Mafia II Review

By John Teti Published 24 August, 2010

Crime doesn't play.

Version tested:

The remarkable thing about Mafia II is not that it's bad, but that it masks its awfulness so well. The game opens with striking visuals: the backdrop of Empire Bay (Mafia's stand-in for New York City) is packed with World War II-era details, and the characters are authentic-looking, with a veneer of humanity. The nicely curated oldies soundtrack promises to immerse us in the culture and spirit of the period. Mafia II has the production values that players interpret as signs of quality. What comes next is cognitive dissonance.

Playing this Potemkin village of a game is an eerie experience. Mafia II puts up such a convincing facade that it's hard to believe Empire Bay is, in fact, practically empty. Even after four hours of play, I told myself, "Once I get past these boring tutorial stages, the actual game is going to be great." As I slogged through a mission to canvass Empire Bay's local gas stations and sell off extra fuel stamps, the truth dawned on me: This was the actual game. Mafia II was having me play stamp salesman, and it wasn't even kidding.

2K Czech's developers have dressed up their latest title to masquerade as a vast, Rockstar-style open world, and a pretty masquerade it is, too. But the reality is that Mafia II strings the player through a couple of dozen mandatory missions, all of them straight out of the Grand Theft Auto reject pile, and the potential for exploration is nil.

You can sometimes ignore your current objective and drive around, but why would you? There's nowhere to go. The map's points of interest are almost useless, like clothing stores that feature a handful of drab outfits. Likewise, there's nothing behind the pretty face of protagonist Vito Scaletta, a charmless zero who does whatever he is told to do no matter who asks, obliging all corners of the Empire Bay organised-crime machine with his robotic smile. Rough up some innocent dockworkers? OK. Switch families? You got it. Deal drugs? No problem. He does have occasional moments of rebellion, but because of the character's general vapidity, they ring false.

More on Mafia II

Vito's buddy Joe is supposed to be the dumb one, and indeed, like most of the characters in Mafia II, he is a detestable cretin. At least Joe has some sense of self-agency, though. He's the one that hatches the plans and lays the groundwork for Vito's career; our hero simply follows Joe's lead.

Given that he's such an unimpressive recruit, it figures that the mob enlists Vito to do their most mundane errands. Whenever a capo needs someone to drive from point A to point B, Scaletta's their man. You hit the asphalt for meeting after meeting, with the occasional fight tossed in whenever the developers felt the need to make something actually happen (a relatively rare impulse).

Vito mostly finds himself behind the wheel of lumbering saloons, whose slowness exacerbates the game's boredom. You can soup up the cars at a body shop to give them more pep, except the police will try to pull you over if you drive at speeds over 55 or so, always ready to stamp out any marginal excitement that might occur. They are, in fact, a bit less aggressive than in the original Mafia. That's small consolation, though, when your mission is derailed yet again by the obligation to drive in circles and shake the idiot cops.

The joys of the open road are punctuated with battles, typically fought with fists or guns. The hand-to-hand combat could be described as Double Dragon For Idiots. In essence, there is one move - dodge, then counterpunch - and it will carry you through every fistfight. The rhythm is so simple that you can practically fight blind, which is lucky, as the camera has a fetish for the pugilists' upper backs.

During shootouts, the player ducks in and out of cover to gun down waves of armed assailants. It's pretty standard fare, executed with Mafia II's trademark clumsiness. While the settings vary, the stultifying, unimaginative use of space is consistent. You're almost always slogging down a corridor, picking off jack-in-the-box thugs who pop into view every couple of seconds.

That might be for the best, because when the game does diverge from that template, the results are even worse. The interiors are too nondescript, which means that in anything but a hallway, it's easy to get lost amid the sameness. In practice, getting lost for even a moment tends to result in an instant-death headshot.

Other design missteps abound. The movement controls are restrictive - Vito's sprint is more of a jog - but they are at least adequate. The same can't be said for the mini-map radar, whose unpredictable scale makes it useful only for determining if there are enemies in your general vicinity. And often, it even fails at that, showing phantom bogies that are actually far removed from your locale (down in the basement, for instance).

The upshot of this muddle is that it's hard to be sure when a room is clear. Vito's enemies have a tendency to huddle behind cover for an extremely long time - that is, they're campers - so even when everything seems quiet, there might be one instance of recalcitrant artificial intelligence lurking in the corner.

I often find myself glancing at one last red dot on the map and wondering: Is that bastard actually where the radar says he is, or is it safe to proceed? The only way to find out is to emerge from cover and take a look, and if there is someone there, pop, I'm dead, and I'm returned to the last auto-save checkpoint. (There is no manual save option.)

Then it's time for the guessing game that every Mafia II player will learn to hate: "Where's The Checkpoint?" Let's play a round right now.

The scenario: The start of a new "chapter" in the game. I get into a gunfight outside my home. I fend off the attackers. I'm told that I must drive to Joe's place (since every problem in this game can be solved with driving). I arrive, climb the stairs to his apartment, ring the doorbell, and wait. He eventually lets me in. A long chat. Two cut-scenes. We drive somewhere else. (Naturally!) As we near our destination, I get cut off by a truck turning into my lane, my car slams into a telephone pole, and I die.

OK, your turn: Where's the checkpoint?

If you guessed, "all the way back at the beginning of the freaking chapter, before the cut-scenes, driving, gunfight, and everything else," then apparently you have also experienced Mafia II's sadistic autosave stinginess. I feel your pain. I'm thinking of forming a support group.

After all, the only built-in moral support comes from ol' Joe, and his good intentions only go so far. When the bullets start flying, Joe tries to keep things light by rattling off selections from his limited complement of voice lines. It's bad enough that he repeats himself, but he also has a hard time coming up with material that even applies to your current situation. "I'm the best!" he says when you get off a good shot. "I'm going in - cover me!" he barks as he stands still.

Joe explains his subpar diction away with a boast: "When you measure seven inches soft, you don't have to be good with words." If that's true, the 2K Czech writing team must cut an especially impressive profile, so to speak, because their game shows a systemic disdain for the English language.

One of the most flavourful aspects of modern mafia fiction is its economy of speech. In a subculture where paranoia reigns, the most powerful communications take place in code and innuendo. "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse," may be a cliché now, but damn, that line accomplished a lot with very little. The mobsters in Mafia II, however, are coarse brutes who leave nothing to the imagination. They mire the game in endless cut-scenes where they speechify about who they'll whack next.

It's a 14-year-old's vision of the mafia, although that slanders the many 14-year-olds who would see through this game's desperation to appear adult. There's one ham-fisted scene in which a mid-level capo chats with Vito while a stripper fellates him to climax - did everyone in the room at 2K Czech think that was really fresh stuff? What about the attempted-anal-rape mélee brawl, or the extended dialogue about vomit smell mixing with dead-body smell? Did dignity enter into the conversation at all?

Mafia II is fascinating, not in spite of its innumerable mistakes but because of them. It's the ultimate example of a game designed to look nice in television commercials and achieve nothing else. There are so many vestigial features I haven't even mentioned - the nudie-mag collectibles, a superfluous lock-picking mini-game, the irrelevant money system. It's dysfunctional. In my head, I keep turning its twisted corpse over with mordant intrigue. How did this happen?

In a way Mafia II it makes its own contribution to the myth of the American mafia. Mob lore is built up so that we can watch it be destroyed. The Godfather trilogy constructed the myth of the honourable crime family and then devised its beautiful collapse. The Sopranos took the icon of an urbane, self-assured don and peeled it away from every corner.

Mafia II gets the last word by destroying the myth that the mafia is interesting at all. It contends that the mob world is a hell of boredom populated by aggressively stupid automatons. These drones wake up each morning, carry out a series of repetitious tasks, and return home. The message: thug life is nothing more than it appears. And Mafia II is even less.

4 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of John.

About John Teti

John Teti is a writer and producer based in New York. His interests include games, TV, cake, and being a writer and producer based in New York.

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Teti archive page.

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Comments (421) 6 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • coastal #1 1 year ago

    \o/

  • woodnotes #2 1 year ago

    This score doesn't surprise me after the demo.

    Although I felt like I was the only one who wasn't impressed.

  • Widge #3 1 year ago

    Does the 360 version get a higher mark for having grass?

  • AshTray #4 1 year ago

    Hahaha, this is hilarious!

  • makememoo #5 1 year ago

    God with all the advertising everywhere i turn online i assumed this was targeting goty or something. I'm surprised they even allowed review code out the door before the first weekend of sales.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 08:11

  • DUFFMAN5 #6 1 year ago

    Oh well. Lets see what fellow EG-ers rate it then.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:35

  • MrGilder #7 1 year ago

    Ouch, has this score gonna fly with the Mafia 2 adverts all over the site? Not that it means anything much to the general public, take Kane and Lynch as the perfect example...

  • Tomo #8 1 year ago

    Gestalt... is that... you?!

  • McPhisto74 #9 1 year ago

    Question is; where did 2k Czech go wrong? Or did they..? Review-scores are miles apart from one to the other. Though the demo did not impress me either, or at least did not give me the feeling I was playing a small part of the next big thing, I'm still planning on getting this... If the experience is somewhere near Mafia I it will still be a very good game to me
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:56

  • Master09 #10 1 year ago

    This is an offer I refuse!

    Capish?

  • 52pickup #11 1 year ago

    I think 4/10 is the lowest score i've seen yet. The highest was 9/10 (Game Informer).

    Generally seems to be getting mixed reviews right across the board.

  • mk-1601 #12 1 year ago

    I'll reserve final judgement until I play it, but this review does sound like it utterly misses the point of the game. The first game was broken in a myriad utterly inconsequential ways and not even slightly trying to be GTA, and that was great.

  • zoidberg #13 1 year ago

    I've just played it to 20% completion.
    The review is pretty accurate. It's mindless, repetitive and boring. The city is pretty empty (and small for that matter).

    However, the atmosphere is there. It may not be a great (or even good) game, but the feel of the 1940s is there.

  • lockload #14 1 year ago

    6/10 on giant bomb sounds about right o me

  • Perfecto #15 1 year ago

    Once again Eurogamer give a really low score to a game that deserves better. Congratulations Eurogamer, you're going to be at the bottom of the metacritic list just like you wanted.

  • Darren #16 1 year ago

    What a scathing review. I know EG gave the first game 4/10 and the demo hinted at a lack of stuff to do outside of the missions but I never got the sense it was THAT bad. After playing the demo though I knew this game was not going to be a classic, the developers appear to have missed too many opportunities for that and seem to have just remade the original game with better graphics rather than attempting to advance it. Considering how long the game has been in development that is a real letdown.

    Still buying it though for the story (although EG's review makes even that sound terrible) but with the other review scores coming in at around the 70% mark it looks like the game is yet another missed opportunity to join last week's (dreadful) Kane & Lynch 2, which at least had the decency not to tease you with an empty, uninteresting open world to free-roam in!!!

  • naffgeek #17 1 year ago

    erm pedant alert!, what does self-agency mean? I could be a dumb ass or you could have meant self-urgency....sorry, I'll get my coat.

    Well what do you know....I am a dumb ass. Thanks Tonyb for pulling me on that. This could be why I am not a journo.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 15:43

  • Apollo #18 1 year ago

    Well that's a goddamn shame...canceling pre- order and waiting for price to come down...having enjoyed the PC demo somewhat...

  • George-Roper #19 1 year ago

    Didn't even play the demo and knew this would be bollocks.

    Some games just stink, even in adverts.

  • naffgeek #20 1 year ago

    on a more relevant note....when are developers going to realise that authenticity is great but it is also a GAME..!!! so fun and interesting would trump it in most peoples minds imo. Just look at Red Dead.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 08:27

  • YenooR #21 1 year ago

    So should I get Kane and Lynch instead????

  • sport #22 1 year ago

    Looks to me like EG will be swimming with the fishes.

  • Darren #23 1 year ago

    Funny how reviews can be so drastically different from person to person. GameSpot gave Mafia 2 8.5/10 ( http://uk .gamespot.com/xbox360/action/ma... ) citing these as the reason why the game is so good:

    * Fantastic action set pieces
    * Shooting and hand-to-hand combat are both highly satisfying
    * Empire City is beautiful and stuffed with period detail
    * Brutal, involving story populated with interesting, well-acted characters.

    Doesn't sound like the same game EG reviewed, does it?

  • linea #24 1 year ago

    I think the telling moment for me in the demo was the very beginning when, despite being set in the 40s, the radio was playing a rock'n'roll song. It just immediately made me think 'these guys don't give a shit, not really'. Just seemed such a jarring error in a game that's supposedly all about period detail.

  • UncleLou #25 1 year ago

    May I ask which version was reviewed? Because playing both the PC and PS3 demos felt like playing two completely different games altogether.

    Anyway, I am confused. Loved the first one to bits, think it's one of the finest 3rd person shooters to date. The demo felt like - a good thing - more of the same. The original has a Metacritic average of 88 (PC version). So where did it all go wrong? And if I am already confused, what about the poor chaps at 2K Czech? :-)
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 08:30

  • Darren #26 1 year ago

    @linea - The demo was set in the 1950s I believe so the music was appropriate to the era. The full game spans a period from the 1940s to 1950s from what I've read.

  • Darren #27 1 year ago

    @YenooR - I'd say definitely NOT because I thought K&L2 was definitely deserving of the 4/10 score it got from EG; it's a terrible game IMO. I can't say for certain whether Mafia 2 is that bad yet but somehow I just find it hard to believe it is; from the demo I fully expect a competent 6 or 7/10 game. We'll see though come Friday.

  • TitusCrow #28 1 year ago

    Didn't expect this :o I never bothered to play the demo but was more than likely going to get the game if the reviews were good - scratch that..

  • BillPoon #29 1 year ago

    Ach, that's a shame. I'll still play it, but I'm not quite as eager as I was after the demo.

  • Shinetop #30 1 year ago

    it's hard to believe Empire Bay is, in fact, practically empty.
    Mafia II was having me play stamp salesman, and it wasn't even kidding.
    But the reality is that Mafia II strings the player through a couple of dozen mandatory missions
    the potential for exploration is nil.
    You can sometimes ignore your current objective and drive around, but why would you? There's nowhere to go. The map's points of interest range from almost useless - clothing stores that feature a handful of drab outfits - to outright baffling, like the aforementioned gas stations in a world where the cars never run out of gas.
    OK, your turn: Where's the checkpoint? If you guessed, "all the way back at the beginning of the freaking chapter, before the cut-scenes, driving, gunfight, and everything else," then apparently you have also experienced Mafia II's sadistic autosave stinginess


    How is this in any way different than GTA4? Especially the autosave business? I guess what gets criticism here warrants a perfect 10/10 when it comes from Rockstar, huh?

  • Hix15 #31 1 year ago

    I think tihs review is spot on after the demo 4/10 just below average

  • MiniAmin #32 1 year ago

    Haha, no wonder the advertising campaign was so bloody intrusive!

    Can we get rid of it now EG? Please?

  • midnight_walker #33 1 year ago

    "Congratulations Eurogamer, you're going to be at the bottom of the metacritic list just like you wanted."
    "Eurogamer is losing all credibility with these kind of reviews."

    EG have been doing this for a while, but really since they gave Dragon Age: Origins a 6/10 I have taken their reviews with an enormous helping of salt, and now they simply don't affect my purchasing decision at all, because I can't trust that what they say is accurate, which is incredibly unhelpful for a review site. I'll still get Mafia II, and if it sucks then I'll sell it, but I get this nagging feeling that EG has somehow missed the point.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 08:42

  • dfua #34 1 year ago

    John Teti strikes again, slaughtering average to decent games. Add two points to the score and it should be about fair.

  • leafmulch #35 1 year ago

    Where are all the game designers? I get that there are plenty of graphics artists, animators, sound engineers and so on, but there's no one designing things to do with new and interesting mechanics. Create a well realised world and then fail to fill it with anything interesting to experience. Open world games seem to have a problem and I've not seen an example of this changing or improving. Once you've taken one helicopter ride around the bay or played darts or 'sold stamps?' then why would you want to do it again? These experiences aren't developed enough to hold interest and I'm sure whoever is making the game knows it too. I could have attached this comment to GTA, Crackdown or whatever, but at least those games excelled in a few areas whereas this just looks kinda nice if you like that 1930s aesthetic. I support the harsh score - who needs an interactive movie where nothing interesting at all ever happens? Next time get a game designer to fill your open world.

  • mikeck #36 1 year ago

    Having played the game I disagree with this low a score, it's flawed and not great, but it is better than Mr. Teti suggests. Is this a case of giving a low score to generate more site hits (just asking)?

    Also, cars can run out of gas...don't know what game you were playing.

  • UncleLou #37 1 year ago

    All the complaints in the review can be applied to Mafia too, and how awesome is that game ?

    I think that partly explains the huge difference in review scores. It's not, and never was meant to be, a sandbox/open-world game. It is (or at least the first Mafia was) a linear game that's about shootout setpieces.

  • Fab4 #38 1 year ago

    After all that advertising on here too ;) :p

  • shoneyul #39 1 year ago

    Well, John Teti made reviews for god damn Limbo and Skate 3 so that definetly qualifies him to do MAFIA 2 review, a game many of us have been waiting for the last 10 years. I don't really understand what is wrong with you EG, letting a guy like this making such an important review. I mean come on guys, freaking "50 Cent: Blood on the Sand" gets a 7/10 score, and this almost epic game gets a 4?????? What is this? U guys got it to your head that you are the most strict reviews website on the net, so now you are obligated to make a bad review for a good game? Like Yhatzee on Zero Punctuation? Well I must say this really dissapointed me and as one of your biggest fans(always waited to read your reviews before any other because i trusted them more then anything else on the web), I will no longer read them as I feel that you have gone to much mainstream. Hopefully this guy will be fired and everything will go back to normal. You are the lowest score on the web on this game, just like the first, a game which revolutionized the "mob games" industry. John Teti, my boy, please, I and many others, beg of you, Go back to doing reviews for Xbox Live Arcade games aka freaking Limbo - which by the way you gave it a 9/10 for 3 hours of gameplay.

