Mafia 2 isn't the open world game you'd initially hope for, but it doesn't have to be. In reality it's a story based game with some freedom added to it.
The game focuses on its mafia driven story-line wish trump's most games. The truly faultless voice acting makes you dive into its crime driven world even further. Unfortunately, for everything the game does right on that regard I felt more often than not truly bored with the game. While the shooting mechanics are passable, the driving drove me insane. I spent as much of time driving to the location as I did actually shooting and doing missions. It would be fine, but it takes a large portion of the game and eventually becomes awfully tedious. It's a shame because the missions are truly diverse.
The visuals in the game aren't exactly high class. The city is mostly empty, characters are passable, but textures aren't detailed and overall it really isn't an inspiring game to look at, which is shocking. Mafia 2 is a short game, no question. It'll take you from 5-7 hours to beat and there is very little incentive to come back, especially since the story pretty much ends.
Overall: Mafia 2 is a game that demonstrate how far games have come in delivering cinematic experiences. It also does a step backwards in the game-play department and overall didn't feel like much fun, and fun is the upmost important thing in video games.