Mafia II (Classic) – Tips for a Fun/Clean Experience

Stuff to help combat annoyances and make the game as fun as possible.

Fun/Clean Experience Tips

Сrеdit gоеs to UndyingRevenant!

Tips will be in attempted chronological order, spoilers will be included to minimize my work because I’m lazy.

I recommend hard difficulty, it can be very annoying at times yeah, but it helps realism a lot and there’s quite a few ways to cheese stuff so it helps keep things interesting and thrilling.

After finishing the prologue, and fighting off the guy threatening your sister, along the way to Joe’s if you look you’ll see a car broken down with a man and woman. If you wait by them, they have an argument and eventually the guy walks off. You can then approach and fix the car for the milf, you get achievements and we like milfs here, don’t we yes we do.

Very early on, I recommend getting a vehicle you really like, and sticking with it as much as you can to get used to it and minimize upgrade money needed. Always upgrade it at least once and only use random vehicles if it’s an emergency, cops all have 1 upgrade so it will minimize pia and unfairness. Your first steal is a solid option, other recommendations are the Culver Empire (first vehicle joe drives), easy to get, durable, handles nice, 4 seats for some missions, covered roof (if roof is uncovered, any flips can instakill you, and makes you more vulnerable to gunfire), smoothly handles gas stamp delivery, and later, an ascot bailey, supercharged (sc if you have dlc).

Also, after getting more comfortable, practice driving very fast with no speed limiter in progressively faster vehicles. It’s not just for fun, some main story missions are timed or require escapes so it comes in handy, and if you do dlc it becomes invaluable because everything is a timed mission. ascot bailey is one of the most important to get used to both because it’s very fast and handles quite well with speed, and because it’s part of one of the hardest missions in the extended game imo, “highway racing” in joe’s adventures, a race through traffic (and highways), throughout nearly the entire city, on a sharp time limit that requires minimal mistakes, in a vehicle that requires experience going fast and what you can and can’t get away with bumping cars and objects.

Also, whenever exiting a vehicle, if you actively move away from it while doing so, you leave the door open and skip the animation, and also make getting back in easier. Pretty obvious but surprisingly handy, especially in dlcs when the safest use of time is to park a vehicle beside the start marker, pointed towards the objective, with the door open.

Throughout the game, several times, you will lose all your equipment and money. After your house is attacked, you’ll also lose all your clothes, which is the real pia. It’s not as bad as it first appears though, each time this happens, stay calm and wait until you get a pistol back, usually from joe. locate the nearest gun store. go inside, close the door behind you. ideally, have a shotgun, but a pistol works fine. if you have money, buy ammo for guns you own first. line up with the shopkeeper and wait until he stays still, then pull out a pistol or shotgun and carefully focus and headshot him.

If comfortable, draw and wait until he pulls out his shotgun before the headshot, doing so lets you pick it up afterwards with around 6 shells, even super early in game. Afterward, be sure to reload what you used for extra ammo space, unequip weapons to avoid attention, and quickly and smoothly walk to the glass case and jam x to fill up on ammo and pistols, and behind the counter and grab long guns and ammo if available. then turn and grab money from the register. all money you pay for ammo will also be got back here, and you get additional 500+.

Now, keep note of the phone. from my experience here, if the door was shut beforehand and everything goes to plan you can just walk out the door and the cops are approaching further off without any wanted state, but, if they start attacking, don’t panic, stay in the store behind the counter in cover, take out any that come in with your shotgun or pistol. then, after the alert goes away, use the phone and bribe the cops for 500. you’ll still keep guns and ammo and a small profit. if need more money, repeat the process, more comfortable you become with it, more reliable it is. this also helps if you ever need to grind money for missions without being too inconvenienced.

In shootouts, always stay as far back as you can get away with to keep accuracy but minimize one shots from shotguns or surprise barrages. your health regens to 70%, so if being safe as possible, always make sure to recover whenever shot by most anything. some guns, shotgun included can do incredible amounts of damage on hard and rarely can one shot/nearly so even when at 70%, so be careful.

Make sure you prioritize cover where the character is exposed as little as possible, and flanking is as hard as possible to do. ideally, also make sure you have minimal blind spots. some enemies have charging behavior, and you can be quickly overwhelmed having to move to deal with a suddenly appearing shotgunner while several in front blast you.

Always move slowly as you can, and check your corners using the third person cam. If wary of enemies, poke out rapidly, or keep aiming out of cover, if enemies remain they’ll pop out to shoot you and you’ll see their location, if you keep doing so and nothing happens, you’re normally good. If you’re still scared, use yourself as bait and carefully move forward, then when you hear or see any gunfire quickly get into the best cover near you, remember you can slide fast a little away into cover also. Priority number one is to cover your flank, if you see any red hit arrows from your sides or behind you, ideally remain behind your cover and quickly aim and deal with the threats shooting you from an exposed angle. If you get hit arrows from in front of you and you’re covered, enemies might be hitting exposed points and you might need a better wall. while behind cover, you can’t blind fire, but you can hold the fire button, so when you pop out you’re firing fast as possible. with auto aim you can also pop out aiming at someone, kill them, then go back to cover for minimal exposure.

