Mafia II is a Cinematic Crime Drama That Deserved a Proper Remake

When I was a kid, too broke to afford new games and bored of the ones I already owned, demos were great palette cleansers. I still vividly remember playing the Mafia II demo repeatedly on my PlayStation 3 as a poor man’s Grand Theft Auto. At the time, that was my only interaction with the Mafia series and my only two takeaways were: this is about the mafia and whoa there are boobies in this? Since then, not only have I matured a touch but I also got a taste of the full Mafia experience when I played (and reviewed) Mafia III: Definitive Edition back in 2021. So, naturally, it only makes sense that I play Mafia II: Definitive Edition next, and while this isn’t a formal review of the game, I do have a few things to say about it.

The first thing that got me thinking about this piece is my astonishment at how cinematic Mafia II is even after a decade. The thing that made me actually sit down and write, however, is the fact that the game deserved better than it got. What do I mean by that? Well, to start with the praise, Mafia II makes a lot of gameplay design decisions that sort of force the player to play a certain way. I think this is really where Mafia deviates from something like Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row. The focus here isn’t player freedom but rather an immersive narrative.

The first way Mafia II does this is with the use of time. Something the game does often (and a narrative structure few games use to this extent) are time jumps. Along with the already dramatic title cards for each chapter, there are also cuts in time. These are so significant in fact that the game sort of switches periods part way through. The beginning of Mafia II is set during World War II and this is reflected in everything from NPC costumes and wall posters to vehicles found around the open world. After a time jump, the war is over and the propaganda posters are turned into ads for American things like cars and cigarettes.

This is also interesting in terms of narrative pacing. Mafia II isn’t Vito’s biopic, and it’s not a crime simulator, where you have to start your own criminal empire, either. It’s a slice of the fictional life of Vito Scaletta and his involvement with the titular mafia of Empire Bay. Instead of making you focus on farming for money (something you are free to do if you wish), the game will happily queue a montage to show the passage of time. The case can be made that Mafia II is a bit repetitive and I appreciate that it makes cuts in a genre of storytelling that’s usually dense. (Just look at the runtime of an average gangster movie.)

Speaking of gangster movies, there is a lot of “cinema” influence in Mafia II (and the first game). Shots and camera movements feel purposeful, as if it was made by someone who took a film class on Martin Scorsese and took away the right lessons. While a lot of games in the genre opt to fill the screen with explosions in hopes of keeping the player’s attention, Mafia II goes in the opposite direction and fills the game with dialogue-heavy driving sequences and frequent restaurant meetups. These cinematic tendencies also affect the game over screen. When Vito is shot, he doesn’t just rag doll to the ground, he dramatically takes a few steps forward before collapsing in slow motion, much like his silver screen counterparts.

Part of what makes Mafia II‘s drama work so well is the voice acting. The performances in this game are fantastic with each character having a distinct personality. The writing is good, don’t get me wrong, but the actors certainly breathe life into them. I’ll get into visuals later, but there are times that Mafia II: Definitive Edition sounds better than it looks. One thing that piqued my interest while playing the game was just how realistic it was. You would hope that a game so focused on the story of a Made man is accurate to the real-life experience. Thankfully, I came across this video (shown below) from Gameology of an ex-mob boss reacting to scenes from Mafia II. You can watch the video for yourself but what it says is that the developers of Mafia II did their homework and then took some creative liberties to spruce it up.

The game’s aspiration for cinematic storytelling also impacts the gameplay decisions too. The easy callout is the police system. There are a lot of cops patrolling the city and you have to be mindful of your speed and behavior while driving to avoid trouble. If you do become a fugitive, you can drive fast and getaway, ditch the ride and get a new one, change clothes, or pull over and pay a fine. To take it a step further, there are also a few points in the game’s story where Vito has to catch someone. In one example of these moments, you burst through the back door of a restaurant as someone hops in a car to get away. The goal is to eliminate the target and while the expectation is to hop in a car of your own and pursue them, it’s easy to fall behind and lose the mark. The game modifies the narrative slightly to adjust for either outcome.

