Good morning! And it is a good morning here at the Rock, Paper, And Shotgun Gazette, because we have the trailer for Mafia 2 after the jump. While the trailer itself shows little more than goodfellas having a good time, fans of the original will know what to expect from Illusion Softworks open-world gangsterism: stylish action, period atmosphere, and horrendous violence. Of course it was one of those games that caused some debate – its brokenness conjured some frowns and spawned many grumbles – but that’s no reason to think that this sequel, due Autumn 2009, isn’t worth following. it’s a game that has just as many ardent fans. We’ll hopefully have an interview with the developers for you in the new year.
Related Stories:
I can´t wait, this is going to be great (ha a rhyme!). I just love those cars and music.
I’m really looking forward to this, because I loved the original. There was something oh-so-exciting about trying to get the car started before the people you’re running away from caught up, and those 15-mile-an-hour uphill car chases.
Looks very good, though some bloom slider in the options menu would be appreciated as well.
If the game actually looks like that it will be awesome. Will this be multi-platform though? Are the current consoles capable of those kind of graphics?
The original is one of my favourite games – that mission where you have to steal the race car and drive it across town and back – so much fun. It was a bit frustrating though – like the running red lights thing…
let’s hope they don’t go dumb console on us pc players. because mafia was a true gem and leagues above the bad GTA sequels Rockstar crunched out over the years. it has one of the best stories in gaming and a beautifully realizied city and missions. well, I’m sure they went with the times, eliminated every possible frustration (like POP now) and therefore removed anything worth playing. context-sensitive one-button animation quicktime event real time control (the word control is almost a joke in itself nowadays when it comes to gaming characters, see: POP)
Oh my. Slow cars killed the first game for me, realistic or not. Realism != Verisimilitude and all that. And very occasionally, realism is at odds with general useability. Or perhaps I was spoiled by GTA3 at the time, and got too angry at the incredibly fascist police giving way too much of a shit about running reds (I notice that in GTA4 you get a “whoop” from police if you do that, but nothing more. Nice compromise between allowing fun driving, and still being reminded that you’re technically breaking the law.).
But, there was something in that game which I liked, I’m sure. I just hope that they can bring it to the fore and polish it up a bit more.
@Aubrey
I really, really hope they don’t try and make the game to appeal to you. That’s been my biggest fear since this was announced as cross platform. What made it special was the uncompromised atmosphere and non-GTAness of it. If they try and move towards the more accepted console format i can see it being as good.
Looks good. As long as they stick to the first game quite closely I’m happy. The thing I liked the most with the first game was the actual atmosphere, it really felt like you were playing during that period. I’m hoping for the best.
Ahh, Mafia. A classic.
While the cars may have been slow and police attentive, like others have said here, it all added to the atmosphere. And this game had real atmosphere. I just hope it isn’t “GTAed” up for the consoles.
*reminisces*
Looking forward to this, though I’d be much happier if it ended with Spring 2009 rather than Fall…
“Looks very good, though some bloom slider in the options menu would be appreciated as well.”
Thank you good sir. I now know why I hate the look of DIRT. ‘Bloom’ wasn’t a concept I was familiar with before. I just thought some designers wanted to make things err milky for no real reason… Well I’m still surprised anyone likes the effect. I wonder if it can be lowered there – I’ll check later.
Jeez, these guys should’ve gotten the Godfather licence. Even without gameplay, or without a release, just put the Mafia 2 trailer next to the Godfather 2 by EA trailer and one seems more in the spirit then the other.
i’m hoping it’s a cracker just to shit on pachters assessment of T2’s value
…
..
.
what have i become?!
/cries
Would I be correct to assume this is all pre-rendered? I don’t think I’ve seen any ingame footage yet. Probably because it’s still a year away.
Wait, what? “Brokenness”? What does that mean?
Hopefully this one doesn’t have a frustrating genre switch mini game like the racing sequence annoyance in the original.
Mafia was excellent, i echo the above sentiments – and i also love the fifties setting! Woo!
The original was broke?
