Mafia II is an anright game. Not great nor shit! It lacks what other sandbox games have, lots of gameplay. Sure you fight in Sicily during WWII, avoid getting raped in prison and pretty much become part of the family and wack people. But the game just ends very fast and abruptly. Theres side missions, not many or them,there also not very interesting and you never get to play the god damm things! Killing people is fun in this game, but theres only one way to do it! What about the occasional sniping and carbombs? And the AI, surprise surprise is awful! Bad guys just seem to run into your line of fire, mistaking it for candy or something? Now I know why the Mafia died out, they mistaked bullets for sugar coated heaven.
Some of you may think I'm being too harsh on the game, well I'm not. As a kid most of you wanted to be a cowboy or a astronaut. I wanted to be a mafia hitman. When I brought this game I thought there no way 2K can screw up a mafia game for me... but they did! For christs sake they made Bioshock! Well differrent makers, maybe those czech are too wasted on cheap vodka to make a decent game and not wasted enough to make a great game. And then, I remembered they made Bioshock 2... That had more leaks and holes in the story line itself, than Rapture.
Today, it seems like all games have to be sandboxed based. Mafia II is like Wolfenstein (2009), they put too much effort into making you roam around... BUT YOU HAVE NOT REASON TO ROAM AROUND, DUE TO THE FACT THERE IS NOTHING TO FIND. Also there both 'safe' games. They don't try anything new, it just looks around and coping whats going on, as if its a student during an exam and forgot to study... like me. Mafia II is like GTA4 crashed its badly controlled car into the Godfather! (Not the original, more like the 2nd one) And the end result is just average. Your sidekick is equally stupid and drunk as that guy in GTA4, that you have to pretty much be this taxi and take him to eat.
Now I can on for days tear apart Mafia II, like the story line is alright, though is bloody predictable, of course that mouthy gun tooting teenager gets killed and whenever that happens someone gets pissy and mows down a bunch of chinks.
I'll stop now.
There really isn't that much to the game. Killing people is basic, though entertaining. Soundtrack is fantastic. Driving is fun and losing cops is 'evener' better. Your environment constantly changes. And most of all, They don't rip off The Godfather. I don't advise buying Mafia II, hell no! I made that mistake. Hire it out instead and spend the money on food and electrity, unless you (still) live with your parents.