Mafia II for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

This is definitely one of 2010’s unsung gaming greats and one of the reasons I’m glad that I don’t have time to play every new release the day it drops. I bought this game used for the cost of a movie ticket and now I’m being rewarded with a top-notch interactive mob movie. The sets are beautiful and the attention to detail is great. I stared in awe as I watched a pigeon land on a traffic light and it’s these subtle nuances that really shine in this game. I can only hope that this game was a big enough commercial success to reward the developers at 2K Czech.

First off, whoever is a fan of hollywood mobster flicks must try this game. This game is beautifully crafted to make you feel like a cool dirty mobster. From the car chases, to awesome gunplay, and over the top voice acting says it all. Here are somethings I like. The attention to detail, other than a few texture pop ups the beautiful environments brings the city to life, destructible objects that can make u or the enemy exposed for the kill, licensed music from the 40s and 50s is always a plus in my book. And the driving mechanics are top notch for me, personally I like the driving better than GTA. And the Flaws. 1- Cops are everywhere I mean everywhere. Basically stalking u to give u a speeding ticket, to a hit and run fine and to annoy u. I know they wanted to go realistic but is the hit and run really needed. Hand to hand combat is a nice feature but can use an overhaul. The lip sync is bad, like watching a japanese movie with english voice work, drives me crazy its 2010 get it right. Other than that the game is still great with about a 10 to 13 hour story mode. Sadly its not and open world game like GTA but it gets the job done. Mafia 2 is a sure buy and a no question rental. Move aside godfather here's Mafia 2

I think that this game was put together extremely well. The graphics are sharp, voice acting is stellar, and the story was very engaging. I especially liked the fact that the music and cars were authentic to the time period. There were moments when it really seemed like it was a scene plucked straight out of Goodfellas. However, I was disappointed with how short the game was. This game really has little or no replay value, so I didn't expect the story to end so quickly. I get that the end was a setup for a sequel, but it just seemed like the story writers ran out of ideas and decided to stop. The end felt like the end of a chapter...not the whole game. I was also somewhat disappointed in the lack of sidequests. Empire City is so real, so alive...and we didn't explore it all that much. And I would have liked to have been able to continue after the story ended, and just do whatever I wanted.

All in all, I think the good outweighed the bad, and really enjoyed the game overall. Be sure to find those Playboys, and enjoy some vintage boobies!!

I took the time this weekend to play Mafia 2. It was an incredible experience! As a long time fan of the Grand Theft Auto series, I was right at home with the game. I wouldn't say it was a clone of GTA, but it had a lot of good elements that worked with both. I liked the cover/combat system, and it was satisfying to take down a mob of people with the tommy gun. The customization from the clothing to the vehicles were top-notch. In my opinion, I thought the cars handled better in Mafia 2 than they did in Grand Theft Auto 4. The story was also easy to follow, and a great cliffhanger ending that made me want more mafia. In conclusion, it was an incredible experience that should be enjoyed by the people that are into third-person sandbox titles. I would definitely recommend this game!

when i got mafia 2 in the mail i was excited for a open world fps game about mafias. thats not what this game is. this game is not an open world fps its actually linear. this is nothing wrong with that and its still a very good game. the only problem with the game that i can see is that you have to do every single mundane task. these tasks include going to bed getting dressed in the morning, lifting crates for minimum wage, and other things that most games do for you. this does create a feeling of you actually being in control of a real person, but it also about 14 chapters in is annoying. the graphics are amazing, the story is good, the cars are perfect, the game sound is great. this is a solid game with only a handful of flaws. the final problem is that to me there is little replay value. defiantly a rent and possibly a buy if you wanna get the dlc whic i heard is great

Let me just start off by saying, Mafia 2 has some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a video game. The characters are beliveable and some of the dialogue is hilarious (I'm looking at you Joe)
Now lets get down to buisness.........
The story gets a 10 from me just because it's as good as The Godfather and Goodfellas, maybe even better. It's a little short though. And it all seems a little linear to me. Not that that's a bad thing. The story made me want to keep going but they really should have thrown in a lot more side-missions.
The sound gets a 10 from me because of the superb voice acting and I really enjoyed the over 120 licensed songs from the 40's and early 50's. And let's not forget the voice acting...... awesome.
The game play gets a 8 from me. It's pretty cool, nothing you've never seen before. You take cover, fire, move up, take cover, fire, etc etc. The fist fights take some of the repetitiveness away but the controls are kind of stiff. I really wish they had thrown in more of the chase scenes. There are only a couple throughout the entire game.
In my personal opinion, they really should have made a multiplayer mode. I think it would have been recived well. There could be a standard team-deathmatch or some Cops and Robbers thing. I don't know, it would have been cool.
All in all Mafia 2 is a very good title and everyone who enjoys The Sopranos, The Godfather, Goodfellas, or any other Mafia affilated game/movie/TV show type thing should really play this game.
GET IT WISE GUY?

