There's something very refreshing about 2K Czech's approach to "open world" gameplay with Mafia.

For a game that tells the story of a larger-than-life mobster, and does so over the span of a decade, there's a handcrafted feel about this sequel. The developers are less interested in using the open world as a playground for gamers, and more as a backdrop for the narrative they've crafted--an approach in line with the first, somewhat under-appreciated title in the series.

Recently I sat in on a roundtable interview with Denby Grace, producer on the project at 2K Games. As Grace held court in an Italian restaurant on the edge of San Francisco's Little Italy, we fired questions at him ranging in topic from the game's ambitious narrative, to the series' infamous traffic laws.

What is the sequel doing differently from the original? More importantly: what happens when you shoot someone in the face? Read on to find out.

For gamers that didn't play the original, what makes Mafia II different from other open-world shooters?

Denby Grace: The biggest thing about Mafia for us, and I think for the people that played Mafia, is the story. It is this strong characterization that happens as you progress through the game. The fact that we have an open world is kind of like an additional--I like to compare it to BioShock. BioShock wouldn't work without Rapture. Our story wouldn't work without this open world setting. But ultimately it's all about this strong narrative fiction.. it's this linear game that, ultimately for the fiction to work, it has to have these small sandbox things going on. The city needs to react to the player, and the player has to be able to interact with the city.

Ultimately it's a crime action game.. The big differentiation for people who played Mafia 1 to Mafia 2 is this intense gunplay. It's more like a first person shooter for us. So once you get into these combats, in this interior rooms, and the exterior [areas], you have so many dynamic objects going around. The way people use cover, the way you use cover, the way the weapons handle, it feels more like a--we put much more focus on the actual gunplay.

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Cops would give you tickets for speeding in Mafia. Can you go into detail on how the driving system has changed in the sequel, if at all?

Denby Grace: Absolutely, and I started talking about it earlier--the whole police system, the driving is naturally different because it's the 40s and 50s, and it's much faster and more exciting. But the police system to me--it had this love and hate feel about it. You loved it for the first couple of missions, and then some people continued to love it, [but with other people], by the third or fourth mission, and you're getting a ticket, you're like, "I'm done already, I'm done, come on."

So there's different ways we deal with this. We have this fat cop scenario. If you happen to pull out a gun on the street for instance, and you don't fire at anyone, the cop will be like, "Stop right there!" And if you run off down the street two or three blocks, and the fat cop is going to weasel away, and you get away quite easily.

Or what if you shoot someone in the face? Then naturally he's going to radio in more people to help him get you. And where it works in traffic terms, you're still going to get a ticket if you drive through a red light, you're still going to get busted if you're speeding. But they're not going to sort of horrendously track you all the way across town just for a ticket. One thing that we do play with which is quite interesting is, what turns into a traffic violation can quite quickly get a lot lot worse. Imagine you've got a body in the boot and the cop sort of turns up, pulls you over for a traffic violation. And he's like, "Mind if I search the car, sir?" And you're like, "Oh shit. I've got a body in the trunk. This is turning into a murder charge."

So also, as the game is set over 10 years, as we progress through the fiction, it kind of helps us deal with some of the problems that in Mafia, by mission 10 or 11, you'd get pretty sick of. You can buy your way out of it by the fact that you're a made man. They're on the payroll, so at the same time you can kind of call in and get cops off your tail.

Can you talk about the decision to move the game into the 40s and 50s?

Denby Grace: The game is set across two eras. It starts in the 40s, it starts in 1944. So the first third of the game actually happens in the 40s, just as the war's ending.

We wanted to sort of change the themes considerably. Prohibition was the big thing in the 20s and 30s. As well, when you think about things from a gameplay perspective, cars being faster and things like that. I don't think it was a conscious decision made--Vito is a war hero, so it's just a good part to start off. And from there it was, how long is it going to take for these things to play out?

And for us as well, the 50s as a setting is a really exciting time. It's James Dean, it's Marlon Brando, the birth of rock and roll. Cars are actually being made for enjoyment, rather than purpose of driving from A to B. So naturally it's a nice, cool setting. The music from the era is really cool and really iconic. Americana was getting super huge, TV was born--this explosion of all kinds of stuff. The 50s was a cool time in American history, and it's really interesting some of the stuff we've done in the game, and you'll see that as we progress.

Will the developer be releasing modding tools for the PC version of the game?

Denby Grace: It's not decided at this time. I couldn't possibly comment. We're too far away right now to decide that. I know the developer is very keen to support things like this, but right now as a publisher.. we're very, very aware of our fan base, and we're very, very aware of what the community wants. And we're going to do what we can.. but it's just too early.

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