  • TonyB #40 1 year ago

    @naffgeek: Sorry to inform you of this, but it appears you are a dumb ass. http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_ag...

  • Cosquae #41 1 year ago

    What's the problem with the score? 4/10 is 'below average' which is what the review makes it sound like to me.

    It's nice to see review score inflation not happening in EG. Stop thinking an '8' is bad, a '9' is good and a '10' is great. 1-7 exists for a reason.

  • Darren #42 1 year ago

    @ClubHeaven - Couldn't you argue that Mafia 2 being the same linear action shooter as the first game is part of the reason it got the score it did? I'm not saying the EG score is 'right', by the way, just saying that it shouldn't be unreasonable to expect a sequel to an almost decade old game to give so much more given the technology available now.

    At the very least I was expecting some stuff to do outside of the missions so unless that's added as DLC then that seems to be a massive wasted opportunity IMO given how much apparent effort has gone into creating Empire City. It may not kill the game per se but it does unfortunately add to its emptiness and that was apparent even in the ten minute demo.

  • jarek98 #43 1 year ago

    I completely agree with the criticizm of the checkpoints system. But why it was never mentioned with connection to GTA IV? The lack of checkpoints rendered GTA IV completely unplayable for me - and NOT A SINGLE REVIEWER was kind enough to warn me about it.... Money talks or what?

  • feistycheese #44 1 year ago

    Whether it deserves 4/10 or 6/10, it still sounds pretty awful. If you dont like the reviews or scores Eurogamer gives, then just go another site that gives the score you want (like Gamespot, who seem to give every game that has been marketed to high heaven at least 8 no matter how shit it is).

  • Widge #45 1 year ago

    I'd rather 3 hours of something special than 300 hours of turd

  • Martin #46 1 year ago

    Oops. Thought the demo (on the 360) was quite alright.

    Oh well, at least that's one game less I have to play this fall. ;)

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #47 1 year ago

    Clunky and broken with great production values, this sounds like a genuine sequel to Mafia alright. So, I'm still going to play this.

  • the_dudefather #48 1 year ago

    as good as Mafia 1 then?

  • wizlon #49 1 year ago

    Good review.

  • leafmulch #50 1 year ago

    I'd rather 3 hours of something special than 300 hours of turd

    +1

  • Widge #51 1 year ago

    "It's a 14-year-old's vision of the mafia, although that slanders the many 14-year-olds who would see through this game's desperation to appear adult. There's one ham-fisted scene in which a mid-level capo chats with Vito while a stripper fellates him to climax - did everyone in the room at 2K Czech think that was really fresh stuff? What about the attempted-anal-rape mélee brawl, or the extended dialogue about vomit smell mixing with dead-body smell? Did dignity enter into the conversation at all?"

    THIS is what is wrong with story focussed gaming at the moment. Far too many devs have no idea how to make an adult themed game, and on the whole their attempts come off childish and immature. Cringeworthy slapstick bollocks. 18 thanks to the content, not thanks to the quality. Almost as if the game box should show signs of attempting to grow a Tache.

  • smoothpete #52 1 year ago

    Ouch! I was expecting great things

  • cianchristopher #53 1 year ago

    So what? Nearly every complaint levelled at the game in this review could be fairly levelled at Grand Theft Auto 4 as well. And critics were falling all over themselves to give that game a slobbery blowjob back in 2008.

    Terrible "on-foot" controls? Check! Shitty main character? Check! Rubbish shooting mechanics? Check! Crappy checkpoint system? Check! Boring cars? Check! Useless main story? Check!

    So it's a 10/10, eh EG?

  • Skandalle #54 1 year ago

    I actually got blinded into thinking this COULD be good...

  • SeanBeansGravyBoat #55 1 year ago

    I don't read Eurogamer reviews to get informed, well thought-out opinion.

    I read Eurogamer reviews for a laugh.

  • Gl3n #56 1 year ago

    Does anyone else suspect the devs as commentators?

  • Haloboy #57 1 year ago

    *Wakes up*

    *Splutters coffee all over screen*

    A FUCKING FOUR!?!?!?

  • andywilkie35 #58 1 year ago

    Demo was alright, will get this when its below £10 in a few weeks

  • Kamata #59 1 year ago

    So you didnt like it then ? :|

  • zisssou #60 1 year ago

    The comments on this and the score are hilarious.

    Still a day one purchase for me.

  • Paul_cz #61 1 year ago

    Ok, let's see...Mafia 1 - 4/10 (me = 10/10), Risen - 4/10 (me=9/10), Kane and Lynch 2 - 4/10 (me=7/10), Dragon Age - 6/10 (me=8.5/10), Mafia 2 - 4/10 (will find out in a week or so after I get from vacation)

    GTA4 - 10/10

    yep, either EG reviewers live on different planet, or I do. Anyway, EG reviews are good for a laugh, that is for sure. If I want to be informed, I read some impressions from friends anyway.

    Basically the only reviews that I have a shred of trust on this site are those written by guys from RPS. All the other ones have a value of used toilet paper to me.

    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:15

  • kangarootoo #62 1 year ago

    An unsurprising thread filled with "I disagree with you so I will question your credibility" posts. How original.


    All I really have to say is that the next time I see someone spell ridiculous as "rediculous" I am going to burn down a nunnery. So there.

    P.s. I saw the demo. It was awful. You only get so much time alive people. Why waste it on anything that isn't brilliant?
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:16

  • Odessa #63 1 year ago

    I think 4 would be ok. Played the demo and it was not the hammer i thought. And if RDR gets an 8 then its possible that this is 4 only.

    I guess we have to get used for low ratings. Not every game can be a 10. How u wanna see the difference then? And you have to remember that Mass Effect "only" got a 10. So actually all the other games this year can only get 8 at highest ;)

  • Antaios #64 1 year ago

    The score doesn't surprise me one bit after having played the demo. Will steer clear of this and buy me something else. :)

  • jack_klugman #65 1 year ago

    So who's going to get fired this time?

  • Kzin #66 1 year ago

    I completely agree with the criticizm of the checkpoints system. But why it was never mentioned with connection to GTA IV? The lack of checkpoints rendered GTA IV completely unplayable for me - and NOT A SINGLE REVIEWER was kind enough to warn me about it.... Money talks or what?

    +1000000000

    Not to mention gta had the the worst camera and controls ever, so many things so fundamentaly lacking ín that department, and nobody mentions it.

    Games with checkpoint systems like that deserve to fail utterly.

  • Vedfolner #67 1 year ago

    What an excellent review. And so very, very true.

  • Haloboy #68 1 year ago

    EG didn't click with the first game which may I add is the best computer game ever crafted in many peoples eyes. So now that I've cleaned coffee off my screen and removed the shit from my eyelids all I shall now do is shrug at this review. At least EG will get more hits for completely sinking it just like the first.

    EG will obviously never get this IP.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:20

  • SAMagic #69 1 year ago

    @cianchristopher : I completely agree. There's also nothing to see or do when exploring Liberty City other than shooting pigeons and occasionally finding strangers for quick missions. I'll have to play Mafia 2 myself to see if I agree with EG about the rest, but that criticism alone is clearly unfair.

    Edit: Lol @ whatever EG zealout is voting down every comment that is sceptical or even cautious of the review!
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:52

  • pinochet_cz #70 1 year ago

    Well, its not fking 4. I don't know why Eurogamer hates Mafia games (even brilliant original got 4), but shame is that they have some ground in this case. They screwed lot of game mechanics in M2 and attempt to simulate sandbox type gameplay now look like bad bad idea. But it is still 6 at least, there is good story and shooting is better then described.
    I like review though, it is better to have personal opinion then retype something from PR guys.

  • muscleblade #71 1 year ago

    Predictable score. Didnt like it at all.

  • Stickman #72 1 year ago

    The reviewer has given a score that reflects his thoughts on the game throughout the whole, well-written, review. He's backed up why he dislikes things, what's been done well and what could have been done better.

    If you don't agree with the review that's fine, if you don't agree with the score that's fine, but you'd have to be a cretin to suggest that some kind of summary execution is in order.

    As long as reviewers are clear about why they don't like something, then that gives you, the consumer, the chance to use your own judgement and decide whether it sounds like something that would bother you or not. If not, then you should imagine that the special number at the end is higher if it makes you feel less angry and threatened.

  • dsmx #73 1 year ago

    By firing Jeff over a review score Gamespot have basically admitted there review scores can be bought, so using them as a metric as to what a review score a game should get is not a good idea.

  • jack_klugman #74 1 year ago

    That's a brilliantly worded review by the way. Kudos to Teti.

  • El-Dev #75 1 year ago

    I don't normally play demos but after the mixed opinions on the demo for this I tried it out, and I kinda liked it.

    Gonna keep my pre-order and try it out.

  • HarryPalmer #76 1 year ago

    Demo felt pretty average. Playboy mags was a nice touch though.

  • metalangel #77 1 year ago

    Practically everything moaned about in the review applies to Red Dead Redemption as well. They managed to make cowboys boring, seemingly every mission forcing you into an interminable ride with a hateful character for hours of endless, dull (but well acted) dialogue.

    Frankly I think this review has missed the point but then everyone has this rose-tinted view of what a GTA is like (hint: they haven't really been "like that" since Vice City)

  • AllenSpawn #78 1 year ago

    While I don't actually agree with a lot of EG reviews (RDR=10 for me), I have to applaud them for moving the industry average of a 7 on metacritic.

    If you look at films on metacritic, a very good one will get an average of 65-80.
    A very good game, will get 90 plus.

    I know it's been said before, but average = 5 NOT 7.

    What is wrong with the games industry?

    And as someone said, yes I do feel the developers are commentating on this thread!!

  • MrTeatime #79 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:59:18 03-01-2012

  • HarryPalmer #80 1 year ago

    @SaMagic - It is true that there isnt a lot to do in GTA 4 - apart from the minigames and all that (which are dull), but the city felt alive, the way the people acted etc. Mafia demo felt dead.

  • TruWari3r #81 1 year ago

    Oh Wow

    Granted I canceled my preorder for the collectors edition the minute after I finished playing the demo but still..

    Oh well, LA Noire better be good to fill the void

  • Old_Books #82 1 year ago

    Good review EG. And glad to see you are still using the whole scale for rating your games. A sound test for a good review is when a comments thread gets full of cretins questioníng your credibility because you haven't used the 7-10 scale.

  • SteveV #83 1 year ago

    It's all very well telling us about the game but how does the 360 version run compared to that demo? Is it still plagued with horrendous vsync tearing or what?

  • GAmbrose #84 1 year ago

    It's the kane and lynch 2 comments thread all over again.

    Shame that the player character sounds so dull, Tommy Angelo in the first one was an interesting guy, having got involved with Saleiri's daughter and then see his boss get increasingly paranoid. I'll still give it a go because I enjoyed the first Mafia so much, but it does sound dissapointing.

  • whome #85 1 year ago

    it's like 2002 all over again.... Gestalt's evil twin I presume?



  • Haloboy #86 1 year ago

    But it got a 4. Just like the first. No more, no less.

    The first is utterly amazing so I see next to no reason why this won't be too.

    Also

    Eurogamer.fr
    10/10

    Eurogamer.cz
    9/10

    *Shrugs*
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:50

  • DoctorFouad #87 1 year ago

    so kane and lynch : 4/10, mafia 2 : 4/10

    conclusion ?

  • Moribundman #88 1 year ago

    Well I'll go with the reviewers who pitch this 7 or higher. Enjoyed Mafia 1, Dead Space, Alan Wake, Crackdown 2 and the demo of this. Hell, I almost fancy downloading the Kane & Lynch 2 demo because if recent EG reviews are anything to go by, that might be a damn good game.

  • Markitron #89 1 year ago

    Love to read a good mauling every now and then, particularly when the website is plastered with adds for the victim. Cheers!

  • TVoJ #90 1 year ago

    Thank God for PB, ARRRR

  • whome #91 1 year ago

    Eurogamer.fr
    10/10

    Eurogamer.cz
    9/10

    @Haloboy

    you're right, the first despite it's flaws is a brilliant game, it had real substance to the story & characters and amazing atmosphere, sadly that's lost on those who see GTA as the pinnacle of gaming greatness, because a short mediocre story and 30+hours of dull repetitive padding is what we all want from a game :/

  • Hunam #92 1 year ago

    Is it April 1st already?

  • mikeck #93 1 year ago

    Oh well, LA Noire better be good to fill the void

    I'm really looking forward to LA Noire (especially after seeing more at Gamescom) however, I think people are expecting it to be something it's not. It's not going to be a balls to the wall action game, it's much more nuanced and slower paced than that :)

    It's also a very different game to Mafia II, the comparisons between the two are very lazy ;)
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 16:26

  • SAMagic #94 1 year ago

    @HarryPalmer : I saw cars and pedestrians moving around the city in the demo. In my opinion, that's far from dead and anything else is just fluff, parts that are not essential but are nice to see.

  • UncleLou #95 1 year ago

    Eurogamer.fr
    10/10

    Eurogamer.cz
    9/10

    Oh, wow.

  • Deckard1 #96 1 year ago

    while it is starting to to get to the point where a game needs to be be "quirky" to get a decent review off EG, I really wasn't impressed with the demo.

  • M1chl #97 1 year ago

    Eurogamer.cz
    9/10

    Its game from czech republic, expecting something different? And I am from same country by the way and I donť think that I gonna buy mafia for full price, waiting for price cut...

  • Lukinsons #98 1 year ago

    Rockstar Buy this review or author is stupid :D

    IGN.com (USA) – 7/10 (PS3, PC)
    EVERYEYE.it (IT) – 9/10 (PS3)
    G4TV.com (USA) – 4/5 (Xbox 360)
    GamePro (GER) – 85% (Xbox 360, PS3)
    GamePro (USA) – 3,5/5 (Xbox 360)
    gladriel.com (USA) – 8,8/10 (PC, PlayStation 3 a Xbox 360)
    HardGame2.com (ESP) - 10/10 (PC)
    Joystiq.com (USA) - 3,5/5 (Není známo)
    PlanetXbox360.com (USA) – 9,3/10 (Xbox 360)
    play³ (GER) – 85% (PS3)
    Play3.de (GER) – 7,5/10 (PS3)
    Worthplaying.com (USA) – 8,3/10 (Xbox 360)
    Destructoid (USA) – 6,5/10 (PC a Xbox 360) a 7,5/10 (PS3)
    ComputerAndVideogam es.com (USA) – 8/10 (PC)
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 10:02

  • stevetuck #99 1 year ago

    I like it when Eurogamer gives honest reviews rather then sucking the dick of some developer/publisher

  • dingo75 #100 1 year ago


    EG didn't click with the first game which may I add is the best computer game ever crafted in many peoples eyes

    Due to a huge backlog I only came around to play Mafia last year.
    I was expecting the 2nd coming and it was a HUGE let down based on all the praise I read over the years.
    The game had a nice story but that was it and no I wasn't disappointed about the old graphics nor did the race or other missions piss me off.
    No way in hell this is the best game ever...

  • Halo.Jones #101 1 year ago

    ComputerAndVideogam es.com (USA) – 8/10 (PC)

    C&VG are UK.. :)

  • OnlyMe #102 1 year ago

    Good, so the game is a genuine classic like the original then.

  • SchumiF1 #103 1 year ago

    Seems pretty accurate. 4-5 means average, which is what Mafia II is. At least EG is using the whole scale, rather than only 5-10.
    Still, Eurogamer has underrated a lot of games (MGS4, Resistance etc).

  • whome #104 1 year ago

    No way in hell this is the best game ever..

    it is if I think it is, which it is... :p

  • Haloboy #105 1 year ago

    Eurogamer has underrated a lot of games

    *Splutters more coffee*

  • midnight_walker #106 1 year ago

    I love how anyone who disagrees with the mighty EG are labelled as cretins or needing a fuzzy-felt review site to pander to their low gaming standards. Get your noses out of the air, you pricks.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 10:13

  • vizzini #107 1 year ago

    I've only ever played one Rockstar game for about an hour (on GTA3) and wasn't compelled to buy that, so the demo of MF2 probably seemed a lot fresher to me than most gamers.

    I tend to interpret every Eurogamer score with a possible + or – 3/10, and in exceptional cases as + or – 5/10.

    So was the demo feeling like a 9/10 for me? no, Was it feeling like a possible 7/10? it did seem lthat way.

    But at a 7/10, I'd probably want to catch up on higher rated games I didn't buy, like infamous, KZ2, Batman, Demon Souls, maybe even try RDR(demo please).

    Maybe Eurogamer were saving themselves work with a 4/10 rather than a 6/10 or 7/10. As there is now no reasons to do a full DF analysis of the game engine, as it would just look vindictive, as though EG were trying to put developers out of business.

    Edit: On the next page kangarootoo has used my 2nd paragraph and is at +12(not -6).
    I guess people must really want to seem DF dissect this game. Either that, or I should have like GTA3 or be buying a 7/10 at £35.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 13:05

  • Dylbot #108 1 year ago

    WAH WAH WAH EG DIDN'T GIVE THIS GAME THE SCORE I WANTED HURRRRR

    Grow the fuck up, you lot. It's one man's opinion. If you're whinging about the score, you were probably going to buy it anyway, and there's a demo so you can see for your goddamn selves. Put your toys back in the pram.

  • metalangel #109 1 year ago

    @GAmbrose: Sarah wasn't Don Salieri's daughter... she was the daughter of Luigi, who ran the bar that was the front for Salieri's HQ.

  • DontLikeJelly #110 1 year ago

    GTA4 was also mindless, repetitive and boring. It also had horrible checkpoints and clunky controls. What's the difference between a 10 and a 4???????

  • hollowroom #111 1 year ago

    Well, the PS3 demo was terrible, but that was due to the controls more than anything.

    Might be better on a PC.

    Can anyone tell me if the full game (on PC or PS3) has customisable controls?

