Mafia 2 is a game that doesn't forget it's past, but some things just don't do it too much justice this time around.
So anyway that's my two cents about Mafia, now onto Mafia 2. 2k keeps to the history of the first mafia game as much as possible. This is really noticable when one of the missions is to kill the previous main character from the original mafia. (Yet this mission leaves a taste in your mouth that this coincidence would only happen in a video game! Which is like 99% true.) It also has certain music from the first game if you listen to the classic radio station. However, one thing I hate is that the serious tone is gone, this reminds me of playing GTA and everything comes off as a joke. Let's see I'm driving down the road running people over, oh and there is a sign that says "Life's a b@#$ Of course with the beach part crossed out and the word b@#$ spray painted on. While I enjoy this in GTA, I feel like Mafia should just be more about what happens when people like Vito join the mafia. Not that the humor isn't appreciated, it's just it makes it too cartoony at times.
While bugs are few and far between, when they do happen they really happen. characters get stuck or lost. The game freezes. It's just overall nasty at times the bugs you can find in this game.
Also I'm getting a bit tired of the cliche of "We're the mafia and were the good family that doesn't dabble in drugs, but the bad mafia, the one that deals with drugs needs to be stopped." Then the conflicts with the police pretty much disappear all together. Isn't this just a tad bit unrealistic? Plus it seems that when this cliche is used, everyone but the family you are in is the one not selling or using drugs.
The graphics seem a bit outdated, maybe that's just me.
Also the free roam world is almost pointless, why go to the diner and eat when you can eat at home and regain health. Why buy all these suits when most of them are not something a mobster would wear, and the hats make Vito look extremely dorky unless it's raining out and you have a trench coat to go along with the hat. The optional ways to make money are hidden by the constant upbeat storyline that never takes a rest, if you wake up and have nothing to do and want to free play for awhile it gets knocked out by a nagging call from one of Vito's friends that he should get his sorry behind to this place and that place. Plus the optional money missions are boring and time consuming enough you probably wouldn't enjoy doing them for long in the first place.
While I liked Mafia 2 very much, I felt disapointed that the influence of the first game was almost non-existent. The game is short. All the morbid scenes that are suppose to shake you and make you say, "Man this must have been hard for people," are followed by cartoony gags which make you forget the morbid scene almost instantly. The end is shaking just as the first mafia's ending was, but it certainly was not quite as good and it left many questions unanswered such as what happened to Vito afterwards.
I don't want to stop anyone from playing this but it's certainly not as good as the first. It's also very short, probably finishable in a whole weekend if you have nothing better to do that would interrupt your play time.
Bring on the hate mail if you wish, I'm only being honest with my opinion. Though if you liked the first you will like the second and despite my endless amount of flaws listed here they will not ruin your gameplay that much.