Mafia II (2010) — a city built this well, with this little to do in it

August 24, 2010: a city called Empire Bay reached North American shelves

Hello, this is Toki. Episode 37 of “Today Is Release Day.” A city that looks exactly like a mob film, and a surprisingly short list of things to do inside it. That contrast has followed this game ever since. August 24, 2010 is the North American release day of Mafia II.From the Steam header image for “Mafia II (Classic)” (2K Games)

It was developed by 2K Czech in the Czech Republic and published by 2K Games, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. North America got it on August 24; the rest of the world on August 27.

The setting is a fictional city named Empire Bay. The story runs from 1945 to 1951. The lead is Vito Scaletta, a young Sicilian-American back from the war.

The Japanese version followed that November, from Take-Two Interactive Japan at 7,140 yen.

Eight years after the first game, and a brand-new engine

The first Mafia came out in 2002. The sequel took eight years.

It was announced in August 2007 at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. It began as a PlayStation 2 and Xbox project and moved to the next generation in 2005. Script work had started back in 2003.

The engine was rebuilt too. The Illusion Engine replaced the LS3D engine used by the first game.

The city carries three radio stations playing licensed music from the period. Songs from the 1940s and 50s do much of the work of telling you what year it is.

On PC the game used NVIDIA PhysX for cloth and destruction. A trailer devoted to that technology went out on March 27, 2010.

A nine and a four, looking at the same city

The scores landed all over the place. Metacritic averages were 75 out of 100 for the PC and PlayStation 3 versions, and 74 for Xbox 360.

Matt Bertz at Game Informer gave it 9 out of 10: “in an era when video games are moving away from relying on cinematics for storytelling, Mafia II draws on the rich mobster film history to weave a gripping drama about family, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and pragmatism.”

Kevin VanOrd at GameSpot gave it 8.5: “Mafia II's exciting action and uncompromising mob story make for an impressive and violent adventure.”From the YouTube thumbnail of “MAFIA II - IGN Video Review (7.0/10)” (review by IGN)

Greg Miller at IGN gave it 7: “a solid little game that'll give you a fun ride – just don't expect the world.”

The lowest came from John Teti at Eurogamer, 4 out of 10: “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.”

In Japan, GAME Watch ran a review by John Kaminari dated November 11, 2010. “So beautiful, so vast — and yet there is very little you can do. While playing, I honestly thought ‘what a waste’ more than once.”

The same review adds that “as a fan of gangster films, I thoroughly enjoyed this game's dense story.” The story praised, the city regretted. The split ran the same way in both languages.

Below is the review video GameSpot published at the time (“GameSpot Reviews - Mafia II Review,” GameSpot, YouTube).

The missing pieces came back later, sold separately

The other thing people talked about after release was what was not in the box.

Three add-ons appeared: The Betrayal of Jimmy, Jimmy's Vendetta (September 7, 2010) and Joe's Adventures (November 23, 2010).

Joe's Adventures contained a car-destruction mission that had been shown as part of the main game at Gamescom 2009. Some players read that as content pulled out of the game to be sold on its own.

Designer Daniel Vávra confirmed that “a lot” had been cut. An entire chapter set in Sicily was gone.

A remastered Mafia II: Definitive Edition arrived in 2020. Its Metacritic average on PlayStation 4 is 56 — lower than the original, which is an unusual thing to see.From the Steam header image for “Mafia II: Definitive Edition” (2K Games)

Counting from August 24, 2010, today makes exactly sixteen years.

Has a game ever given you a huge city and almost nothing to do in it?

A piece doesn't feel finished to me until I've written the year down, so here it is again: August 24, 2010, a Tuesday. North America first, the rest of the world three days later.

What survives sixteen years later is not the scores but the shape of the disagreement. People who looked at the story gave it a nine. People who looked at the hours spent in the city gave it a four. Neither side was lying.

Has a game ever amazed you with its city and then run out of things for you to do?