  • Fathom #112 1 year ago

    This is not a good review. Teti comes off more like Glenn Beck than an honest game reviewer. He goes on and on about every single complaint he has without offering any alternatives at all. But I still think I understand what his problem is, and it's that Mafia 2 is fundamentally hollow. I can see that, kind of. But is the simplification and one-dimensionality of it really that big of an issue? How was Red Dead Redemption any different, at all? What was so much more special about GTA4? You could call friends and own places? How "game-ey" does a game have to be to have merit for what it wants to be?

  • byakuya83 #113 1 year ago

    the review reads a lot like the review on joystiq, but they gave it 3.5/5 which is far too generous. i think the review text does a good job of backing up the 4/10 which seems justified to me. the demo was awful.

  • OnlyMe #114 1 year ago

    Once, Eurogamer.net told it like it is, and people respected and praised them for that.
    Now, Eurogamer.net tried desperately to be different just because they want to stand out.

    I have lost all faith in EG reviews. I'll still continue to read them, but I won't ever consider buying a game based on a review by EG. Not that I ever did.

  • slippysloppy #115 1 year ago

    I take it all back, Eurogamer definitely AREN'T influenced by the advertiser when it comes to reviewing games.

    Unless of course this should have got 1/10 ;)

  • miiiguel #116 1 year ago

    These comments out of spite are weird. Why do you want so desperately the game to be good ?

  • bad09 #117 1 year ago

    4/10 just like Mafia 1. Awesome!

    EG reviews LOL

  • technotica #118 1 year ago

    You know saying the game is shit or great right now makes no sense (unless you already played it extensively) . It would be great if people would play the game through and then comment how they feel about the game compared to the review.

  • des #119 1 year ago

    This means that this game will top the charts...EG am cry again...hehehe

  • Big-Swiss #120 1 year ago

    still getting this, love the mafia subject as such, but I will not have very high expectations, so perhaps its better like that.

  • Zeliard #121 1 year ago

    "One of the most flavourful aspects of modern mafia fiction is its economy of speech. In a subculture where paranoia reigns, the most powerful communications take place in code and innuendo. "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse," may be a cliché now, but damn, that line accomplished a lot with very little. The mobsters in Mafia II, however, are coarse brutes who leave nothing to the imagination. They mire the game in endless cut-scenes where they speechify about who they'll whack next.

    It's a 14-year-old's vision of the mafia, although that slanders the many 14-year-olds who would see through this game's desperation to appear adult. There's one ham-fisted scene in which a mid-level capo chats with Vito while a stripper fellates him to climax - did everyone in the room at 2K Czech think that was really fresh stuff? What about the attempted-anal-rape mélee brawl, or the extended dialogue about vomit smell mixing with dead-body smell? Did dignity enter into the conversation at all?"

    This review is written by a man who has never watched The Sopranos in his life, a show which featured several scenes throughout the series of Tony getting blowjobs from random strippers at entirely random moments. I question if he's seen any piece of mafia-related media outside of The Godfather, frankly.

    In Goodfellas, there's a scene where DeNiro and Pesci's characters are laughing and joking about a decomposing dead body that they've just had to dig out of a grave. Pesci cracks some joke about it in relation to food, asking Liotta's character if he wants a "leg" or a "wing", or the "hearts and lungs", and Liotta's character vomits next to the grave. Where does "dignity" come into play?
    Edited by 3 at 24/08/10 @ 10:33

  • TonyCocaCola #122 1 year ago

    Well thats saved me some money i guess.

  • Haloboy #123 1 year ago

    Ok stop. Someone say something constructive, witty and concise.


    While I neg all the dim witted self important EG trolley pushers.

  • costa_k #124 1 year ago

    Eurogamer has lost it.I know this may not be a great game,but,is it realy as bad as Kane and Lynch 2???

  • GAmbrose #125 1 year ago

    Cheers metalangel, to be fair it's been 7 years since I last played it!

  • Tonasaurus #126 1 year ago

    I fully expect horse's heads to appear in the beds of all Eurogamer staff, oh and check under your cars before leaving the office.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 10:40

  • NewbieZilla #127 1 year ago

    Anyone else seen the myriad of "Mafia 2 VS LA Noire" threads? Asking people which they should buy well in advance of either review being out. Going by this, if LA Noire ends up being worse, I will be fucking pissed.

    LA Noire I've wanted for about 4 years. Mafia 2 I could take it or leave it.

  • dom6918 #128 1 year ago

    Dont trust this review if you enjoyed the first game. EG gave that 4/10 and it was one of the best games ive ever played!

  • Moribundman #129 1 year ago

    Let Metacritic do the numbers for you kids:

    Eurogamer's Scores
    For 2,611 reviews, this publication has graded:
    29% higher than the average critic
    3% same as the average critic
    68% lower than the average critic
    On average, this publication grades 7.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
    Average Game review score: 65

    edit: Um... Negging for posting statistics from Metacritic? You sad people. Why not just write a stern letter to Metacritic about how you don't like them and their newfangled college boy numbers...
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 12:34

  • beastmaster #130 1 year ago

    OH MY GOD!!!! I AM SO ANGRY AND CONFUSED!

    Different people in different countries having different opinions, some of which match my own. My brain cannot process this. What to do? What to do? Do I form my own educated view & also play the demo?

    Or should I just stay in my cage & throw my dung at tourists?

  • AdamAsunder #131 1 year ago

    Once again, people that haven't played the game are up in arms about someone else's opinion.
    This is the second site accused of 'not getting' a game because it got a lower score than expected. Going by the demo I think the review is harsh but probably fair.

    The fact that the game took seven years to make is fucking ridiculous. I've just completed Uncharted 2 for the first time and that took a couple of years and it's one of the finest games I've played this generation.


  • Haloboy #132 1 year ago

    Wait I just realised.....

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-godfather-ii-revi ew
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/the-go...[/link]

    4/10

    Some seriously fucked up kind of universe we all live in.

  • Moribundman #133 1 year ago

    Not quite sure why anyone who questions Eurogamer on this one is negged to hell within minutes...

    Demo wasn't revolutionary, but nor was it shit. I thought it was pretty enjoyable and based purely on the demo I'm more inclined to listen to other reviewers. The fact that EG (who gave Mafia 1 4/10) are the only ones who have rated this less than 50% shows that while reviews are a mixed bag, almost all the others are between 75% and 100% which makes this a good game in my book...

  • riceNpea #134 1 year ago

    the quality of the comments made so far is 3/10

  • Monkey_Puncher #135 1 year ago

    Ouch!

    I thought the open world in the demo was empty and uninteresting, was hoping it'd be down to a lot of the features being held back for the final game. Guess not....

  • MiniAmin #136 1 year ago

    @ Miiiguel

    These comments out of spite are weird. Why do you want so desperately the game to be good ?

    Because EG is a biased rubbish piece of rubbish and it deserves to be rubbished for rubbishing the reputation of this brilliant, seminal sequel! EG has low scores on PURPOSE because they just want to have more READERS so they can make more MONEY.

  • Prox #137 1 year ago

    Why such nasty catiness in the writing style? It reads as if the writer has a personal grudge against the developer. I believe your quality judgements, but by going well beyond the usual Eurogamer 'sharp tongue & healthy cynicism' the reviews credibility is undermined.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 10:51

  • canoot #138 1 year ago

    It's just impossible to trust EG reviewers anymore,i can understand a below par score if he didn't like the game but to be so far below everybody else is ridiculous.Generating site hits springs to mind.

  • Sunworship #139 1 year ago

    Maybe there's just way too many hot women in Czech for the 2k guys to concentrate on their work.

  • Badassbab #140 1 year ago

    Sirely the PC version should get higher marks as the console versions are jerky

  • Sakamoto #141 1 year ago

    Another bad sequel!

  • AbaddonX #142 1 year ago

    And now REAL review pls..

  • Haloboy #143 1 year ago

    Or mebbe Teti was so distracted by hot czech students outside his window to see what he was typing was actually the wrong review.

  • UncleLou #144 1 year ago

    OH MY GOD!!!! I AM SO ANGRY AND CONFUSED!

    Different people in different countries having different opinions, some of which match my own. My brain cannot process this. What to do? What to do? Do I form my own educated view & also play the demo?

    Or should I just stay in my cage & throw my dung at tourists?

    Er, certainly it's interesting to discuss how a game can split opinions to such a degree? To be honest, I find the comments you mock in your reply not more annoying than all the not less hysterical "get over it" replies, including yours.

  • frankgom #145 1 year ago

    I think that this ultra low score it's just a marketing move by the folks at eurogamer, just to obtain attention, I've been playing games for 20 years, I've played this game a lot and I can assure that it doesn't deserve a 4/10, maybe it's not as good as we thought it wil be but a 7 or 8 looks more like it.
    Eurogamer should know that it is as bad to give a 4 to a game that doesn't deserve it as it is to give'em a 9 or 10 just to create hype and get our attention.
    giving low scores doesn't make you look like you're the only incorruptible reviewers left, to me it just make you look quite the oposite.

  • kangarootoo #146 1 year ago

    "I tend to interpret every Eurogamer score with a possible + or – 3/10, and in exceptional cases as + or – 5/10."

    Now, if everyone applied that rule to EVERY review out there, maybe people would finally start to realise how fully pointless it is to harp on about review scores as if they can ever be an objective guide.


    Seriously, there is really only one way to say it, whether you agree or disagree with this review.

    Get. Over. It.

  • spekkeh #147 1 year ago

    I LOVE Eurogamer's new bad attitude. Finally a review site that dares to say it how it is.

    However, reading this review I thought "so, it's exactly the same as GTAIV then".

  • GAmbrose #148 1 year ago

    There's a lot of pirates in this thread I guess, based on how many people claim to have played the full game for any length of time....

  • TruWari3r #149 1 year ago

    Browsing around I get the impressions that Mafia 2 is a flawed game but overall a 7ish type of game, however it's supposed to be an epic story as it's selling point and that's apparently where it fails miserably with a cliche riddled story campaign (haven't played it, just based on reviews) so I guess that should bring it to a 5-6.

    As for LA Noire, not the same but it's supposed to be an la confidential type of game, just a game with the story as it's centerpiece what Mafia 2 was supposed to be as well. The mood, cars should be similar to a certain degree though right?

  • spekkeh #150 1 year ago

    I've played this game a lot and I can assure that it doesn't deserve a 4/10

    It's not even out yet!

  • slivir #151 1 year ago

    I'm going to steer clear of this one as I'm just not that interested in these types of games but I know a few chaps who fell head over heels for the first game. They loved it to bits and I'm sure they'll love this one equally as much. The review came off way too critical IMO. I guess Mafia just isn't J.Teti's cup of tea.

  • neems #152 1 year ago

    Although I'm reluctant to wade into the same old ratings argument, if you accept that 5 means average (a not uncommon premise), and you also accept that the reviewer believes the game to be below average, how else do you expect him to score it?

    Regardless of your view of the game (I haven't played either Mafia) you have to let these people review as they see fit, otherwise what is the point? Are we really suggesting that Mr Teti give a higher score to something he doesn't believe deserves it? Or that Eurogamer should interfere in the review process? When did so many people start siding with Eidos / Gamespot rather than Jeff Gerstmann?

    EDIT: I have also heard it suggested that Mafia 2 suffers from 'next-gen sequel' disease, whereby a theoretically more sophisticated game is in actual fact less sophisticated than the original eg Oblivion, despite being prettier and taking up a vastly greater volume of disk space, is actually smaller and less sophisticated (in terms of game mechanics) than it's older sibling Morrowind.

    Despite the improved vsuals and modern hardware, when the demo first came out a lot of people seemed to be talking about what the game lacked in comparison to the first one.

    I would be interested in knowing the reviewer's take on the first game actually. It's well known that Eurogamer didn't like Mafia; it'd be interesting to see if Mr Teti subscribes to that original viewpoint.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 11:12

  • Haloboy #153 1 year ago

    The general consensus from friends I know playing it in the US is if you enjoyed and loved the first, you will enjoy and love this too.


    That's good enough for me. OK USA!

  • dancingrob #154 1 year ago

    the point is that the vast majority of people commenting here haven't even played the thing, and are commenting based on hype and a demo alone.

    The thing I can't quite understand is that when a heavily hyped and advertised game gets a bad review, everyone acts all surprised. It's almost as if some people don't quite understand that marketing budget is not a guarantee of quality. Whenever anyone points this out regarding films / books / music, this point is blatantly obvious, but the opposite seems to hold true in the mind of the gaming public for reasons I've never quite understood.

  • FattalError #155 1 year ago

    Mafia 1 get here 4/10 and it was one from best games ever. Mafia2 get 4/10 too; this is final word for me, I MUST BUY IT!!!

  • Old_Books #156 1 year ago

    @ neems

    Spot on. I haven't agreed with every EG review, (Dead Space and Dragon Age case in point), but at least it's clearly their own opinion and not some paid up piece of PR like you see on IGN or CVG. I don't get why people post a list of metacritic scores as if it's an impartial piece of evidence condemning EG's reviewers either.

  • velimirius #157 1 year ago

    Eurogamer always fails with scores... only right one was first for Darkfail 1/10.

  • MiniAmin #158 1 year ago

    All of the "get over it" posters should realise that if you are posting on a games site then you are passionate about games.

    It's fair to say anyone posting here is passionate about games, nobody is disputing that. Us "get over it" posters, are passionate about people denigrating EG's reputation on the basis of what is perceived to be a disagreeable opinion.

    Negged for a reasonable, inoffensive argument? How fitting with the zeitgeist here.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 11:24

  • moxpearl #159 1 year ago

    Must be terrible, same score as the last mafia game.. oh wait.

    Mafia 1 was possibly the greatest single player Action game.. ever.

    Suprized so many people here judge a game just from 1 review.. eg "saved me some money thanks" .. cmon your not all sheep

  • rIchba5tard #160 1 year ago

    wow 4/10 sweet review EG 8D...

  • varsas #161 1 year ago

    @Zeliard: The reviewer refers to those scenes because they are not new; that was his point.

  • Retro_ #162 1 year ago

    I have just cancelled my pre-order for the Collectors edition of this just this very second. Not on the strength of this review but because I feel it'll be a £20 game before too long. Back to the review... 4/10 .... same as Kane and Lynch 2 then which is a decent hard core shooter in my opinion, not that my views count except to the most important person, myself !

  • FattalError #163 1 year ago

    One "little" detail. You have biggest problem with checkpoints. But in your loved GTA4 aren't checkpoints. During missions is 0 (in words ZERO) checkpoints and in this game it is not a problem. Interresting... :-/

  • Stompy #164 1 year ago

    "He doesn't like calmer missions, he just wants to get on with the murdering."

    Enjoy your Zen training as a stamp salesman.

  • jack_klugman #165 1 year ago

    I'd rate this comments thread 4/10. You can't help but admire the effort and enthusiasm which has gone into the production, but ultimately let down by a weak execution and inconsistent narrative.

  • Stompy #166 1 year ago

    "All of the "get over it" posters should realise that if you are posting on a games site then you are passionate about games."

    I like playing games, I like to buy good games and read about games. I have done so since I was a child. Yet I am not passionate about them. I would rather give up games than most of the other things I do for fun.

  • varsas #167 1 year ago

    @ClubHeaven: The inconsistency is due to different reviewers but it's clear that this one isn't just looking for killing; he wants some more variety rather than the very standard missions that are even sub par in GTA so it makes sense that it gets a lower score. If MAFIA II is not meant to be GTA and a more linear game with stronger story telling it appears as though they failed in that from the review.

  • ParanoidZombie #168 1 year ago

    "It's a 14-year-old's vision of the mafia"

    This is true of most so-called mature games' writing: RDR was a 14-year-old's vision of a western, Heavy Rain was a 14-year-old's vsion of a thriller, COD, MGS, Dragon Age, Kane and lynch.... Incredibly adolescent writing here. Most of them get praised for their writing because our standards are very low. Go read a James Ellroy novel, that will give you an idea of what games like Mafia, GTA or Heavy Rain should be.

  • electrolite #169 1 year ago

    Review scores need ditching.

    Apparently gamers aren't adult enough to form their own opinions, and would rather publicly self-harm about a mark out of 10 given by one person.

    I used to find them odd in 1989, we really should be past this by now

  • spekkeh #170 1 year ago

    The thing I can't quite understand is that when a heavily hyped and advertised game gets a bad review, everyone acts all surprised. It's almost as if some people don't quite understand that marketing budget is not a guarantee of quality. Whenever anyone points this out regarding films / books / music, this point is blatantly obvious, but the opposite seems to hold true in the mind of the gaming public for reasons I've never quite understood.

    That's due to the immaturity of the medium, where the notion is still prevalent that bigger = better. And that's also why I like EG's (post GTA4) style: criticize the big budget games, not on their scope or technical prowess, but what they're trying to convey, and maybe the public will finally discover that you don't need all the fluff to tell a compelling story. Then, perhaps, we can see interesting indie works flourish and get a more healthy industry.

  • stoopidgreg #171 1 year ago

    as usual EG give the lowest score of all the reviews, but this is a bit over the top. 4 out of 10 for a game that has averaged 80% on gamerankings/metacritic?

  • El-Dev #172 1 year ago

    I actually thought the whole selling fuel stamps thing sounded quite good. Whilst the Mafia do kill people they also have to do other criminal activities such as selling stolen goods to make money. I'm glad 2k have tried to implement other aspects of the Mafia in the game, but whether or not they've done it well is another question.

  • neems #173 1 year ago

    @Paranoid Zombie - imagine if you could get James Elroy to write your computer game :-)

    There was a time when I praised LA Confidential (the film)... and then I read the real LA Confidential. That is the sort of narratives that these allegedly epic games should be aspiring to.

  • orangpelupa #174 1 year ago

    wow the autosave checkpoint......
    i hope we can get the Lua script for GAME SAVE so we can Save manually, whenever we like.

    btw its not told in the review, is MAFIA 2 mission is "creative" like in mafia 1?
    In MAFIA 1, if i go to House X, park, blow all the tires of car in there. Do the mission.
    The enemy will ride that blown tire car, and i easily can beat him.

    also is there a mission with story choices? in MAFIA 1 when i drive too close, the enemy wont be able to take turn to Airport (story1), so he just drive forward try to outrun me, then he blow drop to broken Bridge (story2)


    for me, that 2 unique storyline really what i like from mafia 1 and hoping it is on mafia 2 in some way.

