Mafia II

Surprisingly, Mafia II is rather good. Expecting an uninspired GTA esque experience, my hopes weren't high at all, yet the game grabbed my attention long enough for me to finish it in its entirety.

Mafia II fits into the open world sandbox genre of games and upon closer inspection is much closer to resembling L.A. Noire than any GTA game. This is partly because of the time period presented but more importantly it's because of some good game design. Although your character is free to wander, the makers of the game have cleverly engineered a linear story in which it makes little sense to wander from. Just like Cole Phelps in Noire, the game may suggest that you should head to an objective. If you stray from this core directive you'll soon find that your open world isn't so open after all, with little else to do but run over the odd pedestrian or crash your car. If you go about your business however, the way in which the game wants you to, then the world around your character starts to feel very real indeed. GTA actively wanted you to explore its world and it gave you endless tacked on mini games to fill the void. Mafia II avoids this deadly pitfall, focusing its energies on its story and a 'presentation' of a real world, resulting in a great deal of immersion.

The story of Mafia II is undoubtedly the strongest aspect of the game. The well portrayed and well voiced characters are excellent at maintaining the sense of immersion which is crucial to the game's success. Furthermore, the game does not hold back in regards to its violence, swearing and hard drug and sexual references of which there are a myriad. The game is, after all, a game about organised crime and the illicit activities in which your character undertakes, leaves the gamer with a sense of moral discomfort. You'll find yourself liking Vito Scalleta despite his moral bankruptcy and this is to be commended.

All in all Mafia II is a game that should be rented, offering a decent play time of about 12 hours, offering everything you might hope for in a game like this. Classic cars, classic music, solid shooting mechanics, a good story, good graphics and most importantly a strong sense of immersion.

I love it and i ever bought it its a very cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ool.

I wish they bought out a mafia 3,4,5,6,7 and 8

If you like GTA type games this is definitely one for you. I can't believe this had fairly average reviews as I found it to have one of the best story lines of any game I have ever played. Also the music is great and the voice acting is fantastic, and I thought the cover system while glitchy at times was very good.

Just rent it you will not be disappointed.

I decided to give this game a rent as it seemed to be very similar to GTA: IV and L. A. Noire and I thought it might be a decent rent for the weekend. I have to say after playing it, I am absolutely gutted that I did not purchase this game when It was released two years ago. It is absolutely brilliant! The story line is fantastic, around 12 hours in length and it keeps you glued to the game right until the very last mission. The only issue that stopped this title getting 5 stars however was the shooting system. It's only a very minor problem, but I would recommend players lowering the sensitivity to the 'Very Low' setting. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and have shelled out an extra £10 in DLC to enjoy the rest of it before I send it back. Overall, I would highly recommend this game. It's one of the best I've ever played.

3/5 for this game,

The storyline is brilliant, controls are spot on and graphics are nice.

However 2 issues which downgrades this game:

Firstly, there are glitches, by lord there are tons of glitches and bugs in this game, it really p's me off, you can get so far into 1 mission only to find that either you accidentally glitch the game, or the game just bugs on its own (A good example is searching for escape with joe on the internet, its a pain in the as mission and you don't relies till the end the game had glitched ages ago)

Secondly, I think having to run up and down the stairs, an awful lot, is just annoying, for those who havn't played I'm sure your think I'm just moaning over nothing, but believe me, you will be running up and down your or your mates flat, a lot! Also after starting the mission is so so necessary to have to walk all the way back down and outside again? I know this are minor problems but they are really annoying minor problems.

Other than that, it would be a perfect game, much better than the grand theft auto series.