Mafia 2 - On this day

Following the success of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, the Czech studio Illusion Softworks worked on several projects such as the Vietcong and Hidden & Dangerous 2. At the same time, the development of Mafia 2 began, which was officially launched in the summer of 2007. A year later, Illusion Softworks became 2K Czech, and the game was delayed for a year. On this day, eleven years ago, Mafia 2 came out for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

The game was set in the small town of Empire Bay in the period after World War II. The story followed Italian immigrant Vita Scaletta and his existential difficulties coping in modern society, to put it mildly. It was a story in which the concepts of family and friendship, a well-to-do and risky lifestyle, clashed.

Mafia 2 came out at a time when open worlds in games weren’t that common. Although her version of New York was extremely attractive and we were able to see her through different seasons, the world itself was quite vain as far as activities were concerned. In that respect, Mafia 2 worked best as a linear game. The missions were also able to demonstrate the then excellent capabilities of the movers in the destruction segment. Mafia 2 was one of the most demanding games of the time thanks to supporting Nvidia’s PhysX. 

After the release, the game was targeted by some pastors who called for a ban on sales because it allegedly glorified mafia culture and violence. However, there was no ban, and the Mafia became the owner of a new record at the time - the one for the number of swear words in the game. Specifically, the word “f * ck * could be heard a total of 397 times during the game. It is also interesting that the game had officially licensed Playboy magazines of the time, ie a total of 50 covers.

Mafia 2 subsequently received three extensions (The Betrayal of Jimmy, Jimmy’s Vendetta, and Joe’s Adventure) which later became available as part of the Digital Deluxe edition. The game was removed from Steam in 2015 but returned to sales a year later. From 2020, Mafia 2 can be played on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles through the so-called Definitive edition, but it did not delight customers with its technical aspect.