Mafia Wars 2 Review

Biggest Changes in Mafia Wars 2

More Focus On You

It's all about the player-character in MW2

Mafia Wars 2 features a new "paper doll" which represents your character. If you're into character customization, you'll be really happy about the fact that you can really "dress up" your character as you see fit. In turn, your actual in-game avatar will wear whatever clothes are seen on your paper doll. This is all for nothing more than looks, but it does give a huge amount of personality to the game.

Best of all, items stack - you can have hair, a hat and a bandana on at the same time. The system makes for a lot of customization which also means most players won't be looking alike.

No More "501 Crew"

Giving thanks for the biggest improvement to Mafia Wars 2

One thing you've undoubtedly been "forced" into doing in the original Mafia Wars is to acquire 500 Facebook friends and add them all to your Mafia Wars account, and THEN, buy one of the best weapon/armor/vehicle for all 500 of them (with the 501st being yourself).

Thankfully, those days are gone in Mafia Wars 2. In fact, fighting all depends on how great YOUR stuff is, and it doesn't factor in your friends whatsoever. So, someone with 1 friend vs. someone with 1,000 makes no difference. In this game, you are your character, and he or she fights alone.

No Longer a Statistics Nightmare

This isn't as much of a "numbers game"

Playing the original Mafia Wars felt like some kind of mid 1990s text-based role playing game. It was all about numbers, and TONS of them. Your character profile had a laundry list of stats, which chronicled everything that has happened to you.

It's no longer like that at all - no longer is there a public listing of your deaths, "iced" count, robberies or anything else. These things still happen (to some degree), but it's not prominent anymore.

Energy Is Everything

Saying goodbye to stamina

In the original Mafia Wars, energy handled job actions and stamina handled fighting. Now, in Mafia Wars 2, energy handles both of these things. It takes 1:12 of game time for 1 energy to be replenished. There are several ways to get more energy - friends can send it to you by visiting you AND gifting it daily, and you can get it through two new "power plant" structures that can be placed on your turf.

There are other ways to get energy - such as purchasing it. But honestly, who is going to use gold (which costs real life money) to do this?

PK'ing Gets Watered Down

Tired of logging in dead?

Mafia Wars 2 is more forgiving when it comes to PK'ing (player killing) and obnoxious a-holes known to make your life miserable in the original Mafia Wars by continually attacking you. This time around, fighting is done in one of the "arena" territories you can visit, where other random player avatars appear. You can simply attack them there, and your icon will appear under their "enemies" list. Kill one of them, and you can visit their turf and attempt to rob their buildings.

However, there are no statistics tallying up how many times you've died or killed others, so, PK'ers will have less of an interest in torturing others because there isn't much of a reason to do so anymore. Also, your "enemies" list is something you only see if you click your way to it on purpose, so - it's not prominent and doesn't preoccupy you. You'll find yourself not really caring who attacked you every day, because it did nothing to your stats in any way.

The buildings you own on your turf can be firebombed when they are ready to be collected from. However, friends (or you) can put the fire out.

Boss Battles Are Way More Fair

Less frustrating from the previous game!

Boss battles are back in Mafia Wars 2, and they get progressively and very noticeably harder. However, this time around - you aren't bound by a clock. Get in as many hits as you can until your energy is back, and come back later. Or tomorrow, or a few days later. His hit point meter will be where it last left off. Rejoice!

Adjusting to Mafia Wars 2 Changes

Getting a Feel for Mafia Wars 2 Through Exploration

A game with few pointers

Starting off in Mafia Wars 2, there is very little guidance available to you. In fact, it's a case where you'll have to figure out everything the hard way - by experiencing it. Sure, NPCs and dialogues teach you the bare basics, but the differences between this game and its predecessor aren't apparent until you've spent a few hours on it.

In most cases, common sense will guide the way, but there are cases where getting some help in the official forums will need to be done. That, along with the numerous glitches that fans of Zynga games have known for years, will make the forum a frequent stop when you begin Mafia Wars 2.

Turf: Your Home

Rather than jumping from city to city like you did in the first game, Mafia Wars gives you a "turf." If you've played CityVille before, it's similar to a CityVille city, where you have several squares of land that you can place buildings on.

