Italy Mafia Roleplay Launcher

[Gerald Weiß]

ItalianAmericans wanted Mafia II banned because they said it portrayed offensive ethnic stereotypes. A European Parliament member wants it banned because it trivializes mob murders. I have a better strategy: STFU about banning bad games, and they'll eventually fade away.

Sonia Alfano, the MP in question, also is president of Italy's association for the families of Mafia victims. "It really, really hurts," Alfano, recently said in an interview. "We can't allow this to happen, our wounds are still too fresh." Her father was murdered by the mob. It doesn't matter that it was 18 years ago, her wounds will always be fresh.

No offense to Alfano or anyone hurt by organized crime; this is still another one of those arguments where someone assumes their victim status gives them the authority to say what is and isn't appropriate for the rest of society. We deal with that a lot in video games. The fact Mafia II was released in August and this concerns a game most people have already rented or returned smacks of a publicity grab.

Jimmy's Vendetta (like the PS3-only Betrayal of Jimmy) threw us into the persona of an entirely new mob character and sent us running errands all over Empire Bay in a bland casserole of rote mission design. Joe's Adventures actually looks like it has some depth and inspiration, especially that car chase on the frozen bay. It has a better story peg to work with, too, as it covers the time during Vito Scaletta's incarceration in the federal pen.

That half of the Mafia II story was easily the best part of the game, and the fact we're going to hear more out of Henry, a character who had so much potential in the original, gives me hope. I'll be reviewing "Joe's Adventures" when it hits, but I warn you, Joe, don't disappoint me again.

"Joe's Adventures," a Mafia II DLC extension whose name has been known for some time, will arrive Nov. 23. A narrative flashback, you'll play as Joe Barbaro during the time the main game's protagonist, Vito Scaletta, is in prison.

A news release bills it as a combination of "a dramatic storyline with intense arcade-style gameplay." There will be a story based progression, followed by "a slew of optional city-based quests packed with arcade action gameplay and a points-based system," i.e. what we saw earlier with The Betrayal of Jimmy and Jimmy's Vendetta.

2K Games says the extension will open up new areas of Empire Bay for exploration, including "a train station, the cathouse, a boat yard, a seasonally changing lakefront and some never-before-seen buildings in Empire Bay." It'll also feature new clothing, 20 more Playboy collectibles, and more period 1940s and 1950s music.

So it sounds more substantive than the preceding two DLC packs, and Mafia II was a very strong game up through Vito's incarceration. While it would have been nice to get this on the main disc, those with a Mafiosi fix should give it serious consideration.

Mafia II's got some issues, but give the devil its due, it's got some nudity in it. Hot Blooded Gaming, to my knowledge, is the first to round up and gallerize all 50 of its collectible Playboy centerfolds.

A collection guide on GameFAQs has been complete since Sept. 2 and lists where you can find the 'folds, as well as identifying the women by name and month of appearance. HBG's roundup is definitely nsfw, though an age-gate will ask you if you're 18 before allowing you to proceed. As we've seen on South Park, those under age 18 always answer this truthfully.

Mafia II's release was clouded by confusion over what "open-world" really meant. Some assumed it meant "sandbox," where Mafia II was anything but. Jimmy's Vendetta, the game's first batch of downloadable content offers more of what some had been expecting.

That means no Vito, no Henry, no Joe Barbaro. Instead you're Jimmy, a former mob hitman who, as the title suggests, got screwed over and is now repaying the favor to two gang syndicates, Irish and Italian. Light on story and heavy on gunplay, car chases and destruction, it's a color negative of the more cinematic main game. Can that bring balance to the title overall?

All About Action: Jimmy's Vendetta is the sequel to the PS3-exclusive The Betrayal of Jimmy, included free with Mafia II. The game is structed "arcade style," which means at the end of each mission you'll get a grade, a point total and a leaderboard position. You're thus encouraged to replay the missions to beat the score, either by racking up more headshots, combination kills, or finishing more quickly. Disappointingly, you can only replay these missions on the difficulty you selected at the beginning. To play on other levels requires starting over in a new gamesave. But there are 34 missions in all, 12 of them vehicle thefts.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: OK, so it's all about action. And serving that is a set of missions whose design, at best, can be called "straightfoward," where "bland" might be less charitable but more accurate. Vehicle theft barely involves much more than just picking a lock and driving the car to a location. Occasionally you'll have to shoot someone. The main missions break down to escort protection, asset destruction and kill everyone, the latter comprising the majority of what you do, and eight of the final nine jobs. The game again spreads them at opposite ends of its large map - and of course, the only place you can buy ammo for the game's more effective guns is at Harry's, requiring constant trips to the extreme northwest end of the map to reload. Forcing you to drive all over the map is neither gameplay nor an invitation to explore.

