Mafia II - Demo review

I like it, but then that's to be expected. I like the GTA series and Mafia II is essentially GTA Mafia.

The Demo offers you 10 minutes of play (or you can hack the Timer for...er...a more thorough review? Yeah, that works. Nothing like a good rationalization.) within a small portion of the game world, and if you go outside the boundary you "lose" the Demo's linear mission. Fortunately the 10 minutes is the only timer in the Demo so once it's no longer counting down you pretty much have free reign within the Demo, or at least within the Demo's playable area.

One of the things I didn't like was the biased, heavy-handedness of the police. Rounding one corner I had a minor fender bender with another car. The police were perhaps 100 yards ahead of us and both myself and the other car came to a complete stop, but as I looked on the police car's lights came on and the built-in police scanner announced a Hit & Run. The cop car's doors opened and the police began running back towards us, guns drawn.

A Hit & Run? What Hit & Run??? We'd both stopped our cars. There was no Hit & Run!

Then I was being pulled from my car and arrested at gun point, for a non-existent Hit & Run.

Later I would deliberately run in front of a car traveling in front of a police car, and despite being struck & injured and the offending car continuing to drive on in a classic case of Hit & Run...the police did nothing.

Another thing I didn't like was being forced to install Steam along with the Demo. I don't really have any rational reason for not liking Steam, but I object to having to install & run a third party program to play the Demo when that program has absolutely nothing to do with the game (yes, yes. I know Mafia II can be multiplayed via Steam, but that's Mafia II the GAME, not Mafia II the DEMO). That's actually almost enough to turn me off buying the Game, if I'm forced to play it via Steam. And yes, I know I can tweak Steam to run it in Offline Mode but why should I have to? If I only want to play Mafia II as a Single Player game, and only as a Single Player Game, why do I need to install & run a Third-party peer-to-peer client?

But the game is good, or at least the Demo is, and by inference the Game must be, too. After all, it's GTA Mafia. What's not to like?

I liked how 'Cover' worked in combat, with the ability to use Mouse Look to scope out the situation prior to Right-Click/Leaning out to shoot. I also liked that cover wasn't always bullet proof, and that you could still be shot while 'taking cover' if you weren't careful.

If you don't care one way or another about Steam, and if you liked the GTA series, particularly those from III onward, you'll probably like Mafia II. I like it too; I'm just not sure I like it enough to overlook the forced bundling of Steam along with it, even if I do understand why it's been included. Personally, I think the User should have the option of not installing Steam, and being able to play Mafia II as a Single Player-only game.

The Demo isn't enough to convince me to pay full price for Mafia II, but it has reminded me that I never bought GTA IV, and with it being available now for just $20 I might finally add it to my library.

*edit* I did find this amusing. I was experimenting with the hand-to-hand combat system, which is fun, even if it's not Tekken. In fact it's just left-clicking or right-clicking for a light hit or heavy hit, but your avatar does throw combos as you gain the upper hand, or your opponent if you're losing the fight, which is a nice touch. After beating up on a few guys I drew the attention of the police, managed to resist arrest (by beating up the arresting officer), then successfully fled the scene of the crime. However, I was still a Wanted Man and thus prone to attracting attention if a cop saw me, which one did.

While playing you come across the odd tip, and one Tip said to be careful brandishing weapons in Gun Stores because Gun Store owners are armed themselves.

Now it just so happened that I attracted the attention of the local constabulary while outside a Gun Store, and with it being one of the few building you can enter I quickly ducked inside and hid behind the counter. When the cop chased me inside he drew his gun and shot at me...and was promptly blown away by the Gun Store owner.

I doubt the Gun Store owner has become a Wanted Man now himself, but I did find it an amusing touch that he was willing to defend himself against a perceived attack by shooting a police officer.