  • Nabokov #175 1 year ago

    "Er, certainly it's interesting to discuss how a game can split opinions to such a degree?"
    Not much discussion here, only angry people shouting that Eurogamer is wrong (and some saying that not).

    I personally hate these 'eurogamer this eurogamer that' commentes; there is no Eurogamer (hopefully), there is one reviewer who gives his/her opinion. In this kind of cases (big game, controversial score), it would be nice to include mini review from another reviewer, to either backup or give alternative view. I really like that when they do it in some magazines.

    I haven't played even demo, and couldn't care less whether the review is 'right' or 'wrong', but this makes me think Inception. Generally favored movie with very high production values (which really mean zero, nil, nothing), but I think it was the most boring film I have seen in ten years or some. Then in all negative reviews people are shouting that 'you didn't get it'... Maybe it's the same case, if you find the story bad, what's there left, boring gameplay?

  • lucky_jim #176 1 year ago

    Yawn. EG uses 5/10 as the mid-point in its scale, almost every other review source (especially US ones) wouldn't dream of giving a game below 7/10 unless it was fundamentally broken.

    From the review, this sounds below average. On other sites, that would net it 7/10. On this site, with this reviewer, it gets 4/10. How else is he supposed to score a game he thinks is below average?

  • rojjer #177 1 year ago

    Is this like Kane and Lynch 2's 4/10 score? i.e. waaaaaaay off base

  • Frautz #178 1 year ago

    Not one word of praise and still a 4/10? Next time try to be consistent.

  • StooMonster #179 1 year ago

    neems: if you accept that 5 means average (a not uncommon premise)

    For me 5 means mediocre, "average" is what Metacritic do when they calculate the mean.

    Hurrah for Eurogamer (and Edge magazine) where 5 really does mean as mediocre as a bog-standard-comprehensive and not 8, and for using full range from 1 through 10 thus not rating everything between 7 and 10.

  • Spekingur #180 1 year ago

    I reserver my judgement after I have played this game myself. A review is just one persons opinion (and that person might be expecting GTAIV++ or something, who knows).

  • thebuzzard #181 1 year ago

    Kotaku review wasnt very positive either so its not just EG
    http://ko taku.com/5619291/mafia-ii-revie...

  • Hog-lumps #182 1 year ago

    Hurrah for Eurogamer (and Edge magazine) where 5 really does mean as mediocre as a bog-standard-comprehensive and not 8, and for using full range from 1 through 10 thus not rating everything between 7 and 10.

    Not forgetting GamesTM of course! :)

    For me this review describes a below average game and the demo played as a below average game - so I'm not surprised by the below average score.

  • tincanrocket #183 1 year ago

    !!!LOUD NOISES!!!!

  • patchbox360 #184 1 year ago

    Eurogamer gave Dead Space a 7/10 - so trust no one

  • EthanWoods #185 1 year ago

    EG France gave it a TEN and the Czech edition gave it a NINE.

    I can't help but wonder how how the English edition's scores have become so erratic.

  • Zebula77 #186 1 year ago

    I've seen scores of 8 and 9 on other sites. That seems a bit...weird, doesn't it? I've read the story and voice acting is supposed to be excellent (I thought so from the demo).

    Hmm, this review put me on the fence a little bit. Still want it, but we'll see. I'll have to read more reviews. I get the feeling that the reviewer here became really pissed off with the game and it coloured his whole view of it. I mean, no review is completely objective, but here I don't get the feeling there was even made an attempt at objectiveness (or is it objectivism? - have no idea).

    edit: oh, and I learnt a new word: recalcitrant. Never heard that one before, but I googled it. Thanks, EG. :)
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 12:18

  • technotica #187 1 year ago

    Why would the french or czech reviews have anything to do with the english one? They were made by completely different people in different countries with different opinions.

  • HistoryTeller #188 1 year ago

    1 EG.

  • dom6918 #189 1 year ago

    [link url=http ://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/mafia-ii
    ]http://ww w.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/...[/link]

    75 average at the moment..not that bad...

  • Hog-lumps #190 1 year ago

    EG France gave it a TEN and the Czech edition gave it a NINE.

    I can't help but wonder how how the English edition's scores have become so erratic.

    Maybe because it's somones opinion and opinions by their very nature, vary?
    Edited by 2 at 24/08/10 @ 12:17

  • technotica #191 1 year ago

    Also, has anyone ever read movie critics? Cirtics may pan a movie and people still love it, why would game critics be more attuned to the people? Its still just an opinion, there is no way to review something objectively unless you go by a checklicst and just mark off all the points on it. *Graphics: Good / Bad Story: Long / Short*
    Edited by 2 at 24/08/10 @ 12:18

  • Tonne #192 1 year ago

    i don't know what game john teti played, but it was not mafia 2.
    i mean seriously, where do you hire these reviewers?
    disgrunteld postalworkers R US?

  • DuTraveller #193 1 year ago

    ouch...i was not expecting it

  • TonyHarrison #194 1 year ago

    I haven't played the first game so I can't comment on how good or bad that might have been, but I tried the demo for this one after reading a few forum threads on various websites which suggested the game should be something to look forward to, but after playing that demo, I wondered why.

    I thought it was absolutely awful, the characters seemed vapid, the game world was bland, and whilst some might praise a realistic system that sees the police chase you if you go over the speed limit, I don't play games to keep one eye on a speedometer... The mission on offer was the same kind of thing I've played a few times before in other games, and the repetitiveness is starting to grate.

    So the 4/10 doesn't come as any kind of a surprise.

  • dirtysteve #195 1 year ago

    @dom6918 - Metacritic is a bit misleading, here's a quote from a review by Cynamite(i've never heard of them) 'Even though it couldn't quite hold up to our expectations', and they gave it a 90% score.
    IGN AU called it a deeply flawed game, then gave it a score of 80.

  • TrendyRechauffe #196 1 year ago

    4/10 does seem pretty harsh, but in fairness, the demo wasn't all that. Also, just in response to those suggesting that GTA IV and Mafia II share the same flaws, GTA IV is more than two years old. You'd expect the industry to make improvements since then.

  • EthanWoods #197 1 year ago

    I'm saying, 2 other versions of the site (I'm assuming that because they use the same scoring scale the numbers mean around the same thing) have sung it's praises, as many other reviewers have, yet people only focus on the 'negative' ones (there's some 7s - this is by far the worst review).

  • andromeda #198 1 year ago

    "Eurogamer gave Dead Space a 7/10 - so trust no one"

    that's because a 7 was all it deserved.

    One of EGs most accurate reviews IMHO

  • shoneyul #199 1 year ago

    Ok guys si this is how it is: I can understand that EG uses the whole 1- 10 score scale, but if they do it, they should do it with all reviews(I.E.: Lost Planet 2 got a 6/10 - way to much, Limbo got a 9/10 - again way too much for it's price). Use the whole 1- 10 score scale EG, but with all games, don't take a good game and make it as an example for all the others, don't only ruin that one, but to the same to the others.

  • Stompy #200 1 year ago

    "I don't play games to keep one eye on a speedometer..."

    If you play games to keep both eyes on a speedometer, then may I recommend SimSoft's Speedometer Reading Challenge, where you must at any time be able to provide accurate up-to-date information on the speed indicated on the speedometer - which could be one of 50 styles from the first generation of Ford motorcars to hypothetical futuristic hovercars!!!

  • neems #201 1 year ago

    @StooMonster

    You are right of course, 'average' as a rating is fairly meaningless, or at least ambiguous. Mediocre it is! Mafia 2 is on the poor side of mediocre.

    You know, I actually like the 5 star system. Shit, poor, mediocre, good, great. If you want more detail, read the review.

  • Miths #202 1 year ago

    I'm still getting this. I liked the demo - both the mission and the driving (using a 360 controller with the PC version) - but based on the very mixed reviews, it does sound like The Saboteur, which I just started playing a couple of days ago after originally overlooking it entirely, might actually prove to be the better (more or less) open world game, despite being flawed as well.

  • 32768Colours #203 1 year ago

    Other than my own experience of the demo, I've not got much to add that hasn't already been said. Wasn't impressed with the demo at all sadly, because I really wanted/tried to enjoy it.

  • Cronan #204 1 year ago

    I'd like to add to the people praising EG for using the entire 10 point review scale. All I would add is that it would be nice if there was some editorial consistency, plenty of mediocre games have received a much higher score than 5/10, and lots of "pretty good" games have received 10/10 or 9/10.

  • GAmbrose #205 1 year ago

    There's a lot of comments in broken English here...almost as if their native tongue was Czech...

  • silentbob #206 1 year ago

    I was left cold by this too so not too surprised. Very pretty though.

  • Kostas #207 1 year ago

    Well the first Mafia game was not nearly good either but some of us liked it for what it was. Of course we were many years younger at the time and much more lenient than we are today. I am sure that this will find a younger croud like we did all those years back with the first game but for me this is not going to "rock my world" in the slightest.

  • beastmaster #208 1 year ago

    4. It kind of looks like 9.

  • Stompy #209 1 year ago

    "Well the first Mafia game was not nearly good either but some of us liked it for what it was."

    I'd love this attitude on Dragon's Den:

    Duncan Bannatyne: "I'm looking for the best. I'm only going to offer money for the best ideas. This is not one of them."

    Kostas: "Well, actually, I quite things that aren't even nearly good. And I'll put £10,000 down on your see through flasher's mac. It's the sort of thing I'd imagine in a dystopian future ruled by lizard kings."

  • Darren #210 1 year ago

    @Miths - I bought The Saboteur too on the PC last week for a fiver to pass the time while Mafia 2 came out. It's very buggy (I have ATI graphics cards alas which the beta patch doesn't quite address) and clearly unfinished but I'm really enjoying it. Surprised me at how good it is really and it's such a shame that EA didn't allow the developers to complete it because it could have been amazing. The shonky production values and glitches kind of get in the way which is a shame but for £5 though I think it's great! :)

  • Talbot #211 1 year ago

    So why has Starcraft 2 scored so well? It's the same as any other bog standard RTS that came out ages ago. I guess the hype and golden handshakes were too much.

    Well if this is a flop then I guess 2K should have developed Hidden and Dangerous 3.

  • Stop-gap #212 1 year ago

    "Also, just in response to those suggesting that GTA IV and Mafia II share the same flaws, GTA IV is more than two years old. You'd expect the industry to make improvements since then."

    Although I really wish this was the case because all games which keep perpetuating the same dumb flaws would get panned for them, but by this logic any game which does not improve upon or fix things found in it's genre competitors would get terrible scores automatically.
    GTA4 came years after SA which was years after VC... the graphics engine has definitely improved and that's it, otherwise the differences are superficial. Result? 9s and 10s.

    As for Mafia, I thought the PC demo was fair enough, its main failings popped out when you tried to (kind of inevitably) treat it as a GTA-like sandbox.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 12:58

  • _LarZen_ #213 1 year ago

    Kudos to Eurogamer.net for telling the truth about a game and not jumping on the hype waggon!

    Thanks Eurogamer.net !

  • Lord_Gremlin #214 1 year ago

    Actually, absolutely true. I wonder how much money they spent on bribing other reviewers.

  • yoomazir #215 1 year ago

    I was right when I tried the demo of this game...it was trash !

  • dicapo #216 1 year ago

    A 4 :o

    I hope I think the game is better than this

  • Rack #217 1 year ago

    @Stop-Gap. Bang on. Or to put it another way Starcraft II.

  • Retro_ #218 1 year ago

    @Darren.

    The Saboteur was an atmospheric gem. I finally completed it 100% after 85 great gaming hours. It was this game that finally led me to believe that a lot of reviewers are not on my wave length when it comes to what I think makes a great game. Everyone is different and that is what Metacritic is for, take the average score and read the reviews who awarded that average score, make a note of the sites and refer back to them. Mafia II is not a 4/10, 6/10 maybe 7/10 probably.

    Regarding dead space, what a great game that was , my memories of playing are are vivid, loved it, an easy 8.5/10
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 13:16

  • icematt12 #219 1 year ago

    Didn't like Dog Days or Mafia II demos. I GTAIV, Mass Effect and Gears of War for my TPS with cover needs.

  • byakuya83 #220 1 year ago

    reviews from the websites i trust all read the same and describe a game that could be labelled average at best. the score is justified by the review. if you ordered the game on pc you can probably add 1 to that score for the increase in detail and performance.

  • Moribundman #221 1 year ago

    So every other reviewer yet featured on Metacritic has rated it upwards of 6/10. The Eurogamer own staff average thus far is 8/10 (10/10, 9/10, 4/10) and yet the 4/10 is correct...

    I'm a big EG fan, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but a shocking percentage of you lot seem vehement that EG UK is spot on and everyone else who's played this is utterly clueless... That's your opinion.

    Amazed how many of you seem to have supposedly "been looking forward to this" and decided not to buy purely because of what John Teti thinks.

    I've played the demo too. On the basis of the demo I'd give the game a 7 or an 8. From what I've read in everyone else's reviews this sounds pretty bang on for what I'll end up thinking of the full game.

  • Lee_Morris #222 1 year ago

    In future EG can all reviews be between 7 and 10 please, so I vindicate my purchase.

    Thank you

  • Salaminizer #223 1 year ago

    I'm not really surprised, after the free passes that GTAIV had, other games in the same "genre" wouldn't be so lucky (please note that I'm not saying that the flaws do not exist). just like New Vegas (unfortunately for Obsidian) will get (deservedly) bashed for a dated engine that was already dated when F3 came out and we're supposed to ignore the static faces because "everything else is good".

  • Additive #224 1 year ago

    Got this last night. Got into several chapters and after looking at the achievements it's going to be pretty short. The atmosphere is there but it feels short and empty. I enjoyed the demo, real potential there but just not enough content.

  • PotajiTo #225 1 year ago

    I stopped reading at "Even after four hours of play, I told myself, "Once I get past these boring tutorial stages, the actual game is going to be great." As I slogged through a mission to canvass Empire Bay's local gas stations and sell off extra fuel stamps". 4 hours? That is the second mission and it happens within the first hour and a half of the game.
    The only problem that I have with the game (360 version) are the crappy fps's. Sure it isn't a 9/10, but it isn't less than a 7.

  • pinochet_cz #226 1 year ago

    Great flame. I just love this :-) Sorry, but I have to add some fuel:
    I found other mafia-like reviews here on eurogamer and I have to say that this is not problem with Mafia itself. There are bunch of crazy people in EG crew with fanatic belief in GTA series. So, message for you weirdos: Mafia > GTA. Morons.

  • PaulieWaulie #227 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 14:23:40 06-01-2012

  • vodny_cz Verified Redaktor, Eurogamer Czech Republic #228 1 year ago

    Czech Eurogamer score: 9/10. There is something terribly wrong with this guy John Teti and his review. Maybe he has Italian roots and he don't like this kind of "gangsta/mob games" full of "every Italian is a Mafia" cliche. You can't be serious giving this storydriven game a four. This game is NOT a SANDBOX like GTA4! Some games are just games and some are more like interactive movie, which is for me more important than doing all the same things for 30 hours of gameplay (GTA4 etc.). If Mafia 2 gets here 4/10, then Kane and Lynch 2 deserves 1/10.

  • Zeliard #229 1 year ago

    @varsas

    No, his point was that it's a "14 year-old's vision of the Mafia." He clearly said just that.

    Based on his own examples, as I pointed out, this would also have to apply to both The Sopranos and Goodfellas, which are critically-acclaimed as one of the greatest television shows and greatest movies of all-time, respectively. They are particularly lauded as examples of the mafia subgenre, with some even putting Goodfellas above The Godfather.

    Does the reviewer's "lack of dignity" conceit apply to them, based on the scenes I specified? If not, then why? They are all doing identical things for identical purposes. Is that not a double standard? I'm willing to accept that the reviewer simply isn't familiar with The Sopranos and Goodfellas, in which case, he shouldn't attempt to paint such a broad brush. Not every piece of mafia-related fiction has the characters speaking and acting in decorum, which is to be expected when you are dealing with what are essentially unscrupulous, murderous gangsters.

    I don't care about the score itself. Some of the actual written content of the review is questionable, for the reasons I've stated. The reviewer is entitled to his opinion, but when he's going to criticize the game relative to mafia-related fiction in other mediums, he should probably know what he's talking about so as not to come across as ignorant and seemingly catty. And I have played the game - I've already gone through the first handful of chapters, as Steam unlocked it last night in the U.S.

  • tiny_Eggy #230 1 year ago

    I like the fact that Eurogamer uses the whole scale instead of just 8 to 10. But on things Mafia related you cannot trust Eurogamers view. The original was a brilliant little gem and Eurogamer gave it a 4 as well.

  • mkreku #231 1 year ago

    AAIIH! Still time to cancel my pre-order!

  • Paul_cz #232 1 year ago

    I wonder if Max Payne 3 will get shitty scores for not having sandbox elements.

  • Haloboy #233 1 year ago

    Dear EG

    After your review came to light over morning coffee I hovered momentarily over the cancel button for my Mafia II DD version. Then after looking at your constantly reminding MAFIA II advertisements I replayed the demo just one more time and that was it, my pre-order remained safe. I couldn't help but enjoy myself, the self guilt I felt was absolutely untold. But the cars, the cars are so great! I'm so sorry if you feel disappointed in my decision and promise intently to not buy Kane & Lynch 2.

    Yours regretfully

    Haloboy!

  • DerAlte #234 1 year ago

    @tiny_Eggy "The original was a brilliant little gem and Eurogamer gave it a 4 as well."

    Thanks for pointing that out. This confirms to me that this review is something I usually not expect from EG: bull****

    I recently replayed Mafia 1 and even with the now-ugly graphics and and the already-unfair save system, I was totally hooked.

    The emptiness in the city was the same, but no problem - however, maybe 2k should think about mission addons/DLCs this time. Seems the game really calls for it.