My Kingdom For A Cutscene: Ripped for being too linear in gameplay, Mafia II was at least defended for its cinematic heft. And it uses none of it in Jimmy's Vendetta. You get two scenes, at the beginning and at the end. This makes the "arcade-style" focus of replaying a mission for a higher score the sole point of the game. If you're really committed to that, this package will provide some value for the $10. If you're playing this to extend the Mafia II story or experience, you're going to be racing through these jobs with not much payout other than a couple of paragraphs on a loading screen.

Jimmy's Vendetta is not a set of missions that extends the story of the main game. It's the side missions that should have been included with the main product in the first place. Instead, Xbox 360 and PC owners are paying $10 to get a free roam mode in a game that was touted as open-world, with the implication that meant plenty to do in it. And instead of starring Vito, who has a narrative, acting, and a story I care about, it's all carried out by some smirking Reno pit boss who just shows up unaccountably and who gets next to no narrative treatment.

Everyone's now going to say that this isn't the purpose of Jimmy's Vendetta because it's an "arcade-style" extension to the game. Fine. Some will get into the challenge of replaying a set of stock missions, shaving down the time it takes to complete them, or racking up points, or whatever. But it's a completely off-key successor to a game that, if it had anything going for it, delivered a strong story, interesting characters and well composed cinematics.

Mafia II: Jimmy's Vendetta was developed by 2K Czech and published by 2K Games for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on Sept. 7. Retails for $9.99 USD/800 Microsoft Points. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game.

Morning. The phone rings, I answer. It's Joe, chirping the usual advice. Get dressed and get my gun. I go to the fridge instead for a Master Beer. In the bathroom I flip on the light. I flush the toilet.

None of these actions in Mafia II are from cutscenes, and that is both the novelty and the shame of 2K Czech's long-awaited gangster game noir. Shots and beers are chugged, lights turn on and off, windows open and close, tubs and faucets and the john all run water.

For what purpose? Am I going to hide in the shower and blow away someone from behind the curtain, dripping wet in my suit and hat? Am I going to interrogate a snitch by jamming his head in the commode? Do these things foreshadow any purpose in the game? No, no and no.

Like the staggeringly beautiful architecture making up Empire Bay's landscape, so much of Mafia II's details serve only a cosmetic, background purpose. It's a city that oozes the delightful charm of a richly detailed model railroad. The game's engine, however, steams along a disappointingly short and predictable track that fails all the expectations of depth such features set.

A Feast For Your Eyes: Mafia II's rich visuals are the game's calling card and provide an inspiration to immerse yourself and even roleplay through the open-ended portions, walking instead of running, buying a beer before you meet your boss. There's no clock on your heads-up display, but there doesn't need to be one: the game's amazing quality of light lets you know the time of day almost to the hour. In the dead of winter you still know it's about 2 p.m. outside the dingy bar where you're supposed to steal a car. In early autumn, you know you've finished a day's work when the action's just beginning. Cars don't just damage, they get snow and grime buildup. Cover, which you'll depend on throughout the game, is nearly always destructible. The sound is perfectly atmospheric. Playing with headphones, many times I thought a far-off siren was coming from my own neighborhood. The immersion this game provides in its set design is both its blessing and its curse, because it leaves you wanting so much more from your experience.

Acting: Rare is the video game whose characters can communicate clearly by facial expression. Those in Mafia II do, through a combination of superb film editing and extraordinarily detailed facial animations. Mob movies depend on subtle and unspoken moments and the ability of this game's rendered characters to meet the emotion of their human actors' lines is a true breakthrough. Vito, the protagonist, gets an award-winning effort from Rick Pasqualone. Games typically get you to care about the main character through the actions you share; I cared about Vito the old-fashioned way, through the acting. Sonny Marinelli's portrayal of Henry Tomasino, who veers from authority to outcast, nearly steals the show and makes you wish the game featured much more of him. Robert Costanza's Joe Barbaro rounds out the trifecta as a versatile character, swinging from violence to comedy relief. The story may get threadbare in spots, but the acting and dialogue are among the best you will ever find in this young art form.

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