Mafia II (2010 Video Game) User Reviews

A game you won't forget !

[omid_soleymani_1991 · 9/10 · 13 March 2013]

Mafia II is an excellent game for those who enjoy real time video games. In addition it has a very enjoyable game play and artistic graphics. I think one of the most interesting attributes of this game is it's story.

The story is very strong and attractive. It's more like an amazing playable novel! It's unpredictable and has many rises and falls and never gets boring. Dialogs are very impressive and perfectly present the characters. Characters look very lively and events are so real that you can feel yourself inside the game. Characters mostly aren't separated into absolute good and bad, some are better and some are worse. The story tries to teach us positive lessons out of anything that happens during the game with a logical perspective. I would love it more if the story could continue a little further because there were some things unfinished. Maybe it was one other elegant point that in the real world you can never finish everything. Or probably the rest will continue in the third part of the game.

Houses, streets, cars, shops, decorations, cloths, accents, musics and many other things give you a very close experience of living in New York 1940s. There are details everywhere which are artistically added. Traffic and pedestrian also look so alive that makes the city more real.

Shooting is very exciting in this game. Sounds of bullets when fired are very real. Taking cover and effects of bullets on objects and people makes the battles very natural and exciting. I would like it better if the number of weapons in player's coat were not unlimited and his garage could contain fewer cars as it was a small place. Game is played under various conditions ; winter, summer, war, prison etc. and each episode has a fresh action to do. Cars are so real as well and artistically made that makes driving enjoyable. Clothes also are so beautiful. I love it when some parts of the clothes like tie and coat shake and move around when the player is moving.

Altogether in my opinion, Mafia II is fantastic game which is definitely worth playing. It can be informative and makes enjoyable moments for you.

the best game i've played

[DRelmahdy · 9/10 · 4 July 2014]

mafia II amazing game and a worthy sequel to one of the greatest games I've ever played . what make this game fantastic is the gritty drama and the story of passion hope friendship and even murder.

vito scaletta the Italian boy how looking for the American dream but became one member of falcone crime family take you to another side of gangster life.

2K is obviously make this game with different levels of difficulty smooth picture easy control but i don't understand what is the purpose of pornographic picture.

i played Batman Arkham City dead island Deus Ex Human Revolution Hit-man Absolution and Tomb raider(all in mac version) but really this game is the best game i've played and this what make me write this review.

Amazing! 9/10!

[Analog_Devotee · 9/10 · 3 August 2021]

Mafia II is a truly fantastic game; it takes all the source material we have on the subject at hand during this specific time period and delivers a wonderful experience in the gameplay, storytelling, character development and graphical department. I absolutely adored this game upon release and still itch to go back and replay it all the time. Awesome game!

Dream game..!!

[achraj · 10/10 · 11 May 2012]

The chronic oversaturation of the mafia in our international media has taught us much. Mafia II is an attempt to chronicle these teachings in game form. Fact number one: mafia men do lots of killing. Fact number two: they like suits. Fact number three: mafiosa don't call each other mafiosa; they use the term 'wiseguys'.

I've cross-referenced facts one and two with Mafia II, and they're definitely right – a lot of killing and a lot of suits. Fact number three isn't. 'Wiseguys', with its implied streetsmarts and cunning, doesn't fit Mafia II's mobsters. It certainly doesn't fit the mid-level gangster the game asked me to tail early in its middle act, who didn't have the presence of mind to check his rearview mirror as he drove away from a literal hatchet job. Had that guy done so, he'd have seen Sicilian-born WWII veteran and new-boy mobster Vito Scaletta about 20 feet behind, dressed in a red and white cod- Hawaiian shirt, driving a hot pink corvette with 'BUMS12' proudly displayed on the numberplate. That guy was not very wise.

Wise up

The other guy was me, and I was trying to be too wise. As Mafia II's protagonist, my first attempt to trail the escaping mobster ended in failure after my original car choice – an inconspicuous '50s saloon – was outpaced with ease on the motorways. I only chose that car, snatched unattended with a bit of pavement minigame lockpicking, to satisfy the mission briefing, which said my mark would notice anything too obvious. Dutifully I wrested against the vehicle's slightly clunky era-specific handling to try and keep pace. But after my AI target had pranged his own vehicle six times against anything and everything in his path, I realised that such forwardthinking wiseguyishness wasn't entirely necessary on my part.

That Mafia II so effectively harpoons its illusion of real life, showing its characters to be machines acting out prescribed paths, is to its detriment. But the fact that I bought into it in the first place is the game's greatest strength.

