14 DAY TRIAL // Mafia II might have been delayed quite a few times but it seems that all the extra development time does not mean the team at 2K Czech working on the gangster-themed title managed to get in all the content they initially thought of.
The developers appear to have set their quality standards pretty high and decided to cut from the game the idea of multiple endings in order to work hard on putting together one that's outstanding and succeeds in establishing an emotional link with the player.
Denby Grace, who is the senior producer working on Mafia II, told IncGamers that “We had four multiple endings at one point in the game, and then we looked at it and we had one really outstanding great ending to end our story,” adding, “We worked on these things and we have our players that focus test and we found that people were just replaying and ultimately only felt satisfied when they got to the one GREAT ending. We just said 'You know what? Let's just ditch these other endings, this is the ending everyone wants' and that's one thing we're happy with making that choice.”
It's nice to see a development team so interested in making a game above average. Mafia II will begin in 1945 and tell the story of a World War II veteran, the child of immigrants from Sicily, who returns home and gets to use his unique skills with firearms in the service of the Mafia. The developers promise an open world featuring a variety of weapons, cars and characters that simulate the life of crime that gangsters experienced in the '50's.
Mafia II is set to arrive on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the PC. North American gamers will be able to play it on August 24, while those who live in Europe will have to wait a further three days before taking on the life of a made man.