In 2002, an unassuming game called Mafia: City of Lost Heaven was developed by Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers for the PC. On the heels of the 2001 release of the mega-hit Grant Theft Auto III, Mafia did not stand much of a chance challenging Rockstar, the newly crowned king of sandbox style gaming, at their own game. Regardless, Mafia turned out to be one of my all time favorites. It did what the GTA franchise didn’t accomplish until the recently released GTA IV, it made you feel like you were there. The missions ranged from car races to carrying out political assassinations; even simply traveling around the city wreaking havoc gave the game a massive amount of replay value.Once you beat the single player campaign, the fun doesn’t necessarily stop. Completing tasks will unlock various super tweaked out, or ridiculously bright colored, cars to go along with your already massive end-of-game car collection (which, by the way, historically evolves throughout the game from Model Ts to more advanced late 40s models). Other extra mini-missions involve hitting major ramps or tracking down a man that runs very, very fast around the city in his boxers with his feet on fire (I eventually cut him off and ran him down in my car). All in all, it was a great game that I played several times through.

As such, you can only imagine how juiced I was when I heard there would be a Mafia 2. The game takes place only a couple years after the original, in the late 1940s-1950s. By the little information available as of yet, it seems the sequel will follow the same basic idea of the original; regular guy (who, no doubt intentionally, looks like a young Marlon Brando and is named Vito, after The Godfather Don Vito Corleone) gets into trouble, gets in with the mob, moves up to the top ring of the mob ladder, probably ends up getting killed (crime doesn’t pay, kids). Visually, the new game looks stunning, totting much more realistic and sharper looking models, from the cityscape to individual pedestrians’ faces.

GTAIV was fairly successful in making online play appealing to most gamers, but I honestly think that Mafia 2 shows much more potential in the online arena. Where GTA consists pretty much of blowing each other to bits or racing towards an objective, I feel like Mafia 2 will have players creating characters they truly connect with and want to see succeed. Imagine, having the city be one giant game room, where all online players gather and battle for each street in the city. I don’t think I’d step away from my PS3. I think Mafia 2 may be our savior with online sandbox gaming, but then again, we’ll only know once it is released, which will be, hopefully, in 2009 for the PS3, 360, and PC. Check out the trailer here.

Posted by Daniel on 08/05 at 09:35 AM
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