Ooo, a shoutout to the Sopranos, maybe?
Okay, I was actually a bit miffed by the story aspect of Mafia II. So, in my mind, the first half of the game was paced beautifully, what with starting in a war, then jumping back home and wandering around a bit, doing some minor crimes, meeting some people in the family, then suddenly BOOM you're under arrest and in jail for six years! Let me tell you, having the closed world of a prison suddenly thrust on you when you expected an open world status quo was so jarring and disturbing I actually ENJOYED it.
Then in the latter half, the game's pretty much routine combat mission after combat mission. I figured that this was the point that the game was going to nestle into a comfortable sandbox status quo, then suddenly BOOM, your house burns down and you lose all your stuff. For some reason, it PISSED ME OFF that time! Almost like it was arbitrary and really had little to do with the actual story that all my cars, cash, clothes, and weapons had now become very flammable and I had nothing but my skivvies to my name.
Then of course, the ending, like the man sa--