New Engine:

2K Czech has created the brand new Illusion engine for Mafia 2. I spoke to Dan, one of the lead Developers for Mafia 2, he told me that because of how the original Mafia was and how much the dev team wanted to in the first one but couldn't. They made sure that they were able to create certain situations that they weren't able to do in Mafia. After playing through the demo, you can plainly see that they were able to capture that feeling.

The Setting:

The story takes place between 1945 to 1955. The city takes place in Empire State which looks like San Francisco and New York City with the influence of Chicago and Detroit. 2K really was able to bring those settings straight to you. Especially with the cars, weapons, people in that era.

Gameplay:

Mafia 2 plays extremely close to the first Mafia with a few updates. The weapons feel authentic where if you are using the Tommy gun, you can not just hold down the trigger button and expect the gun to be accurate for you. It will start to fire all over the place, especially if you are running and gunning. You will have to burst fire with most of the weapons that you use in the game. Sorry spray and prayers.

Driving could have been a bit tighter, but than I realize that the cars are from the 40's and 50's so the capability of the cars is not as high as some of the modern cars that we see today. Well unless you are from the Halo Universe, then their vehicles is worst. Sorry Warthog...

Story Experience:

In a sandbox game, the story is very linear and for good reason too. 2K wanted to give players an awesome single player experience as suppose to a "eh... alright" type of game. To be honest, I am glad that 2K is going with that route for this game, but I hope the gameplay is a long one, just not TOO long.

My Take:

The feel for this game was different from when I played in the first Mafia. The story hooked me in the second I was controlling the main character. I left Mafia 2 with a good feeling especially how the first Mafia was like. Expect more info on Mafia 2 in the coming weeks before the game is released later this year.

This is only an impression of the demo of Mafia 2. 2K may add or may take away many items and features of the game.