Mafia II Definitive Edition vs Original | Direct Comparison

00:00:02.899welcome back everybody to another

00:00:04.799episode of direct comparison in today's

00:00:07.200video we're gonna take an in-depth look

00:00:08.790at the Mafia 2 definitive edition and

00:00:11.219see how it compares to the original PC

00:00:13.410release of mafia 2 from 2010 for this

00:00:16.350comparison we're gonna focus exclusively

00:00:17.970in the work d 3 t Studios has done to

00:00:20.520enhance the visuals of mafia 2 and see

00:00:23.010whether or not the enhancements are

00:00:24.539worth trying out for PC gamers for

00:00:26.760reference both games are being played on

00:00:28.590the PC with their settings cranked up as

00:00:30.359high as possible at a need of 1440p

00:00:32.520resolution along with the physics

00:00:34.620options enabled which appear to be

00:00:36.300automatically enabled in the way this

00:00:37.920build

00:00:38.430alright so to keep this comparison off

00:00:40.500let's look at a few character models

00:00:42.270starting with the lead character Vito

00:00:44.100Scaletta

00:00:44.700so the first thing you'll notice right

00:00:46.800away when Vito is introduced aside from

00:00:48.809the reworked lighting and coloration is

00:00:50.940the increased texture resolution and

00:00:52.739improved shaders applied to his face

00:00:54.379small details like stubble and skin

00:00:57.120pores are now much more clearly defined

00:00:58.949and the darker shadows and more natural

00:01:01.530lighting helped to make this dramatic

00:01:03.059opening sequence much more powerful

00:01:04.830another interesting change has been made

00:01:06.510to his eyes in the original game you can

00:01:09.090clearly see Vito's eyes rotate

00:01:10.710independently of the character's

00:01:12.119movement focusing on key focal points

00:01:14.520but instead of maintaining the same

00:01:16.799animation the remaster does something

00:01:18.780different and has Vito blink whenever he

00:01:21.150turns his head so that his eyes always

00:01:22.950open centering on an object that he

00:01:24.689wants to look at another interesting

00:01:26.369animation tweak can be found at the

00:01:27.960police lineup scene towards the

00:01:29.220beginning where Vito's new raised

00:01:31.350eyebrow makes them look more worried

00:01:33.119than his more stoic appearance

00:01:34.560originally it technically still works

00:01:36.900for the scene but it's interesting that

00:01:38.790they decided to change details like this

00:01:40.409rather than just upgrading the textures

00:01:42.630and the lighting another important

00:01:45.149takeaway is the huge improvement that

00:01:46.860has been made to the characters hair

00:01:48.350Vito's hair looks substantially better

00:01:51.000now with individual strands being more

00:01:53.070defined rather than being clumped

00:01:54.659together in plastic looking clusters Joe

00:01:56.909one of the characters best friends has

00:01:58.619seen a lot of the same improvements

00:02:00.060there's higher textures more clearly

00:02:02.310defined hair and other details and some

00:02:04.740tweaks to his animations including a

00:02:06.869similar change to the way his eyes

00:02:08.190behave during cinematics

00:02:10.000the scenes by the docks with Derrick do

00:02:12.310a fantastic job of highlighting all

00:02:14.080these changes Derrick in the original

00:02:16.360game really has not aged Wow especially

00:02:18.940considering all of his close-up shots

00:02:20.470his moustache always looked at drawn on

00:02:22.960and the textures that made up his face

00:02:24.400looked like they're made of paper mache

00:02:25.920but in the definitive edition this is

00:02:28.750all fixed Derrick's moustache is now

00:02:30.970fully rendered the textures are enhanced

00:02:33.130and eyelashes were added in to give him

00:02:35.020a more natural appearance oddly enough

00:02:37.390no other characters seem to have been

00:02:39.070given eyelashes like this but the

00:02:41.200enhanced shadowing does help to hide

00:02:42.970this weird omission the only character

00:02:45.640that I feel hasn't been done justice

00:02:47.200here is Henry there's no denying that

00:02:49.540the textures and shaders are a step up

00:02:51.250but the rework to his eyes really hurt

00:02:54.100this particular scene where initially he

00:02:56.890would turn his head and keep his eyes

00:02:58.360directly on veto but now his eyes seem

00:03:00.820fixed in place even looking cross-eyed

00:03:03.070at one point almost like they forgot to

00:03:05.020animate them still disregarding the one

00:03:07.930or two goups

00:03:08.680the changes made to the game's cutscenes

00:03:10.240and character models are a noticeable

00:03:12.070improvement and are enhanced further by

00:03:14.110the accompanying environments for a game

00:03:16.630from 2010 mafia two's environments still

