Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. Originally announced in August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention, it was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2010.The Mac OS X edition of the game was published by Feral Interactive in December 2011. A version of the game for mobile platformswas developed by Twistbox Entertainment and released in 2010 by Connect2Media.Gameplay
The player character engaging in a gunfight with the authorities. Police awareness in the game works in a similar manner as with the previous game, although the player can now bribe or pay fines after committing an offense.
Many firearms from the previous return, such as the Thompson submachine gun and Colt 1911, as well as a pump-action shotgun (though it was changed from a Winchester Model 12 to a Remington 870). New WWII-era weapons like the MP 40, the M3 submachine gun, the MG 42 and the Beretta Model 38 also appear in the game.
Interacting with objects in the environment involves two action buttons- a standard action and a "violent" action (for example, when stealing a car, the player may choose to either pick its lock or break the window glass), used in context-sensitive situations. A map is included as in the original Mafia game. The checkpoint system has been completely overhauled.New controls include a cover system that allows the player to hide behind objects (such as generators, walls and large crates) to shoot enemies, rather than just using a crouch while behind an object.
It has been stated by 2K Czech that the game's cutscenes are created by the game engine, in real-time, rather than pre-rendered cutscenes. For example, if the player is riding in a car and a cut scene starts, the player will be driving the same car and if the car is damaged, that too will appear in the cut scene. Certain scenes, however, such as the opening sequence and the Empire Arms Hotel explosion, were presented as pre-rendered Bink videos.
The game has three different in game radio stations, Empire Central Radio, Empire Classic Radio and Delta Radio, with licensed music, news, and commercials. The radio stations includes music from different genres including rock and roll, big band, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, among others with licensed songs by Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Bing Crosby, Bill Haley & His Comets, The Chordettes, Bo Diddley, Rick Nelson, Eddie Cochran, The Champs The Drifters, The Fleetwoods, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Andrews Sisters, among others.
Synopsis
The game begins with Vito Scaletta looking over a photo album, as he begins to tell his story in voice over. He was born in Sicily in 1925 to an extremely poor family. A few years later, his family immigrates to the fictional Empire Bay in America. They are no better off there than they were in Sicily. As he gets older, Vito gets involved with a local criminal named Joe Barbaro, who becomes his best friend. Vito is arrested during a botched robbery and given a choice: Go to jail or join the army. He chooses the latter and ends up in Sicily in World War II, which he helps liberate before getting shot and sent home on leave.Once home, he is discharged courtesy of Joe's Mafia connections, and learns that his dead father left his family in massive debt. Vito's mother tells him to start working for his dead father's boss at the docks named Derek. Hoping to make more money, Vito turns to Joe, who introduces him to Henry Tomasino, an employee of crime boss Alberto Clemente. Working under Henry, a soldato in the Clemente crime family, Vito does several illegal jobs. On one of the jobs however is ambushed when Vito and Joe rob a jewelry store at a shopping mall by an Irish mob. After a brief shootout, Vito and Joe escape. The next day, Henry introduces Vito to a man name Luca Gurino who sends Vito, Joe, and Henry to assassinate a man at a factory. At the factory, the trio does in fact succeed in the job, but Henry is injured by a bullet in the leg. Though Vito makes the money to pay the debt, he is soon arrested and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Once inside, Vito falls in with the crowd of Leo Galante, consigliere for Frank Vinci, another crime boss. After doing some jobs for him in prison (one of them is killing the Irish mob leader) Galante manages to shorten Vito's sentence.
He is released in 1951. Once out, Vito meets up with Joe, who now works for the last of Empire Bay's three crime bosses, Carlo Falcone. He starts doing odd jobs for Falcone and another man Eddie Scarpa. Later some of Falcone's men have been captured by Luca at a meat factory, but one out of the three men are killed. Vito does manage to save the other two men and takes out Luca and his men. After killing Luca, Vito and Joe then swear and an oath and join the Falcone family. Vito does in fact manage to get a house near the bay.
Vito's biggest job comes when he is sent to kill Clemente, who has participated in the drug trade, against the commission's wishes. Vito and Joe then head to the Empire Bay hotel with Joe's 17 year old friend and neighbor Marty. At the hotel, Joe tells Marty to stay in the car inside the parking lot, while Vito and Joe head into the hotel disguised as a hotel staff. They head into the conference room where Clemente and his men are having a meeting and sets a bomb in the room. The bomb then goes off and the conference room explodes killing everybody inside. Vito and Joe then find out that Clemente was in the bathroom and didn't get killed in the explosion. After shooting many of Clemente's men in the hotel, they then head to the garage and find Marty dead. An angry Joe then chases Clemente in a car chase with Vito. Once Clemente's car is wrecked, Joe then kills him and leaves his body in the car.
Soon after, Vito is approached by Henry, who wants to defect to Falcone's crew. In order to do this, he is ordered by Eddie to kill Galante, though Vito saves his old friend by convincing Henry to let Galante simply disappear. During the night, the Irish gang formerly led by Brian O'Neill whom Vito killed in prison on Galante's orders, burns his house to the ground. Broke, he turns to Joe who helps him get revenge. They both head to a bar take out most of the gang members, thought the new leader tries escape in car, Vito then shoots the gas tank leaving the car to explode. Joe then gives Vito the key to Marty's apartment. To help him get out of debt, Henry gets Vito and Joe involved in the drug trade, revealing that Falcone is also involved. Although Vito is successful, the Chinese (who supplied the drugs) discover that Henry is a federal informant and acting on this new found information. They brutally kill him in the middle of the park with meat cleavers in broad daylight. Angered, Vito and Joe seek revenge and shoot up a Chinatown restaurant, killing the Chinese enforcer Mr. Wong who won't give them any further information. They are now indebted to the loan shark they got money for the drugs from. Now very poor and in large debt, Vito is tasked to earn most of the money through his own means, which involves petty theft throughout Empire Bay.