It's not that Vito is a sympathetic character. Returning from a war he held no moral stake in – after a botched robbery, it was that or prison – he joins the local mafia, even though his mum told him not to. Naughty. From there on, he relies upon menace through the typical mafioso triple-threat: punching, shooting, and scary staring. Best buddy Joe occasionally dips a toe into 'comic relief' territory, but then ducks back into 'just a bit nasty' land, gets his pistol and shoots everyone in comic relief territory. Those poor clowns.

City of dreams

It was the city that drew me in. An amalgamation of New York's streets and Hollywood's hills, Empire Bay is as interactively sterile as all other 'open-world' game-cities, but it's been coated in a veneer of dreamy credibility. Each street and hallway has a feature – a man shouting at an open window; a woman pressing her ear to a door; the sound of an argument. It's easy to see these details written down in a design document, but it gives Empire Bay a genuine rhythm, a pulse that Liberty City lacks. Plus, it helps that it is – on hefty machines – stunning. Turn up in the city in winter, and the streets are caked in snow, with layered bands of crystalline white on the untrodden paths contrasting with slush on the roads. And the lights! Even as the game transitions out of the 1940s and into the '50s, Mafia II's waxy lighting remains consistently arresting, casting pools of gold and yellow on windscreens.

But there's no point to any of it. The city breathes and grows, changing as the missions span the years, but it never moves or cries out. The game is presented in chapters, and each chapter has you wake up in your home. Vito, I can inform you, is a man who sleeps in the same vest and pants for nine years. Before the poor, smelly bugger can even get dressed, he's hit with news and a job. The game forces you to drive to a location: once there, Vito either shoots some men, punches some men or drives to another location.

Incidental chaos

Unless you make your own fun, that is. I enjoyed people-watching in a city where every pedestrian and car driver has the situational awareness of a frightened rabbit. Drive near one of the AI humans on foot and their preset reactions kick in, launching them in a seemingly random direction. Sometimes, this would be toward safety; more regularly, they'd hurl themselves into speeding traffic.

Having a woman – a few moments earlier happily strolling down a sunny street – chuck herself in front of a nearby van is certainly a surprise. Having that van then swerve to try to avoid her and plough through another three pedestrians is brilliant. Having that van then be spotted by a police car, having those police open fire before getting squished by the panicky, blood-leaking van driver, is better than another cover- shooting 'kill 50 goons' story mission.

Mafia II is a mafia movie run once through a game grinder, and that's simultaneously the worst thing about the game and the compliment it was developed for. In telling a story as convincing as most Hollywood depictions of the Cosa Nostra, 2K Czech have accomplished exactly what they intended to: only at the end does the artifice topple slightly, piling one too many game-cliché mass-battles onto the pile. But detach the story from its very familiar housings, and we're not left with much: a bit of walking, a lot of driving and too much shooting. Each is good, but rarely superb.

best game for me!

[ahuramyar · 10/10 · 18 January 2020]

I'm not just played this game,I lived with this game!!!

looking for gripping story? smooth game play? lovable characters? look no further

[joekimber1998 · 9/10 · 10 June 2016]

First of saying, I've been a fan of the Mafia series since Mafia: Lost Heaven came out back in the mid 2000's but when Mafia 2 came out it blew it right out of the water! The story follows a young Italian man named Vito Scaletta as him and his best friend Joe rise up into the ranks of the Mafia underworld in 1940's/1950's Empire Bay. Throughout the story there are a lot of twists and revelations that will leave you thinking, also glazed with gorgeous graphics for a PS3 game. The game play is solid, the handling of the cars when driving, the shooting and finally the explosions are smooth, they will complete your gaming experience (The DLC's aren't bad either check them out!) Finally, you have the historic accuracy of the real life events that also occur in game such as The Rosenbergs, Eisenhower, Auschvitz etc. The Soundtrack I couldn't ask for more great songs! A wide variation of R&B to Rock and Roll. Seriously if I haven't convinced you by reading this you need to read it again! Seriously 2K well done looking forward to Mafia 3 in October!!

Still holds up

[jacobse-07697 · 10/10 · 16 August 2019]

I had a low end pc for the past few years so I had to get some low end games. Mafia 2 certainly appealed to me. I liked open world games, and I liked the whole 40s-50s theme, so I got it. The game is fantastic. The graphics certainly look good today, and the story, voice acting, and characters are fantastic. Probably the worst thing about mafia 2 is the gunplay. It feels pretty awkward, but considering it's 2011, I'll let it fly, so If you love story rich video games, then this is your best bet. I highly recommend you get mafia 2. I got it for 7 dollars on steam, I'm sure you can get it cheaper.

