Mafia II is a wonderfully rendered and written game with top notch voice acting. For all the stellar effort that the programmers, developers and distributors put into the game, it still falls horribly short of the bar set by almost all other GTA Clones on the market and released in the last ten years.
The game takes some obvious cues and steps straight out of GTA IV as well as gameplay cues from several other games, what it lacks compared to others, is any sense or semblance of freedom. Mafia II at first seems like an open world game, but quickly exposes itself to be a completely linear experience. You cannot tailor the gameplay or story to your own preference. What makes it even worse is that any work you do towards advancing your character's home, bank and weapons are taken away multiple times in the course of the game. It does little to promote the idea of freedom.
Empire Bay, the city in which the game is set, is an absolutely stunning and beautifully rendered city. The problem with this is that the city feels as though it exists solely for the protagonist and that nothing happens without the player's consent. The stores are all identical, the police are inconsistent about chasing after you and the citizens of the town double up worse than GTA III. In the same block, you're liable to see the same woman or man four or five times.
The game also seems extremely rickety when it comes to testing. I encountered several glitches in the game that didn't break the game, but rather amused. I witnessed more than a couple of cars spawn upside down, at least one AI character repeatedly climbing stairs and jumping off the ledge over and over again and a magazine capacity of 1022 for the .38 Revolver. None of them made the game unplayable, but it did detract from the over all production values of the game.
The selection of cars and weapons is pretty pitiful compared to several other games, but still satisfactory. Often, a street would be littered with 30 of the same car. The weapons are neat, but why do I need a Thompson 1928, M1A1, M3A1, an MP40 and a Riesling for? They all do the same thing, why not just let us carry more ammo? The variation of the pistols made sense, but the variation of rifles and SMGs was rather perplexing. I did enjoy the variation, being a gun nut, but I saw no purpose. The cars all drove rather well, and given that the game starts in the winter of 1945 with 80hp RWD cars with no traction control the "speed limiter" came in quite handy. I was able to keep the cars under control in conditions that were less than ideal.
That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the game, I absolutely loved it when I could ignore all the issues with the game. But I didn't enjoy the consistency of the missions. A "chapter" of the game consists of Vito waking up, answering a phone, doing a mission, driving home. It was annoying that in order to complete the mission you had to make an insanely long drive in slow driving cars back to your apartment to go to sleep. The story is a classic "gangster" story from any GTA Clone ever made, it even has a facsimile of Roman from GTA IV. The character of Joe Barbaro is almost identical to Roman in every way, lacking only the accent.
I would recommend this game once the price goes down, but a $60 ten hour experience that you expect to be open world seems a bit much, especially considering the lack of a soundtrack, each of the three radio stations plays the same few songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again, it gets annoying. The collectibles are pretty neat, playboy centerfold pictures and wanted posters, but that's it. Not to mention the game takes place in 1945 and 1951, but features music from the late 50's and playboy, which wouldn't exist for several years. If you pick this up, look out for the nod to the first Mafia game. For the PC version, modders have already added a "Free Roam" feature similar to the first Mafia game, so if you're interested in that aspect, the PC version will be your console of choice for the game.
Definitely worth $20-40 bucks, but not the full $60. Although, a car full of drunk Italians singing along to Dean Martin is well worth it
Sound:6/10
Graphics:9/10
Story:8/10
Overall:6/10
Pros:Looks beautiful, interesting story, awkward semblance of morality in the game.
Cons:Restrictive world, no free roam, guns sound crappy, only 5 or 6 different cars per era.
Play if you like: Story missions in GTA and like games, being teased by the idea of free-roam, good old fashioned racism.
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