Preface

Preface

Welcome to the most anticipated OC game of 2010 - Mafia II!  It is fair to say that this game plays like a movie, and it comes by this approach honestly.  If you have played the first game in the series, Mafia: City of Lost Dreams, you already know what to expect here.  If not, well, you are in for a treat!

There have been a series of upgrade patches to the game since its release, so if you are slotting it for the first time, you will want to allow the Start Screen to load so that you are prompted to update the game, and upon completion of the update, quit to the Xbox Dashboard and repeat the process until you arrive at the Start Screen and are not prompted for an update.  This is necessary due to the incremental method in which updates are applied to games on the XBox 360.

As the  game begins the gamer is informed that the game uses an auto-save system -- when the red icon is displayed on the screen the game is saving data, and should not be shut down or exited, as damage to or corruption of the save file can result.  The gamer is asked to set the default brightness mode using a black box with the logo displayed in it.  The logo should be just barely visible in order to set the best display brightness for the game.

The main Menu Screen allows you to select from several options: The Story, the DLC Menu, the Extras Menu, and an Options Screen.  We will examine those in reverse, and cover any selections that you may want to consider prior to play.

The Options Screen: You are presented with several choices, including Controls, Game Settings, Video, and Audio.  The Controls Menu allows you to alter the gamepad setup, but as it is presently set at the game defaults, you may want to leave that as is.  The next option is Game Settings, which allows you to turn on or off hints and subtitles, and change the Driving Mode (Normal or Simulation), and the Unit System in the game (Imperial or Metric). 

If this is your first play through the game, you may want to leave hints on.  If you are in a noisy environment you also may want to turn Subtitles on so that you do not miss any of the dialogue in the game.   The Video Menu allows you to alter the settings that you just made, and as long as you did that correctly a few minutes ago, should be left as is.  The Audio Menu allows you to alter the prominence of different sounds -- Special Effects, Voices, Music, and Radio.  Having the voices set a bit higher than the other sounds will help to keep you from missing any dialogue, so you may want to tweak the settings accordingly.

The Extras Menu: Includes selections for the "Carcyclopedia," Collectibles, Artworks, Game Statistics, and Credits.  You will very likely be visiting this menu often as you play the game to keep track of what you have seen and unlocked, and what you have not.  The Carcyclopedia is worth having a look at right now, as it displays 36 of the vehicles that appear in the game, showing the stats, and allows you to change the color.  While the names of these car models will not likely be familiar, their basic style will, as they are representations of period automobiles minus the licensed brand names.

The Collectibles Menu will show you which issues of Playboy Magazine you have collected, and which Wanted Posters you have found -- the two collections in the game.  Artwork includes the Paintings, Posters, and Pinups that you have unlocked, and of course Game Statistics needs no introduction.  Like most games in the Historical FPX Genre a lot of stats are tracked, and like most game sin the genre for console, an eclectic selection of Achievements / Trophies exist for you to unlock that are largely associated with the Statistics for the game.  The last selection here is for the Credits Screen -- but nobody willingly views that until the end of a game, when it is shown automatically, right?

When you select The Story, you are asked to choose the difficulty level for play -- most gamers will probably select Medium, but Hard is an option here that is, well, Hard to ignore, since the challenge in games like this is almost always better at the hardest difficulty, so that is the setting that I selected for this Walkthrough!