to get a feel for the game and it's gone from being a must have to rental or bargain buy at best. It's a shame really because I was really looking forward to this game. Here's to hoping that L.A. Noire will fill the retro mafioso void.

I was actually happy when I eventually found all 5 Playboy magazines that are in the Mafia 2 demo...

i really did not like that demo at all, and the overall map looks super tiny, (not the demo portion of the map)

I know Lance has decked out he front page in Mafia II, but I've never seen what all the hype has been over in the Mafia series.