Exceeded my expectations by far and is now one of my all time favourite open world games
The Good: stuffed full of period detail that's a joy to explore, fantastically realistic yet fun to drive cars, great shooting and cover mechanics, absorbing story, cool law system
The Bad: lack of minigames or side missions in the main game, not enough to buy for your character, difficulty spikes, bugs and framerate problems
Mafia 2 is a truly brilliant open world game set in the gangsta world of 1940's and 1950's america. It consists of a linear and well narrated if a bit patchy story mode where you are free to roam as you please in between objectives. initially this is the first problem with the games, the free roam map is fantastically detailed and really makes you want to be a part of it , you have the ability to choose from a selection of beverages at the local pub, crush or sell cars for money, buy guns and clothing , steal from shops and do a whole host of things with your cars including washing them , filling up with petrol (awesome feature) repairing them , customizing them and tuning them. The main critisizm of mafia 2 is you cannot properly enjoy these features as free roam is not properly integrated so when free roaming you are always being told to go to the next objective, you cannot save freely and there are no side missions or minigames to keep yourself entertained.
However you can avert all of this as i did by buying the directors cut edition of Mafia 2 which comes with all the DLC's ever made for mafia 2 , the first 2 of these DLC's include new stories without cutscenes but with proper free roam , missions spaced out on the map, save markers, the option to replay missions, a scoring system etc.
Mafia 2 is very rich and contains some great plot twists and moments i wont ruin, these missions are all accompanied with a good mix of shooting and driving , both of which are well made mechanics ; the cars are the real star of the game however. In your garage you are treated to detailed statistics on your cars weight, power, tuning level , mileage, condition etc. when driving around you have sharp controls, great sense of speed, detailed visual damage models , a speed limiter so you cant exceed the current speed limit when you press X and even a fuel gauge indicating when you must fill up in order to prevent speed reduction and eventual failure of your car. It can also be customized with paint jobs, rims , personalized number plates and tuning ; all this means you tend to get a real connection with your favorite ride.
But because you cannot buy cars in mafia 2 , that brings me neatly onto crime. The police have several levels of activeness which indicate what they will do to you when they catch you , this can be ticket, arrest, shoot at (small firearms) or shoot at with sub-machine-guns. When being ticketed you can refuse to pay or commit further crimes which leads the cops to try and arrest you ,at this point you can bribe them an amount normally more than 10 times the amount the ticket was initially for or you can attack them which leads to armed conflict. Once you escape from a police encounter either you, your car or both will be marked as wanted, to lose your police attack or arrest warrant you must either changes your clothes or to clear your car, change its paint job or number plate. All these things occur cost but in both mafia 2 story and all the DLC stories money is plentiful from mission rewards and you will rarely run low regardless of how you spend.
When robbing stores you can steal money from the cash register and/or the merchandise be it Guns and ammo, food or clothes. after robbing a store the police will arrive and you can see them questioning witnesses , if a witness being questioned sees you in the same clothes you did the robbery in, they will point you out to the cops and you will become wanted.
And thats about it, basically if you want mafia 2 for its rich 10 - 15 hour long story then get the normal version, but if you want it for the plot and the sandbox environment then i strongly advise forking out a few more quid for the directors cut edition (which is the platinum version by the way) either way mafia 2 is an outstanding game and has give me just as many hours of fun as GTA 4 and Saints row 2 did, a must have for open world fans everywhere!
feel free to email me any questions about any aspect of the game , no matter how small : adam@kmidderigh.plus.com
thanks for reading
Graphics: 8.5/10
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Replayability/length 8/10
overall: 8.5/10