Fun for Designers: Turf is VERY customizable. Gamers who like to design will have a lot of fun with all of the grass/dirt/pavement textures, decorative buildings and place-able items. There's no doubt that we'll be seeing some very detailed and cool looking turf designs as the months go by. In essence, there definitely is a whole "design" aspect to Mafia Wars 2, if that's your thing.
Expanding Turf: Much like you would in CityVille - you'll need "street cred" documents to expand your turf, which lets you add a new square area of land in one of the shaded-out areas. The more squares you unlock, the more money and street cred they'll keep costing.
Buildings: Many of the traditional buildings you knew and loved are still in Mafia Wars 2, including the weapons shop, casinos, workshop and others. Most of these buildings run on timers that countdown to the time when they can be collected from. You'll collect either cash, products or tools from them. Products are used to hire workers, tools are used to make things in a workshop, and cash, well, you know what that's for.
Workers: As explained before, workers require products and will take a certain time period until they pay you off in cash. You'll start out with generic ones like drug dealers, prostitutes, personal trainers and others, and more will become available to you as you hit certain levels. Workers can be picked up and moved anywhere in your city. They are open to being attacked once they are ready to pay off, so, make sure you're there on time when they're ready.

Your Character & the Mafia Wars 2 Environment

Your character is everything in Mafia Wars 2 - he or she is no longer just a number clumped in with the rest of your mafia, but the brute force and driving power behind your entire game.

A "Single Player Experience": You walk around. You perform actions by clicking on usable on-screen items. You fight. You rob. Your character visibly does all of this stuff by walking around wherever you click - much unlike the first game.
Equipping: You'll be able to wear a multi-layered clothing outfit along with 3 kinds of armor (head, body & legs), 2 weapons (1 light and 1 heavy weapon), 1 special weapon, and up to three vehicles (1 land, 1 air and 1 sea). The clothing you wear on your "paper doll" becomes visible on your in-game avatar, but armor does not. Your weapon will be come visible when you attack, though.
Discovering Things: Many of the buildings and objects you come across in Mafia Wars 2 can be 'used' somehow. Play in a casino, search through a dumpster or garbage can, use a payphone or kick a fire hydrant. Some of these things sound ridiculous, but they're necessary if you want to complete several of the "collections" in the game, which require finding a full set of objects.
Leveling Up: A level-up means more than ever before - it unlocks new weapons and armor, most of which are desperately needed and will greatly change the tide of a battle. It will also allow you to enter new cities and areas after certain levels. This time around, everything you get has much more meaning than ever before, since it is ALL you've got, unlike the massive stockpile of junk you accumulated in the original Mafia Wars game. Those days are gone, and your inventory limit is very small. Your stats automatically adjust - including energy and health. You can't manually adjust them at all.
Danger: Your health always appears as 100% to everybody in the game, even if it isn't. That's because there isn't a timer for health anymore. If your health is at 0, it will stay that way forever until you heal yourself manually. So, that means that you'll always be available to be attacked. You cannot be stolen from unless someone kills you, and the only thing that can be stolen is either money (unless you put it in the bank) or product (unless you put it in the warehouse). Note that banks and warehouses both have limits, and you'll find yourself going over those limits. That's when you're risking getting stolen from.
Death: You don't die - instead, your character just slouches, but can still move around. During this time, you won't be allowed to fight. You can refill your energy by clicking the heart icon that appears above your head, and it uses in-game cash (a very small amount) to get you back to full health. You can't refill health during battle this way - you'll need to have purchased a health boost, which you can access from your inventory.

What Facebook Friends Mean in Mafia Wars 2

Since there's no need for "501 crew" anymore, and your friends have absolutely nothing to do in the active fights you're in with other players, you might wonder what the point of having lots of Mafia Wars 2 friends are. Many of the real reasons don't become clear until you're further in the game. Here are a few, though:

Boss battles: This should be your #1 reason for getting many Mafia Wars 2 buddies. Boss battles start off easy, but get incredibly hard by level 17. Your friends can take turns shooting at a boss until his energy is further down (or until he's dead), saving you the trouble. The same problems exist, though - resources in Mafia Wars 2 are precious, and many of your friends probably won't use theirs to help you out.
Daily gifting: Gifting is done in two ways - you can send something from a list of giveaways each day, and you can also visit someone's turf and send them energy or a buff. You'll want tons of both, so, the more friends you have, the more energy cans and armor buffs you'll have.
Turf help: Your friends can visit your turf daily and perform 5 actions, such as collecting from your buildings and workers for you, or killing a rival for you (or even a boss - bosses will walk around your turf if you've fought them but haven't killed them yet).
Staffing Buildings: You'll need a handful of friends to staff your buildings when you place them, and also when you upgrade those buildings. This is where your friends come in.
Boosting Building Payoffs: Friends can click a building on your turf to add an additional 8% payoff when that building is ready to pay.
Begging: You know the drill. You'll need 5 of many items to upgrade a building or to create an item, so you'll be begging your Facebook friends to click your request. Some things never change.
Job Recruitment: Many of the jobs you'll be doing in this game will require you to recruit other friends to fill in the job slots.
More Friends Unlocks More Workers: Workers are a new addition to your home turf that use products to turn cash for you. They behave like buildings - just collect from them when they're ready. The more friends you have, the more workers you'll unlock, and ultimately, the more money you'll make (just make sure you log in on time, or else, a "ready" worker can be killed by an intruder).
Boss Help: Friends can help you chip away at any boss battles still going on, once a day when they get their 5x friend action.

Mafia Wars 2 Tips

Leveling Up Quickly

It's the most asked question - here's how I hit level 35 in 10 days:

Missions: Doing missions is probably the #1 way to level up quickly. Several of them pay off big, not to mention, defeating a boss will give you a significant XP boost.
Neon Square phone/dumpsters: Once you're able to visit Neon Strip and have progressed through a few missions, the pay phone on the northwest end of the city should become clickable. For only 8 energy spent, you get 64 cash and 16 XP - one of the highest ratios of energy-per-benefit in the game. Note that the phone will sometimes additionally drop collection items, parts or even +16 energy. The dumpster behind the Mexican Restaurant in this same immediate area also pays off this much XP, but doesn't pay money. Many have proven that these two actions outweigh anything else in the game, especially fighting in the arenas.
Helping Friends Daily: Visit your friends and perform 5 actions per day for extra XP. The best action you can perform in doing so is killing rivals who are walking around your friends' turf...or better yet, defeating a boss who is on their turf. Doing either will pay off far more than by collecting from their buildings.

The best way to level in Mafia Wars 2: by using this payphone in Neon Strip!

Equipping Yourself Properly

Using the right items makes all the difference in this game. Money is precious, too - so, use it like you would with real life money.

Know What's Available: There are several different places to buy weapons, armor and vehicles. Know them. The shop isn't the only place - other towns feature trucks that sell items exclusive to that area (such as the truck in Granite Square, which sells some of the best armor you'll ever find throughout your first dozen levels). Don't waste thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on an item until you are sure that there isn't a better alternative available to you. Also, many of the equip-able items in the workshop aren't worth the time and effort to build.
Know Your Inventory: Many times, you'll receive a special item from a mission or boss battle, but haven't noticed it. Be sure you always know what's in your inventory, so that you're not using an item that's inferior to something you already own!
Critical, Punch or Stealth?: These three new traits are available to you with everything you equip. What would you rather be? Someone who has a high chance of scoring a critical hit against an enemy (Critical)? Be more likely to minimize an attack against you into a glancing blow (Punch)? Be someone who is more likely to turn an attack into a glancing blow (Stealth)? All items you equip have these stats, and you can maximize one or two of them to form your strategy.

Official Mafia Wars 2 Links

These are several official sites you'll most likely be visiting on a regular basis, if you plan on getting into Mafia Wars 2.

Mafia Wars 2 official Facebook page: If you "like" this page, you'll get official notifications and free items on occasion - some of which cannot be gotten anywhere else.
Mafia Wars 2 official forum: It's a place to get help and tips from others.
Bug Reporting: Found a bug in the game? Report it here.
Feedback: Got a good idea for the game? Or, an improvement? You can post it here and the devs will see it.
Contact Support: Is something missing (wrongfully) from your inventory, or did some glitch ruin your progress? Contact support directly, here.

Got A Comment About Mafia Wars 2?

Have you tried the game out yet? If so, what do you think?

Reply

SoyCandleLover-Maker Dec 2, 2011 @ 5:59 am | delete

Well done player's guide for Mafia Wars 2. Wow, lots has changed since I played last. Featured on Facebook Fun & Issues. Thanks!

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Mafia Wars 2 Review