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I was pleasantly surprised by this game. Although it is an open world game, its very linear. Sure, you can steal cars and drive around for a while and pick fights with people, but that gets very old very fast.Good:1. Graphics are amazing. I realize this game came out a couple years ago but the graphics are every bit as good as GTA 4 if not a little better. One of the neat things is at the start of the game in Empire City its winter and you get the icey streets and snow and it looks really neat, then you go to spring later on and its a commpletely different feel. I loved the detail.2. Compelling story. It is very compelling, well written and very interesting. Going through the story and discovering how it plays out and what happens is worthwhile and they were quite adept at creating characters we care about and are interested in. Voice acting is very good as well.3. Cutscenes: There were too many cutscenes in my opinion, at times it was like watching a movie rather than playing a game and I found that to be annoying. That having been said, the cutscenes were compelling, interesting and did a lot to move the story forward.4. Scenario (Small Spoiler Alert): I did like how things got changed up as part of telling the story. You start out in WWII Italy as a soldier, go to Empire City at the tail end of the war, end up in jail where you have to play out a number of scenes, then you end up in 50's Empire City, etc with somewhat different cars etc. The point is that you're playing a character's life from a given point and as the circumstances of that life changes, you get to play a little of it rather than simply being told Vito fought in the war or Vito went to jail. You experience that and frankly this is one of the more brilliant aspects of the game and is something GTA actually could learn from.Another neat thing was how the music changes with the times. I kinda liked that so instead of always hearing the same songs and stuff, in the 40's you get 40's music and war updates and 50's its more 50's oriented, etc. Really helped create the mood. Mood is very well done. One of the reasons I suspect the 40's were dark, snowy, cold, bitter to create that feeling of war, poverty, hopelessness, etc. 50's get much sunnier and cleaner as there's more of a feeling of prosperity and hope, etc. My point is that there are aspects of this game that are very well thought out that do immerse you in the feeling of this person's life. That having been said, its such a beautiful world that is wasted by limiting your interaction with it to just the linear story.Bad:1. This is not GTA 4. Meaning there is 1 story and you go through it in a linear fashion and thats it. There's no side missions, no side quests, no little things you can do here or there. It's a track that goes A to Z. I say this is unfortunate because the world of Empire City is so nicely detailed and has so much potential, that to have additional ways to earn and spend money and really immerse yourself into the city would have been nice.2. Faces: I know I said graphics are amazing and they are. The faces are amazing too especially since this was a couple years ago. That having been said, all the girls look the same to me. Its as if they created 1 or 2 faces for females and then just copied it out.3. Interactivity: There's not a whole lot of interaction in this world with various objects. Sure you can run over signs and light poles and into cars and the cars do start to show damage fairly quickly and eventually stop working which is a nice feature like GTA 4, but other than stores, repair shops, etc, there's just not a lot of places to go and your options for interacting with strangers on the street amounts to picking fights with them. I said this before but this is such a beautiful and interesting world, it would have been nice to be able to interact with it more on my own terms.4. You might mess around and drive for a bit which could chew up a couple hours before you realize its time to get going on the story. As I said, its very linear so playing through the story gets you around 15-20 hours. In my case a little more because of exploration and replaying chapters as needed to complete them. If there had been side things to do, I'm certain this game could have gotten up to 50-100 hours in gameplay. For a $30-$60 game, 20 hours is on the short side. Since I paid $7.50 for my download from Amazon, I feel like I got a great deal and the game was well worth it.5. The ending. This thing just came out of no where and was frankly pretty unsatisfying. I finished the mission and before I knew it, credits were rolling. I was like wait, what just happened? It seemed like there were probably a few more missions left in the main story line to bring about some form of closure. I mean what happens to this guy? I have no idea.You can totally see that this game was built to be something more. As others have pointed out, there are a number of NPCs who seem to have been setup to give side missions, and there are references to "more jobs" from them, but no jobs are ever forthcoming. I can only conclude that for whatever reason, and there are a lot of possibilities, all of these additional features that may have been planned on were never put in and the game was shipped as a more linear story. If they decide to do a Mafia 3, I hope they learn from this and let the developers have time to create a game with all the parts actually working in it rather than stripping out anything that's not related to the primary story.

Mafia I was one of my favorite games of all time, it combined two of the most fun genres- driving and 3rd person shooter with an engrossing mob story. Mafia II follows the same successful formula and creates a masterpiece of a game updated for current PCs.You play Vito, who was sent home from WWII for medical reason to recover. But your family is going through hard times. Your best friend Joe is doing pretty well working for the mafia. At first you try, not too hard, to get some honest work but eventually will end up working with Joe doing various tasks for the bosses. In the process you end up doing a stint in jail for a couple of years. That allows you you live through a couple of decades in the game and the changes that entails, the cars, the music, the clothing, etc.The graphics are simply gorgeous, the attention to detail remarkable. And the AI is excellent offering some hilarious moments as when you drive on a highway in the middle lane and two cars on the sides cut you off and crash into each other. Aside from completing the missions you have to collect wanted posters and Playboy magazines, which will in turn let you look at Playboy pics from the era. This is an R-rated game so to speak, in terms of language and nudity and it presents an accurate picture of culture at the time- no a fantasy politically correct world. Voice acting is superb.The story is downright cinematic and overall this game is pretty immense and completely immersive. It's a world you don't want to leave. There is so much to do, so much to see, that it's not possible to do it on a first try. And this game is fun enough to play a second time to sightsee places missed. Of course one can play it in a straightforward way but one would miss a lot.I found the shootouts quite difficult; on the other hand the cops are nowhere near as viscous and tough as they were on Mafia I. Here they don't pay a lot of attention to you unless you truly do something unlawful, and it's a bit too easy to escape from them. More could have been done with Vito's need for food and drink. You can do days without. After the action in WWII, things take a while to pick up. Those are my only criticism in a game that is otherwise perfect, in every aspect, and so much fun to play. Fortunately there are two DLCs that I can't wait to play. I'm also looking foward to Mafia III, hopefully it won't take as long.

I've read the negative reviews on this game and all I can say here is - DO NO0T BUY THIS GAME IF YOU HAVE AN OLD PC, otherwise this game is absolutely fantastic.Pros:1. Fantastic work on the environment, guns, cars especially... great job on damages (even scratches can be seen), explosions in case a gas tank gets hit... so cool.2. NO STUPID TIMED CHALLENGES, thank God, except a few racing challenges (like to warn Leo, or get Henry to the doctor) and they're not so tough.3. NO IDIOTIC "MUST BE STEALTH MISSIONS"... there're a few, but stelth is either optional or easy rail type that any 7 year old can pass, which is GREAT and adds more sense of realism.4. Game Modes "Easy" "Medium" and "Hard" are so fairly designed - if you have a slower PC chose "easy" and you will avoid a lot of frustration.5. Sound Track, Music, and slang of those days...ConsPoor story line. Not too many side/optional challenges. I wish Vito could have a few more ways to make money, not just Mike's junk yard (pulling jobs, sell cool, fully tuned stolen cars); also things like buying some exclusive cars, that can only be purchased, houses, brothels... or... promote a nice cute beginning film actress... whatever... the other words add a bit more business strategy to the game, that would fit standards of those days...The Vito's wadrobe is poor. And those suits... the suits are always with hats on........ looks so ugly, especially in summer days.Other thoughts - There is a lot of driving in this game, but no crazy stunt driving where cars would jump over the shops, or crushed through the second floor restaurant and out on the other side... blah blah blah...