An Honest Review

[generationofswine · 10/10 · 2 December 2020]

Well, this game is PAINFULLY short and in dire need of side missions and busy work, especially given that it takes place in the 40s and 50s and does a great job of making you feel like you are in the 40s and 50s. It is a world that you want to explore and live in for a while, it's a beautiful world, and the game is too fast.

It needs padding, it needs to extend itself a little, or a lot, so you can really live in that world for a bit longer than a COVID weekend.

But... it has some things that make it stand about GTA.

The first is the lock picking method, which adds to the game both in realism and fun. Especially since I have a friend who is a lock picker (which is the most useful friend to have in the world), who does it competitively. He has Youtube videos of picking locks, key and combination, to a timer. And, I guess for a video game the principal of how it's done is sound, but the execution is not. So, I guess if you are going for pure realism it's 50/50.

But if you don't like it you can just break the windows.

In any case, it's a nice addition.

As is the speedometer... and why GTA has never added it is beyond me. But the fun there is that you will get the cops on you, and you will get ticketed if you are driving too fast... which, again, GTA needs to add. And it comes with a safe drive mode that you can turn on and off to assure that you don't speed too much.

Vito, your character looks like a cross between Pacino and DeNiro in the godfather movies (more Bobby than Al) which, again, is fun.

The winter setting in the 40s is beautiful. The summer setting in the 50s is beautiful, and both really take you to the decades they portray, right down to the radio segments and the news with commentary about the Rosenbergs that is brutal, dark, and hysterical... making the car radio feel like what L.A. Noire wanted but never achieved.

The first real mission back in the US tells you exactly what you need to do to mine as much money as you want (which also allows you to hone your lock picking skills) and make enough to assure that you are set to buy whatever you need for coming missions.

Ammo is limited, which is a nice add, and it draws the need to buy hold out weapons and really stock up before you start some missions.... which is another thing it has over GTA where you seem to always have more ammo than you possibly need.

And the cars and driving handle great.

However, it is FAR too short, especially given how great they made the world and the sense you got for being back in the 40s and 50s.

And the shooting is... uninspired. It's not done badly, it's just uninspired.

And, frankly, the game is glitchy. Which means in a few missions you have to die over and over again until you figure out your way around the glitches.

But, all of that is mote when compared to the ability to be in a different era and believably so... I just wish the game was longer, that there were more side missions and busy work to allow you to explore it more completely.

Excellent game!!!

[hakobyanhakob81 · 10/10 · 7 September 2010]

All in all, this game was great and deserves 10/10. First of all, it's marvelous visually, then the plot is truly outstanding. Frankly, I can't recall seeing any crime movie with a script this good during the last years. Although it took me 13 hours to play it, I never had the feeling of dissatisfaction, because as I said, the script and the game in general is very informative and rich in everything. In this one although the police won't try to arrest you for excessive speed, but instead of that every time when you're caught hijacking and even manage to lose cops, you'll have to change the plate number and even change your clothes if they have your description. Besides, you can get your car entirely fixed, starting with tires and ending with the engine. Here we also have full of new weapons.

Talking about the plot there will be plenty of surprises, especially if you are a fan of the first Mafia. Hoping to see another Mafia game released in the near future. Hey, there's no harm in dreaming, right?

Highly enjoyable and recommended.

Tribute to Illusion Softworks. Thank you guys!!!

Enjoyed playing every minute of it but in the end it's still being a disappointment.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 8 October 2010]

Playing this game was a bit of a weird experience. I honestly enjoyed playing it but in the end the game still left a bad aftertaste.

No matter what the production companies claim; this game is certainly a GTA-clone, set in the '40's and '50's. It has the same game-play, similar sort of missions and a big fictional town you can walk and ride through, while killing people, buy clothes, or visit other shops and places. Even the map, menu options, statistics and radar seem to come straight out of the recent GTA games. But I don't mind this at all, since all of the GTA games are fantastic games to play, that provide hours of entertainment and you can play over and over again, even long after you've finished its missions.

