Mafia II Interview Page 2

04 Feb 2010 at 15:14:25 by Andy Alderson

One thing we noticed from the E3 presentation this year, was the way in which the game switches cleverly between gameplay and cutscenes. How important is the narrative in Mafia II and how have you improved the cutscenes?

DG: The narrative in Mafia II is very important to us. We have set ourselves really high goals for our story. We don’t compare our scene direction, VO performances or script writing to anyone in the games industry.  We look at movies and then, only the best movies. We’ve invested a huge amount of time in dialogue writing and recording. I think everything that has been seen in public to date really is some of the best VO we’re seeing in video games. Moreover,  the animators at 2K Czech have spent a long time creating motion capture, working on facial expressions etc. to really make the VO performances come alive.

Can you tell us a little about the missions in the game? How important is variety? How do you keep the missions ‘fresh’ and avoid the standard ‘drive x to y and shoot everything’ formula?

DG: The way the game is structured is that each mission is a day in Vito’s (our lead character’s) life. , So, sometimes mission X and mission Y happen on two days next to one another but in other missions there may be a three-month period between missions. So, from a story perspective, this allows us to easily switch it up and throw in variety as we feel it’s needed

That said, there is obviously a lot of shooting missions. The game is a third person action game about the Mafia; if there wasn’t you’d probably ask for your money back.  Nonetheless, we can frame these shooting missions differently; put you in a situation which is unwinnable forcing you into a retreat. Basically,we switch things up using the story as a means to turn the tables.

You’ve said that the game will span ten years of Vito Scaletta’s life – how different will his life become in that period and, also, what will happen to the city itself?

DG: The game spans the best part of 10 years, starting out in 1943. Vito, at the start of our story, is a nobody with a poor upbringing in Empire Bay and together with his best friend Joe; they embark on the journey to find money and respect. Early on in the game, the motivations for Vito are very clear; to get his family out of debt. Later on, this is not so much the deal for after having had a taste of The Good Life they get greedy… Speaking more specifically about the city, we start out in the 40’s with a winter city backdrop and war raging in Europe. It’s a pretty bleak outlook for the people of Empire Bay and this mirrors Vito’s situation during this period.

By the time we hit the 50’s the city has changed a lot.  Initially, it’s summer and the feeling is dramatically different as you walk around the city and you see all the cars, music, ads, buildings, clothing etc. everything is different. Remember, the 50’s was the birth of America as we know it today.

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