Mafia II: Defentive Edition Review

While the top down remake of Mafia is drawinga lot of attention, Mafia II: Definitive Edition was remastered and bundled with all previouslyreleased DLC. As a bonus, anyone who owns the original MafiaII received a free upgrade to Mafia II: Definitive Edition.

 Mafia II is inspired by classic gangster filmslike The Godfather. Players are taken to Empire Bay, a fictionalcity inspired by New York City, where a variety gangs battle for territory as people struggleto achieve the American dream. The story has aged reasonably well over theyears. The plot moves quickly with plenty of interestingtwists and turns. The cast of characters are well developed,and players easily get attached to protagonist Vito over the course of the game.

 Out of the three story DLC released, only“Joe’s Adventures” expands upon the main story, filling in the details of Joe’sactivities during one of the game’s time skips. The remaining two appear to be completelynon-canon. Mafia II was originally billed as an openworld shooter, but the game is better described as a linear shooter set in an open world. The distinction is important because MafiaII misses some of the distinguishing features of a proper open world title, such as optionalactivities and side missions. Instead, the game is laser focused on theplayer completing the main story mission and immediately pushing the player onto the nextchapter. 

Therefore, Mafia II is a pretty lousy openworld shooter, but is still a decent linear shooter. The gameplay has aged reasonably well in thelast 10 years. Mafia II was originally released when a numberof mechanics we take for granted today were still being refined or were completely newand innovative. Things like the cover system has stuck around,while the stricter enforcement of traffic laws in game has died out. Combat is still enjoyable. The game offers a wide variety of period appropriateweapons. In terms of combat, the cover system has probablyaged the worst as it is become clunky for modern standards. 

The melee combat is still excellent as itrequires most skill than simply spamming one button. While Mafia II will never be mistaken foran actual fighting game, Vito can perform a small number of combos, counters, and finishingmoves. The driving is still solid. There are a large variety of cars from thetwo time periods the game is set in. Cars are a little more realistic than mostopen world games, needing to be refueled and repaired. Police enforce basic traffic laws like speeding,though are less strict that I remember from the original Mafia. Mafia II hit a good balance between realismand tedium as the player needs to be a little more aware of their car status, such as turningon the speed limiter and keeping an eye on the gas, without having to be utterly paranoidabout obeying traffic laws. The PC version of Mafia II: Definitive Editionis decent, but it could use some improvements. 

The graphic options are more granular comparedto the original game. However, there is some ongoing debate on exactlyhow the game physics has changed in the Definitive Edition as some of the Nvidia physics technologiesthe original game relied on have been long discontinued. The mouse and keyboard controls are stillbarebones. There are a few key functions like use andenter vehicle that could have been grouped int a single key binding. There are also missing quality of life optionslike toggle to aim or crouch that should be added. The game still needs some patching, I raninto glitches like clothing clipping into models and AI pathing bugs. 

The most noticeable upgrade in Mafia II: DefinitiveEdition is the improved textures. Everything looks sharper, more detailed, andmore realistic. The models and the animations do not appearhave changed much. The improved textures do a decent job of hidingthe dated models, but the animations are not as lucky. The humans look a bit wooden and awkward,very much in line with other games released during that period as motion capture was notthe norm for major titles. The audio experience is has held up very wellover the years. The radio is still packed with licensed musicfrom the appropriate eras along with a fair amount of advertisements and radio DJ commentary. The sound effects are enjoyable. The voice acting is excellent for the mostpart, but a few minor NPCs are voiced by very bad actors in comparison to the main characters. Mafia II: 

Definitive Edition adds some visualmodernizations to a 2010 game that has aged reasonably well. Unfortunately, the remastered version failedto upgrade some of the control options to bring it up to modern standards and struggleswith a variety of bugs that will need to be patched out in the coming months. The linear nature of the game will be disappointingfor those looking for a true open world, and a few features feel clunky 10 years later. 

However, Mafia II still offers some of thebest storytelling from the last twenty years. I’m awarding the game 7 capsules out of10. If you want to read this review, be sure tocheck out the link in the description or in the video’s card. I hope to see you soon, this is Jamie fromCapsule Computers signing off. Hey YouTube. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to likeit and subscribe to Capsule Computers for more awesome videos. If you’re looking for more videos to watch,check out our preview of Arboria here on the left. If you’re looking for another open worldshooter to play, check out our review of Borderlands 3 here on the right.