Mafia II was suprisingly good. I was expecting something a lot worse after trying out The Godfather and even the first Mafia. This game was, in many ways, a great success. There is an obvious GTA feel to the entire game. From the map on the lower right hand corner of the game, waypoints and safehouses to save the game all the way to the changeable radio in all the cars, the carjacking and the missions to progress the story, its hard to belive Rockstar didn't sue. The differences are few but painfully evident. First of all, although the world is a free zone where you can roam anywhere, shop or rob and steal all kinds of cars, there is no deviation from the storyline. No side missions and no side jobs to pick up. The story is linear and designed to push you in one direction the whole time. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I was able to finish the game in a very short time and felt pretty good about it. It was nice to know I could actually reach the end of the story in a decent time frame, I mean honestly, I finished GTA4 a few months ago after about a year of play. And I STILL have loose ends to tie up. It was nice to finish this game quickly. The story line is a good one, I liked meeting Vito and the characters in his life. Although I did miss being able to make my own moral choices and although some plot points were pretty predictable, it was still fun. The art direction is gorgeous. The city and the people in them are more detailed than in GTA4. Hands have fingers, feet have toes, it seemed like every part of the city was original and new. I liked that. There had been some buzz about too much driving around but I didnt mind so much, theres just as much driving with Niko Bellic too. So I forgave that. All in all, the game was a good diversion from harder titles and a fun way to kick up your gamerscore quickly. Just one word of caution, dont bother with the DLC for this title. Boring as heck. Just saying.

This game is one of the best games i have ever experienced, the level of detail is amazing and the story is the of the most sophisticated and detailed i have ever played, and do not compare this to GTA 4 Mafia 2 is its own game and if you like shoot outs, car chases this is the game you will be playing for a long, long time.

Let me start off by saying I love mafia movies, with that said this game was no let down storywise. It had all this twist and turns; rises and falls of any good mob movie. It was not story this game was lacking in it was gameplay mechanics. For starters the game felt very linear, at no point did I not feel like I was in the middle of something. Then there was multiple start overs. How often do I need to buy the same guns and were there not banks in the 50s? Last but not least why wasn't there a way to save over then the auto-saves? Nothing like losing an hours worth of money making to someone pulling a gun from no where. I was able to look past most of this up until making money became extra important. It was a very pretty game and the driving was fun and road weather added an interesting spin to driving. I say rent it, don't buy it and play it till it makes you mad then send it back.

This game was great. Although it was a bit short it is still good because of the story it has. I wish you could have a free play world like in the first Mafia, but it is till great.Because of the length i wouldnt reccomend buying this game but i would reccomend renting it.

The graphics are good, but they still arent as good as some games.
All in all i still loved the game though.

This game nostalgically brings me back to my old Brooklyn days, with a lot of driving around and listening to the doowop music popular in the '50s and '60s. If you don't mind doing a lot of driving and listing to the golden oldies of that particular era, you might enjoy this game. It does have a fairly realistic and sometimes compelling story line, punctuated with some decent action, but as I said, it is mostly a lot of driving and listening to oldies. If you are looking for constant action, you may find this a bit boring. But if you don't mind a more realistic depiction of what much of it was really like, you might appreciate this game.

While not cutting edge, the graphics and controls are okay. Nothing spectacular. I'm not sure if there is much replay value in it though. But worth renting, if for nothing other than the music itself - if you are into it.

Mafia II had alot going for it, story and historical accuracy mainly, but it seems like the developers just gave up after that. I was extremely excited about this game after playing the first Mafia game years ago. Immediately after I started playing, I was greatly annoyed and found myself punching the wall. The driving is absolutely horrendous to put it mildly. Basically, in order to get somewhere without wreaking the developers needed to put a breaking and accelerating line on the pavement like the Forza series does because the breaking is maddening. It takes twice as long as you would expect to brake the distance you need to. Also, it seems like 2k czech decided to make you drive everywhere and do a bunch of boring activities of daily living to boost gameplay hours spent. They could have easily incorperated a taxi system into the game much like Red dead redemption or GTA IV did. The ending was extremely unfulfilling but a good story throughout makes up for that even though it was predictable and somewhat ordinary for a mobster game. The shooting mechanics are terrible as well. Shots are wild and off target from where you put the crosshairs and I would get randomly sniped but shotgun-toating gansters from 50 yards away resulting in an instant or near death (and, ofcourse it does not work for you when you try to snipe with a shotgun). Game has an auto aim option that did not work well for me because it was unrealiable. It was very difficult just to aim because of all these factors. The auto save function is garbage also because I found myself sliding into walls in cars instantly killing myself and having to go back to the beginning of the chapter because the idiots at 2k could not do an autosave function or perfect the driving system.

