Mafia II Preview

Hopefully the current graphical blemishes can be ironed out

Sure enough, the final part of Eddie's plan involves heading over to the greasers' compound. The unfortunate quiff-owners make the mistake of opening the front door, and soon Joe is brutally laying into one of them with a baseball bat. Guns are produced, and the shooting begins. The mission has made a point of building up to this moment: Mafia II is hardly a game that eschews gunplay, but 2K Czech wants the violence to be a part of the plot, rather than something that the story simply fits around.

Well, violence is certainly part of this particular story. The mechanics in this climactic gun battle are largely familiar: there's a cover system, activated at the tap of a single button, a selection of firearms on the D-pad, and the traditional aim-and-shoot system mapped to the triggers. So far so typical, but there are a few things that make the action stand out. For a start, it's pretty hard: Vito can regenerate health by lying low for a moment or two, but if he takes to many hits in sequence he's off to the big strip joint in the sky (or more likely, to the fiery place downstairs). Even while you're hiding in cover, there's still a palpable sense of danger, and Vito will react to the battle around him. If a bullet hits the edge of the crate he's hiding behind, he'll flinch away from the impact.

As I lay into the greasers with my Tommy gun and heavy revolver, Vito's companions press on with their own assaults. There appears to be growing trend in action games for upping the level of chit-chat between NPCs, and Mafia II appears to be no exception. I've not really focused on dialogue in this article but it bears repeating that the dialogue in this game is generally of a very high standard. Even in the middle of a tense firefight, your gangster chums will throw out nuggets of pithiness. "Hey Joe! Don't tell my mother about this!" bleats Marty, the fresh-faced youth who looks like he should really still be in school, rather than behind the grip of a powerful machine gun.

Oddly, I end up feeling rather sorry for the greasers. The artificial intelligence behind them appears to be quite smart, with enemies falling back into cover as you approach and attempting to regroup wherever possible. 2K Czech throws in the odd scripted event too, like one man desperately trying to scrabble over a fence in a desperate bid to get away. The game tries hard to conjure up a sense that the foes you're battling actually want to live, and that makes it all the more gritty when you send them to sleep with a lead kiss. It's eventually revealed that the dead greasers don't even have enough money to pay back Eddie's loss; Vito and Joe are forced to steal a couple of hotrods the gang has left lying around. The pair speed off, leaving the greasers' corpses far behind them

A violent end to the story, perhaps - but then this sort of thing tends to happen with The Mob. The first Mafia earned itself an ardent fanbase in 2002, and this long-awaited follow-up has always looked like it will eclipse the achievements of its predecessor. There are still a few rough edges - the odd bit of screen tearing, and a notable increase in jerkiness when lots of enemies are on screen at once ; still I've little doubt that this will be one of the highlights of 2010, provided that 2K can smooth over the odd bumps that remain. As all good wiseguys know, clean execution is of paramount importance.

Mafia II will be released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in the fourth quarter of 2010.