And this game almost literally copied everything out of the GTA games, except for it's best parts. First the way you being capable to pick the missions for yourself and also deciding to play which missions when. in "Mafia II" you are simply not capable of doing that. It's story plays like a movie, so once you have finished one mission, you are starting the next one, until you finish the game. There are not even different missions to choose from. So obviously this brings me to this game it's most disappointing aspect; it's not really being a sandbox game, in which you can walk- or drive around freely, without having to complete a mission. You constantly have to complete a certain task so you have no time to fool around or to discover anything. Once you start fooling around, chances are you are going to get killed because you crash your car or get shot by the cops. And once this happens, you have to start a mission all over again. This all would had still been OK if the game had the option to be able to play the game in sandbox mode as well, so without any missions. This is not the case with this game, not even after you have completed it. So the game really doesn't has much re-playability value to it. When you've finished the game there is not much else you can do. A missed opportunity, that could had given its players days and even moths of fun playing it. And it's not like they couldn't had given giving this game that option. The town's size is there, the AI is there, all of the weapons, cars and other options to play around with where there, so what was holding them back? And the first Mafia game did had this option available by the way.

Instead now you are capable of completing this game within a day. It took me 16 hours but that was with lots of fooling around. To be honest I didn't even realized I had finished the game, till the end credits suddenly started to roll. Sure, the final mission is a bit harder than the other ones but there was nothing else indicating that this was going to be the final mission.

Guess this is also due to the way the story of the game is getting told. It follows a bit of a confusing story in terms of that it's not really wrapping up things. At times you just don't know anymore who you are working for and who is supposed to be the enemy or your friends. Characters like your sister and a potential love-interested disappear out of the game completely after a while, even though they still could had done far more and better things with them. Also the main character that you are playing is very gullible. For instance One guy tells him to kill someone you don't even know but the main character always obeys without thinking or protesting.

Still it's a game that really plays like a movie, which is mostly due to its story. It's the foremost reason why I still enjoyed playing it. You really become the character out of a gangster movie, so this means you don't always need to do any shooting or driving but also sell cigarettes from the back of a truck and even go to prison. I love this game for that approach. Also when you follow a person or car and you loose them, you expect that it means that you have failed your mission but it's actually a part of the game, so you don't always succeed at everything, which works realistic and refreshing.

It's also refreshing that for a change the voice-cast didn't consists out of big well known Hollywood names. It often works distracting within games.

The game-play is nice and the game learns you fast what you are all capable off and how all of the buttons work. So you don't need to be an hardened gamer to play it. I also loved how the action worked. You can't just barge in and blast away everyone but you always have to take cover, or you are going to get killed for sure.

The graphics are great looking. It's better looking than any of the GTA games but yet it's running way smoother and with often more details in it as well. The AI is quite good and enemies rarely do the same things, when you play certain missions all over again.

This game is notorious for having many bugs in it. I encountered one big one, which forced me to quit playing and to start a chapter all over again, since the game doesn't work with save files but with chapters, that are sort of levels and an option to continue playing the game were you left of, which is obviously not handy once you encounter a bug that makes you incapable of completing a certain mission.

In the end still a disappointment but the hours that you are playing it, you are probably gonna love it.

7/10

The best video game I've ever played!

[Sindad_VZ · 10/10 · 19 April 2015]

Mafia 2 is probably the best video game I've ever played. I was a great fan of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and it remains one of the best games ever made. But yet, in comparison, despite many people or critics, I found this one far more perfect. The game will still be great if you haven't played the first one, but if you have, you will make the best of it.

Something that amazed me in this game was the perfect story full of unexpected surprises. The Gameplay was also good along the rest of the game, but considering only the Gameplay, it may not the best video game for me. The visuals are also outstanding.

It doesn't make sense to me to see people compare this to games such as Grand Theft Auto. GTA series are fun, but mafia and GTA are separate worlds. Mafia is not a type of game that you play for hours and hours and yet every chapter is the repetition of the previous one. Looking for a game like that, you may find this too short or limited.

No vote less than ten will satisfy me about this one.

From the biggest fan of Mafia I....

[christhjian · 7/10 · 31 October 2011]

Mafia: The city of Lost Heaven is for me the greatest game ever made. It has everything, from great missions to incredible storytelling and some awesome quotes from the main character.

That being said of course my expectations to Mafia II were high and I mean extremely high.

In the minute I started to play the game, I was simply stunned by the graphics. It's almost like your controlling a real human. A great idea which I had been missing from sandbox style games was winter time. This also looked amazing.

Game play was pretty good as well. Nothing bad can be said about the action. Driving was also made pretty fun, especially great was driving with a lorry, which was made very hard to stop. Similary to last GTAs, you could climb which made the game more enjoyable.

The story gave me mixed feelings. It was a good one but not that great as I would have expected. It was slightly darker than Mafia I, had lots of betraying etc, but this brought quite a big downside for the game as well, which I am going to talk about later. Many videos made were great but in the end gave the game too much of a film feeling which didn't feel very great.