Basically, the game was mildly entertaining and is worth a rental if you tolerate annoyance well. With all the time it took for this game to come out, it needed to be much better than this disapointment of a game.

This is coming from someone who has played godfather one and two plus the original mafia so take it for what it's worth.

Mafia II, had some big shoes to fill considering that it's predecessor made godfather I look like garbage.

But the game ultimately failed, the story is ok at best, I did however feel a bond with the "best friend character" but even that was not enough compared to the choppy, multi montaged, poorly written story. It jumped constantly giving and taking before you even got used to it. You never felt like you earned anything, even after "earning" what seems like all the money in the world there is nothing to spend it on... Sometimes a excellent ending can save a game with flaws like this but I'm sorry to say, mafia II's ending left a lot to be desired. Also not one side quest, there is only the relatively short main story.

The customization options were laughable, very few clothing options with no mix and match (you can't even take off the hat) no houses to buy, no cars to buy, car customization decent but nothing impressive. No gun upgrades.

The driving was substantially tuned from the first game, making it fun rather than aggravating, the idea that speeding could get you a ticket was interesting but they should have expanded on it.

More than that, no upgrades whatsoever. No skills, stats, or experience.

The one thing they had going for them was the very small amount of character development (outside of best friend) it was good, you hated or liked certain people.

I thought this game was. Laughable attempt to recreate something great. Sure the first game didn't have stats or buyable objects, but you have to get with the times, also the way they designed the game made it seem like it would be natural for things that to be there.

Just rent Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which is backwards compatible) you'll have a lot more fun for a lot longer

My rating 6/10 playable

This game is quite possibly the greatest third person game I have ever played. It has a good story, amazing graphics, and great game play. The only real fault i have with the game is that the aiming reticles seem a little bit to prominent on the screen, and the WWII training mission was terrible. For the first time in a game i was incredibly emotionally attached to the characters. The cars looked simply amazing and the game world changed appropriately as the decades would pass. And finally, the game spawned the greatest in joke, in my opinion, in the world.

Decent game. Felt like 85% of the game was cutscenes and driving from point A to B. Story was good but kinda all over the place. You don't actual get the feeling that your character is in the mob. He just feels like a common street thug.

There are no side quests to speak of unless you count the ability to bring cars to a junkyard to get cash. Also, don't spend money on guns or clothes unless you have to. It seemed like every other chapter you lost them all anyways.

The cars are varied enough to keep you interested, but you'll probably pick one to get the 50 mile acheivement. Driving was jerky for me, but I didn't bother to see if there was an option to turn down the sensitivity.

Overall, a mid-range game. About halfway through I got aggravated with all the driving and the rest of the game just felt tedious. There are much better games to rent.

This game was cool for an hour or so. Game was way too short and woulda been even shorter if it wasn't for about half the game driving to destinations. I waited a long time for this game a was really disappointed. This kinda game is why i will never purchase a game again! Rent and return only way to go

Well all and all glad i didnt buy this one. It was ok for a rent. Very easy to get most achievements on normal mode. i didnt find that it wouldnt have any replay value. the hope of a an open world sand box game definetly led to my overall disappointment. the game is just one misson afteranother with no need to explore...overall not bad for a rent and some easy achievements.

I did not enjoy playing a lot of this game. Unfortunately, it seems being an unemployed gangster wanna-be is as boring to play in a game as to actually be in life, except the camera control is way worse. Seriously, the camera during any fist fight and during 50% of the shootouts has a crazy habit of moving on its own to where you can no longer see your character or much of anything for that matter.

The story is not inherently bad - go watch Goodfellas and then imagine all the boring parts that were omitted from the movie like scrubbing toilets, cheaufer around two drunk mobsters while they vomit on themselves (I suppose that last could have been funny if the story had not been so dull to that point), etc. thrown back in with all the funny/good bits. A boring, 12 hour Goodfellas movie is what you get with this game.

The shooting works and the graphics are fairly impressive, but like so many others have written before, there is little to do in Empire city outside the main story line so there is no reason to go anywhere off the main path. Checkpoints can be atrocious causing you to repeat pointless conversations/driving distances/and a lot more nothing over and over again. I felt slightly masochistic playing to the end once I reached chapter 9. Almost dirty. I don't think I want to be a mobster anymore.

