Mafia II - The Betrayal of Jimmy by Kitty

Kitty here again.

Alright, so, I'll be talking about the exclusive content for buying the PS3 version of Mafia II, The Betrayal of Jimmy, with is the prologue more or less leading up to the DLC that just released recently, Jimmy's Vendetta.

Now, before I begin I want to point out that I hate exclusive things or when one platform has DLC and Expansions for 2+ years and the other doesn't, yes I'm referencing Fallout 3 with this. Same applies to Grand Theft Auto IV, but no one cares about that game.

Now my opinion of the game is the same. My review extends to here in terms of graphics, game play, presentation, and all of that. I'm just talking about this content and how I feel about it. I'm mainly doing this since I just bought the Jimmy's Vendetta DLC. Yes, I will have my thoughts on that one as well, once I complete it. As Izzy does, yes there will be spoilers, but its not like there is a lot but still.

The Betrayal of Jimmy - you play as an older character named Jimmy, obviously, who has a striking resemblance to Bruce Willis, though at times I can see some Ed Harris in the face too. Anyway, Jimmy's the guy the other guys go to when they need a job done. He's a gun for hire, a thief for hire. Don't want to get your hands dirty? Call Jimmy.

You get a little back story of Jimmy explaining what he does, but I already did that. After the small bit of back story, you're immediately thrown into a mission. Kill some guys, get in a car, and get it to the destination before time runs out. You'll get your first cutscene here with a guy asking Jimmy if they got the message.

Now before I continue, I must point out that this is what Mafia II should have been overall. You do not have a way point telling you where to go constantly. There are mission markers about the map and you can go to them at your leisure instead of the game telling you to every so often.

All of the missions are on a timer as well and there is a points system/ranking system after a mission, making this content seem more Arcade based than what the main game was and I'm okay with that. However, the missions are limited to three guys and they all revolve around something.

The first and easiest set (as well as the quickest money gain) is stealing cars and delivering them to a marked garage. The other two involve killing people, though, sometimes you do have to kill people to get a car.

The other two, like I said, revolve around killing people. One set is killing black people. More specifically, the Bombers, a black oriented gang from Sand Island who have been causing trouble for a guy. On the other end of the spectrum, you're killing Asians, lead by Eddie Fu, who are causing trouble for someone else.

There are no cutscenes, just mission briefings in the form of a picture and text and then you're off to do your dirty work. I'm not sure how many missions there are in all but it can take a while, though, I do admit I did complete it in a night. At the end of the Bombers missions you kill the leader and his brother. Same goes for the Asians, you kill Eddie Fu and then go to your final mission marker.

Some missions are fun, some are not so fun. I personally hated the "smash up the shop" missions, thankfully, they only appeared twice. Essentially, you have to visit key shops, and shoot them up. However, when you do that, the cops of course get alerted and getting pinned down inside the shop is never fun.

Anyway, the two people that have been hiring you think its great what you've done and want to reward you, sending you off to collect a car with the reward in the trunk, as well as telling you to keep the car for yourself. Lock pick or smash the window in and another cut scene will roll. Police will hit the scene but Jimmy isn't having it, he'll drive off, leading in a high speed pursuit that ends on the highway with a road block and police ready to fire. It was a set up. There were drugs in the trunk, enough to put Jimmy away for a while.

As Jimmy puts it. "I was so busy tying up loose ends for other people I didn't realize I was the last one that needed to be tied." It might not be word for word but it sums it up. He also states (I believe) that they were pussies for setting him up. Couldn't find anyone brave enough to take him out, or something along those lines, and that they had no idea what was coming to them. Honestly, as little story as it was, that set up leading into Vendetta made me want to buy Vendetta, despite the $9.99 price tag.

So, The Betrayal of Jimmy is 90% action, 10% story. Is it good? Hell yeah. I enjoyed it more than the main game itself, in all honesty. Scoring it I would definitely give it a 8.0. Its not perfect and some flaws exist, such as the freezing issue from the main game, but its a lot of fun and can be quite challenging. And, I must say that its lasting appeal is higher than the main game, especially for people who are competitive as the score you gain throughout the missions, reflect on the leader boards, so, anyone who wants to be among the Top 100 or so will have fun plugging away it.

Well, that about does it for this one. I'll see you all next time on Jimmy's Vendetta, whenever I finish it. Kitty out.