  • Moribundman #235 1 year ago


    JT: Exactly! We can simultaneously publish the highest and lowest scoring reviews on teh internets and anyone who so much as peeks at this game on Metacritic will be obliged to visit our site twice to see just how someone can think it's so amazing and someone else can think its so shit when everyone else seems to be pitching this between 7 and 9 out of ten!

    Great theory, really but I don't know John :(
    Edited by 2 at 24/08/10 @ 16:23

  • RedVelvet #236 1 year ago

    Before you guys give this pile of garbage any serious thought think that the first mafia also got a 4/10 score from this very site !!!
    Now would you really take someone serious about this review when they score the one and only masterpice with the same score ? :D

  • JonFE #237 1 year ago

    This review and its comments is another nail in the Review Scores' coffin. Isn't it about time we got rid of them?

    EDIT: Apparently not (given the negative karma); people need to hang on to artificially numbers at the end of a lengthy and explanatory review text, in order to have something solid to bitch about...
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 14:49

  • PearOfAnguish #238 1 year ago

    I always look forward to reviews of these big releases. Not for the write-up itself, but for the deluge of cretinous idiots who flood the comments. It's always a tense moment as that last page loads. Will it be a score that is deemed too low ("they're idiots, they're just doing it for the hits";) or too high ("they're shills, look at all the advertising, just doing it for the hits";)? So exciting!

    If you're the kind of utter moron who gets upset at the number on the end of a review and has trouble dealing with the concept of different people holding different opinions, I suggest you just stop reading them altogether.

  • Zephan #239 1 year ago

    was tempted to cancel my pre order but because its a sequel to mafia and I enjoyed the demo I think I'm still going to get it. Mafia had it flaws and it looks like this does as well but I'll still enjoy it.

  • pinochet_cz #240 1 year ago

    Mr.Pear> is there really something called "cretinous idiots" in english? Just asking...

  • darc #241 1 year ago

    LOL Just desserts after that infuriating full-screen pop-up ad yesterday - i.e. Mafia II making me an offer I can't refuse.

  • PearOfAnguish #242 1 year ago

    Course there is, many examples right in this thread. All angry at a reviewer for not validating their opinions.

  • TruWari3r #243 1 year ago

    @ Zeliard

    No this isn't a mafia style game a la Casino, Goodfellas, Godfather but more an Armand Assante straight to dvd movie.

  • Haloboy #244 1 year ago

    Separate PC review needed says I.

  • GAmbrose #245 1 year ago

    @Clubheaven IGN called it "deeply flawed" before giving it an 8/10

    Is that really praise?
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 14:39

  • glottis0 #246 1 year ago

    Everyone who keeps mentioning the 4/10 for the original Mafia - remember that it was for the PS2/Xbox versions, which were universally accepted as really inferior to the PC version (which EG never reviewed). That was back in the days where great PC games were shoddily ported to consoles, rather than the other way around.

  • spekkeh #247 1 year ago

    Mr.Pear> is there really something called "cretinous idiots" in english? Just asking...

    Use the dictionary Luke.

    What's up with all the czech people here? I sure hope this turns into a new Dorkfail.

  • RedVelvet #248 1 year ago

    glottis0

    You are SOOOO wrong, its the PC review of Mafia 1 that got 4/10 not the console ones.

    http://www. eurogamer.net/articles/r_mafia

  • seanyboycorben #249 1 year ago

    Don't forget this is the site that brought you such classics as 7/10 for Dead Space and 8/10 for Red Dead Redemption.

    I'm still going to give Mafia 2 a try.

  • Gaela #250 1 year ago

    One question... Did u play this game? I think 2k didn't give u money so u gave 4...

  • darc #251 1 year ago

    My 2 cents on the score, and the tone of the review...

    I'll never understand why people get so upset about low scores. 9 times out of 10 I get a game home - even a good one - and there are numerous flaws that make me wonder, why do people tolerate these obvious mis-steps? Who considers this fun... who thought this was necessary... and so on. A review site pays the consumer a service by calling out these mistakes, and in the long term they pay developers a service by educating them as to how to improve future products. If instead they get all giddy about new games and appease everyone with a parade of unconditional 8's and 9's, what purpose do the scores have?

    It was actually EG's scathing reviews and (IMO) realistic scores that got me in the habit of reading here on a regular basis. There's an entire world of games journalists happy to throw 9's around on the basis of a) good graphics, b) huge budgets, c) consistency with their own overly optimistic preview writeups. So, instead of complaining that EG's articles are a little different, count your blessings that you have so many alternative viewpoints to read! Personally, I'm as hard on games - or harder - than any reviewer on EG, so I'd rather they not pull any punches.

    Low scores do YOU the consumer a favor. If you play a demo, or a rental, or you buy on a whim, and the game is better than you expected... well isn't that better than the alternative?

    That said, I do agree that some developers "can do no wrong" - not only here but throughout the industry - and it is a little odd that Rockstar can ship the same formula again and again without anyone really calling them on it. Granted, they've got it polished to a sheen (I love RDR, myself) but it's not the most innovative formula at this point, and probably not so far removed from what 2K's done here. (Haven't played Mafia 2 yet.)
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 15:16

  • Mafioso_2010 #252 1 year ago

    10/10 in Spain
    [link url=http:/ /www.hardgame2.com/pc/articulo-4857.html
    ]http://ww w.hardgame2.com/pc/articulo-485...[/link]
    10/10 in France
    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.fr/articles/mafia-2-ii-test652?pa ge=3
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.fr/articles/mafia-2...[/link]

    Do you only care about the views and make money while knowing that the future this will turn against them?

    Is EuroGamer a corrupt group that only seeks to create controversy?

    The history continues in Mafia III: EuroGamer revenge

  • whoyouknow #253 1 year ago

    The demo sucked. Won't be buying this.

    Came so close to pre-ordering it too.

  • darc #254 1 year ago

    "Is EuroGamer a corrupt group that only seeks to create controversy?"

    LOL - Let's take a closer look at "motive" here. When was the last time you tried to buy groceries with "controversy". I'm not saying it's impossible - after all PR is PR - but if I had to feed my kids I'd rather go shopping with advertising revenue.

    It is just possible that video games are overrated elsewhere.

    Edited by 2 at 24/08/10 @ 15:26

  • Mafioso_2010 #255 1 year ago

    "LOL - Let's take a closer look at "motive" here. When is the last time you tried to buy groceries with "controversy". I'm not saying it's impossible - after all PR is PR - but if I had to feed my kids I'd rather go shopping with advertising revenue".

    Not all video game advertising comes, right? In France they have advertising Mafia 2 (or directly close the pack and then advertising the notes for each country are thought to all), no matter they should lose the UK. It's wonderful to win a share views, and attract investors from other leisure activities.

    The quality of the review, it is unfortunate, why not say what version you have tested?
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 15:32

  • darc #256 1 year ago

    No idea what you're talking about Mafioso, nor quite how it applies to what I've written. But thanks for the neg! Fun with micro-rage transactions! :)

  • miiiguel #257 1 year ago

    I read the review and was not going to cancel my Mafia 2 pre-order (and the official game guide). Now that I've read the comments section, I am.

    Out of spite, for the Mafia's "fans".

  • Mafioso_2010 #258 1 year ago

    "No idea what you're talking about Mafioso, nor quite how it applies to what I've written. But thanks for the neg! Fun with micro-rage transactions! :)"

    Life is fun. Enjoy

  • dfua #259 1 year ago

    The score matches the tone of the review which is pretty scathing. I'd consider that fair if the issues mentioned warranted it but they are blown way out of proportion and often ignored or glossed over for other games.

    It just reads like it was written by someone who set out to pick it apart, either intentionally or just through disappointment at their ridiculous expectations not being met.

    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 15:38

  • Cider-X #260 1 year ago

    Eurogamer trolling the Mafia franchise once again I see... This is entertaining!

  • UncleLou #261 1 year ago

    I read the review and was not going to cancel my Mafia 2 pre-order (and the official game guide). Now that I've read the comments section, I am.

    Out of spite, for the Mafia's "fans".

    But you bought Alan Wake? O_O I can only assume you've not read the comments there.

  • darc #262 1 year ago

    For the record, none of the preceding negs are my own. :)

    P.S. dfua, as much as I enjoy a scathing review, I can see your point.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 15:54

  • dr_faulk #263 1 year ago

    Also, John, if you're in here, we're going to Karl's later.

  • Masta200 #264 1 year ago

    this review is a fail.. 4/10? you have got to be kidding me. This game deserves much higher. It seems the reviewer started playing the game with the intention of hating it.

  • Haloboy #265 1 year ago

    I'm in John right now and no he's not going to Karl's later.

  • Truthseeker #266 1 year ago

    I wonder... was the reviewer bribed by 2K's rival company to write a review like this or did he just play a different game than every other reviewer out there?

  • Smoped #267 1 year ago

    What is it with people bringing up the Dead Space review? I mean I liked Dead Space, enough for a second playthrough, but I too would give it a 7/10. It's not like it will go down in history books as some kind of gaming milestone.

  • Smoped #268 1 year ago

    Also, I played the Mafia II demo, and while I wouldn't rate it a 4, unless the developers deliberately picked the worst level in the game, the storytelling has to be pretty effin' high standard to warrant a score over seven.

  • gjgjg #269 1 year ago

    i am in work now, but i look forward to reading this +comments later ...ohh the controversey!

  • Byzanite #270 1 year ago

    I dont get it. Was Mafia II even advertised as being a sandbox game?
    If people are upset that they cant run around doing other things; where did this expectation come from?
    Im still buying Mafia II and no doubt I will enjoy it for what it is.

  • Milkman1 #271 1 year ago

    EG gave origanl Mafia 4/10? I have lost final respect for EG reviews.

  • geordiek #272 1 year ago

    Was looking forward to this until i played the mess of a demo.

  • Kostas #273 1 year ago

    Why Milkman1? I too enjoyed the first Mafia to bits but i would be a fool to give it a higher mark than a 4-5. I am with Darc on this one easily. There are a gazilion games out there that have low or average scores across the board yet they happen to be little gems (!)IF you overlook and overcome their obvious (or not so obvious) problems.

    Giving a game the score it deserves and enjoying it are two very different things. I have enjoyed massively the first Mafia, Kingdom Hearts and a whole slew of other titles that simply i woul not rate very high normaly. Personal taste has absolutely nothing to do with a mark.

  • Vyggo #274 1 year ago

    I do agree with the sentiments that the same critical view should be applied to the next GTA games. The reasons in this review made me skip many of the GTA games. the cowboy theme ( and checkpoint changes) was different enough for me to pick RDR up and enjoy it, but'in my opinion an 8/10 for that game was reasonable and maybe even a tad high.

    The review mentions that we confuse high production values with a good game very often, I think that is a very smart observation that should be applied to many more games.

  • Milkman1 #275 1 year ago

    @Kostas
    Mafia is my favourite game of all time or at least in top 5. One of the few games i have completed more than once.

  • Rodchenko #276 1 year ago

    I am sure John Teti will find a horse head in his bed one of these days.

  • Milkman1 #277 1 year ago

    @Kostas
    ''Giving a game the score it deserves and enjoying it are two very different things. I have enjoyed massively the first Mafia, Kingdom Hearts and a whole slew of other titles that simply i woul not rate very high normaly. Personal taste has absolutely nothing to do with a mark. ''


    What? Personal taste has everything to do with it. How else could you measure a game?

  • PearOfAnguish #278 1 year ago

    "What? Personal taste has everything to do with it. How else could you measure a game?"

    It is possible to enjoy a crap game, but you'd be wrong to give a good score if it's full of flaws.

  • rumiexile #279 1 year ago

    Oh my, I can't believe I bought a GTX 460 to play this. pity...

  • Haloboy #280 1 year ago

    I can't believe anyone would buy a GTX 460 for just one game.

  • FattalError #281 1 year ago

    Haloboy!: Somebody buy console for one game...

  • wonton #282 1 year ago

    I think the EG website should make the reviewer's name more prominent; maybe add a small picture; that way readers know the "personality" behind each review.

    Think of Jim Sterling on Destructoid; that guy has established his personality and is pretty infamous over there.

    The problem is that John Teti is similar; he doesn't compromise in his opinion. And this irks all those people who live in a world where game criticism basically lumps any game with a 7 or more if it is AAA; John is bucking this trend with his opinions and EG is better for it, at least in my eyes. If you see John Teti's name; be prepared to raise a few eyebrows at his opinion.

  • makeamazing #283 1 year ago

    I think there are a number of problems with reviews (not just this game but overall for any review site):

    1. They are peoples opinions, one person will think its excellent, while another may think its crap. EG has proven that with three different sites giving different scores. I actually think reviews should be given a range in some cases.
    2. EG's review score banding, i mean is this game really a 4? Yes it has issues, but a 4? (Just asking the question).
    3. Different versions were better or worse, we all know the PC version was alot better, surely this might mean it should get a higher score...maybe not in this case, but perhaps in other cases.
    4. Do some games issues get an easier ride when it comes to issues?

    Anyway, I am probably going to hold off buying it for a little while. I do think this game has gone some serious issues, which is a shame, cause it could have been GOTY or near the top for me. Hope anyone who gets it enjoys it though.

  • Rusty_M #284 1 year ago

    Rumiexile: If you don't want that GTX460 because this game got a bad review, I'll happily take it off your hands. I'm sure it can make plenty of other games shine!

  • waggy79 #285 1 year ago

    Why is it the 'bad game' reviews are always more entertaining to read than the 'great game' ones? I thought the demo was very average so not too surprised here.

  • Quak #286 1 year ago

    Maybe now you can remove that fucking advert from the video player then?

  • JayKwon #287 1 year ago

    I enjoyed the demo, and it gave me the impression I would enjoy the full game more than completing GTA 4. The first time I played Mafia 2, I was like, hm I'm not really impressed, but after playing the demo over and over again because of an overly enthusiastic cousin, I got the hang of it, and it was really fun for a while. Though I'm not a fan of free roaming games, I dislike them since GTA 4 to be honest.

    Anyway I read the whole review, and it seems frustration got involved. I believe most arguments though, it's just written with a bit to much emotion it seems and without any postive light shining on the game and that just doesn't seem to be fair.

    IMO the game seems way more "narrow-minded" than GTA IV, with good graphics, a cool setting, some more enjoyable parts, but utterly suffers from the same problems why I didn't like GTA (although GTA does seem to give you a much bigger playground with way more toys), and that's because most of the things you can/must do are not much fun to do.

  • psyph3r #288 1 year ago

    I went through that horrible convoluted process to create an account here just to tell you that you are idiot for rating the game a 4. If you enjoyed the first mafia, you will enjoy this one. Don't let some imbecile turn you off because he likes only gta games. THIS ISN"T A GTA game, it's a MAFIA game. a 4 is just plain despicable. Liked mafia 1? get mafia II. This guy doesn't know his ass from anything. or at least he is one of those people that can't appreciate good things. REALISM and detail...something games used to strive for is now a detractor.

  • MSUSteve #289 1 year ago

    Great review, Teti. I'm hoping to like the game more than you did, but I think your review is extremely well done. Looking forward to more from you here at Eurogamer.

  • SupremeSkill #290 1 year ago

    EVERY GAMESITE AND MAGAZINE WERE BRIBED FOR GTA IV REVIEW!

    I'm damn sure of it. Dunno about this game, but it sounds as bad as previous GTA, and believe me, that, was, BAD.

  • sir_smooch #291 1 year ago

    I'm Really shocked at this score! Along with K&L2 this is the 2nd full game review which has been rated poorly and totally opposite of what i thought were enjoyable demo's. I just can't believe that eurogamer actually thought this was only the equivalent of the godfather 2 game released last year!!!! I'll deffo still get this i think though. OPM magazine gave this 7/10 for that platform anyone got any idea what OXM gave it for that platform?

  • Case_ #292 1 year ago

    To all the people mentioning Eurogamer.cz review and it's 9/10 score - that review is one of the worst reviews I've seen in quite some time and that's telling something (most Czech reviews are quite bad, there's only a handful of good reviewers here). And it's MUCH worse than ie. Destructiod's now (in)famous 1/10 review of Kane and Lynch 2 - that review was biased, but that was about it, otherwise it was quite good. Not this one. Despite being four pages long (which could be easily made into two without any real informational value lost), it doesn't really tell you anything about the game except how great it is, doesn't tell you much about it's flaws (according to the reviewer, the game is "pretty much flawless";), it has horrible grammar and is very badly written as a whole as the reviewer clearly can't write. To paraphrase, it's the 14 year-old's vision of a game review. It should not even be mentioned anywhere near John Teti's brilliant and factual (yes, really) review because of how bad the Czech review is. And most embarassing thing about the Czech review is that it very much comes off just like a review written with the sole purpose of helping sales of "local" game. Very embarassing review indeed.

    And from what I've seen of the full game (though, admittedly, not that much), John Teti's opinions are IMO much closer to reality than the overly glorified reviews on other sites. If you liked the demo or at least thought (like me) it was OK, the game is nothing like the demo. The demo might not been exactly spectacular, but at least it was somehow entertaining. The game seems just bland and boring for the most part. The gameplay really seems just as an afterthought, a filler connecting the numerous (and mostly unnecessary) cutscenes. And that's just bad.

  • ExplodingClown #293 1 year ago

    My biggest problem with this writeup is that I've not played any of the other games this reviewer has critiqued, so I have absolutely no baseline as to whether to trust the review or not. Back when Charlie Brooker was writing for PC Zone, his opinion matched mine on several games, so I then took his reviews as a good yardstick as to whether I would buy a game or not. That's how criticism works - it's like having a like-minded friend or workmate make you a recommendation or warn you off a stinker.

    EG gave the execrable Aliens V Predator a 6/10 - the only review I found that truly nailed its awfulness was on 1UP where it got a D. They gave Mafia 2 a B. EG also practically came in their pants over Dragon Age: Origins, a game that was horribly derivative and painfully adolescent. On this evidence, I shall not be cancelling my pre-order for Mafia 2.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #294 1 year ago

    What people aren't getting is that 2K Czech vent for vintage in both the art design and the game design. So it really should be the same clunky, lovable mess the original was. And I'm still looking forward to playing it this weekend.