Mafia 2 is one of those games that in the beginning suck you in with a fun story, and great graphics. Over time however, the gameplay issues start nagging at you, like something you just can't put your finger on.

The sandbox world of Mafia 2 is truly beautiful in sight and sound. Yet, what could have been the games greatest asset turns out to be....nothing. There is very little to do in the world of Mafia 2 beyond the scripted story missions. No side jobs, no economy, no peripheral characters that you need to discover. If you are not advancing the storyline, you options are to steal cars for money, or rob shops, which is not nearly as fun as it sounds.

The story is initially very engaging, as you're trying to make a name for yourself. There are however no choices, moral or otherwise, for you to make that could affect your path. There is only one way to reach your goals. Once you have played the game through, you have seen it all and might as well put it away. Unless you are chasing achievements/trophies this game has zero replay value.

In the end Mafia 2 is just like Far Cry 2, nice to look at but so rigidly scripted as to render the sandbox setting useless. To add insult to injury, there is no way to continue playing after the painfully lousy ending like you could in GTA or Red Dead Redemption. Just as well, as there is not much to do.

This game is a delight to play. The open world is one that I can not stop exploring, which is a very big positive.

I will get down to it though...

The presentation is very good. The story will keep you interested and the chapters make it feel like there is something being done at all times. I felt like the pace needed a bit of a tweaking but that is minor. The world is very colorful and vibrant. The exploration is great. And if you want 100% completion, exploration (a lot of it) is required to find the playboy magazines and wanted posters.

The graphics are ok. There were sound snyc issues with the characters at times. And the characters seemed stiff at times too. But again, I have to go back to the city and how great it looks. The game designers obviously put in a lot of work for such detail.

The sound is top notch. The voice acting is right on for the time period, and the music will thrust you into the time period along with the great acting. Both do a wonderful job of putting you into the game.

The gameplay is great. There are other things to do other than shooting people and robbing them (IE: Lock picking, window washer, etc...). But... unfortunately when you do shoot and rob, it is an everyday shooter. However, that does not in any way take away from the gameplay.

The lasting appeal is there. It took me 12 hours for the first run through, and I have not found nearly 1/2 the playboy magazines and wanted posters. I also haven't explored all of the city. So there is a ton more than 12 hours in this game. If you are a Grand Theft Auto fan, or a mafia affectionato then this game will be right up your alley. If you're both, then you're in luck! Easily this game is a solid rent. If you are not a GTA fan or are not familiar with the genre, I would rent before buying. For everyone else, I would recommend buying this game. This game is a 9 out of 10. Had it not been for the sync issues and everyday shooter issues, it would have been a 10

This game is missing an awful lot that most great sandbox games have, like things to do other than missions and drive your deadbeat friends around. Seriously, most of this game is driving, and it manages to make that the worst possible driving experience. Cars range from very slow to fast but can't turn, which is great because all accidents over 25 mph are fatal.

I can get shot repeatedly and shrug it off with the game's insta heal system, but every fender bender takes your life. Dying always sends you back to whichever side of town is opposite from your objective, and then you get to drive again. Yay. There is no fast travel system, or if there is, the game hides it very well. While you will see Taxis, they are only available to steal. Also, there's no shooting while driving, which means that you automatically lose any gunfight on the road.

The missions might as well be rail shooters. There is always one path and one path only. The only difference in the guns are how fast they run out of bullets and how slow they aim. No melee weapons, despite their frequent appearance in cutscenes.

I hated every character. The voice actors all sound like they are in the middle of chewing. The story goes like this: It's a highlight reel from every mafia movie ever. Some stuff happens and you never make any lasting progress. Also, the only things that make this game feel like the fifties are that most cars are without modern steering and that all the white people are racist.

This was half a game. I don't think it was playtested before being released, or if it was it wasn't by people. Just go download some Buddy Holly and listen to it while playing GTA IV.

sadly the game i waited for so eagerly,was not a satisfaction to me.
it was still an okay game i guess.
i am more of the need for speed,gta,saints row,halo,modernwarfare2, type of guy.
anyways, gamefly is amazing and i am thankful to have it :)

The graphics are great and the combat is OK, but WAY too many cut scene sequences (even though you can manually skip them) and WAY too much driving between missions, or as part of missions!

I got bored within the first half hour & turned it off... sending it back to GameFly! Thank God it was a rental!

Disappointing game all around... Too many cut scenes limit gameplay. The liner style of game play also shows the reason Mafia II took forever to make, and not in a good way. This game isn't close to the mobster level of Godfather or Godfather II. Another OVERHYPED sequel flops, back to the drawing board 2k.