Mafia II, from 2K, is the follow-up to the PC exclusive (then Xbox and PS2 port two years later) original. This time around, the title is releasing for PC, 360 and PS3 with only a few days worth of lag. Illusion Softworks, the original studio behind the project, has now become 2K Czech.
People will want to compare this title to GTA. It's inevitable. And, sure, the toolset given to gamers feels nearly the same as the work from Rockstar. An open map, the same ability to let players do what they want (when they want), the same basic HUD, the same GPS system, the same way of presenting the gaming world through car radios and regular news updates, the same... you get the point.
There's a lot to compare to GTA here, sure, but I argue that this may not necessarily be a bad thing. The same was true when Dante's Inferno released this winter. People saw it and started screaming nonsense about it being a God of War rip-off. But what's the big deal? Sure, charge the game with using the same mechanics and toolset, but if this were any other medium, fans would likely leave those notions alone and insist upon genre borrowing.
Think about film... action flicks, romantic comedies, horror pictures, etc., all borrow conventions and genre staples from one another. It's what makes the films predictable. Nobody runs towards them screaming "CLONE!!" So 2K chose to use a toolset familiar to gamers. And that may actually work towards the Mafia II's benefit. Players know how to play Mafia II. They pick it up, pop it in and fire up their systems and they instantly know how to play the game. Thanks to the conventions brought on by the sandbox genre (and, yes, GTA), they know exactly what to do and when to do it.
So, that's out of the way.