Weapon wise, know who you’re fighting. In any gunfight, learn what enemies are using as fast as you can and copy it if able, so you can have a constant supply of ammo and don’t wind up having to panic switch on empty. Prioritize weapons they use, then weapons you like if they have them. 38 Revolvers are very common but underpowered and can get you killed. 1911S are the safest pistol, better accuracy, reasonably common, better damage, accuracy, and clip, for more awkward fire rate.

357 Magnum is too memey, uncommon, very slow fire rate and the power is too low to make up for it. C96 is mostly unused and too weak. Ideally, don’t use pistols, but if you need one, 1911 or later the special 1911 is safest. The shotgun is very good but the pump leaves you vulnerable, ai seem to use less animations for it. I recommend using it only if you have to tbh, even though it’s fun and can be effective. If you have to, stay behind cover, pop out with auto aim, then go back in. Never try to be a charger with it, too risky.

The m1 garand is one of your safest longer range weapons, good power and accuracy, good clip. Don’t use in machine gun range if you can help it. The k98 is the longest range weapon in the game, but has a bolt action so it’s very risky. Only use if you really need range or have to. Thompson 1928 is probably the best weapon in the game overall, generic mafia gun, very large clip, fast fire rate to stun lock enemies, pretty good reload speed, decent accuracy. If in doubt, pull it out. All the other smgs are uncommon and/or worse, but in some of the missions enemies have mostly mp40s or grease guns, if so, use them like you do the 1928 and for the most part they’re close enough.

Continued Makings of a Varsity Athlete

Molotovs I highly recommend NOT using, too much work, minimal payoff. Later, grenades on the other hand, I HIGHLY recommend using and carrying as many as you can whenever you can. Enemy behind cover? Toss one. Maybe 1, maybe 12 enemies behind 3 cars? Toss one. Scared of a room? Toss one. Need breathing room? Toss one. Jokes aside, in the main game, you don’t need them too often. Might get away with like one set of 5 most of the game, BUT, in the dlcs they’re needed.

Many encounters you’re alone where you’d have a buddy, and some firefights on hard can really push your limits so always take max. Usually a good idea to save them to use when enemies are covered behind vehicles, sometimes there’ll be multiple encounters like that in a mission, but at your discretion you can clear rooms or dangerous enemies behind cover. Incredible weapons, very inconvenient to go back to the military store frequently but whaddya gonna do. If too incovenient, remember gas tank locations on cars and just be more careful.

All that said, there’s nothing stopping you from robbing some places, and buying/fully loading every gun and using whatever, just good to know to minimize time needed going back shopping. Mainly the military store (majority of military hardware) and guissepe (molotovs and special 1911). m1 garand, all pistols besides c96, and the shotgun can be fully loaded at any gun store eventually in the game.

The main game has some difficult sections, but I also recommend being prepared for the dlcs if you choose to go for full game mission completion. Of note, upon starting any, quickly find a speedy vehicle and upgrade it, use it as your main one for missions. Remember to stay behind store counters if police raid a shop you’re in, and when it clears, if in a clothing shop, you can steal clothes to clear wanted.

You can also use phones or phone booths to clear it, and get more money from gun store thefts. Speed limiting is no longer a option. Do everything calmly but efficiently as you can. Occassionally missions have infinite respawning enemies, of note going after the don and assassinating specific targets, so unless going for a high score it’s best to do the objective and get out. Learn where enemies spawn and you can be prepared and/or jump them. Keep vehicle parked and open so when you start any mission, you can get in and go straight towards the objective without u turns, saves time and annoying restarts. Finally, always abuse tf out of regen. Always heal to 70% before exposing yourself.

Finally, a Couple Fun Facts (Big Spoilers)

Did you know, from the writer himself, that henry wasn’t actually a rat? Most likely he was supposed to have been shown as framed by carlo or another member. A song was also included in delta radio, framed, by the coasters, which contains the lyrics “I was walkin’ down the street mindin’ my own affairs, when two policemen grabbed me uh, unawares, they said is your name henry? I said, why sure, they say you the boy we’ve been lookin’ for” it’s a bit of reaching but it implies henry in game was also framed, the game also includes a few little details like that already. In the scene when he lays dying, in henry’s pov you can see 3 planes, most likely representing vito, joe, and henry, and their bond and loyalty to each other. In the final scene, after vito ends alone, you see only one flying. It adds even more emotional impact and intrigue to the events of the game and is easily missed, or you will just believe he was the rat.

Thanks for reading, lots may be obvious but hope it helps someone.