There will be some side-missions to take part in, as well as finding collectibles, but for me, I never found the extra activities all that interesting to begin with and I rarely strayed too far away from the path that the main story had set. In Empire Bay you will start from the bottom of the 1940’s criminal world, as you climb up the mobster ranks taking you through to the 1950’s. But Mafia II isn’t trying to be a GTA, this is a much more grounded story that can be compared to some of your favourite mafia movies and that is the main appeal for me personally. However, the job involves working for the mob and Vito soon finds himself thrown into a new kind of war, smack, bang in the middle of a power struggle between Empire Bay’s most powerful Mafia crime families.Īt its core, Mafia II is a third-person shooter, which can be compared to the likes of Grand Theft Auto, but only in a sense that the game takes place in an open, crime filled city, however, it’s also nowhere near to the level of depth to that of the Rockstar series. Thankfully for Vito, his best friend Joe Barbaro can hook him up with some well paid work that will help set him and Vito’s family straight in this challenging world. You play as war veteran Vito Scaletta and upon returning from the war, it soon becomes apparent that a simple 9 to 5 job isn’t quite going to cut it in Empire Bay, a fictional city with influences taken from New York City, Detroit, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Thankfully however, the game has now been patched and is more far more acceptable and closer to doing the original 2010 release some justice.įor now for the purposes of those that may be experiencing this game for the first time, let’s quickly gloss over the plot. Prior to this review being published, the game suffered with a poor framerate on PS4 and it was full of bugs & glitches. So when Mafia II: Definitive Edition was officially revealed, I was over the moon to play an enhanced version of the game that I love. I enjoyed Mafia II so much, that I ended up finishing the game on both PS3 and Xbox 360. Sure the gameplay wasn’t perfect and the characters were very cliché from the world of Hollywood mobster movies, but no game made me feel like I was playing in a world belonging to some of my favourite movies such as Goodfella’s, The Godfather and Casino.

When Mafia II released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, I think it’s fair to say that it was of my favourite games of that generation.

Mafia 2 definitive edition review