Mafia II Xbox Live Demo Impressions
Mafia II
Rockstar Games has recently released Mafia II onto the Xbox Live market place. As to be expected, Mafia II is impressing gamers all across the gaming community.
Mafia II is possibly the best looking game to be released on the Xbox 360 ever. Instantly, upon starting up the demo, you will be hit with stunning visuals. Starting out in the main characters, Vito, house, you will be able to see the stunningly sharp textures and the bright visuals outside of your window. You will hear the phone ringing which is another display of interesting technology. As you look away, or focus your camera in a different direction, the phone’s ring will be dulled. I was actually confused as to where the phone was, and had to keep directing my camera in different directions in order to be able to hear where the ring is focused the most and then walk in its direction.
After a cutscene or two and getting into the action, you are the introduced to the games firefights and realistic deaths. The deaths, at the risk of being redundant, are very well programmed and animated. The shooting controls are similar to that of what you would experience in Grand Theft Auto 4. It is very easy to aim and shoot at an enemy, but with the advanced animation and programming in the game, it really allows you to feel as if your bullets are making an impact. Instead of cheap rag doll physics when your enemy is shot, the enemy will really experience blow back and writhe in pain from it for moments. When I picked up the shot gun, you could really feel how it does damage, as one shot can down an enemy, although it may not even be a fatal shot. It makes you feel as if you are re-enacting an actual mafia movie that you would watch on television. The textures and lighting throughout the levels are truly stunning and really give you the shady vibe of the environment.
The police work in an interesting way in this game. It is more of a realistic experience, I would like to say. If you get in a car crash, the police may track you down on account of a hit and run charge. Or if you go around attacking people, they will slap you with assault. The police, however, have pretty poor AI and it is often easy to escape them. The hand to hand combat has been made very easy and unskilled. All you have to do is hold one button and your character will dodge all incoming punches towards you. I personally think Rockstar should have taken the approach that they did with Grand Theft Auto IV and allow you to dodge if you nail the timing on your guard.
All in all, Mafia II is an extremely visually pleasing game and very story driven. It is a game that is definitely worth it for those gamers whom are looking for a linear, yet sand box, game with a compelling story and visuals.
