The story in Mafia II plays a key role in the game. It is extremely well put together, worthy of any God Father or Goodfella out there. All of the characters are incredibly life like, overflowing with personality, wit and the odd stereotypical gangster quote. I found myself really connecting to the characters and when finding out some of their fates, even got a little disheartened. The only let down in terms of the excellent narrative was the ending, which without trying to spoil, was very sudden and left me a bit unfulfilled.

The city of Empire Bay is huge, with hundreds of cars and people going about their daily business, working, driving. However, people looking for a living, breathing sandbox world will be slightly disappointed, as although the city’s huge open exploration appearance, you’ll end up finding that there’s really nothing to do other than the main missions. Not that this is a bad thing however, as the amazing story makes up for this, it’s just that people should not go in expecting a free roaming game with side quests and other things to achieve.

The combat system in Mafia II is broken into fairly basic fist fighting and fairly standard cover based third person shooting. The fist fighting is nothing complex, involving blocking, heavy and light blows, but is always great to land that final punch and knock out the other guy. The gunplay involves moving from one cover to the next and the cover system never gets sticky which is nice. Though repetitive, the game play never seems to get old though, as the brake in formula for missions that see you disguise in window washers outfits to blow up a mob boss, or blowing up cars full of bad guys with the standard gangster issue Tommy-Gun never seises to make you grin.

Mafia II is not without its faults. You seem to spend a lot of time in a car, drudging from point A to point B to get to your next mission and the monotonous drive all the way home to sleep after each day does get annoying.
The police are also a hit and miss. I found the mechanic of them reporting what you look like and your license plate number of your car was a nice touch (forcing you to change outfits or vehicle) but at the same time, their AI was poor, letting me escape killing sprees quite easily and them picking up on me driving through red lights, speeding and hitting other cars seemed to only work when it wanted.

I really loved this game, with the faults being easily outweighed by the memorable moments such as driving your drunken friends home only to realise there is a body in the trunk, or rushing to take one of your dying comrades to the mob doctor. If you take Mafia II for what it is, a heavily story based linear shooter, then you can easily lose yourself in the beautifully crafted world, toe-tapping soundtrack and intriguing characters. A must for all people who love a good gangster flick, Mafia II will make you an offer you can’t refuse and is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Graphics: 8
Game Play: 7.5
Sound: 8
Replay Value: 7
Total: 8/10