I’ve never enjoyed obeying the law more in a game. Taking note of speed limits and stopping for lights, all while tootling along to some awesome swing music. It’s beautifully epic and I’d hate that to be lost in order to squeeze the sales from any no-brainers. I shan’t believe it! No!
Mafia 1 was NOT broken.I finished it three times without any bugs, my latest playthrough was 2 months ago.
Race was a bit more difficult, but nothing impossible.
BTW, this trailer is ingame.Its ingame inengine cutscenes – 2K Czech confirmed it (see games.tiscali.cz).
@ Simon: The original was essentially a barefaced ripoff of the Goodfellas storyline, with the drug trade angle toned down presumably due to censorial sensitivity (and seventy sibilant silver snakes), and with liberal amounts of the Godfather trilogy and Casino thrown in for good measure. Besides which, it had a very.. definite ending, which makes me wonder a) how a sequel is possible (I’m guessing it’s a prequel) and b) what gangster films they even have left to dredge for plot material.
Still, it did have the best soundtrack in any game ever, if only on grounds of their ability to compile some fantastic early C20th ragtime, jazz and blues. The OST itself was sweeping, cinematic, and more than a little overwraught.
Despite all that people have disputed charges of similarity to GTA both in this thread and at the time of release, it has to be noted that, after all, it really is a better-than-average driving game cellotaped to a better-than-average shooter in a ’sandbox’ free-roaming urban environment. That the cars pootle about in charmingly slow fashion is a bit of a red herring – you start with the worst cars and gradually progress to better, you collect a varied but hopelessly unimaginitive arsenal consisting of pistols, shotguns, an SMG, a sniper rifle, grenades and (anachronistically named) Molotovs, and you still have the bloody shopping-trolley lorry level, fragile explosives et al, that no one in their right mind would possibly want to play; the more I think about it, in fact, the more I remember it feeling like a GTA game – specifically, GTA 4. Moderately sized city, pleasant enough to look at – but precious little to really do but turn up for the missions and follow the narrative path.
For the record, I thought the race car level was excellent and one of the better missions. The other being, of course, that fantastic Mission Impossible 64-esque mission on the boat, where you wander around hopelessly confused for fifteen minutes and then eventually, at a loss for the location of the hidden pistol you were promised, perform the hit you were contracted for with a bucket you found in the loo.
BooleanBob – it is a sequel in name and theme only.
It takes place somewhere else (Empire City), with other characters.
which makes me wonder a) how a sequel is possible (I’m guessing it’s a prequel)’
Erm, I think when PC Gamer covered it they said it was set about ten years in the future with completely different characters. Which reminds me -speaking of driving speeds- the cars will obviously be faster…
Ah, I remember the mission where you had to snipe the Governor / Ambassador / Mayor or the like during his speech to the masses. It was sublime.
I was recently playing the first one again; slow and clunky as it was, with some stupidly difficult missions far too early on into the game (you know the one), it was decent fun with some entertaining (if unashamedly derivative) levels. A nice city too, for the time.
As long as they continue in that vein, I’ll be pleased.
was something I really enjoyed. It came upon you very unexpectedly, and I can remember thinking during the mission before the actual race,’Oh god, I hope I don’t have to drive this thing ever again’. The car was horrifying, and then ‘bam’, you were slapped into the driver’s seat.
I was so scared and exited at that moment, it could just as well been real. Only shame was, they made it too difficult, but being the uebergamer that I am, I of course managed, and the rewarding feeling that gave me made the countless attempts almost forgotten.
Damn them if they mess this one up.
This is going to be an AMAZING game.
This is set in the 50s, which in itself may change the overall tone of the game. Cars are going to be faster and music is likely to be some kind of rock’n'roll, thus encouraging “faster gameplay” as opposed to driving slow according to the speed limits with some atmospheric swing music playing in the background.
I’m not saying it’s automatically going to be worse. Just don’t expect it to feel exactly the same.
As I was googling for Mafia-related things, I found out that http://www.mafia-mp.com/ is still alive! Waw
Whenever people mention Mafia, I get a mental image of some other old mob game which was more of a real strategy thing, a bit like Republic, where you took over territory and recruited heavies to extort businesses and so on. Anyone remember what that was called?
