Back in 2002 when many developers were still trying to figure out how to emulate Grand Theft Auto 3, developer Illusion Softworks - creators of games like Hidden & Dangerous and Vietcong and now owned by Take Two under the name 2K Czech - delivered Mafia. It turned out to be one of those games that came out of nowhere with excellent gameplay, a great sense of style, and a story that still holds up even today. Although there were some frustrations with things like speed limits slowing down the player's traversal of the city (it was really annoying to pay for a traffic ticket if a cop saw you speeding) and a particular racing mission early in the game gave many players a tough time, it still wound up being a great mob tale set in the 1930s.
Now, 2K Czech is ready to unleash the long-in-development sequel, Mafia 2, onto an entirely different set of players. Back in the day, I really enjoyed the first game but I was sure that even better games from many developers were just around the corner; surely Grand Theft Auto 3 was only a stepping stone for tons of other great games, right? It turns out that no, it wasn't, and in the two or three years after Mafia was released, most developers couldn't even remotely recreate an open-world action game like Rockstar or 2K Czech did. So with that in mind, I sat down at an E3 demo for Mafia 2 with pretty high standards in mind.
Luckily, I was impressed with the results. You'll play a new Italian-American character named Vito this time around, and the game takes place both during the 40s when he's just gotten back from the war in Europe with a nagging injury that's making it difficult for him to find legitimate work. The game also takes place about ten years later after he's made his way up the mob ladder. The gameplay we got to see was from the 40s, when he's just a connected guy trying to get made.
First we got to see New York City - er, Empire City - as it would be in winter, with snow and ice playing a small factor in the handling of the cars but having a much bigger impact on the look of the city itself. It really does help give the city a unique look and feel, and that's helpful since so many open-world games have depicted NYC in one form or another. And yes, Empire City is much like GTA's Liberty City, where the feel of the city is being captured but an accurate block-by-block layout is avoided.
Vito is sent on a hit with a couple of higher ups, but one is trying to be a hands-off manager and the other one's not in the kind of shape needed for a big firefight, so the player - the supposed war hero, right? - is left to do most of the shooting. We've seen this kind of thing in plenty of games, where you're the low rung on the totem pole but wind up doing the best shooting, but here there's a pretty good premise for it.
After a bit of scouting for the mark, the three anti-heroes wind up having to get into a nasty street battle that leads into a warehouse. Floor after floor, more opposition finds its way into the building - it's mostly made of young connected guys in their family, and luckily they don't quite have the combat experience that Vito does. After finally finding their mark, he pulls a surprise on your buddies and gets the bullet he was supposed to but not without shooting Vito's buddy in the leg. Then the other friend has to carry him out of the warehouse while Vito goes on ahead to finish off any stragglers, and they eventually get him into a car to get taken to the family's local no-questions-asked doctor.
Overall what impressed me about this demo was not only the solid cover-based shooting action that took place from behind both stationary objects and things like cars, but the banter from Vito's buddies really added a human element to the firefights as well. It's straight out of a mob movie, where they cuss, toss around the usual mob lingo, and showed some genuine emotion in the right situations. Compared to many other mob games (including the Godfather series), this was light years ahead, both in the quality of the voice work and in the behavior of the characters. I'm not sure if 2K Czech can maintain that quality through such a large game, but if they can this should be a real winner.
From a technical standpoint, Empire City sounds good on paper. It's spread over ten square miles and there are about 100 interiors that require no loading time and are highly detailed (the one we saw was quite impressive). In motion, it looked great and seemed more alive than many open-world games manage with their cities. Some of the annoyances of the first game, like traffic stops, are still there in the sequel, but they eventually go away as Vito rises through the ranks and starts putting the local cops on his payroll. Overall, the guys demoing the game were really excited about their work so far and very confident about delivering a top-notch action experience. From what I've seen, I share their enthusiasm.
Mafia 2 is set for release in early 2010 on PC, PS3, and 360.