The really bad thing was that Vito only wanted to improve his life and he really didn't care for whom he was working and so did Joe. This made the couple disloyal and not much of a mafioso type. They were rather just thugs. This converted the game into a GTA style game, but it sticked to Mafia I roots where you had to complete the missions linearly as well. I felt like a GTA was stuck in Mafia style of plot if you know what I mean.

Also an ordinary routine, which was all over the game, started to get annoying. Even though it added some realism, you can't say it was very interesting.

GTA influenced clothing and gun shopping wasn't bad. The car work shops topped that which were made way better than in GTA series.

But there's more negative. Some things what made Mafia I incredibly realistic were left behind because of an unknown reason. These include running through red lights penalty, limitation of how many weapons could be carried and lost bullets when reloading a weapon.

Also I felt Mafia II somehow unfinished. Nothing really came out of an relationship between the girl who had winked Vito sometimes and was once saved by him, or what happened to Vito's sister.

Missions could have been more interesting as well like they were in the first game. In here you mostly only listened to your assignment, then drove to the place and whacked all the bad guys. Nothing really interesting wasn't; for example in Mafia I: You lucky bastard where Sergio Morello always managed t survive different attacks or when you shot a man at his birthday in public.

Of course we all miss freeride and the thing that made Mafia I a very special game - freeride extreme.

And of course the game was too short as well. Some TLCs have been released, but the main story should be still far greater than it was.

So to conclude - I believe this game could have been better, although I definitely don't regret playing it. It's still a good action game, bringing in some innovation to the genre but failed to be as exciting as Mafia I for me at least. I would recommend it to play once, but the high expectations will likely be shattered by doing that.

So all in all I give it 7 out of 10.

One of the best games I've played in quite a while

[x_chem · 29 August 2010]

Mafia 2 is just another GTA clone, that being said, I think it's a lot of fun. I'm going to split this review up in sections and work out an average score afterwards.

Gameplay- The game-play is great; the shoot-outs are very unique as you're required to take cover a lot and plan how you're going to tackle the gun fights as oppose to your typical video game shoot-out in which you just run out, kill 100 people and get shot 100 times and still live. In M2 you die after getting shot about 3/4 times making gun fights more realistic than a lot of other battles in other games. The car chases are also a lot of fun although there aren't actually that many, which may make the game better because this game never once get's repetitive. Most other sandbox games on the Xbox 360/ PS3 DO get repetitive somewhere down the line and they tend to seem to drag on such as Red dead redemption. Don't get me wrong RDR is a great game but the last 10 missions or so with the exception of the very last one were just boring and stale to be honest. Mafia 2 doesn't fail here though and that's definitely one of the best things about it. 9/10.

Graphics- Pretty good on the whole. I don't think the cut-scenes were as realistic as we expected but the city is great and it looks awesome and the cars look quite nice as well, nothing special, but quite nice. Another good thing about the graphics is the fact that there aren't that many glitches and bugs, there are a few but I didn't find them often. 8/10

Sound- Not much to say here but the sound's fantastic; Great voice acting, great SFX and an awesome 40's/ 50's soundtrack that makes you feel as if you actually live in that era. Can't fault it. 10/10

Length- This is the worst part; the game took me about 12 hours to complete and there's no side-missions or multi-player so the last mission is the end of it really and I couldn't help but feel cheated. 5/10

Average score 8/10

2K did a great job all in all and I definitely recommend this game unfortunately though it just doesn't last that long. That being said though there is some brand new DLC coming out which are entirely new games similar to GTA: The lost and damned, which hopefully will make this great experience a little longer.

Sleeps with the fishes

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 4/10 · 8 April 2016]

You are Vito(Pasqualone, does what he can with the dull material), and you refuse to become your father: breaking his back working on the dock, drinking himself to death. The man did leave his family $2000 in debt, which you have to repay. While this is your initial reason for joining the mob, the luxury it allows soon becomes all you care about. There's no remorse for any of the awful things you have to do... people like this do, and did, exist, that doesn't mean we want to spend much time in their head. There's exactly one character that isn't a tiring cardboard cutout, and that's your buddy Joe(Costanzo, likable). He's thankfully the one you spend the most time with. And yet no option to play this co-op, much less MP. Betrayal, murder, smuggling. There are twists. Still, you don't want to see what happens next in this. You're given no reason to care, it's never compelling, and once you reach the ending, which is so many different shades of lame, you wonder why you even got into this at all.

