Mafia II Hands-on

Playboys, shoot-outs, and car chases are all in a day's work for Vito Scaletta in the latest Mafia II demo.

We recently had a chance to play a new demo of Mafia II--an open-world action game set against the backdrop of organized crime families vying for power in the 1950s. At the beginning of the demo, we saw Vito Scaletta--the game's lead character--inside of his home just as he receives a phone call to meet up with some of his compatriots to find and eventually kill a man from a rival crime family. But before we went outdoors, we spent a few minutes looking around Vito's house when we happened upon a vintage issue of Playboy magazine. Upon picking the magazine up, it automatically opened to an actual picture from that issue--so just as a word of caution, performing this action in a public place with onlookers isn't the best of ideas.

6266842Watch Mafia II in motion at E3 2010.

With that little bit of not-safe-for-work tomfoolery out of the way, we made our way outdoors and headed toward the garage next to Vito's house. Once inside, it seems you can select from a few different types of cars that are faithful to the era. We selected our vehicle and headed out onto the streets, and while the temptation to wreak havoc by running over pedestrians or slamming into other cars was great, we stuck to the designated route on the map. Thus, we made our way to the meeting point--a distillery located a bit closer to the downtown area. Driving seems responsive, but the vehicle physics still feel accurate to the way the cars of the 1950s handled, so don't expect to drive at full speed and then stop on a dime or make a hairpin turn.

We steadily made our way over to the distillery and were careful not to attract attention from the police officers in the car in front of us. We finally reached our destination and took up a position in the building across the street, waiting for our target to show up. When he finally arrived, all hell broke loose as we manned a machine gun in the window and tried to take him down before he could seek safety in the building. Instead of aiming for individual hoodlums, we aimed right for the engines of the cars, which--after a few bursts of machine gun fire--exploded and took out the goons behind them. But the target still managed to get away, so we were told to give chase, run out of the building, and follow him into the distillery.

After a brief scuffle with an enemy who made his way into our location (who happened to meet a particularly nasty end thanks to a point-blank bullet to the face), we headed into the building where a massive firefight broke out. Thankfully, it was pretty easy to move from cover to cover--in this case, barrels and cement pillars throughout the first room--and take out a few thugs with Vito's pistol. But it's also worth noting that your AI-controlled buddies also seem to do a solid job of taking out enemies when you're in a less than optimal position to take shots. In fact, there are some spots in this building where it's generally a good idea to let your allies move in front of you (when they actually can) because you never know when you might turn that corner and have some enemy's scattershot greet your face and take you down. It's just better to let them take the damage for you.

The firefights seemed to get more intense as we reached the upper levels of the building, where we ditched Vito's pistol for a shotgun. After taking out a duo of enemies equipped with their own shotguns, we headed into an elevator and up to the top level of the building where we found our target cowering in a corner. As Vito and his crew moved in to kill him, the rather rotund enemy managed to get one final shot off, injuring Henry Tomasino (a friend of Vito's) by shooting him in the leg. And as luck would have it, the building you're in will also come crashing down thanks to a fire started earlier, so not only do you have to escape the building, but you also have to make sure Henry and the other member of your crew gets out safely.

Naturally, this isn't as easy as it sounds because entrances that were once open are now blocked off by fire. Eventually, you'll make your way outside the building and to an awaiting escape vehicle. Just as you get in the car, the cops show up and give chase as you try to make it back to the safe house. Just as we reached the bridge, we spotted a blockade of police cars and the demo came to an end. Overall, we got a pretty good taste of the different facets of Mafia II's gameplay, but we're eager to see how the rest of the story pans out when Mafia II hits the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on August 24.

75 Comments

  • Sticker704

    Posted Aug 22, 2010 4:20 am GMT

    @tinGgy6015
    No multiplayer that I know of @sgtskywalker
    Don't pirate. Don't do it.

  • sgtskywalker

    Posted Aug 20, 2010 6:13 pm GMT

    @kcproductions
    Lol you can play the sequel by downloading it too. The only thing is that you won't be able to play online but that's not an problem. But for the singleplayer, there is no problem, it will be the same ****ing thing than if you buy a copy, except it will be free and you will be able to use your money on more important things. It's a viable option for those who don't have the money to pay games or those who just want to save money. But then again, there will always be people who wants to support the developpers and buys the game because they are loyal or something, so don't think that everyone will start downloading things and the developpers will be out of money to release more games.