Huzzah! Mafia was ace.
Couldn’t finish the race for the life of me, and I’m normally pretty good at driving games. Ended up taking advantage of the exploit where you drive off the track and your car resets just before the finish line.
Every lap.
Whenever people mention Mafia, I get a mental image of some other old mob game which was more of a real strategy thing, a bit like Republic, where you took over territory and recruited heavies to extort businesses and so on. Anyone remember what that was called?
Gangsters, I think?
The racing mission wasn’t too hard once you figured out how to do it. It’s not played like most racing games where you are pretty much constantly accelerating; in the Mafia racing level you have to be careful and take it s l o w on the turns. Placing ahead of the others drivers should take care of itself if you concentrate on surviving.
@Ginger Yellow: ‘Gangsters: Organized Crime‘ and/or ‘Gangsters 2: Vendetta‘
Brokeness?!!
What was broken about the first one?!
…except perhaps the race was too hard. :X
Mafia was one of the most enjoyable as well as one of the most annoying games i ever played. I don’t think i ever done so many reloads in one game (especially the mission where you end up in the roof and have to escape from police only to end up in church full of gangsters)
Hope they will balance the game a bit more and add quicksave.
and I hope they will keep the feel of first game. cause in Mafia you felt like a gangster, like a true member of crime organization.
Oh my god! That church was horrible, you just reminded me of it! Took so many trys to do that one. I kind of liked that it was hard, obviously it was too hard in places but I hope the new one isn’t too easy with regenerating health and what not.
The race in Mafia was great!
As was very clear from the rest of the game, the driving physics in Mafia were pretty decent. Not necessarily in a serious-simulation way, but there was some good modelling going on.
So the race was all about thinking like a race driver:
1) being aware that the cars handle at least vaguely like actual cars (of the era).
2) Most importantly, learning the track! Race drivers know the track they are racing on. They know how fast they can enter a turn, and the right line to drive.
Once you were familiar with the handling, there was really only one thing you needed to think about to win handily: How can I exit each and every turn at the maximum possible speed?
Go slow around a corner that leads into an uphill rise, and you are completely screwed, because the car just doesn’t have the acceleration to compensate.
Exit that turn at speed, and no one will catch you!
I’ve never driven a real car in my life, but I figured this stuff out and won that race before Illusion went and nerfed the difficulty in the patches (without providing options to keep the original difficulty… *grumble*), and I later went back and drove the race entirely from the cockpit view, and won easily on my first attempt (which is not to say it wasn’t a tense experience :).
So the race wasn’t unfairly hard, and it wasn’t inconsistent with the way the other cars handled. What it was, was nicely challenging, and extremely satisfying to win :)
The freeplay and collectors mode was ace, you know, after you finished the storyline. Nothing beats hunting a guy dressed in boxers with hearts on it and flaming soles.
A day/week-one purchase here, guaranteed, from ye local independent software retailer of course. I want a physical fold-out map for this one too. Time/studies permitting of course.
The first one had so many brilliant scenes and the meatiest-feeling gunfights for its day and age. They must’ve had the brilliant gunfight at the end of L.A. Confidential on loop during the development process.
It was the combat that I really enjoyed in Mafia, I’ll never forget that first shootout in the diner on the edge of town, and letting rip with a tommy gun. Then there was the escape from the hotel across the roof tops and that excellent shootout in the church. Fighting in the streets, trading shots with cops and robbers whilst hunkering down behind a near by car as their bullets shattered the glass and popped the tyres, was a real thrill.
Just a shame that the actual driving was a bit too stodgy for my liking, even if it was trying to be realistic.
I enjoyed Mafia, as much as I played it. Two things I remember about it now:
- Trying to drive out of a small dip in the road as it went under a bridge, and being unable to because the car was too rubbish.
- Giving up because of the race that everyone is talking about!
I’ll definitely give Mafia II a go though, a bit more time and higher production values and the’ve got a great game.