Mafia II Preview

"A copy of Zoo and a packet of Skips please, mate."

If you're on foot and you commit a crime, a "WANTED" icon will appear in the top left of the screen and all police units in the area will start to look for you. Provided that you've not done anything really serious, the cops will only chase you - so you don't need to worry too much about being shot at, unless you've fired at them first. If you manage to find a decent hiding spot you'll temporarily escape your pursuers, but since they have a physical description of you you'll be chased as soon as anyone spots you. To lose the heat properly you'll have to change your clothes - either by going home, or by stopping at a shop somewhere. On a similar note, car-based thefts will require you to either ditch your vehicle (which is not ideal, for reasons we've already covered) or to change its plates and colours at a chopshop. All of this costs money, so it's prudent to be discreet.

It's worth pointing out that none of the events I've described take place as part of the core story; it's all optional, and had Vito made different choices or even taken a different route as he drove, you might not have seen these encounters at all. The real side mission was only initiated once the demo reached Giuseppe's place. On the way in, a gravelly-voiced mobster approached Vito and offered him a job: it turned out that that someone had opened up a new car dealership, and this was providing unwanted competition for a rival business owned by a mutual friend. The throaty gangster wanted Vito to destroy all the cars at the yard without killing anyone. In true mafia fashion, this last detail was only referred to indirectly. "Do you want me to..." began Vito. "Nah, nothing like that," came the reply. "Not yet anyway."

It's hard to do such dialogue justice, but trust me when I say that the writing and voice acting in Mafia II is some of the best I've heard in a video game for quite some time. We all know what gangsters look and sound like, but it's clear that the development team have put masses of effort into the appearance and persona of their characters. You could say the same thing about the city of Empire Bay itself: from the vehicles to the buildings to the period soundtrack, every detail looks and feels like the genuine article. The final game will feature around 50 cars based on real-world designs and over 100 licensed bits of music; along with the game's day/night cycle, these tunes will be tied to whatever is happening in the game. The car-wrecking mission will always take place at night, for example, because it wouldn't make sense to go over their during the day, and on your way over you'll get music and weather effects that suit the tense mood of the story.

It is perhaps a little telling that i've not actually mentioned the side mission itself. That's not to say that the assignment wasn't interesting or exciting - it just seemed a lot closer to things we've seen before, unlike all the other details that were on show during the demo. In short, the demo consisted of a stealth interlude and a more-action focused climax. Prior to departing for the car yard, Vito had purchased several Molotovs and a .357 magnum from Giuseppe, but initially the aim was to keep things quiet. In accordance with his orders to avoid bloodshed, Vito infiltrated the dealership via some fairly familiar-looking stealth gameplay - cue lots of creeping up to guards and knocking them out from behind.

Vito had a few problems with his new gas oven

Once inside the garage, Vito started throwing Molotovs at the vehicles. Naturally this quickly attracted the attention of the police, who showed up in force. Unlike the mugging incident earlier in the demo, the authorities were now sufficiently pissed off that they began to use their guns. Vito returned fire for a while, but since gunplay is fairly lethal in Mafia II, our demonstrator concluded the demo by stealing the last of the target vehicles and using it to make a swift getaway. As an added bonus, this tactic allowed Vito to add a rare car to his collection. After a quick respray and change of plates, our cunning wiseguy had a fresh ride to add to his garage.

As fun as this conclusion to the demo was, it was the first half of the presentation that really grabbed me. We've already seen that Mafia II can serve us up a hot plate of shooty goodness, but these quieter features look like they could actually be equally as important. This is a game that understands the appeal and the allure of gangster mythology. Yes, there will be plenty of action in Mafia II, but there's also going to be a rich and compelling atmosphere wrapped around all that, to say nothing of the epic storyline with multiple endings. On this last point there's still an awful lot to learn, and thanks to a shifted release date we now won't get the full tale until 2010. Still, something tells me that this will be well worth the wait.

Mafia II is scheduled for release in the first half of 2010 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.