Comments on: RPS Preview: Mafia II

By: Kaikimoto

Kaikimoto — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:03:14 +0000

@ Serondal:

“I don’t curse just because I’m in the mafia.”
hmm…I wonder what the cops think of that…

I just hope there are a lot of guns in this game. That’s my favorite part of it. I’m kinda like, “Oh, a new mission? Meh.”
“Ooh, a new car? That’s kinda cool.” “Oooh! A new gun! Sweet!”
I’m really looking forward to the war surplus (Luger, anyone?)

By: Funky Badger

Funky Badger — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:07:18 +0000

Colonel: so Gear’s isn’t a good game, now?

By: Kaikimoto

Kaikimoto — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:49:27 +0000

I agree with BoltingTurtle here, it just gets on my nerves that games do that. Real experience: In GTA IV, at the beginning, I endeavored to steal a policeman’s Glock 17, as I had no guns. When I did, and a second one came, I shot him like six times, and he still had health. And, after he stopped staggering, he still ran after me with the speed of an NFL runningback. I don’t think I could run that fast with six 9mm rounds lodged in my chest.
I really hope Mafia 2 is fast-paced, but still realistic, sorta like Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I kinda thought it had a good balance. It wasn’t like you wanted to hide in a corner, but still it was like “Holy s***, I’m being shot at!” and then you dive for cover and actually are rather apprehensive about returning fire, lest you get pwned.

By: The Colonel

The Colonel — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:05:59 +0000

Hey look, it’s Gears of War: The Prequel. Why does every game have to have a cover system and recharging health!!!? Those bloody consoles better not have ruined the gameplay. If they do the same for Max Payne 3 I’m just going to give up games altogether.

By: BoltingTurtle

BoltingTurtle — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:22:58 +0000

In general, I would agree that the cover system did seem a little bit gears of war. But the difference was that the AI seemed to be just as good as the player at exploiting this. In gears of war it was very rare that you were flanked unless you just ran out into the middle of things and then took cover. Just watching the gameplay here, I got the feeling that taking cover was an act of desparation, not really the standard way of going about things.

Also, the original Mafia wasn’t just about the shootouts, it was a story, and a very good one at that. The fact is that without a good way of preventing deaths at bad places, the story can be undermined. And regenerating health isn’t any less immersive than having a health bar in the first place, so even if this game used such a system, I don’t think it would necessarily suffer from it.

The only thing that worried me was the way enemies reacted when shot. It was clear you’d hit them, and when they didn’t just go down after taking several a full auto .45 to the central mass it took me out of the otherwise very gritty feel the footage had. It might be whackamole, but the reason whackamole is fun is because it’s fast paced. If baddies don’t go away when you whack them and just sit there continuing to spout bullets, the mechanic is broken. The system would be far more imersive if the wounded baddies would limp off as in Far Cry 2 and only seek to defend themselves. They are effectively neutralized, but can pose a threat if forgotten.

By: Serondal

Serondal — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:33:52 +0000

Yes I played the first one and I really didn’t like it , I took it back to the store after playing it for a day or so to give it a chance (not like 48 hours straight just a few hours a day) I’m not saying there is anything wrong with it or its sequal it just isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t know why the origonal and God Father ect weren’t able to capture the feeling of the old movies for me.

To be honest it is probably something wrong with me and not the game if so many other people liked it ;)

GTA has just always braught me closer to feeling like a real criminal than mafia type games.

True Crimes LA was also a POS when it came out. Who wants to play a crazy cop who can easily get away with murdering countless people on the streets of LA for no reason, made no sense O.o I did enjoy blowing up cars by shooting their gas tanks though, I think that was one of the few games you could do that in at the time.

By: Kire

Kire — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:59:30 +0000

The first Mafia game led to my most awkward gameplay experience ever. I was living with a couple women at the time and the computer was in the living room. They’re all sitting around watching TV, and I’m playing the game…and then guess what cutscene comes on…the sex scene.

The room got very awkward right around the time someone asked, “what the hell are you playing?”

By: Dozer

Dozer — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:46:47 +0000

I nearly cried when I read about the ‘team-brain’ AI. Tears of pure joy. I’ve been waiting for something like this since forever!

I don’t think I could be bothered/rich enough to upgrade my PC – fortunately my housemate owns a PS3…

By: Bizz

Bizz — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:36:27 +0000

Mafia2 Woohooo!

I loved the first game, although i did have to cheat through the racing level (was so frustrating i nearly quit playing). Went and bought all the Django Reinhardt cd’s cause i loved the music that much.

Looking forward to this.

re. health regen: i have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it kinda sucks, cause you know you don’t have to be as careful, on the other hand i remember quite a few missions in Mafia 1 where i had to restart the whole mission because i got autosaved somewhere with virtually no health…

By: ET

ET — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:48:26 +0000

Wow. Normally I’m not a fan of GTA-likes, but this looks mighty impressive indeed. All the work and passion going into it makes me want to buy the thing even if I suck at GTA-likes, actually. Would that all companies could show this kind of thing (I’d like to believe most of them feel the same about their products).

Hopefully it’ll run on my computer.

By: EBass

EBass — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:35:10 +0000

Serondal, have you actually, you know, played the game we’re talking about here?

By: Bullwinkle

Bullwinkle — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:59:49 +0000

@Paul Moloney: Lampposts and parked cars are your friends. For the whole game, really.