This has truly cinematic cutscenes, carefully "filmed" and cut. There are some very Scorsese mobster movie montages. Luckily a lot of them can be skipped, because some get long, and sometimes even when it ends, you're not doing anything interesting. This is not set during the prohibition and Depression. Rather, it's after, during WWII, and in the 50's. It tells you when time has passed, which is good, because nobody ages in this. This is sometimes romanticized, other times tragic, with a lot of ugly details. It is bloody, and there is lots of casual strong language. The F-words and such feel out of place, and there are ones that are far more recent. "It should sound like modern language, so we 'know what they mean'"? The rest of this isn't, not even only that aspect. The authenticity is thorough. It immerses you in the period setting. That does remain the main shortcoming of these: it'll never be GTA. No boats, helicopters, bikes, RPGs, etc. Here, the city itself has almost nothing for you to do in the many too similar areas, you can barely explore since you're never "off work", and you're even given what you might work for. Why get so close and then refuse to compete?

A lot about this is more fun and less frustrating than the first one. However, it also gets rid of almost everything that made it great. It ends up tremendously bland and unimpressive. There are more and bigger types of guns, including extremely rare addictive use of an MG 42. None of them are useless. The shotgun is not weak, albeit it almost ends up like a rifle. That's practically the only one you won't just get by picking up what those you kill drop. You thus never truly worry about ammo. They almost might as well not have bothered with stores for them. And why does it say "bring a piece", as if I had a choice in the matter? At least you're not forced to start with only a single pistol, and no way to choose otherwise. And in the age of "1 primary and a secondary", this lets you carry, and even hide, each of them at the same time! You can take apart some wood and glass, as well as tires... this comes up so rarely that you wonder why they put it in at all. Because they could? Grenades and molotovs remain. Stunlocking is gone. 3 body shots or one to the head will get the job done. This adds a cover mechanic, and befitting the rest of this, it's just average. Duck a lot since they don't tend to flank. And watch for friendlies deciding to run in front. The melee is back, though fists only, no longer bat/knife/crowbar/brass knuckles/etc. It's now detailed: you hit light or hard. There are brutal finishers and a grab: these are prompted, as you couldn't otherwise tell. You can taunt. And there's a dodge, which requires no timing: just hold it. You can counter. This badly needs a block-break. There's not a lot of fighting. But considering how limited and samey it is, there is too much of it, relatively speaking.

There are far less cars in this, as in, 30-40 compared to basically 100, meanwhile, it does away with almost all the useless ones. Handling is decent. You can store 10 in your clearly-too-small-for-that garages, always one where you live, all of which share the same ones. No, that makes no sense, and breaks the realism the rest of this works so hard to create and maintain. There are 4 vehicle angles, including front bumper or left wheel, and a 360 degree free camera, which is the one you have when on foot. Missions lack the creativity of setup of the previous one, and all run together into a grey mass of meh. You're rarely doing something fun. You may start, and end, any given one by going between the 3rd floor and the outside of not only your own, no, also your buddy's apartment, driving to and from, instead of just, you know, getting to the point already. Lockpicking is done via a tumbler. You have to set three pins, one at a time, and messing up one costs you any you'd already done. You push it up and release it, grabbing it when it glows green. Beware of gravity! It is the only mini-game/QTE, so in places that could hold those, you're instead standing, pressing Use, and, maybe, if you behave, you'll get to take a few steps in a pre-determined direction. Yippee. Please restrain me I'm so excited about this.

In addition to what I've already mentioned, there is a lot of casual sexuality and nudity in this. I recommend this only to the select few who want the original game done worse as long as it's more accessible. 4/10

Great Game but with flaws

[ahsanwazir · 9/10 · 6 April 2022]

Mafia 2 is an epic game with tons of fun. It is mainly set after world war 2. Vito Scaletta our main protagonist comes home after world war 2 and gets involved in the mafia business of New York City.

The greatest thing about this game is its story. The story is beautifully written and it has a lot of humor in it as well. The Chemistry between Vito and Joe is funny and satisfying. It has other likable characters such as Henry and Leo Galante. The story has some twists and turns which are quite decent. Some part of its story is kind of a slog and the main story is kinda short.

Gameplay-wise mafia 2 is fine. With some weapons and it has much hand-to-hand combat and the destructive environment physics is wonderful being released in 2010.

The number of songs that you can listen to is incredible as well and the voice acting is top-notch.

The downside is that there isn't much to do around and you can get bored and there is a lot of driving as well and mainly it is a kinda short game. There are Some glitches as well but overall it is a great game considering its well-written humorous dialogues and characters and nice developing story which a little bit connects to Mafia 1.

Fantastic game!

[muamba_eats_toast · 9/10 · 30 September 2020]

Lasted the rest of time gameplay a little clunky now but a fantastic story and left you wishing there was much much more! With some finely polished gameplay up to date with newer systems this could have been perfect.

