In my opinion this is great gangster game, but it has a few disadvantages. Firstly, it is kinda repetitive - there is a lot mission "go there, take this and go back". Secondly, it is a bit short, it could be longer. Thirdly it hasn't got free ride mode like in previous Mafia. Some advantages: nice characters, great storyline, well designed city, GREAT reference to the first Mafia in one mission, beautiful graphic, a lot of cars. All this pros makes this a great gangster game - but in my opinion there is no such climate like in the first Mafia game.

Played through the whole game in one breath, it felt like watching a movie and it really took me into the 50s Mafia world. Nice graphics, art (playboy magazines), music and acting work. Cool looking cars are fairly customizable and are fun to drive. Realistic things like paint peeling off the cars, police can aquire your description and number plates, making it harder to evade them, ability to rob stores (rob a store and then revisit it in a little bit, its pretty cool). Story is great albeit taking strange turns sometimes, which almost feel like plot holes. This however doesn't happen often and overall its fine. At the moment I believe this game is better than Mafia 3.

If you have been a fan of the original Mafia and still crave for more, well this game is for you...sort of. Let's start with that the game does right. 1. Atmosphere and World Similar to its prequel and rival games in the same genre, the game really nails the authenticity of the setting. The certain style of buildings, anatomy of cars, and fashion of clothing all ties together. Playing through the game feels very immersive and it encourages you to explore every nook and cranny of the world. Speaking of exploration, there are bunch of collectibles in the city and while they may not give anything it adds to the immersion. 2. Story For a Mafia game, the story is quite good. For this type of game developers usually place more emphasis on gameplay than its story. However, with Mafia 2, it is the other way around. Without spoiling anything, it is basically a story about a how the main character slowly progresses their career in a mafia. So, a typical Mafia story...but with some twist. Unlike the first game, with its long campaign, this game is way shorter and suffers from story pacing. It feels extremely slow in the beginning half and then gets too fast in the second half. By the time I finished the game, I had a "wait the minute, that's it?" feeling. Gameplay I left the worst for last. I just wished they kept the same gameplay from Mafia but instead this game's gameplay is pretty much a stripped down version of the first game. There are not much car varieties and all I saw was the same cars over and over again but in a different coat of paint. So I ended up driving the same car throughout the whole game. There is no challenge in the gunfights, you just shoot, hide, recover and repeat. In the first game, it was actually engaging because you could not heal and the guns actually hurt. The Empire Bay's police department is terrible. You could basically get away with anything and gun down a whole squad of police without much effort. This is no fear of encountering the law in this game. In conclusion, it is a good game, but it is also one of those games where you play it for the story and never touch it again like a DVD movie.

Mafia II is a seriously underrated game which perfectly captures the era of the early 20th century. Everything from the architectural design to the cars, clothing and music is taken into consideration with care and attention to detail better than any other open world game released to date. The downside to this is that while the open world feels very realistic, you cannot do much in it and it serves more as a backdrop to the story rather than a sandbox fun environment like a GTA game would. The story is cliche but amazing telling the story of the rise of an Immigrant going through the ranks of the mafia. I will not spoil it but you feel very attached to all the characters throughout the game and a lot of events are very impactful. Overall this is a very good game and is sadly overlooked for some reason. Do not expect to play it like a GTA game and you will have a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Good +Nice story. +Combat is fun (unless you run into someone with shotgun, either he will kill you one shot no matter the range or you will be with 5% health left) +Not aged graphics. (if you even care) Bad -SO much driving in this game. (Im not kidding, you are going to expect more driving than a racing game) Half of my gameplay hours are driving through the city. -Saves. The game saves only when you finish a mission. For example, when you are going to kill some bad guys and in the middle you die you need to start all over again. The game doesnt save during the mission for 90% of the time) -Annoying cops, they chase you even if you drive fast and than you need to go to a store and change clothes so they wont recognize you. Dont expect a great open world game. I dont even know why this is open world to be honest.. most of its elements are useless and annoying.