  • studfly

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 4:15 pm GMT

    I am counting the minutes till this game comes out.....Day 1 purchase for me. Have you guys noticed the bad reviews for this so far? It is starting to make me a little nervous. Playstation Official magazine U.K only gave this game a 7.0, and Xbox Official magazine U.K gave this game a 7.0...... Which is not terrible, but those are not very good reviews..... I guess we will wait and see for ourselves

  • Sushiglutton

    Posted Aug 16, 2010 12:27 pm GMT

    Mafia 1 is one of my favourite games. Excellent story and awesome, unforgiving, vehicle controls is what I remember best. There were some extremely difficult car-challenges after you beat the game and one tough race in the game, if I recall correctly. Actually I think they released a patch that allowed u to decrease the difficulty of the race because people struggled (may be what Master_cheat is reffering to?).

    Having played the demo for M2 (PS3) there were some things I really liked: First I think the gunplay works great. I really like how you can move from cover still aiming(or not). The cover system works smoothly and no auto-aiming thank god! Objects breaks nicely. Try shooting some of the windows to see what I mean. The guns feel powerful and authentic. Secondly the vehicles seems to react as stiff as they did in the first game which IMO is awesome.
    Thirdly I love the atmosphere: cars, music, the diners, clothes etc. A small worry I have is that the main character seems a bit dull. Obv we know very, very little at this point but he seems less interesting than say Niko Bellic.

  • kcproductions

    Posted Aug 14, 2010 1:23 pm GMT

    @sgtskywalker
    Because you want to play a sequel ..

  • velsper

    Posted Aug 8, 2010 5:41 am GMT

    Reading about Mafia 2 made me interested in the first one, funny I never heard about it 'til now.

  • sgtskywalker

    Posted Aug 7, 2010 10:06 am GMT

    @Sticker704 lol buy list XD For me, this is certainly on my torrent download list Why pay when you can get it for free

  • tinGgy6015

    Posted Aug 4, 2010 5:40 am GMT

    any news about MP for this game?

  • freaknizzle

    Posted Aug 1, 2010 8:37 pm GMT

    @Sticker704 true

  • Sticker704

    Posted Aug 1, 2010 7:45 am GMT

    This game is certainly on my buy list.
    It almost looks like a Mafia type movie.
    @freaknizzle
    It's called realism. I don't think a real life person could hold a pistol, a shotgun, an SMG, an assault rifle, and 50 grenades along with all the ammo, in his top pocket :-)

  • Arcine281

    Posted Jul 29, 2010 7:52 pm GMT

    sounds like a fun time to me. love how cinematic even the action sequences sound as if you were really there

  • drkleyd

    Posted Jul 6, 2010 9:09 am GMT

    I almost had a heart attack every time it was delayed...
    I expect it will be one of the greatest games ever - history, graphics, gameplay...
    aug 24th... come quickly!

  • isshiah

    Posted Jul 3, 2010 9:30 am GMT

    less than 2 months now...can't wait!

  • freaknizzle

    Posted Jul 1, 2010 10:07 pm GMT

    wait, so can you only have one gun at a time?

  • vandaman123

    Posted Jun 29, 2010 9:58 pm GMT

    This game will kick ass, is supposed to out shine batman for dedicated physx setup, cant wait to c the skirts blows up on the woman as i mob down the street Physx kicks ass

  • ediehunter

    Posted Jun 29, 2010 10:37 am GMT

    anybody know how big the city is im sure it wont be GTA 4 liberty city big but will it be about more than half the size or half the size of GTA 4 liberty city?

  • namnhatho

    Posted Jun 28, 2010 3:50 am GMT

    i can't down load this game

  • bondfan2

    Posted Jun 27, 2010 10:21 pm GMT

    when does the demo come

  • HHamdan81

    Posted Jun 27, 2010 6:59 pm GMT

    Missed to play some real mafia games with a solid storyline.

    Mafia 1 was great .. hope Mafia 2 will rockkk .

  • Chronologo

    Posted Jun 27, 2010 12:19 am GMT

    I never finished the first game, tough I still have my savegame in a backup, but I'll get this one it looks awesome