Better than most GTA's

[RobTortureWright · 10/10 · 24 May 2020]

This may be an unpopular opinion but upon replaying Mafia 2 with the recently released Definitive edition a wave of laughter and great gameplay ensued and reminded me why I always remembered this game as one of the best I've ever played. It's not got a bigger map than GTA, infact it relatively small. It's not got better graphics than GTA infact they're not great. It's not got as many missions or things to do as GTA, Infact its a very linear story with only limited ability to explore. So what makes its just so good? The atmosphere that gives you a realistic look into 1950's America. The amazing characters and their unique personalities. The small things like pedestrians falling over on the ice making you laugh everytime you see some poor guy fall. The music of the era that I personally haven't heard in any other games, from the famous song "let it snow" to crazy songs like 'open the door Richard' and one where the singer is singing about "everybody eats when they come to my house" and lines like "the bolgnae Tony" which makes you laugh and sing along at the same time. The missions.... The great mix of missions keeps its fresh and the overall gunplay for me is perfect, that excellent blend of difficulty to find the target while also using a semi active lock on system works great. No review will do the game justice its truly something you need to have or will experience for yourself but for me it's easily... Very easily, in my Top 5 best games of all time.

Gofather meet goodfellas

[eslam4330 · 10/10 · 2 August 2020]

The game's plot like is basically a mixture of the Godfather, and Goodfellas, you're a war hero, come back from the war and fall into a life of crime with your friend. The open world nature of this game is not the same as GTA, which to me is a good thing, there aren't a million half-assed mini-games to play. Each section of the city feels different, China-town feels different than Little Italy. I'm not going to list any spoilers but I do feel like this plot is decent, the voice acting is pretty good for the most part, the in-car conversations are pretty humorous a lot of the time. The driving is a HUGE improvement over the first game, the cars feel like real cars would from the 40s that is spongey suspension and sluggish acceleration, this is not bad design, it's how the actual cars behaved back then. The map is actually displayed in the radar instead of the lame "map" that's in the first game.

The guns are all fun, though the pistols pretty much all seem the same power, even the magnum (and the magnum sound a little goofy, like a cartoon gun). There is an actual cover system in the game, and overall the fights are much improved over the first game. This is a great game, it's heavy on graphics card, so I recommend looking into mods on how to disable the physics of the clothing in the game.

Overall it's an excellent Game with a very good story and gameplay

Classic in the Genre

[bgameseu · 8/10 · 15 April 2021]

The story and the setting of the game is great. I loved this game the first time I played it as it was my favourite out of all three of the Mafia series. It's great progression of Vito (the main protagonist) into the crime families was really well told. The world was a nice background of the setting of what looked like New York with fantastic soundtrack of its time. The game is not an open world game so do not expect to have much more to it rather than doing mission after mission, you can still roam the world but not do much in it. The car and police gameplay is really realistic and top notched. The game had not aged well as the game play was a bit clunky the second time I played it, thankfully a remastered version came out a while ago, so the game play has been improved and holds up better to the standards nowadays. I think everyone should experience this classic of a game especially if you like the setting of the mafia in America late 20th century (well in this case middle 20th)

The offer you can't refuse

[Badr90s · 8/10 · 5 October 2021]

The best mafia game out there, the first part might had a better story but this one got a better protaginist & characters, missions and plot twists, dialog and music cars and vibes, yet not the npc's or the police.

It's not bad, it's just too limited

[uuuuuu12 · 7/10 · 5 September 2012]

People anticipated this game for a long time. Release about 8 years later got quite a lot of hopes up for many improvements and new kind of mafia experience.

The truth turned out quite different. I'm saying now - this game is by no means bad, seven is a decent score as well.

The introduction of characters were very good, the main one soon became very likable. A proper game play tutorial was also very good and you could get used to things very easily.

The story is also very good, with its twists and emotional moments, as much as hardcore action and reflection of gangster life. A possibility to rob stores and bribe the police added a nice feeling to the whole package. Bunch of people complained about the driving being too difficult and chaotic, but in fact it's actually a nice change from the arcady thing that's been going on for like, forever... The gun play felt really powerful, the cover system was good - not perfect, but in fact quite decent. The voice acting was great, though the game has strong language (if anyone is worried about that).

But there were also many issues with the game. Overall game play was too short, a pair of extra missions wouldn't have harmed anyone. All the money you earned couldn't be spent, cause you could easily rob stores and get free stuff (if you pleased). There were promotional videos about the game and cuttings to show what it would look like, but much of the stuff was cut from the final version, leaving many people (me involved) dissatisfied. Most of this stuff was side-missions - even in the first game there was something you could do aside from the main objectives, and this game just screamed for extra activities.