  • Embattle #295 1 year ago

    Looks like a bad case of 'Symantec Syndrome' which in essence means you spend more on marketing og a product than you actually spent on the product.

  • hiddenranbir #296 1 year ago

    I read EG reviews for comedy, not to inform me of a game's quality.

  • darc #297 1 year ago

    "EG also practically came in their pants over Dragon Age: Origins, a game that was horribly derivative and painfully adolescent."

    They gave the PC version an 8/10 and the XBox a 6/10, so "came in their pants" reads a little bit like revisionism. It's also mildly adolescent, now that I find myself repeating it. ;)
    Edited by 2 at 24/08/10 @ 21:42

  • Smoped #298 1 year ago

    About the GTA IV review scores, I don't think Rockstar needed to bribe reviewers, people were just so impressed by Liberty City (and the genral hype, I suppose), they forgot to pay close attention to the actual game.

  • Haloboy #299 1 year ago

    Come now, anyone who has ever played a title (any title) released by Illusions Softworks knows that the term clunky but enjoyable are what they are known for. H&D, Mafia, Vietcong, H&D2 etc have all been prime examples of how games that don't quite reach the same level of industry proficiency others may actually doesn't mean jack shit. Each and every one has still managed to set a new cornerstone for the rest of the onlooking industry - bugs, glitches and all. The gaming experience contained deep within sold itself regardless.

    That's why we love 2K Czech, and always will do.



  • roughsleeper #300 1 year ago

    The demo opens with a song from 1958. This is supposed to be the 40's to the 50's, not nearly the 60's. Fail.

  • DavidDux #301 1 year ago

    Jesus christ... I just cant believe it - 4/10?Same like Mafia 1 before... and M1 become classic.There is something wrong with reviewer... in fact he should get fired for this.Mafia is NOT wild action like GTA ... Mafia is something like interactive movie with strong and deep linear story... I dont need travel across The city with RPG and smash everybody in my sight... seems like Eurogamer did NOT understand whats this game about... SHAME ON YOU, same like before with Mafia1 !

  • neems #302 1 year ago

    I just can't keep away.

    This is tangential at best, but you know what helps when you're thinking of buying a new game? Reading the low scoring reviews. Well, reading a selection of reviews from across the board would be best of course, but the low ones I find particularly helpful.

    I don't rightly know (or, indeed, care) if Mafia 2 deserves this score - I had to leave my pc on overnight to download the demo, which I played for about half an hour and haven't been back to since. But if you are thinking of buying Mafia 2, I highly recommend that you forget the score, and simply read the review, carefully. Look at the flaws as presented by Mr Teti, and try to weigh them up in your own mind. Do you personally care if the world seems empty? Does selling stamps float your boat, or sink it? You can learn an awful lot more from a negative review than from a glowing one. If these (and other) problems don't really bother you, then congratulations. Mafia 2 may be the game for you.

    But for what it's worth, have a look at some of the glowing reports as well. Maybe look up some gameplay videos on youtube. Take information from reviews; you don't necessarily have to take opinions from them as well. Ultimately it is your money; I'm sure John Teti doesn't mind what you spend it on.

    Oh and have a look at the Kotaku review, that was pretty good I thought.

  • dudefella #303 1 year ago

    Mafia 2 is getting bad reviews because of the things it isn't. As opposed to reviews for the game it is.

  • roughsleeper #304 1 year ago

    After watching the Gamespot review, the guy basically says it's OK, some nice genre and 40/50's details, some bad ones, not enough action, fighting or stealth and too much tedious small jobs, the open world is wasted and the story flops at the end. He mentions various bugs, but that's just a patch away so irrelevant. However, I agree with the 4/10 review after the demo too. I don't want 40 minutes of boredom for 10 minutes of a cool shootout. Pre-order cancelled.

  • drxym #305 1 year ago

    I was sorely disappointed by the demo. The original Mafia was a good game with GREAT potential. The Mafia 2 demo suggested to me that all that potential was squandered.

    It's not the only Mafia game to completely screw up its premise. The Godfather was superficially slick but mind achingly awful in hindsight too.

    Any kind of GTA like game has to recognize that its a sandbox. People want to roam the city and that means putting things in the city other than the main plot. Interesting things. Potentially things which mean players never finish the main plot because of all the side stuff. If they can't think of side quests & things to do, they have no business even bothering to make a sandbox game. They may as well just make some linear levels and save themselves the effort.

  • Jockie #306 1 year ago

    Really? the demo wasnt amazing but 4/10 seems beyond harsh. Obviously the indiivdual writer is entitled to his own opinion, but the last two major titles to have release have both garnered crap scores and it just seems like EG are giving shock scores to get attention. The piece felt very angry and showed little attempt to give a balanced objective opinion.

  • RKOwned #307 1 year ago

    Why is this yet again another copy past review? Why didnt they mention that the PS3 version si visualy inferior?

  • PearOfAnguish #308 1 year ago

    "Each and every one has still managed to set a new cornerstone for the rest of the onlooking industry"

    Sure sparky. Did you take some special hyperbole pills today?

  • FogHeart #309 1 year ago

    The number of posts in this thread coming from new accounts who have only posted here is appalling. Only one of whom admits to having just created an account. I could understand Darkfall because there were already players on the game hoping for it to grow and succeed, but this game isn't out yet - ergo, these arseholes have a financial stake in the success of the game because everyone else has at most played the demo.

    To these idiots, I say this: anyone with brain cell number one in their head can spot you because you all seem to say the same thing in various ways. If I wanted to buy the game despite this review, which I didn't (not my thing) I would certainly be put off by these underhand tactics attempting to persuade us to abandon this site. Honestly, I'd rather buy an Activision game right now.

  • madjim #310 1 year ago

    I can't yet comment at whether the review is right or not, but based on the original Mafia review, or worst, on the 10/10 given on Fable 2 (and I am a fan of RPGs), I think I'll play the game and see what's happening.

  • Kostas #311 1 year ago

    Milkman1

    "What? Personal taste has everything to do with it. How else could you measure a game? "

    No mate that is not really true is it. Supposedly we have a VW Golf (the class leading car) and a Fiat Bravo. Now i would easily rate the Golf a 9/10 and the Bravo a 6/10 but i would easily pick the Bravo over the Golf any day and under any circumstance. Its the same here. Personal taste has nothing to do with the standards that need to be met for a high mark.

    The standards between reviewers however differ from one another. Age, experience, whatever is a factor to a reviewers scores. I personaly am a VERY (and i do mean VERY) strict judge with my games. That does not mean i do not enjoy my games of choice, it means that i am less forgiving of faults that do indeed hinder the experience. I do not "overlook" or "pass up" mistakes because i happen to love a game to bits.

  • The_Inquisitor #312 1 year ago

    That review was awful to read, it just came across like a huge rant.

  • Diogo_Ribeiro #313 1 year ago

    congrats Eurogamer, your credibility in reviewing games has now reached M. Night Shyamalan standards.

    By which you mean, thanks to EG's reviews we see start seeing (brain)dead people?

  • skyrider #314 1 year ago

    Which idiot child gave only 4 points to this game? This game is not the best, but better than 4 points...
    Which idiot child gave only 4 points to this game? This game is not the best, but better than 4 points...
    Which idiot child gave only 4 points to this game? This game is not the best, but better than 4 points...
    The most entertaining game this year.

  • AnsemsApprentice #315 1 year ago

    Oh fuck...I want to disagree with this review but that would make me a gamespot fanboy... but I don't want to disagree, because that might make my opinion less valid...can't...choose...

    This is the fact:
    Some people love things, some people don't. There is no way on hell you're going to please them all, so why are we bothering to make our opinions heard? The reviews are starting to become more important than the games, but they're just numbers people!

  • charliebucket #316 1 year ago

    I think the review is mostly indicative of tastes, something like a hardcore metalhead writing a review of a piano concert comprising only Chopin's quieter Nocturnes. It's nothing against the reviewer, but the very type of game here seemingly isn't his bag and never could be unless it was amped up and full of action. I suppose this is my way of saying "he misses the point of the game" - maybe he didn't, but he certainly doesn't like the point even if he did get it.

    After playing it for 6 hours, I think it's great - very similar to Mafia. Its strengths are in its cinematic tone and excellent atmosphere. There's action here and there since it is a game after all, but mostly it's a GTA type of game for people who are a lot more chill and who want a lot more involvement with the characters rather than constant action ala COD:MW2 (which I did enjoy also, but for different reasons). This doesn't mean MII has a great story or anything - it's pretty stock, actually, just like the first one - but it has all sorts of cool character to it. Sometimes I just want to relax and visit a world that isn't the one I live in, and take the time to appreciate it, and I think this game fits that beautifully.

    Incidentally, re: The stamp drop-offs. It's a timed mission with waypoints. If you do it right and drive fast without crashing all the time, presumably you can hit all of them before midnight. The "boringness" of stamps is irrelevant to what's going on, and is no different from this type of mission in any driving game. Ho hum.

    Dunno. Could say a lot more, but Mafia II is right up this gamer's alley, definitely.

  • arj7 #317 1 year ago

    Eurogamers reviews are erratic at best, i thought Red Dead Redemption was a terrific game 8 seemed a bit harsh.
    They have shred this game to pieces, I dont know what they were expecting we all know the gta formula, you drive and do a mission and so on. 4/10 sounds like a joke for a game that has been in development for so long.
    I dont listen to Eurogamer scores im still buying it

  • JensonJet #318 1 year ago

    How odd. People complain about a review or it's rating because they want the review to be glowing because they want to buy the game. It's easy. If you're buying the game regardless ignore the bad reviews! I actually thought it was a breath of fresh air. It's just a shame the big hitters, like GTA will never get a review as honest as this.

  • BBIAJ #319 1 year ago

    Bollocks to the score, all I want to know is, does the paint job on the cars still bubble and blister when they're set alight, as mentioned years back in an early preview?

    If not, then NO SALE!!!

    Disclaimer: This is a joke, although I am actually curious as to the answer. I am very much looking forward to playing the Collector's Edition on 360, as I couldn't get enough of the demo.

  • FogHeart #320 1 year ago

    Overused meme is overused.

  • solidSnake04 #321 1 year ago

    they gave the original a 4 as well. so surelly this game is good.

  • DoctorFouad #322 1 year ago

    @ dudefella : "Mafia 2 is getting bad reviews because of the things it isn't. As opposed to reviews for the game it is."

    +1 I totally agree with you, actually thats the problem of video game reviews in general. when people like one game on a specific genre (for this reviewer GTA4) they simply dislike anything else in the same genre but not similar or not having the same feautures as their reference beloved game.

    the getaway on ps2 for example suffered from its comparison with GTA3/vice city, the same goes for Mafia1/2...

    Killzone games still suffering from their comparison with Halo and call of duties.

    beyond good and evil suffered from its comparison with zelda

    ...etc

    reviewers ask generally those questions : why this game doesent have this feature that the other game has ?!! why this game is playing differently than my beloved game ?!!! whu this game is not doing this ? that ? (some dreaming ideas in the head oft he reviewer)...etc

    instead of asking the right questions : is this game any fun ? what this game does that others dont ? (innovation) ? what are the positives of this game ?...etc


    Reviewers should be more tolerant, tolerating difference, and applauding innovation, and review games for what they are not what they must have been.

    Edited by 1 at 25/08/10 @ 10:25

  • JEPC123 #323 1 year ago

    Anyone notice the similarities between this Metro review and this one?
    [link url=http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/838939-games-review-mafia-ii
    ]http://ww w.metro.co.uk/tech/838939-games...[/link]

    I smell plagiarism!

    As for Teti's review, of course everyone's going to have a different opinion on the same game, but having read the eurogamer.fr review, I do find it striking that there the reviewer gave it its 10/10 score mainly on the basis of atmosphere, story, dialogue, and characterisation - calling it the best narration in a game he has ever seen, in a gaming 'career' spanning about 6,000 games. So all he and Teti agree on is that it's atmosphereic, but where Teti sees it as a Potemkin Village, the French reviewer was very much drawn in by all this; Teti complains about the lack of things to do, whereas the French reviewer praises this, arguing that it's refreshing to have a game so focused on narration that you can play a long mission during which only a few minutes are devoted to shooting. As I said, differences of opinion are what I expect, but such drastic ones are confusing and shocking. Does this reflect national and/or personal sensibilities? Is the French translation more compelling and better-acted than the English version? Maybe those who can speak French should play it in French... as one of the many who loved the original, and having not yet been able to play the demo, I'm hoping that Teti's being overly critical and that the French guy is right!

  • Antaios #324 1 year ago

    I'm just glad EG is brave enough to use the entire scoring scale instead of just between 7-10. Overall scores these days are too high, everywhere, and most sites don't have the guts of scaling back and redefining the way they score games. If a game is average, it's average and for me, judging by the demo, EG's 4 sums it up far better than a 7/10 on any other site

  • kaufmann #325 1 year ago

    how does this john teti sleep at night?

  • Motu #326 1 year ago

    The author of this review the gibbering idiot, I at all don't know as to describe this review! Simply apparently that at the author personal not a love to game, an epoch and so forth! And it can owner PS3 and rages because of that that on Xbox 360 looks much better!!?? The author the moron!

  • Antaios #327 1 year ago

    Eh?

  • spekkeh #328 1 year ago

    Got to love Google Translate.

  • migasUK #329 1 year ago

    surprise surprise hahahaha

  • FogHeart #330 1 year ago

    ...and now we have the first-posters plussing each other (and I notice negging me when I point out what they're doing).

    EG this thread is poisoned by PR cronies attempting to sabotage the site. Like I said, Darkfall was OK, it was invaded by gamers, but these can't be gamers unless the game is already out in their country (in which case wtf do you care how well it reviews here?).

    Shut this thing down. And for the love of God add a postcount to the info next to each post so we can spot these pricks.

  • Talbot #331 1 year ago

    Reviewer is a prick.

  • Haloboy #332 1 year ago

    Played the game for roughly 2 hours now and it is quite easily a solid 7 based on said experience.

    Not disappointed one bit so far.

  • Krusty #333 1 year ago

    Well this is a bit of a shock, I enjoyed playing the demo on PC. Played it through twice in fact.

    Have pre-ordered on Steam so can't cancel... still, think this review sounds very harsh. Someone had a bad week?

  • Osmond #334 1 year ago

    Two titles one after another that i had high expectations for ,(dog days the other) which have turned out average at best. Dont know how they messed up mafia 2 so much, as its been in development for something like 4 years .

  • darc #335 1 year ago

    "I think I'll play the game and see what's happening."

    There's no substitute for that, ever, assuming you have the time, opportunity to rent, or sufficient funds to risk the purchase.

    I like the review for calling the game on it's faults, and I can predict with 99% certainty I'll agree w/ everything the reviewer said. But I'll still play the demo, and probably even buy the game once it's in the bargain bin - I just have a thing for depictions of NYC in this time period, and for gangster fiction in general. There will be some part of Mafia II that I'll enjoy, but I'm glad to be forewarned not to run right out with my $60 expecting a near-perfect AAA product.
    Edited by 1 at 25/08/10 @ 17:12

  • moxpearl #336 1 year ago

    Well i am half way throu the game.. its FANTASTIC.. if you loved the first Mafia then you will love this one.. its VERY similar..

    Its not GTA.. its not trying to be GTA.. dont treat it like GTA .. (I have seen reviews complaining about how you cant buy houses/cars like in GTA ffs)

    Im baffled by some of the negative reviews tbh.

    If you liked the first Mafia.. then you will like this Mafia. FACT
    Edited by 1 at 25/08/10 @ 18:41

  • ExplodingClown #337 1 year ago

    @darc: Sorry, I didn't take account of the 360 score for DA:o, as I don't own one. But 8/10 on the PC was obscenely overselling it score-wise.

  • UncleLou #338 1 year ago

    @darc: Sorry, I didn't take account of the 360 score for DA:o, as I don't own one. But 8/10 on the PC was obscenely overselling it score-wise.

    Completely disagree, but anyway - to criticize EG for "obscenely overselling" (hello, hyperbole) DA is particularly weird, because 8/10 is one of the lowest scores for the PC version of DA you can find on the whole internet...

  • darc #339 1 year ago

    "@darc: Sorry, I didn't take account of the 360 score for DA:o, as I don't own one. But 8/10 on the PC was obscenely overselling it score-wise."

    I can, to an extent, see where you might consider DA overrated... industry-wide. But EG's 8/10 seemed like an eminently fair score to me, considering the scope of the game and the incredible production values. I understand your sense that the game was "derivative" - it certainly wasn't as groundbreaking as I had hoped. (To be fair, it was primarily derivative of previous works in the same franchise.) But even on the days I was bored with it I'd have called it a solid 8.

    As for M2 and the 4/10 in question, I'm kind of coming at this entire discussion with limited perspective because I have yet to play it.

  • Lunatic4ever #340 1 year ago

    Unbelievable how much confusion there is about this game.The scores are so diverse and the opinions contradict in many aspects.
    The demo wasnt fascinating,admittedly.It wasnt the "wow,this looks like a true classic" feeling that the first MAFIA managed to deliver. But then again...when was the last time we really thought that?

    I can hardly judge this review BEFORE playing the game on my own. I will buy it and give it a try. I just hope it gets me hooked and blows me away.If not...then the great MAFIA hype comes to an end.

  • JohnnySixShooter #341 1 year ago

    This is it, I'm cancelling my preorder!

  • fanboy_Wutan #342 1 year ago

    I registered to this halfassed site just to say that the reviewer was obviously playing GTA 4, seeing as everything mentioned fits it to the last letter. Could the game be made better? Yes. Would 2K Czech make a better game with GTA4's budget? Obviously.
    GTA 4 is a driving game, where you save your idiotic cousin from every guy with 2 minutes to kidnap him. The guys doing the voice for Niko Bellić "ć" (100 million and the dumbest of mistakes) just shows that Americans couldn't find the Balkans on the map, let alone be entrusted to do the region's voicovers.

