Review: Mafia II (2010)

• May 8, 2012
• James Skemp
• gaming, review

If you enjoyed The Saboteur, you'll enjoy this

While I was playing Mafia II I was constantly reminded of The Saboteur (2009), and since I enjoyed that game, I would consider that a good thing. The game features much of the same, with gun and hand fights (the latter of which plays an important part in the story) and driving.

I experienced no technical issues while playing the game, and the hard difficulty featured some cheap kills, but after a bit of practice everything worked out just fine.

I came into this game without knowing having played the first Mafia game (and I honestly have looked into whether there's any tie-ins), and found the story to be fairly good and engaging. I certainly felt as though the main character was understandable, but I do wonder how much pressure they may have gotten to make the ending what it is. I don't necessarily believe it was forced, but ...

Having finished it on hard, I may pick up some of the trophies I still need, however I don't believe I'll platinum this (due to one collectibles trophy that seems like a pain, and a couple others), and don't see myself replaying the story again. It was good, but now that I know it there's nothing deep to get me to go through it again.

I'm on the fence about it, but after some thought have decided to give it 3 of 5 stars (I'd give it 3.5 if I could). It's a fun game, but I'll probably trade this in before too long.

• review
• playstation 3