User:InsomniacViper

Thoughts
So, just played Mafia II a bit. When I got to hopping around town a bit, I punched a guy to death. People that walk by actually care there's a body laying about (one guy hunched over the poor bastard), and a cop stopped by and took a look as well. That's a really nice touch.

Fistfights are a bitch, though. You often enter fights after a cutscene in the first few chapters (hey, I'm only at chapter 7 or so), and the screen fades in from black. This usually means you get punched before Vito returns to conciousness, which is hardly fair. But hey, once they knocked 1/3rd of your healthbar off with their welcome gift, you can maybe attempt a counter attack. Hold the space bar before their next combo punch of death to dodge, release the space bar once you dodged but before they retract their hydraulic punching mechanisms, and press the left mouse button. You have now pimpslapped your opponent. If they don't stagger too far away from you, i.e. if you have them against a wall, you can throw a combo. LMB for light, RMB for heavy. Never use heavy first. Light allows for a followup (Heavy combo knocks down, and you can't kick a man when he's down because you're a gentleman). The followup is either another combo, or a brutal move, depening on enemy health. Brutal moves are just for show, but they can be pretty nice to watch, and it means the fight ends. If you land a second combo, your enemy is going to punch you right after you finish the combo, so be sure to start dodging (can't do a three-in-a-row).

tl;dr version: Fistfighting is fairly boring because they're always the same. Dodge first, counter, two combos, dodge, counter, combo.

Shooting is much improved from the first game. You are still made of paper, but cover works better (read: At all). Generally, smooth enough to feel right, but with occasional superglue.

A little trip down memory lane: Mafia 1 had four bridges and a tunnel, and a numebr of hills, mostly in Down Town. There were a small number of cars that couldn't (ever) cross the tunnel and the Giuliano Bridge (red suspension bridge), and had serious issues with the hills Down Town. It was... weird. Luckily, Mafia II is in a different place altogether. They took out the steeper bridges and hills, and there aren't any blatantly useless cars like the Bolt Ace. Illusion learned from that one, it seems.

Also, there's two driving modes; simulation and 'normal'. I chose Normal, and it's just the surreal straight driving. When I start my Hard playthrough, I'm thinking of going for Simulation, but that isn't going to happen for a while. So anyways the Normal driving is just fine. Also, the speed limiter is back.

Brings me to another point. Cops. The cops are much more lenient than in Lost Heaven. You can drive around without the speed limiter, go a little over the limit and not immediately get a ticked as you cross the street. Of course, going 55 when the limit is 40 still gets you a fine (and sometimes, you can get away with it by apologising!). When they want to arrest you for a crime, it's not immediately a wild chase vs. game over. You can bribe the cops when they initiate the arrest. It's pretty neat, and fits the game really well.

Cars and sets of clothes can become Wanted by the police. You can get new plates (and customise them) to fix the wanted car problem, and switching clothes (yep, there's a wardrobe that is not just a cosmetic feature) can help losing the general Wanted notice. Also, your police awareness level climbs when a cop sees you, rather than switches on and off. It goes pretty fast in a wanted car, but you can drive around in wanted clothes (that sounds so silly), and not immediately be caught by each and every cop. Still not a smart move to drive straight past cops, though.

Random stuff.