Another key example of this (with minor spoilers ahead) is when Vito is trying to get someone out of a house before they get killed. In my first run-through of this level, I got caught in the bathroom with the person I was trying to save (not what it sounds like) and a cut scene played where the target and the killer make a deal. In my second run, I found a basket of towels, which triggered a different cutscene in which Vito and his friend make it out of the house without being spotted. Both these examples are not massive, I know, and they lead to the same results, but they also aren’t button prompts. It’s not a case of time coming to a pause and you having to choose between getting caught or running away. It happens organically in gameplay, and the tweaks to the narrative keep it mostly seamless as a result.

All these gameplay decisions also inform how the player plays. Coming hot off the heels of a Saints Row (2022) playthrough, I found myself running around a lot in the first few levels of Mafia II. I don’t think there’s a wrong way to play the game, but rushing from objective to objective will make you miss character moments that are worth experiencing. In on-foot sections (even if it’s just down to the garage to get in a car) there are dialogue exchanges to listen to and when in a car, characters will make comments about your speed or driving if you’re being reckless. In combat, rushing into a fight will quickly lead to death and the infrequent save points are like salt in the wounds. The Mafia games want you to slow down and though the third game sort of abandons that sentiment, the first two games are very much so designed around it.

This brings me to why Mafia II deserved better. In 2020, all three Mafia games got “Definitive” editions. While for Mafia III this mostly just meant bundling in the DLC but for the original Mafia it was a ground-up remake from Hangar 13. As I said, I had already played Mafia III, but since completing Mafia II, I also went back to the first game. To my surprise, it looks absolutely stunning. Every highly-detailed cutscene made me wonder why Mafia II didn’t get the same treatment.

Don’t get me wrong, Mafia: Definitive Edition does have the occasional bug or visual glitch, but, by and large, the game looks and sounds so good that I would recommend it over Mafia II, even though the latter has a better story in my opinion. Mafia II isn’t entirely outdated, but it too often shows its age with buildings blipping into sight in certain areas and frustratingly spare checkpoints. The most criminal offenses in this “stunning HD” package are voice lines that are improperly mixed and cut scenes that don’t seem touched up at all.

To touch on the DLC briefly, it wasn’t for me. While two of the DLCs are arcade modes and of little interest to me, to begin with, the one titled Joe’s Adventures did catch my eye. This additional content lets you play as Joe (one of the best characters in the game) to show what he was up to while Vito was locked up in prison. However, these new missions are pretty uninspired. They start with simple story cards explaining the situation (which immediately removes the cinematic qualities I was just gushing about) and then give you a task. There’s also an odd timer and points system that sort of gamifies a game that I liked for how un-gamelike it was. These feel disjointed and are sadly better on paper than in execution for me. But, hey, they have new Playboy magazines to collect so that’s gotta count for something, I guess.

I have now officially played all three Mafia games, in backward order. I have a lot of respect for what Illusion Softworks started back in 2002, 2K refined in 2010, and Hangar 13 amplified in 2016. While they all have their faults, the Mafia games are committed to their vision. At the risk of sounding backhanded, they are less focused on filling the time with firefights and explosions to seem fun as they are at telling an interesting story. That being said, I am disappointed at the disparity in the “Definitive” editions of the games. While Mafia III holds up well on its own, Mafia II deserved a remake like the first game. Touch-ups and polish are nice but after seeing Hangar 13’s work in the remake, it’s hard not to wish for more.

Now, I don’t know for sure if Mafia IV is in development or not but, according to a LinkedIn posting, Hangar 13 is working on something in the ballpark. I do hope we get one more game out of this series, if only out of curiosity about where it will go next. If rumors are true, the games will not be set in America for the first time, which could lead to some fun gameplay varieties of its own. But that’s it for my demo to Definitive Edition essay on Mafia II. Despite its technical shortcomings, I would still recommend playing the game, especially if it’s on your backlog already. Mafia II: Definitive Edition is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.