Also, the chapter idea lost the feeling of free roam, cause player is attached to the main story line. After your objective is completed, there just isn't anything else to do.

Overall it is a decent game 7/10, but it just lacks side-missions/activities which prevents me from giving it a higher score...

Godfather + minor changes = MAFIA II

[ak-15621 · 9/10 · 7 February 2022]

The game is really good, you are definitely going to enjoy it. With that the main thing I noticed is this game somehow resembles the movie godfather. Except with some minor changes. I really loved the game.

Not Disappointed/Not Impressed

[mwestern · 7/10 · 11 January 2012]

I have enjoyed this game but perhaps my expectations were a little too high. And while I would recommend this game I was glad that I didn't pay the brand new cost of it. As a sandbox game, it does allow for some exploration. However here is my breakdown.

Story: I felt this was lacking only in the sense that there is a significant amount of drive time spent which really slowed down the pace of the game. Since the storyline is shorter than some other sandbox style games like Fallout 3 it almost struck me as filler. The actual missions though are fun to play out and overcome this. 8/10

Sound: it is outstanding and truly second to none. The music selections are certain points of the game are fantastic and the ambient sounds is excellent. 10/10

Graphics: I found the graphics to be very good. The characters are well designed and while the faces are not of the same quality the rest of the game is very reminiscent of LA Noire. 9/10

Controls: I found the controls to be rather awkward at times and not being able to jump felt limiting. 6/10

Gameplay: one of the most frustrating aspect was the fact being 3/4 of the way through a mission, dying, and having to start at or near the beginning. Fortunately, this didn't occur too often for me but I can see where this would be very frustrating. In addition there could be some side missions to help flush out the game. 7/10

I hate to say it but; It's disappointing in every way.

[briangcb · 19 January 2011]

The original Mafia game released in 2002 is one of my all time favourite games. To this day I will still play it once and a while. Because it is a continuous story and not exactly Free Roam, it feels almost like watching a movie while playing the game. The original game, had excellent characters that you cared about, great action scenes, interesting missions, classic cars from the 30's that were a lot of fun to drive, superb physics for its time; you could riddle a car with bullets and it would be completely covered with bullet holes, smash windows, shoot out tires, break the fuel line and run out of gas in the car, shoot from the driver's seat (which was the first game you could do that to my recollection), the list goes on...the only thing that upset me was the final cut-scene of the game has your character gunned down on his front lawn by two hit men. So in the end your character dies tragically. But of course he paid the price for his actions.

Now for Mafia II...starts off during WWII, then a fair chunk of the game takes place in 1945 when you return from the war, then get sent to prison, then jump to 1951. You get out of prison and get right back into the life of crime. You start off as a low-level thug, doing petty jobs...which continues for a very large chunk of the game, until you become a made man. Then, almost immediately after you become made, you start doing things that are forbidden in the Mafia (at the time.) it is clearly stated by one of the bosses that you don't deal in drugs. Yet you do it anyways and through a course of action, create a major sh#tstorm between the Chinese and your mob faction. Then you're basically targeted for death, but you're offered a chance to save yourself by murdering your boss. Your character just shrugs and says okay. All of the characters in this game are under-developed. The missions play so fast, and NONE stand out as being unique. All verrry generic. The story is lacking, other than Vito and Joe, all the characters seem to come and go without getting much "screen time" so you don't get to care about any of them. Vito (your character) is just a douchebag. I didn't like him at all when watching the story and Joe could be funny, but he was also obnoxious, so I didn't warm to him either. As for the ending of the game? Well there isn't one. It just stops in the middle of a cut-scene, more or less like the end of The Sopranos. I assume they're releasing some add-on content to continue the story. The problem is, I wasn't interested enough to fork over any extra cash towards this game. If they continue the story with Mafia III, they better make some significant improvements...oh and I forgot to mention, there's also a mission which simply has you driving to a guy's house and activating a cut-scene...that cut-scene is the ending to the original game, which has you killing your character from the original game. So now, your current character just murdered a character I actually warmed to. But there's nothing else to the mission except escaping cops, which requires you to drive about a block before you lose them.

Wrong choice of music

[mcaskey-95312 · 5/10 · 15 September 2021]

Although the game in itself is a Great game, the choice of Music should have been selecting a little better for the era, game is set let 40s early 50s, but yet there are songs by Richie Valens in which did not even release until 1958 , being not of the era of the game is set for.