    The place where the Mafia 2 game shines is the story, unfortunately if the game doesn't have Crysis graphics it get's automatically screwed over.

    Funny how every other Eurogamer site - it, cz, fr- liked the game.

    Well at least you're not IGN and give automatically high scores based on advertising. At least you gave your own opinion, useless as it is.

  • stephen #343 1 year ago

    I think this review is ridiculously harsh. I'm playing the Steam version (released here in the US yesterday) and finding it to be a great single player experience. I don't particularly care for any open-world sandbox faffing about. I just want a solid story driven singple player game and it seems to be delivered. I really liked the prison level, thought it was a great way to handle the transition from winter in wartime to spring/summer in the early 50s.

  • 3sixty #344 1 year ago

    are you guys fucking kiding??! this is one of the best games i ever played and you give 4? fucking jackasses!

  • Big-Swiss #345 1 year ago

    EG Germany = 8/10

  • Slimebeast #346 1 year ago

    I am happy this game got exposed. Until the reviews I was under the false illusion that Mafia 2 was going to be a true sandbox game.

  • drxym #347 1 year ago

    @stephen "I don't particularly care for any open-world sandbox faffing about. "

    That's fair enough, but Mafia II is a sandbox game. If they can't be bothered to fill their sandbox with things to do, it renders all the development effort rather pointless. The first Mafia blew it too. They crafted an ENTIRE CITY and didn't bother to put anything in it worth doing. Same for Assassins Creed. Same for The Godfather.

    If you can't fill a city with interesting nooks and crannies, side missions, challenges etc., don't bother implementing the game that way at all.

  • Roumen #348 1 year ago

    The reviewer is a terrible idiot .... give Mafia 2 4/10....on would not know a good game even if he had stuffed into her ass. The whole EG.net sucks .... EG.CZ is much better!!

  • Roumen #349 1 year ago

    A comparison of Mafia 2 is stupid GTA4 ....

  • Bloodloss #350 1 year ago

    So you call it awful then proceed to give it 4 out of 10, which according to the Eurogamer scoring policy means it is below average, but not bad (3), or awful (2)? Interesting.

  • darc #351 1 year ago

    LOL Bloodloss you've got to be the first poster to suggest that the score is to high! :)

  • UncleLou #352 1 year ago

    That's fair enough, but Mafia II is a sandbox game

    Wrong.

  • eiocreative #353 1 year ago

    I have to jump in and say a 4/10 is bordering on being silly. Had a quick look at the game at a friends house and production value alone makes this game worthy of a higher score.

  • ltbobby #354 1 year ago

    ive had mafia 2 for xbox 360 since this morning and been playing it since then and i have to say there is no way its a 4/10!
    the story , music atmosphere and graphics to some degree are great. the story is the best ive seen in a game for ages. it makes you want to play on . the missions are varied and gun mechanics/ fighting are fine. the only annoyance so far is in buildings when there is slight screen tearing but other than that this is the most ive been into a game since uncharted 2. easily a 9 for me! who cares about the lack of open world . the story is way bettet than gta and it plays like a film. EG's review is shockingly inaccurate.

  • Moecat #355 1 year ago

    Oh my god, this review is a great example of ignorant console gamers that expect certain games to follow certain formulas, which in this case it does, but hey it's not enough!

    Let's clear one thing up: This is not a sandbox game, it's a linear story with an open world, got it? Ok great!
    Mafia was like this too, I assume alot of current gen gamers haven't played the pc version, or played the ps2 version and absolutely hated it, which is fair enough.
    When you wake up, mission starts, hit the bed and the mission is over.

    There is not reason to explore, other than to look at the amazing details in the rich environment, this reviewer claims that it has less attention to detail than gta4? I'm sorry what!? Ignore this incompetent trash and play it, if you have a pc for the love of god play it on there, it runs amazingly (just like gta4 didn't) on high, and it looks absolutely stunning, whereas the 360 version looks...meh, and the ps3 version looks like a ps2 game, lazy devs making ports, but rightfully so when you consider most pc games these days are lazy console ports.

    When you step out of the train and look at the visuals, the production values are fantastic, it's an amazing experience just wandering around in that first section of the game, they clearly worked hard to get the atmosphere to what it is. It's a story driven game, so don't expect to run around shooting people all the time, it has its slow moments but again it does nothing out of character.

    Speaking of characters the little touches makes all the difference, like the subtle scar/scratch on vito's face, you kind of remember stuff like that.
    Also when it goes from the 1940's to the 1950's you'll notice a massive difference in the way everything is presented, the radios are different, everything feels a bit more modern, and boy! The cars are a step above in their handling compared to the icy streets with awful cars earlier.

    They're a joy to drive, I have no idea what some reviewers have been complaining about the handling which is absolutely fine, if you want more challenge you can set it to simulation mode. The game's difficulty is adequate, I'm playing it on hard and yes it's hard but not to an unfair point.

    The voice acting is stellar, it's great.

    This is at least a 7.5/10. Giving this game a 4 is ridiculous, I'm all for reviewers giving their own opinion rather than what the "voice" or the majority will say, but hey guess what, John! I'm going to continue to read your jabroni reviews so I can have something to laugh myself to sleep at night.

    I think I preferred the first's characters, but the world in this is far more detailed.
    This truly feels like a sequel to the first, it kind of threw everyone off guard expecting a gta clone, but it's more like the original than you may realize, the demo is not an accurate description of how the actual game plays out.

  • Pikol #356 1 year ago

    Eurogamer at its finest :D

  • MrTeatime #357 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:59:18 03-01-2012

  • oniris #358 1 year ago

    4/10 ?!
    but more shocking is that they gave the original Mafia, a brilliant game, the same 4/10.

    I'm playing mafia 2 right now and its pretty good. Not a brilliant game but has its moments and it hasn't any gamebreaking flaw (so why 4/10 EG?).

    I rate it 8/10 so far and i have 3chapters left from 15.

    p.s. on PC the graphics and physics are stellar!

  • Necromanti #359 1 year ago

    When I googled "4/10"...

    ...this review was the first result.

    I smell sensationalism.
    Edited by 1 at 26/08/10 @ 21:37

  • Stompy #360 1 year ago

    "Had a quick look at the game at a friends house and production value alone makes this game worthy of a higher score."

    Also, Avatar deserved to win all the Oscars because it was very expensive.

  • stedaman #361 1 year ago

    How on earth can you give this game a 4/10...THAT IS RIDICOULOUS

    Even if you don't like the game and you think it has some faults it's definatly not in the same bracket as other games voted 4/10

    That's a really crazy score, and really unjustified really.

  • xhofl102 #362 1 year ago

    This review is finally what I really think about this Game. Thank YOU.

    And I must say I'm from Czech and ratings about 8+ and crazy people everywhere screaming MAFIA II FOREVER are killing me :)

  • BigDaddy82 #363 1 year ago

    I'm enjoying this game more than most games i've played this year to be honest, no way it deserves a 4, I think EG were just trying to prove a point by giving it the same score as they gave the first game, it's great :)

  • White_Waffle #364 1 year ago

    4/10 does not mean it's an average game or a little below average, it means the reviewer found the game to be terrible. Anyone reading the review should see that. So Mafia 2 is according to this review a terrible game. To me it's not about arguing about scores. This reviewer thinks it's a terrible game, and at least for the PC version I find this opinion highly subjective.

  • enjdusan #365 1 year ago

    4/10 ? Author is realy mindless and blind.

  • geeza2020 #366 1 year ago

    was expecting 6 or7 from this after playing the demo. But 4? Damn EG you're a harsh mistress :)

  • TrueAsYou #367 1 year ago

    You have to convince your self to play it more than once. But it's ok, DLC's will come out with new shiny vehicles for little ones and every one exept few will be happy like they are now.
    Edited by 2 at 27/08/10 @ 15:01

  • Drool #368 1 year ago

    The original Mafia was worth the metascore of a 9/10 it has. The 4/10 review back then was harsh, sure, this 4/10 might be a bit harsh as well but Mafia 2 isn't half as good as the originial was for its time.

    Spoiler alert:

    You doublecross or kill everyone but one or two characters in the game. A few chapters in you find out you have more control of your character than you do in the first Bioshock. Would you kindly blindly follow out all the orders and see all the obvious plottwists coming? I can't help but feel they wanted to reproduce the first Mafia but dumb it down for the mainstream (console) audience.

    Spoiler end.

    As far as I can tell the reviewer isn't too expierenced as far as shooting goes or played it on hard. I played it on normal and had no problems with the game whatsoever. Even if you speed, you can shake the cops in seconds on a straight road. A headshot with any weapon does the job and once you cover behind two bricks on top of each other you won't get hit by a single bullet. The minimap indicates your health and where the enemies are, I can't believe the reviewer struggled at all.

    All in all a cover-shooter with nice graphics, nice cutscenes, generic shooting and a way overdone and predictable story. Rent it for a weekend if you don't have anything good laying around, you won't regret it. You will regret buying it for the full price however.



    All in all developers need to have the balls to make a game hard so there's some satisfaction once you finish it. And reviewers in general won't act like butthurt babies once they can't auto-aim their way through a game with a savepoint around every single corner, dumbing the game down further than it has to in the progress just because they're used to easy-mode.

  • peppergomez #369 1 year ago

    Pretty funny how the current banner ad lists all the high scores from other review sites.

  • peppergomez #370 1 year ago

    Pretty funny how the current banner ad lists all the high scores from other review sites.

  • AgentFortySeven #371 1 year ago

    eurogamer are the only honest review in the games industry. look at ign for starters they must take back handers from publishers for the scores they give out.

  • Vedfolner #372 1 year ago

    Awesomeness: DLC on day one of release! That's the final nail in the coffin then.

  • WoodenSpoon #373 1 year ago

    So what planet does John Teti come from?

  • DarknRahl #374 1 year ago

    You people are on the internet. There are loads of reviews to read if you were really looking forward to this game and they are only a click away.

    Personally eurogamer is my favourite gaming review site. The reviews appear to be written by people over the age of twenty who have actually been around long enough to know what a good game is.

  • Etymole #375 1 year ago

    Thing is...you guys rated the original Mafia as 4/10. Which I don't agree with and, although it had it's flaws, was still a great game in my opinion. Good storytelling and pretty fun to play.

    I'm still gonna buy it and give it a try. Feel slightly dissapointed that it didn't get many praise points but in this case I believe I'll just have to see for myself.

  • Dafridge #376 1 year ago

    I went looking for the review here today and couldn't find it. Then I noticed all the mafia 2 ads all over this site and thought...oh dear. Next step metacritic where I found EG's 4/10 review and realised that EG are happy to deliver a scathing review but they are now hiding it from their reviews pages to keep the ad revenue pumping. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a reveiw re-write.

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/arc hive.php?type=review&sort=reversechrono&platform=xbox360
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/archive.php?typ...[/link]

  • TheStatics #377 1 year ago

    ^ the review is still on the main http://www.eurogamer.net page.

    Also, if you click on reviews. It's the 4th one down (shown in chronological order).

    If EG are trying to hide it they aint doing a very good job.
    Edited by 1 at 28/08/10 @ 11:02

  • MaartenVC #378 1 year ago

    I've played the game for some time now, and I must say, I completely agree with this review.
    I don't understand how other reviewers could give this a high score...
    It's just a boring and empty game. It's just mediocre cut-scenes stitched together...

  • El-Dev #379 1 year ago

    I'm about half way through this now and I personally disagree with the reviewer. He seems to have picked up on a few minor problems and went to town on them. Mafia II is by no way GOTY material but it's entertaining and not a 4/10 game.

    Each to their own I suppose though.

  • Xemat #380 1 year ago

    I was really disappointed after trying the demo :( Guess I'll pass this one.

  • Slipstream #381 1 year ago

    I'm playing the game right this very moment and the city really isn't that 'empty' now is it...

  • AmpH #382 1 year ago

    What a stupid game! Excellent shooting and driving, a good story, wonderful music, voice acting is very well done, atmosphere really pulls you in and superb graphics (on PC, don't know about the consoles), totally 4/10.

  • milky_09 #383 1 year ago

    was looking forward to this... but the mixed reviews have put me off a bit. if im honest. but how many times do reviewers put the boot in... definitely one to look out for... but when its a bit cheaper.

  • McPhisto74 #384 1 year ago

    Having played the game through I can honestly say that this review dies not do the game justice... At first I went totally with EG verdict but as I had been waiting for this so long I kept my pre-order. I'm not dissapointed in any way. Like i said in one of the first reactions I am à big fan of the original; Mafia 2 does not only come close, but improves in about every aspect that made the original a classic. EG rated that game like its follow-up as below average (4/10). You may not like the style, or the fact that this not a freeroamer, or a shooter like you would want it to. But Please review it by what it is; it's NOT below average ...

  • milky_09 #385 1 year ago

    given that the mechanics of the gameplay havent moved on much since the original mafia. and thats where the problem lies. clunky controls, gameplay mechanics and a lack of evolution. i wonder if halo reach will be reviewed with such things in mind... and actually gt5 for that matter and gtaV and fifa 11 and pes.

  • Verwandlung #386 1 year ago

    What are those adds people speak of?
    Just install Adblock and never see them again.

  • Miths #387 1 year ago

    Unless the game goes rapidly downhill in the last half (I'm on chapter 9, six hours in), I can't remember the last time I've disagreed so much with a Eurogamer review (and it's not like I haven't felt a few others have been way off).

    Yes, Mafia II is definitely not an open world game of the type we've gotten used to with the GTA series and others - and borrowing the subtitle "The Real Driving Simulator" from GT wouldn't have been entirely inappropriate :) - but my experience so far with the PC version has been thoroughly enjoyable.

    Story is decent, voice acting is great, graphics are mostly phenomenal (PC version, 1920x1200, most settings maxed except for PhysX off, which is just too much for my GTX 260), Empire City extremely atmospheric and far from "lifeless", as I've seen it called in some reviews (they must been referring entirely to the lack of side activities and not the actual feel of the city), brawling and shooting entertaining and engaging (even if not quite on par with dedicated third person shooters or assorted brawlers) and driving very satisfying on the "simulation" setting.

    At this point - although obviously still with six chapters to go - my score would probably be a 9 if I had to base it on sheer enjoyment of the experience, or a slightly more modest 8 if I had to consider the game elements a bit harder (but without slating it for not being a "proper" open world game, since that clearly isn't what it's trying to be).

    Though if I had tried to play the PC version entirely with keyboard and mouse - as I imagine many PC gamers have been doing - I'm sure the extended driving would savagely cut into my enjoyment of the game and cut several full points off the score. In my opinion a gamepad (or better yet, wheel and pedals) is an absolute must for games with more than a few minutes of driving.
    I've actually been using a wired 360 controller for everything, not bothering to switch to mouse and keyboard for shooting - I'm used to console gaming anyway these days.

  • Darksjeik #388 1 year ago

    I think this is one of those games you either click with or you don't. A lovem' or hatem' kind of deal. I for one absolutely love the game with a passion.
    It does require patience though. If you're the kind of person that will race from mission to mission constantly running around you're going to hate this game. If you take your time with it though and immerse yourself in it. It really is a very good game.

  • charliebucket #389 1 year ago

    I think this will tell you whether you're going to like this game or not: (Mouse over the spoiler thing)

    There's a mission in this game that begins and ends like so: Your character goes out drinking to a cat house with 2 mafia friends after getting out of jail. These two proceed to get completely trashed during the cut scene, with one of them saying "don't let me get too hammered; I've got something to do later." Of course, he does get drunk, and because you're the only sober one, you're supposed to drive them home. On the way, a stench in the car makes itself known, and it turns out the thing this guy had to do was bury a body in the trunk that has been decomposing over a few days. So now you've got to drive to an isolated spot at night just for a cut scene of you burying the corpse, and then you've got to drive the guys home again. On the way back from the burial spot, Dean Martin's classic song 'Return to Me' starts playing on the radio, whereupon the two drunks start crooning along with him while you drive through a late night setting to drop them off.

    If you're like me, this whole thing - especially the part with the song - gave you a huge smile, and you love looking at the world while you drive. They put some genuine magic in the representation of nighttime driving: Lots of colors and multivalued hues that come off very, very painterly and beautiful, particularly the lighting. It's not just "graphics," it's art, and a very nice homage to the 1950s as much as it is to Mafia clichés.

    If you're not like me, this "mission" boils down to "get in car, drive to pick up friends, then drive to bar. Cutscene. Drive to place. Cutscene. Drive home. What the hell did I just do during this mission? I didn't shoot anyone or race or blow anything up. I just drove."

    Mind you, that's an atypical mission. Most of them do end up in shooting or fighting or driving with some purpose. People must understand how much this game is also a full-length movie, as well as a historical experience that is meant to allow the player the time to enjoy it. I'm amazed at how little cred the direction during the cut scenes has gotten, but the camera work is excellent, and the art direction in general is too. The city atmosphere is likewise exceptional, and they skillfully created an environment that, for me anyway, is awesome to be in. This has been true of all the Illusion Softworks/2K Czech games - they all move slowly for large chunks of the game, but they have other qualities that make these games worth every penny, and I hope this backlash doesn't make them reconsider their formulas and turn this unique dev team into a bunch of child-pandering action hacks.

    I'm on second play-through now, and I can't wait for 'Jimmy's Vendetta' to come out. Personally, I think this game will be recognized someday as a masterpiece, but for reasons that a lot of you will not be able to relate to at all.


