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Not quite an offer you can't refuse.

It's been quite some time since the original Mafia title delighted fans of the open-world crime drama genre. The game was known for its compelling story and setting as well as gameplay which was regarded as being a bit ahead of its time. So the wait for Mafia II has been a difficult one, and 2K has mostly delivered on its promises on delivering a sequel which was every bit as good as the first.

Mafia II is essentially a mash-up of many different Italian Mafia movies, characters and themes. Set in the 1940s and 1950s in the fictional city of Empire Bay (NYC with a bit of Chicago and San Francisco basically), it attempts to portray an authentic representation of the mob around that time. Well, at least the glamorized Hollywood version of it. In Mafia II you play as Vito Scaletta, the son of poor Italian immigrants who falls into mafia activity with the promise of making his family's life a bit easier. Naturally, it doesn't go as smooth as expected, and Vito's life becomes more complicated and dangerous.

It's easy to simply say that Mafia II is just a mafia-themed Grand Theft Auto game set in mid-20th Century America, but it's not really true. Mafia II is a story-driven game with no real side missions or much in the way of optional activities. You drive from point A to point B, complete an objective or objectives, and return to point A or possibly point C, and repeat. There are a small handful of very minor side-jobs available such as collecting cars for cash, but there's nothing even approaching the variety found in any GTA game. You can spend a little time modifying your vehicles, stealing things, stocking up on weapons and clothes as well, though none of that will suck up much of yout time. In the case of weapons, there are so many of them scattered around the environment during a mission that it's never really a requirement to visit the weapon shop. During the game you can also optionally collect vintage Playboy magazines (which are surprisingly tastefully done) and wanted posters scattered among the environment, and that's pretty much it. There are not many opportunities to branch out and do anything besides push the story along, so basically "open world" in the case of Mafia II is merely an illusion. And it's both a blessing and a curse, depending on which side of the fence you sit. I personally don't mind games which are more linear and story-focused, although Red Dead Redemption is a great, recent example of how it's possible to have it both ways.

The missions themselves are fairly diverse in terms of scope and none are particularly over-the-top. Almost all of them require a fair amount of driving and there's no way to skip ahead or fast travel if you fail or want to repeat one. The goals can range from simply ferrying a boss from location to location, to more elaborate multi-part "whacking" missions. Even on the hardest difficulty, Mafia II is not all that difficult until the very end. The missions that are actually frustrating are mostly due to misplaced checkpoints more than anything.

Most of the 1940/50s era cars in the game are enjoyable to drive and the physics feel about right. For those looking for a little more realism there's also an option for a more advanced driving model. As compared to Grand Theft Auto however you need to take it a little easy when navigating the city. Head-on or high speed collisions not only damage your car, but they can literally kill your character if they are severe enough. The police in Empire Bay don't mind if you run red lights at all, but if you tap a car or blow past them while going over the speed limit they will pursue you. The cars have a nifty "speed limiter" toggle, which automatically slows your car down to the proper posted speed. It's also useful when making tight turns or driving through traffic.

Visually, Mafia II is a good looking, open world-style game. The atmosphere of the era is nicely captured, from the cars to the fashions, to the classy, old-fashioned storefronts and architecture. The real-time story scenes are definitely high quality, with some eerily realistic looking faces and motion capture work. The lighting/shadows in particular are excellent. The game has a couple of your typical framerate drops and v-sync issues and they are honestly neither terrible nor game breaking if you're used to this style of game. Empire Bay isn't as insanely huge as some other cities/environments found in open world games, though it's plenty big enough. The city also isn't quite as "alive" feeling as some other games.

Mafia II is only a single-player game, with no online or multiplayer functionality at all. So once you're done with the story, there's not a whole lot to do. PlayStation 3 owners get the first piece of downloadable content, "The Betrayal of Jimmy", free, so at least that's something.

Fans of the original Mafia, as well as those looking for a new open world-style crime drama to suck up some of their time, Mafia II couldn't have come at a better time. It falls a bit short in terms of features and replay when compared to other similar-style games, but it makes up for some of that with atmosphere and story.