The first time I ever took notice of Zynga was when my friends were blasting me with Mafia Wars invites on Facebook. Little would I expect that the company would go on to become one of the largest videogame developers in the industry.
Mafia Wars 2 is Zynga’s first direct sequel and it’s kind of like CityVille meets the original Mafia Wars. Except, you know, you’re killing people and doing other illegal things.
Mafia Wars 2 (Facebook)
Developer: Zynga
Publisher: Zynga
Release: Winter 2011
There are three basic gameplay elements at work with Mafia Wars 2. First, there’s the whole building aspect. You start off with a strip of land in the outskirts of a stylized version of Las Vegas, where Mafia Wars 2 all takes place in. This is where you’ll be building your personal economy as you can place down casinos, banks, grow houses and more. The money you generate will go into expanding your land, territory, weapons and other essential areas of business.
Then there’s the storyline aspect. Every zone you’ll be visiting in Las Vegas has a different theme going for it. These zones also have crime bosses you need to take on in order to build up a competitive criminal organization. There will be plenty of NPC characters you’ll come across and they’ll be able to send you on quest, some good and some that can actual hurt you.
Zynga has put a lot of effort into creating an actual storyline that they feel will get players invested into the experience. Get betrayed on a quest? Then go get revenge like a proper mobster. Zynga’s released a digital comic that gives you insight on some of the characters you’ll be interacting with, such as Zoe Sato, your girlfriend in Mafia Wars 2.
Lastly, there’s the player-vs-player element to Mafia Wars 2. You and a crew of friends can take on others in a cutesie turn-based-style gang war. It was somehow adorable watching the little avatars shoot and stab each other to death. You will definitely want some friends to be backing you up as they’ll be able to help you defend your turf if its getting invaded by rival players. You can also rob your rival’s territory.
Mafia Wars 2 boosts one of the “highest-levels of customization for a Zynga game” yet. At launch, players will be able to earn 300 different types of weapons, armor and vehicles. There’s also the ability to generate over 20 million unique looks for your avatar thanks to the 600 pieces of clothing you can get. One thing I found cool in this regard was that you can supply your friends with the weapons and armor you collect.
Mafia Wars 2 will be out on Facebook first, with other platforms planned later. We should be seeing the game within the next month or so and it’ll be available in over 16 languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Turkish, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Japanese and Thai.)
As far as you fans of the original Mafia Wars go, rest assured that Zynga will continue to keep supporting the original game.