00:03:18.970look decent there's a lot of detail

00:03:20.890crammed to the streets of empire city

00:03:22.480from crowded sidewalks filled with

00:03:24.519varied NPCs to immersive storefronts

00:03:27.310that players can enter without any

00:03:28.690loading screens all these features are

00:03:30.700retained in the definitive edition and

00:03:32.410enhanced further with high-res textures

00:03:34.570and in some rare cases improved geometry

00:03:37.260this massive rock wall for example that

00:03:40.180previously featured a singular repeated

00:03:42.250rock texture across a relatively flat

00:03:44.230surface is now made up of hundreds of

00:03:46.780varied 3d boulders giving it a far more

00:03:49.510natural appearance most areas however

00:03:51.640have simply been given a new high res

00:03:53.739texture like this brick wall or the

00:03:56.049ground here in Italy one of my favorite

00:03:58.630changes are the new footprint trails

00:04:00.340added to the snowy sidewalks and alleys

00:04:02.260they don't necessarily reflect any NPC

00:04:05.080or player interaction at all but there's

00:04:07.239still a nice touch regardless the

00:04:09.160streets have similarly been reworked

00:04:10.630with more complex patches of snow split

00:04:13.120up by high resolution asphalt with

00:04:14.950superior bump mapping along with less

00:04:17.410drastic specular lighting that I'll talk

00:04:19.330about more in a bit

00:04:20.680all that being said don't expect every

00:04:23.199texture to have been improved some

00:04:25.180surfaces like the base to the statue in

00:04:27.009Italy have not been changed at all and

00:04:28.750only appears slightly different thanks

00:04:30.910to the improved ambient occlusion and

00:04:32.470lighting effects by now you've probably

00:04:34.449already noticed all the changes that

00:04:36.160have been made to the lighting

00:04:37.090practically every scene features

00:04:39.039increased contrast giving the overall

00:04:40.990experience a very different tone this

00:04:43.900opening mission in Italy for example

00:04:45.160feels remarkably more colorful now

00:04:47.410almost blown out to a degree hiding the

00:04:50.139finer details on Vito's uniform but at

00:04:52.840the same time this tweak to the lighting

00:04:54.820does help to draw out some of the

00:04:56.199brighter colors like this burgundy red

00:04:58.449vehicle that stands out more prominently

00:05:00.759against the wintery backdrop of the

00:05:02.560first act the actual complexity of the

00:05:05.500lighting has that changed at all there's

00:05:07.270still no form of dynamic lighting in

00:05:09.009play as the effects change automatically

00:05:11.289when the player triggers the next event

00:05:12.789in the storyline and there's still no

00:05:14.710volumetric properties save for the few

00:05:16.960baked light rays in some instances the

00:05:20.139game's nighttime lighting effects

00:05:21.400however tell a different story the

00:05:23.229specular lighting used previously isn't

00:05:25.060quite as prominent now an effect that

00:05:26.949was used liberally before to simulate

00:05:28.659the wet icy streets that being said

00:05:31.419these reflections were never really that

00:05:33.130impressive to begin with the lighting

00:05:35.470was never being reflected in real time

00:05:37.060as you can see here and I feel that the

00:05:39.699new snow added in with the

00:05:41.050high-resolution textures does a much

00:05:43.180better job of conveying that wintry

00:05:44.889nighttime feel the remaster also seems

00:05:47.470to suffer from this easily noticeable

00:05:49.150flickering issue that presented itself

00:05:51.250mildly in the original game with street

00:05:53.020lights but is now an even bigger problem

00:05:55.449with distant lights like the Empire

00:05:57.639State Building now flickering whenever

00:05:59.229the cameras being panned it's a

00:06:01.240distracting issue that is clearly not

00:06:02.979intentional and considering it existed

00:06:05.259before it may have something to do with

00:06:07.060the way the engine handles lighting at a

00:06:08.800distance I also noticed that this parked

00:06:11.349truck in the homecoming mission at the

00:06:12.970beginning no longer has its headlights

00:06:14.620on my guess is that this was done to

00:06:17.080remove the need to render direct shadows

00:06:19.139disabling these lights entirely may seem

00:06:21.580like an easy fix but it does take a bit

00:06:24.099away from the scene and I feel it would

00:06:26.590have been better just to leave the

00:06:27.940lights on and not worry about rendering

00:06:29.560in a new shadow now despite the car

00:06:32.139headlights still failing to cast shadows

00:06:33.969there are a few improvements to the

00:06:35.319shadow quality that are worth mentioning

00:06:36.929shadows look significantly better now

