The original ending for 2K’s 2010 action-adventure game, Mafia 2, has been found through the recent Steam repository leak.
A newly surfaced video from the recent Steam leak shows the original ending for Mafia 2, in which protagonist Vito Scaletta’s story ends very differently from the version players ultimately received. Rather than surviving the final confrontation and being separated from his best friend Joe Barbaro, Vito appears to be shot dead while being transported in a car, while Joe is taken away separately to whatever fate awaits him.
Mafia 2 developers previously hinted at four different endings before narrowing the story down to a single conclusion after playtesting. One previously documented alternative involved Joe being taken away after Leo Galante explains that the deal only covered Vito. The dialogue repeatedly highlights that Joe was not part of the agreement and that someone had to pay for what happened in Chinatown. Another prototype ending reportedly involved a final duel between Vito and Joe at Hotel M, with a developer recalling that Vito had been shot and was staggering from wall to wall.
The newly leaked ending suggests that Vito himself may originally have been destined to die, radically changing the trajectory of the character and making Mafia 2 a considerably darker conclusion. In the final game, however, Vito ends up surviving. He remains in the same car as Leo while Joe is driven away in another vehicle, creating the implication that Joe has been killed. However, he makes an appearance in Mafia 3, confirming that he also ended up surviving.
The aforementioned Steam leak span a decade of Valve’s development history, encompassing numerous game builds, beta versions, dedicated servers, development tools, shared assets, localization files and other material associated with some of the company’s most influential games. The depot reveals entries for the original Half-Life and its expansions, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic, Ricochet and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. More details here.
