Mafia 2's Remaster Is An Insulting Mess
What went wrong?
Mafia II's remaster dropped last Tuesday, and it's a complete mess. While many assumed the surprise announcement-to-release schedule was to give it an event feeling, it turns out the more likely explanation is that publisher 2K and developers Hanger 13 were embarrassed of what they created.
The biggest issue is the frame rate. Whether the scene is a high-octane shootout or simply a character changing clothes in his apartment, the title suffers significant frame drops. While 30fps is the target across consoles, it's rarely ever hit, with the game dipping into the 10s multiple times a mission.
The audio quality and mixing is amateurish as well. The volume discrepancies between cutscene and gameplay will have you constantly turning up and down the volume on the TV, while for some reason dialogue is only played through the left input when using headphones.
The fact that such little work has actually been done to remaster the shooter makes the whole thing worse. The developers had already done the bare minimum to prove they had tweaked the experience for next-gen consoles (mostly found in the higher quality character models), so the added performance issues are unjustifiable.
If you're planning on picking up Mafia II, you're better off waiting for a patch.