Good but not Great
I had been looking forward to a sequel to the origional Mafia for 8 years. The first game was one of my all time favorite games. Unfortunately I didn't think Mafia II lived up to the expectations I had for it. I'll admit, the fact that I held the first game in such high regard made my expectations higher than they normally would have been.
I thought the story was good for the most part but I thought some things seemed left out or plot lines not developed. I didn't understand why they threw in little moments that seemed like foreshadowing, like when Vito makes eye contact with the girl in the bar in the first chapter and a couple chapters later he helped her out with the guy who was giving her a hard time. To me it seemed like foreshadowing to maybe a romance story line later on, and nothing ever came of it. It made me feel like after it was all over there were some things left out, like they intended to develop a plot line but forgot about it later on.
The characters themselves were likeable enough, and I thought the voice acting was very good. Vito himself was a good character, although I didn't seem to get the same connection I got with Tommy from the first game. Joe was a good best friend character and he was likeable even though he always got us into trouble.
As for the city of Empire Bay, they did an excellent job of making living, breathing world. For as nice and well made it was, there was just very little to do. They boasted about how Empire Bay was twice as big as Lost Heaven, yet the Mafia II was probably half as long as the first. The original game at least had some side missions to give you something to do after you finished a main mission.They made a big beautiful looking world and then gave you little to do in that world, kind of a waste. I did have some fun moments on my own between missions just getting into shootouts with the cops and seeing how long I could survive, I really missed a free ride mode that the origional had.
The gameplay itself I thought was pretty good. The actual fighting and cover system in the game I liked a lot. I am a big fan of that system ever since Gears of War. It really makes for some good battles and makes it so you can stay alive in the really rough ones. The driving was fun, but touchy with a keyboard, but not as touchy as the first game was with a keyboard. I was surprised that the game had no steering wheel support when the first game had it. I have a steering wheel that I've had for a while and I don't use it much. I thought this would be the perfect game to use it on but it had no support.
Overall the game was good, just not as good as I had expected or as good as it could have been. My expectations may have been a little high but it seemed like the potential was there for a great game, but it just lacked a few things to really put it up there among the greats.
