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Mafia 2

Mafia II: Jimmy's Vendetta

The betrayed Jimmy is back to get his vendetta on in an expansion that feels more like Saints Row than a part of the epic Mafia II... Jonas Mäki is not impressed.

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Jimmy is pissed off, like every Playstation 3-owner that played Mafia II knows since the story Betrayal of Jimmy was released exclusively for that format. It doesn't really matter for the new downloadable expansion Jimmy's Vendetta, where Jimmy now shall take his revenge on people all around Empire City. It's more about a series of mini-missions similar to the side-missions in games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Saints Row 2, and there's no real story to actually talk about.

Instead, 2K Czech calls the expansion the arcade version of Mafia II where leaderboards are prioritized instead of dialogues and quick trigger fingers are more important than making the right decisions. In total, Jimmy's Vendetta comes with 30 of these missions that range from having to execute someone to beat someone up, blowing up buildings or stealing a particular car.

Mafia 2

You start up Jimmy's Vendetta from the game's main menu and are thrown out on a map with rotating icons that tell you where to go to start the missions. There is always 1 - 2 missions to choose from, often placed far away from each other so you'll have to drive for a long time. Probably to create the false sensation that the expansion lasts longer than it actually does, despite the fact that it's mostly a cause for frustration.

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When you've reached one of the icons you get to choose if you want the mission to start and then a timer starts to tick. Then you'll have to finish as fast as possible, get your shots just right and don't screw up. If you do well enough you might get a nice position on the leaderboards, which 2K Czech hopes will make you play over and over again to get better scores and beat the people on your friends list.

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The people that complained about not having enough to do in Mafia II, that you only drove from mission to mission, will probably like Jimmy's Vendetta. Compared to Vito, Jimmy has tons of stuff to do and every new mission is more spectacular than the last.

Compared to the original game, I start playing a lot more like you would in Grand Theft Auto. I happily fire into crowds of people, run over pedestrians with my car and drive like a complete maniac. It's as if 2K Czech considered having these optional missions in Mafia II, but decided to take them out to make the story more believable. And instead of Vito it's up to Jimmy to show what Empire Bay really has to offer.

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Mafia 2

I am one of the people that really liked the controls in Mafia II and didn't have any problems with animations or the cover-system. But it's hardly Gears of War, and it's noticeable when some missions can get hysterically difficult at times. It probably wasn't the designers' intention though, since I struggle more against the controls and stupid enemies than the actual designed challenge. In the same way the enemy can make hilarious mistakes like blowing up the gas station you've been sent to destroy during one of the 30 missions.

Jimmy's Vendetta could possibly be recommended if you bought Mafia II, didn't care about the story, wanted more freedom and really loved the game mechanics. For everyone else it feels a bit out of place and completely out of sync with what the well-written Mafia II had to offer.

05 Gamereactor UK
5 / 10
+
Many fun missions, good controlls
-
Repetitive, no story to speak of, bad AI
overall score
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