2K were at GDC this year with a simply beautiful setup to promote Mafia 2. They’d basically taken over this bar and decked it all out internally like a 50s-style Italian cafe, complete with the red-and-white checkers tablecloths, Mafia 2 ashtrays and matches, and the occasional tommy gun lying around to really help set the scene.


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Currently in development at 2K Czech, Mafia 2 is looking like a worthy sequel to the original hugely popular title. You play the character of Vito, who has been off fighting ze Germans in World War 2, recently returned to the US. When you get back, you hook up with your old friend Joe, who has fallen into what is essentially a life of organised crime. The story kicks off pretty quickly as Vito gets drawn into that world in order to repay some family debts.

Now, just to get it out of the way – Mafia 2 is like the Grand Theft Auto series in terms of gameplay. I’m sure the 2K team hate hearing it described like that, but it’s simply the quickest and easiest way to describe the game style – open world, free roaming, driving around in cars, mowing down pedestrians, and hurting, shooting and otherwise greatly inconveniencing people that are getting in your way.

Set in the 40s and 50s though, the game has a remarkably different look and feel to any Grand Theft Auto game, something which is immediately obvious as soon as you lay eyes on the screen. The backing music is all from that era as well, of course, which helps set the scene and contributes significantly to the game environment.

We got some hands-on time with one mission from the game, beginning with Vito and Joe selling stolen cigarettes off the back of a truck. Unfortunately for you, as you’re doing this some other local mugs arrive complaining that we’re in their turf. Joe takes exception to this and, quite rudely, shoots one of them in the face, which kicks off a chase scene and the start of the mission proper.



From there we jumped in a car and got to experience some of the driving. Mafia 2 producer Denby Grace was on hand later to answer some questions, and one thing I was curious about was the driving model. It felt really fun and simple; apparently there are two modes – arcade mode (which is what we were playing) and an optional simulation mode, which greatly increases the realism and puts more emphasis on careful driving. We didn’t get a chance to try this, but arcade mode was enough for me; it was great fun whipping around town in a variety of classic old cars. I did learn – the hard way – that high-speed collisions are almost invariably fatal, so it encourages some more careful driving practices than I would otherwise engage in.

After we’d chased down the other gangsters, the game took on a third-person action vibe as a gunfight ensued. You moved through an abandoned factory area, using the game’s cover system to fight your way past a series of people trying to kill you. There’s much more of an action feel here as the game turns into something more like Gears of War where you’re involved in a heavy, heart-thumping gunfight scene. We had several weapons at the time, including Thompson sub-machine guns, pistols and rifles, and they’re all great fun to shoot people with. Most of the aiming is free but there’s some snapping when you’re getting on-target to take away a bit of the pain.



We also got a glimpse of the recently announced Playboy magazine feature. Basically as you make your way through the ground, various Playboy magazines are lying around as collectible items. These are, apparently, genuine reconstructions of issues from this era. You can pick these up and actually check out the centrefolds (in their full, naked glory – although it was mostly half-naked from the two that I saw), including zooming in functionality. An... interesting distraction from the rest of the game.

The environments in Mafia 2 are really seamless and it was especially noticeable that the user interface was kept to an absolute minimum. “One thing we didn’t want to do was have the big arrow in art”, said Denby Grace, when asked about this. There’s simply not a lot of ugly UI stuff floating around the screen to take you out of the game. When interaction is possible on an in-game object, it has a ‘god shimmer’ effect that appears to the first time you’re introduced to it; a subtle effect that helps navigation through the game but doesn’t break the style.

Visually the game is looking fantastic; there is just so much going on in every scene that it’s really a great experience just to look around. One of the first thing I noticed when I started walking around was a shadow of a bird on the ground; I looked up and got to see a pigeon flying over and just alighting on the gutter of a building next to me. Little things really make the game world stand out and feel more natural. Denby mentioned there’s a bunch of things like this, either randomly generated or scripted events that flesh out the world as much as possible.

Even though it’s planned for a release in the second half of this year, the game is looking remarkably polished already. It feels really fun to play; the action of the combat scenes in particular really stood out to me as something that was fun to play (as opposed to the frustrating, controller-throwing rage I usually feel when playing similar scenes in GTA). If you’re into the open world genre this is looking like a must-have for your collection, and for everyone else it is shaping up to look like a most enjoyable experience. Stay tuned!

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