Mafia II is a game that, as you play it, you feel like it's going to get better eventually and be a lot of fun. You keep thinking it will be great at some point. But sadly, that doesn't happen. The game features a city with very little to do in it, an uninteresting story that only picks up somewhat later on, and.... lots of driving.
Ah yes, driving from point A to point B. Get used to it, because it's what you will spend most of your time doing in Mafia II. Missions consist of driving, driving... and more driving. Then usually some cutscenes, then you may do something extremely boring like, selling cigarettes out of the back of a truck! Oh wow, lots of fun!
Just kidding, it's not fun at all. And the same can be said for most of the missions in this game. The last 6 chapters are at least a little more fun, but they're still let down by all the damn driving you're forced to do. There are cabs in Empire Bay, but you can never use them, oh no. You must drive everywhere.
This game is trying to be as authentic as possible (supposedly), but what is authentic about not being able to take a cab, or being able to run red lights in front of cops, and sometimes even crash into them without them chasing you? Oh, but you can't speed. That's right, you can break some laws as much as you want, while cops will be after you if you break others every time. Once cops start chasing you, it can be very frustrating to try and lose them sometimes.
In the few missions that actually involve shooting, you'll find that everything is pretty generic. The weapons feel ok, and are pretty fun to shoot, but nothing about any of it stands out. Basically, combat consists of nothing more than going into cover, waiting for the enemies to pop out of cover, then you take them out. Yeah, nothing new or fun here.
Also, one very cheap and frustrating thing about this game is the fact that, even when you're behind solid cover, completely unexposed to the enemy, you still get shot. Now, if you're behind a thin piece of wood, and you're getting shot, then yeah, that's understandable, but when you're behind a huge piece of concrete and bullets are going through that and hitting you... yeah, something's wrong. Enemies are able to do this to you, and this can make for some frustrating moments. However, the enemies can't be damaged when they're completely behind solid cover by your gunfire.
In addition to this, enemies can somehow see through walls. In one mission where you can attempt to sneak through a building, I was in a room with 3 guys. 2 unarmed men, and one guy with a gun. I was in cover, behind a huge wall, completely out of view, yet somehow, as the people were walking out of the room (nowhere near me), one of the unarmed men just starts sprinting toward my position, and I'm thinking "wtf?". This guy somehow.... SOMEHOW spots me and runs over and starts punching me. After beating the guy down, I carried on with the mission as usual. The guy didn't alert the other 2 guys. They were completely oblivious to what happened, and went on like normal, despite all the noise made during the fist fight... yeah, not exactly authentic or realistic.
And speaking of fist fights, they're pretty awkward in Mafia II. Once you get into a fist fight, you can't get out of it until either you or the other guy is dead. There's no running away, or backing up and pulling out a gun to finish the job, you are forced to keep fighting.
In one mission, you spend the entire time doing just this. That's right, one mission consists mainly of you fighting people hand-to-hand. This chapter was almost completely devoid of any fun whatsoever, but hey, at least it did not feature any driving sequences for once. However, as bad as the hand-to-hand fighting is, you'd probably wish you were driving some insane distance to an objective, as you do for the majority of the game, rather than having to go through the awkward fist fights. Once you master the counter technique you eventually learn, fighting becomes incredibly easy. You can easily dodge then counter your way to victory every time without much trouble, though sometimes, your adversary is able to instantly recover from throwing a huge hook, you can easily dodge it (all you have to do is hold X) and as you attempt a counter, they manage to nail you with 3 or 4 quick punches.
Voice acting is actually pretty good. Some of the characters, including the protagonist, do a pretty good job. Some characters are voiced poorly though, but for the most part, the voice-work is good.
Framerate holds up well, but it's not like it ever has a real chance to ever drop, as there are never any sequences where a lot of action is happening onscreen. There is very little pop in, and the graphics are pretty good.
Unfortunately, the game has its glitches, though. One chapter later in the game (the longest one in the game), took me several retries before I was able to progress all the way through and complete it. A few times, I was unable to enter a building, then the rest of the time, I could not leave a building to continue on with the mission. Finally, after many times of restarting the chapter, I was able to successfully complete it without it glitching.
If you manage to complete the game, you'll find that once the credits are through rolling... that's it. There is no freeroam, no chance to explore the city freely. Though, I don't really consider this a bad thing, because there is so little to do in Empire Bay anyway. You can rob stores for money, but this gets old in no time. You can buy weapons, but there's no point. You find more than enough guns and ammo during missions.
Basically, this is just a linear game in what you might at first think is an open world you'll later be able to explore. This game could have been a lot better had you been able to play after beating the game, so long there had been more to do in Empire Bay, but again, with so little to do, freeroam would've been pointless in this game.
And that's really it. Mafia II is a game that had so much potential, but it is let down by simply not being much fun to play. In terms of enjoyment, there is little to be had. Just when you think the game will pick up and get really good, it doesn't. If you like driving around a lot, and doing monotonous tasks, then Mafia II is for you. If you want to play an excellent, enjoyable game, then you'd do well to pass on this one.