    Finally, re: Sandbox games. There are a set number of missions, whether a game is sandbox or not. Where you start them on the map or who gives them to you shouldn't really matter that much, but I guess it does for a lot of people. I do wish they would have done a Free Ride Extreme option as in the first game (that was as close as Mafia got to GTA: Vice City missions in terms of humor and weirdness), but I still love this one plenty without it.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/10 @ 09:21

  • barat #390 1 year ago

    Great first 5 hours, then it really goes downhill with mediocre missions and the end is just awful. 6/10

  • p0rt3r #391 1 year ago

    This was the worst gaming experience ever. And it`s not over since even if i`m gonna have a nerve system breakdown I`m going to finish it. I paid 90$ for a bad, baaaaaaad game.
    >boring
    >repetitive
    >saving system is a joke. It saves before the gunfight, even if you die at hands of the last man standing it brings you back all the way back to the very beginning of the whole shooting.
    >damage system? PATHETIC. you get 2-3 shots and BAM, you`re dead. Moreover, if you damage the opponents, sometimes they don't bother themselves with the hits, they just keep firing at you. But if YOU my friend get shot, then you loose control of poor Vito who gets even more damage because you cannot go to cover no nothing. Once shot, you loose control of the bastard and you can prey the guy who shot you has to reload so you can go to cover again.
    >law enforcement: if you hit a cop car slightly then you get chased by the cops. Somebody else does it? The cop does not even bother getting out of the car. He just sits there and waits till the car which hit him proceeds. Sometimes you can`t bribe cops - you bribe them then they draw weapons again and arrest you.
    >targeting system: now this is supposed to be an action game with lot of crime, itc., right? Check this out: the crosshair looks like in AMIGA/COMMODORE64 times, it`s big and fat. BUT, if you are behind cover, it only appears if you get out of cover to aim at the dudes shootin` at you. Now this wouldn`t be any problem, but taking the fact into consideration that 2-3 shots and you die, it can be a bit of a struggle gettin` out of cover, AIM(!!!!) and shoot the guy without being shot.
    >Missions: WOW. now that`s what I call BORING. drive, drive, escape, escape, drive in circle to shake the cops(!!!). Considering the actual "interesting" parts of the missions where you have to fight are combined with the worst damage and saving systems I ever experienced, I can say the missions - every single one of them - are pathetic, boring, annoying and repetitive and repetitive and re.... omg the game affected me I`m sorry......
    >Melee combat: relies 100% on the AMIGA/COMMODORE64 times. Hold [] and you dodge EVERY SINGLE HIT. You do not have to push nothing, just hold that [] tight. And counterattack. And BAM, you`re better then Rocky ever was. Holdin` [] and counterattack will get you through every fight.
    >Other annoying stuff:
    ---Vito lives at the top floor once he gets his own apartment. When you go home, you have to make it upstairs on foot. EACH TIME. I MEAN IT. CLIMB UP, CLIMB DOWN.
    ---One time I bought new clothes to get rid of cops. Now the stuff I changed into was chased because of a different crime, and BAM, I was wanted again!
    ---Vito has to hit car glasses twice to break them in. WHY?! In an action game where I am living a life of crime, and do not want to do time I have to hurry "sometimes".
    ---and the best for last: one time, after we finish part of the mission in the slaughterhouse, I got killed because I got shot 3 times (do not be surprised get used to it). Anyway, as every dedicated gamer I reloaded and I did not believe what I saw: I was flying, in the air holding my little sweet .38 pistol in my hands (was NOT equipped earlier) and once I looked at the map, I was outside it. WAY outside the playable area.

    BOTTOM LINE:
    TAKE2 managed to destroy the heritage of the greatest PC game ever. Mission impossible: accomplished. :-( Oh I almost forgot: graphics do not meet today`s expectations, physics neither. This offer everybody HAS to refuse.....

    UPDATE1:
    about the saving system in detail:
    >I completed the mission
    >I went back to meet a guy as requested and got my money
    >meanwhile while performing these actions, sold a car, stole one, got it tuned up, then I went to meet another guy.
    >my car got hit at 60mph from the side and I hit the wall -->> I DIED!!!
    >>>GUESS WHAT: THOUGH ALL THESE ACTIONS TOOK AROUND 25 MINS, I HAD TO RESTART AT THE POINT MEET THE GUY AND CHANGE MY CLOTHES. THIS IS SICK!!!!
    Edited by 11 at 29/08/10 @ 17:44

  • Sarcastic #392 1 year ago

    Now, I played the whole game through and I can honestly say that Eurogamer's 4/10 is BULLSHIT! The Game was AWESOME like the first Mafia game.

    The guy who reviewed Mafia II at Eurogamer must have done some kind of drugs or he has some kind of childhood trauma because of a scary mafia movie. Maybe Godfather..

    There is no other explanation. Mafia II is really a great game!

  • rockNrolf #393 1 year ago

    Wow.. I'm playing Mafia II through the 2nd time now. If 4/10 games are this great, 10/10 game will blow up the world! ..or Eurogamers are beating Mafia II up for not paying protection money to them.

  • pinochet_cz #394 1 year ago

    Ok..now I played game for first four hours and you can delete my eurogamer account completely.
    So long, and thanks for all the fish.

  • ISeeEverything #395 1 year ago

    Well EG , I always take your reviews as serious and fair , but this one is only valid in "Twilight Zone" .

  • Merefield #396 1 year ago

    4/10 = miserable eurogamer review

    This game is at least 8/10, the graphics are gorgeous and there is massive attention to detail.

    Sure, it's a bit on rails but i can see that was a conscious design decision to keep the quality up on a limited budget. Good decision if you ask me, its a lovely game.

    Repetitive? I'm 50% through and its been extremely very varied!

  • OGHomie #397 1 year ago

    seriously, has this moron even played the game? If so he fails pretty much. I mean, he did 4 hours to come to the gas station mission? I took 1.5 hours max and i wasted some time. Also, an headshot out of cover? never had that, you must really suck as i never had that. And the save points, i dont know wich game this guy ha been playing but i had savepoints throughout the missions. Also what even fails is that if im correct these enemy markers are only there on easy, wich even fails more for such an 'great game reviewer' it is regular that they also play the game on hard and even try things outside fot hat, but this guy cant even drive normally as i have never died in traffic due to an 'truck which hit my and i slammed an pole'. Seriously, this guy at least needs to get some skills or at least some brains to even try to judge an game

  • gmbodhi #398 1 year ago

    (English is not my native language so please excuse me for bad writing )

    I think this has to be the worst review I've read in years. It is irresponsible and very unprofessional to say the least. It seems to me that the reviewer is some high school student who just got the game and are forced to do this review while in a very bad mood, and now he fully expressed his personal feelings in the article he wrote. This is not a review, this is a bunch of whining from a lousy gamer. A review ,in my opinion, should be accurate, and what the reviewer said " Of course, all things can be sorted by driving in this game" what kind of retarded remark is this? If it's world of warcraft you are talking about, do you also complain "All things in wow can be resolved by killing monsters?"

    You play a mafia game and you complain that it does not reach the depth of Godfather (the movie)? And at the same time you complain there's too much dirty language and sex involved in it. and you think the game is too slow-paced and there's not enough action? Do you have any idea what is "building suspense?" When you whining about how there's too many cutscenes, did you actually listen to what the characters saying? or just sit there and whining "Oh another cutsene where's the shooting?"

    the fighting mechnism, you think the fist fights are too simple and way too easy, ok I agree with you on this ,but at the same time, you are frustrated about the information on the radar map isn't clear enough in a gunfight. To be honest, I don't know what you are talking about, I started the game on hard, I wanted to fully experience the simulated excitement and horror of a gunfight, so there's nothing on the radar map except for cop activities. This is a game trying to simulate a 40’s New York ganster life, while you sir are relying on satelite image support to see every enemy behind their covers. As for enemies being "campers", so what do you expect? They just rush toward your crosshair and get shot? Is that what you want? Why don't you use grenage or molotov cocktails?

    The game is short, and there's not enough things to do, on this I agree with you, That's just too bad for me, because I already finished the game twice and now the only way to continue to enjoy this great game, is to start playing it again from the begining..again , that's a bit boring but there's no other way ,it really is a shame.




  • Merefield #399 1 year ago

    You can't apparently hail a cab though which is a bit of a shame ...

  • Dunge #400 1 year ago

    I was talking about this game with some friends, and they told me they didn't try it yet since it "receive bad reviews". So I go and check, the only out-of-context review is this one with a score that don't make sense. You guys realize you actually make people skip this marvelous game? 10/10 for me.

  • Dunge #401 1 year ago

    I'm reading comments here, and realize people just don't know what's good for them. Go back to your WOW repetitive gambling gameplay.

  • hygor #402 1 year ago

    I haven't finished the game yet, but I can't help but disagree with the reviewer. I know its mainly about personal taste and I find myself being sucked into the game as I did with the first Mafia, so even when I see a few bugs here and there (Vito repeatedly asking whats got up Joe's ass when he has a go at you for driving fast just after a incident involving a colleague or the shop that you can open the door of but not walk in) I find that they dont bother me.

    I think the biggest mistake some people are making is the GTA IV / sandbox comparison... this is not a sandbox game - the open city is merely the "set" for the game to take place in, giving you the freedom to take which ever vehicle/route/weaponry/clothing you want to use to get to your destination/achive your mission. It makes a linear game feel much more free - but at the end of it all it is a linear game... and in my opinion a great one!

    Driving along in the 1950s in a convertible with the radio on and people milling the streets in hats and overcoats, the game feels pretty convincing at capturing the mood of the era... out of work people slumping in doorways, people shopping for suits, people in flat caps sweeping the streets. Its not a perfect game, but I've found it to be very immersive, entertaining and graphically very pretty. I'm sure I will play through it again when I've finished... and IMO its definately worth more than a 4/10

    I got home after a mission and my phone was ringing, I decided I wanted to save and went to bed instead of answering it, I awoke to find my house being burnt down... I can't help but wonder what I missed by not answering the phone!! Reason enough to replay I think!

  • ScottyXTUK #403 1 year ago

    Picked this up on PC been playing it for about 10 hours now. All I can say is that the guy who reviewed this wants his head read. I know he's entitled to his opinion but 4 out of 10 he's having a laugh.

    It's nowhere near that bad, I've really enjoyed playing it so far, superb graphics, great story, great acting and dialogue and superb recreation of 40s/50s America with the cars, music etc.

    I wont take this guy's reviews seriously in future.
    Edited by 1 at 02/09/10 @ 19:41

  • mornegroth #404 1 year ago

    I kind of agree with the checkpoint part (I had a couple of problems with this in the game).

    The rest of the text though, it's like a limited teenager who doesn't know shit about videogames trying to review one, the result is a senseless rant (which kind of reminds me of IGN reviews).

    And it's funny how the portuguese version of Eurogamer gave a 7 out of 10 to Mafia II, when this guy over here gave a 4. Another reason to think that people are using their personal experience to review a game instead of what it really is. For example, personally I fuckin hate 2008's Prince of Persia game, but I gave it a 7 out of 10 back at the game's forums. That's because even though I disliked it a lot I looked at it without prejudice and personal views into account.

    About the Mafia's demo, trust me guys, it has nothing to do with the full version of the game (the full version has much more details and it's in way better in basically every aspect).
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/10 @ 15:11

  • bcrankshaw #405 1 year ago

    A really disappointing review of the game from the caliber of Eurogamer
    I don't think John played the game past Chapter 5
    I'm currently playing Mafia 2 and I have a completely different opinion
    Firstly its a narrative and really interesting the way you see things develop in Vito's life ,in the beginning there are some " GTA4ish " missions but then the game changes completely " SPOILER ALERT"
    You end up in prison and its gets compelling
    Also I'm not sure why he is complaining about the progress points in missions ....they do exist ? If you die you go back maybe 10 minutes maximum ? Its not unreasonable ...and I actually prefer a challenge
    Once again a disappointing review from someone who I don't think really played much of the game ?

  • Obiwan317 #406 1 year ago

    I am currently playing through this game on my PC and i have to say i completely agree with this review
    Edited by 1 at 05/09/10 @ 18:34

  • SteMacD #407 1 year ago

    No way is this game a 4/10, it's at least a 7/10.

    It looks and sounds great, gun fights are really good and it has some great missions.

    If Alpha Protocol got a 7/10.............................

  • irishj #408 1 year ago

    4 / 10 ? Really ? Would have given it at least a 6/10...this review is off the mark.

  • frazzl #409 1 year ago

    This is exactly why reviews are useless as purchasing guides. Everyone has a different opinion, so just because John Teti hates the game that doesn't mean you will too. The demo is out so you can try it for yourself (for free) and form your OWN opinion. And enough already with this "I love EG for telling it like it is" bullshit.

  • The-Jack-Burton #410 1 year ago

    I have to agree, as I was playing I kept thinking that there is no way this could be what the developers intended. That was before I found out that they had been working on this steaming pile for 6 years. Pathetic.

  • erikbc.b #411 1 year ago

    "The scenario: The start of a new "chapter" in the game. I get into a gunfight outside my home. I fend off the attackers. I'm told that I must drive to Joe's place (since every problem in this game can be solved with driving). I arrive, climb the stairs to his apartment, ring the doorbell, and wait. He eventually lets me in. A long chat. Two cut-scenes. We drive somewhere else. (Naturally!) As we near our destination, I get cut off by a truck turning into my lane, my car slams into a telephone pole, and I die."


    I just had to comment on this, this exact thing happened to me as well, except I think it was a light pole. This was actually the last straw for me, when I uninstalled the game. Abruptly. Almost seems like you're more likely to die from a car crash during this sequence than otherwise in the game, as I've rammed into plenty of poles equally hard in other sequences, and barely got a scratch.

    I agree with all your points, mainly what got to me was the driving, too much of it, and pointless, drive home just to go into your house, get to bed, and end the day. Drive to every mission. The player is always the driver, and when you've finally got a nice fast car to use so at least the driving sequences is done quicker, these a-holes shows up with their own car and you have to use theirs, which is usually some slow piece of shit.

    As a game designer I would never make the player drive for more than 50% of the time he's playing, unless it was a driving game, maybe a postman simulator. But this game was supposed to be about Mafia shit. The cover didn't say Postman f'ing Pat.

    The fact that I could make no decisions regarding the story were also a major annoyance, not a single one. And what's with the "NO WEAPONS ALLOWED" message you bluntly get on screen whenever you try to pull a gun and the devs don't want you to. So lame.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/10 @ 13:42

  • Mcstrife #412 1 year ago

    Unimpressed. 6/10 is more like it, but come on, how can anyone defend all these glaring flaws and turn this piece of crap in to a 9/10?

  • BillPoon #413 1 year ago

    4/10 is pretty generous. Woeful, uninspired, reliant on tired racial stereotypes. Loved the city and the vehicles, hate what they've plopped on top of it.

  • Merefield #414 1 year ago

    Just finished the game. Loved it. Twisting plot is excellent, and its all beautifully rendered. Haven't been this inspired to finish a game in years. Last time I enjoyed a game this much was when i played Max Payne II. Definite 9/10. Haters - away with you!

  • coomber #415 1 year ago

    Just finished this game. I do not recognise the game I played from this review at all. Not a world-beater, but a good game. This review is right up there with the 6/10 Dragon Age review.

    Edit: Sorry for nicking the opening line of the guy above!
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/10 @ 16:40

  • Mr_Bison #416 1 year ago

    This review score is just wrong . I give i a 8

  • MatteoA #417 11 months ago

    Don't give the Czechs to bad a time here, half way through development it went from the Gathering of Developers...the guys who put everything to love into Mafia, into the hands of the corporate weenies who make GTA

    Where it went from beauty....to beast

    Your line" In my head, I keep turning its twisted corpse over with mordant intrigue. How did this happen?" resounds with me
    This game could have been so much more, should have been. I mean it's right there, I can taste it.......and it dissapoints miserably.

  • Spuzzell #418 7 months ago

    No-one could possibly be interested anymore, but I just finished Mafia II on PC, and I thought it was excellent.

    I thought the cover and shooting system was fantastic, I enjoyed the brutality of the fistfights (even if they are simple to control they're still fun) and I thought the story was twisty and good.

    I also actually ENJOYED playing an amoral character for once. Vito wants money and respect, end of. There's no bullshit about morals or good/evil choices.. you're a mobster. You shoot people and commit crimes for money. And its FUN.

    I also thought that Empire City was a fabulous setting to play in. I actually loved just driving around the city obeying traffic laws, its genuinely beautiful. Sunsets and snow in particular.

    I'm no fanboy, I've got no axe to grind, but I remember this review seeming VERY harsh at the time. It put me off buying the game until recently when I saw it going cheap.. and I'm sorry but it's just wrong.

    This is a seriously good game. Its not GTA, it doesn't want to be GTA. It's a 3rd person action game about being a mobster. It's taut and exciting, it looks and sounds sensational and I HIGHLY recommend it.

  • rudedudejude #419 7 months ago

    lol, another bullshit EG review in which the reviewer is clueless.

  • lord_fartsalot #420 7 months ago

    Wow! Now I don't know why I spent the last 2 days playing this game. I bought it during last week's steam sale and I quite enjoyed it. This game is certainly backed by some solid mechanics. The shooting was awesome, I really enjoyed that. I liked the driving too. Never had as much trouble with the cops like this reviewer did. The few stealth segments were quite fully featured as well. Not to mention, empire city looked absolutely gorgeous. But on the other hand, I wasn't really expecting much from this game, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. I think the reviewer already had certain expectations, from the open world as well as from the story, and there lie the reasons for his disappointment. This is as linear a game as Call of Duty is, in spite of the open world. The story tries to be sincere in it's depiction of the mafia life and the voice acting is excellent, but it's quite a stupid story, not to mention it leaves you at a cliffhanger. That is always infuriating. So this game fails on the 2 main bullet points - it is a horrible GTA clone, and even if you take it for a story driven game in the vein of uncharted, it fails there as well. But I wasn't pissed off with it, only because I got it dirt cheap, on a sale and I didn't go into it with any expectations whatsoever. Make of that whatever you will.

  • OAKside24 #421 6 months ago

    This is one of biggest game review failures I've come across. (Congratulations! Are these Eurogamer Mafia reviews satire?) The demo was indeed quite "meh", and after this review, I almost didn't play Mafia II... but then I did, and wow: 2K Czech deserve a lot of respect, if only for creating *the most realistic, open-city game ever developed*. (If only I didn't loath the 50's era...) Excellent animations (gun handling, cover, etc.), acting (incl. voice, cutscenes), graphics, physics (even without NVIDIA Physx). 8.5/10