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INTERVIEW: Mafia II
Guns, gangsters and gorgeous girls; we talk to Mafia II's producer about the upcoming crime shooter.
Written by David Scammell, 21 July 2010
GamerZines: It's been eight years since the original Mafia and the market has been flooded with open world sandbox games since then. Why do you think now is the right time to resurrect the franchise?
Alex Cox, Producer, Mafia II: Yes, the original Mafia did launch a while ago now, but the franchise still sits comfortably in its own niche, I think. The idea of playing the lead character in a Hollywood mob movie has been untouched since the first game took control of the 'mobster' gaming space.
The Godfather games showed that there was a lot of interest in the theme but they took a very different approach, focusing largely on running mob businesses. The Mafia franchise is all about storytelling, quality and the maturity of our narrative which is a tempting prospect for gamers regardless of the game's genre or theme.
GZ: What do you think separates Mafia II from other open world sandbox games?
AC: Mafia II is a really distinctive experience, not only because of the Mafia theme but also because the game focuses on telling a very plausible story in a unique cinematic format..
The best way to think about Mafia II is to think of it less as a 'sandbox' and more like a linear third person action game with an open-world backdrop. The gameplay is largely derived from large choreographed set-piece missions rather than a gameplay that emerges from a 'sandbox' environment.
Empire Bay, the city where the game takes place is a beautiful setting and it truly evokes the 1940s and 50s time periods. It's there to make you feel like a realistic protagonist, so the story unfolds in a real environment. The 'open world' design is our way of crossing the boundary between movie-like and game-like storytelling which in this case, makes the player believe that they are the main character in the story.
GZ: Did you always plan on developing a sequel to Mafia?
AC: Mafia II was developed in response to the success of the first game. If you have played the original you will know that the story ended pretty conclusively. We didn't try to pick that story up, it would have felt contrived and it was unnecessary. Instead Daniel Vavra, the writer of both games, decided to create a whole new tale set in the same fictional universe as the first game. There's always space for more mobster stories, especially given that we have moved the time period forward from the 1930s to the 40s/50s, which in itself opens up new narrative possibilities.
GZ: The original Mafia started life as a PC game and was ported to console later on. Mafia II, however, was always a multi-format game. Considering your heritage with PC games, why did you decide to go multi-format from the off?
AC: Moving from PC-centric to multiplatform has been a big shift in the studio mentality at 2K Czech, and Mafia II is a great example of developing cross-platform with parity of quality. The console versions of Mafia 1 didn't reflect the quality of the original PC game, and this was of course something we wanted to remedy.
P3Zine Issue 41
For our latest Mafia 2 coverage, click here to download P3Zine Issue 41 for free.What is important to us is that gamers get the same high-quality experience regardless of the hardware they have chosen. In terms of the overall experience, I think both console and PC gamers will benefit from this cross-platform approach. Console gamers get amazing visuals and some nice tech features like minimal load times that derive from the studio's PC heritage. PC gamers get the accessibility and game balance that we traditionally associate with console games, plus of course some extra graphic tweaks.
GZ: Mafia II continues the original game's tradition of being hugely authentic and realistic. Now that you're trying to appeal to a more mainstream audience on console, how do you balance realism with fun?
AC: Well, in an open world game it's a question of balancing the degree of freedom the player has. In a 'sandbox' game, your immediate reaction is that 'more is better' - let me do MORE and it will be MORE fun!!! What we have tried to do with Mafia though is limit the player's freedom (to a degree) so hopefully they feel like a realistic mafia gangster..
We see our city less like a sandbox, and more like a context for the story. -The player 'becomes' Vito Scaletta. This way, when we move from gameplay to story and back again the whole experience feels consistent, the player has been acting like Vito Scaletta the whole time. We think that playing a mobster is fun, so I guess that this has been at the heart of our design philosophy.
GZ: The game has been subject to quite a few delays. What has the extra time allowed you to do?
AC: Well, the most recent delays have been spent polishing the game. We want Mafia II to be a very high quality experience so, we have spent a long time tweaking the controls, balancing the difficulty, pacing the game flow, polishing the cutscenes, and timing the choreography. When we say we want the player to feel like they are playing a Hollywood mob movie, we mean it. Achieving that production quality though takes a lot of time. I think gamers would rather we did this than rush it out, especially fans of the original Mafia on PC which was a very high quality experience.
GZ: Do you have a specific date that players will be able to download the demo from?
AC: Yes, we will have a playable demo available in August. More details will be revealed in the near future.
GZ: We've noticed several DLC packs available as pre-order incentives from different retailers. Do you have a long-term plan for continued DLC after the game's release, and if so, what kind of content are you looking to add to the game?
AC: Again, we will give further details about this in the near future. We have finished the main game and we have started working on some additional gameplay content, but you'll have to wait to see what that is.
GZ: You've announced a partnership with Playboy. How did the idea for that come about, and what was it like working with Playboy?
AC: Playboy has been great partner to work with and there is a nice synergy between the Mafia and Playboy brands. Playboy started in the 1950s and the brand encompasses that certain lifestyle that our mobsters aspire to. Playboy brings a touch of real-life into Empire Bay, and the original centrefolds certainly provide an extra incentive for gamers to search out the collectible magazines in the environment.
Mafia II launches on August 27th on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Mafia 2 coverage available in P3Zine Issue 41 - click here to download it for free!
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