Vito and Joe eventually manage to get the money back; in the process, they kill Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, the protagonist of the first Mafia game, and Vito finds out that his father's boss Derek and his right hand man Steve killed his father leaving Vito to kill them both. However, Joe and Vito are then kidnapped by Frank Vinci at a constrctiong site. The two escape leaving half of Vinci's men dead.
Sadly, the incident with the Chinese has caused too much tension between Falcone and Vinci, as both believe the other did it, and Vito is forced by Vinci's men, led by Galante, to assassinate his boss. With Joe's help, Vito succeeds by killing Falcone at a planatarium and they go with Galante to celebrate. The car Joe is in suddenly turns away at an intersection. Galante apologizes to Vito and claims that Joe wasn't a part of the offer he made for him, indicating that Joe is on his way to be killed. The game shows an angry Vito finally realizing that he's lost everything as a consequence for the path he chose (being in the Mafia). The game ends with a panoramic view of Empire Bay.
Marketing and release
[17] An extended version of the trailer was released on 15 January with an extra 30 seconds of cut scene footage.The first gameplay footage debuted on GameSpot on 17 April 2009 as part of an interview with Mafia II's producer, Denby Grace. The video shows driving and gunplay aspects to gameplay as well as portraying the physics engine. The interview was later removed.
A third trailer was uploaded to the website on 28 May 2009. From 1 June 2009, four short videos are to be added to the Mafia II website. The first of these is called "The Art Of Persuasion" and features the song "Mercy, Mr Percy" by the female singer Varetta Dillard
Another video was released featuring footage from the mission "The Buzzsaw". The video reveals the fate of "The Fat Man" who appeared in the earlier trailers.[20] On 27 March 2010, a new trailer was released showcasing the PhysX-based cloth and physics system used in the game.
On 3 August 2010, Sheridyn Fisher, the face of Playboy Swim 2010, became the official ambassador for Mafia II. Sheridyn’s involvement with Mafia II highlights the agreement between 2K Games and Playboy magazine to use 50 of their vintage covers and Centerfolds in Mafia II as part of the in-game collectibles integration. A demo for the game was released on 10 August 2010 on Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network
Pre-order bonuses
On 26 May 2010 four content packs were offered as pre-order bonus's in America and European countries, each one available through different retailers. The Vegas Pack containing two additional cars and suits for Vito and the War Hero Pack containing two military-style vehicles and suits was available from GameStop and EBGames. The Renegade Pack containing two sports cars and two jackets was available from Amazon and the Greaser Pack featuring two hot-rods and two suits were available to Best Buy customers. These pre-order packs are now available for purchase as game add-ons on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam. On 26 May 2010 a collector's edition was announced for Mafia II.PlayStation 3 version
The PlayStation 3 version became subject to controversy on 2K's Mafia II forums when 2K's interactive marketing manager Elizabeth Tobey stated that the PlayStation 3 version would be missing certain graphical details that were present in the Windows and Xbox 360 versions including three dimensional grass, pools of blood forming under dead bodies and realistic cloth physics. These details were said to be present in earlier builds of the game, but had to be removed to increase the game's frame rate.Upon release, the PS3 version received the same or higher review scores than the Xbox 360 version from Destructoid and Nowgamer (sites that review the game on multiple platforms rather than the normal practice of reviewing a single platform) due to additional content.Metacritic gave both versions the same score of 74/100, while GameRankings has the Xbox 360 version 4 points ahead of the PS3 version based on more reviews.
Downloadable content
Three downloadable content packs have been announced for the game. The first, titled "The Betrayal of Jimmy" is a PlayStation 3 exclusive episode that was a free download upon release to users who purchase the game new. This was announced by Sony on 15 June 2010 at E3 2010The second installment of downloadable content, "Jimmy's Vendetta", was released on PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Steam on 7 September 2010.[34] "Joe's Adventures", the third and final DLC was released on 23 November 2010. "Joe's Adventures" focuses on the events that occur in Empire Bay during the years that Vito is imprisoned in the main Mafia II storyline while playing as Vito's best friend Joe Barbaro and seeing his perspective. The DLC combines standard missions with score-based, open world missions. It is estimated to provide eight hours of gameplay.[35]
The Russian company 1C officially announced Mafia II: Extended Edition for the Russian market. It will include the game, 4 DLC (Vegas Pack, Renegade Pack, Greaser Pack, and War Hero Pack), and "The Betrayal of Jimmy", which was previously available as a PlayStation 3 exclusive addon, as well as the 2 other addons (Jimmy's Vendetta and Joe's Adventures). It was released on 3 December 2010 for PS3 and Windows. It will be released for Xbox 360 later.[citation needed] The same package is released for Western markets as Mafia II: Director's Cut on PC, Mac OS X[2] and their respective budget labels on consoles.[36]