00:06:39.489with higher best shadow mapping and

00:06:41.259cleaner projections that provide more

00:06:42.699clear detail than before it also seems

00:06:45.339that the LOD for shadows has been

00:06:47.139adjusted slightly with the lower res

00:06:49.329variant blending a bit more seamlessly

00:06:51.129with the close-up high-res variant

00:06:52.839making it much less noticeable the

00:06:55.329cutscenes seem to benefit the most from

00:06:56.919the improved shadow quality with softer

00:06:59.079edges and finer detail being reflected

00:07:01.119on characters faces more including

00:07:03.249individual strands of hair that coupled

00:07:05.589with the improved ambient occlusion felt

00:07:07.449the characters blend more naturally with

00:07:08.829the ambient light in the environment

00:07:10.329next we have effects now when I heard

00:07:13.449that they were gonna remaster mafia 2

00:07:15.189the first concern I had was whether or

00:07:17.079not the excellent physics effects used

00:07:19.179to promote the game previously would be

00:07:20.860retained and for the most part they do

00:07:23.049seem to be intact shootouts still

00:07:25.629maintain that same level of

00:07:26.860destructibility as before with chunks

00:07:28.989and pieces of debris littering the floor

00:07:30.699with an impressive number of particle

00:07:32.289effects

00:07:32.860explosions still pack the same punch as

00:07:34.989before with glass shattering in every

00:07:36.729direction and pieces of vehicles flying

00:07:38.529off the only physics-based effect that

00:07:41.019seems to have been cut out is the

00:07:42.399advanced cloth simulation which allowed

00:07:44.559Vito's coat to more realistically react

00:07:46.509to the players movement meanwhile other

00:07:48.969more basic effects haven't aged very

00:07:51.249well fire effects for example still look

00:07:53.679pretty bad with tiny repetitive fire

00:07:55.899sprites attaching to character models

00:07:57.489and vehicles in the exact same way as

00:07:59.110before and the smoke effects still seem

00:08:01.569to be suffering from the same problems

00:08:03.069like weird uneven frame rates and

00:08:05.169streaming issues I even noticed more

00:08:07.659visual glitching with the cloth

00:08:08.829simulation like this artifact sticking

00:08:11.259through Vito's back when wearing the

00:08:12.610gray suit and some instances where you

00:08:15.429get stuck in weird positions like here

00:08:17.259during the benchmark it is hard to tell

00:08:19.689if this is just a one-time problem

00:08:21.249considering how variable the physics

00:08:22.869effects are but problems seem to present

00:08:25.029themselves more frequently and remaster

00:08:26.860than they ever did before the only

00:08:29.289effect that really has been improved

00:08:30.789then are the reflective surfaces inside

00:08:32.680some of the buildings that now feature

00:08:34.569little to no visible aliasing finally

00:08:37.719let's wrap up with a brief sound

00:08:39.309comparison which version of the game do

00:08:41.349you think has the superior audio quality

00:09:38.720[Music]

00:09:45.470[Music]

00:09:50.660[Music]

00:10:15.900Oh

00:10:28.140cops and robbers clash and shoving old

00:10:31.420shootout

00:10:38.570[Music]

00:11:12.630got some nut job here shooting a gun

00:11:16.310Roger that

00:11:28.140stopping at this extreme caution

00:11:31.780you survived medics weapons is

00:11:33.490authorized all units code GREEN back to

00:11:37.960the station use extreme caution use of

00:11:42.490automatic weapons is authorized

00:11:51.620and that wraps up this episode of direct

00:11:55.649comparison over all Matthew to

00:11:57.839definitive edition is a slight

00:11:59.550improvement over the original game the

00:12:02.189improved character models more colorful

00:12:04.079presentation high-resolution

00:12:05.730environmental textures and support for

00:12:08.129unlocked frame eights are all nice

00:12:09.689changes to an underappreciated classic

00:12:11.610though it's certainly not on the scale

00:12:13.709of other brewmasters I've covered

00:12:15.029recently the game remains mostly

00:12:17.550unchanged with a lot of the same

00:12:19.199problems that existed before and there's

00:12:21.420even a few new issues like artifacting

00:12:23.370and light flicker that need to be

00:12:24.779addressed it's great that 2k made this

00:12:27.540version free for owners of the original

00:12:29.220PC version of the game but I would have

00:12:31.620liked to see things like the fire

00:12:32.850effects and lighting to been given a

00:12:34.709proper overhaul but what do you guys

00:12:36.809think are you happy with the changes

00:12:38.370made to mafia 2 or were you expecting

00:12:40.529more let me know in the comments section

00:12:42.360and don't forget to Like and subscribe

00:12:44.279for more videos posted every week

00:12:46.280[Music]