I dunno what to think about Mafia 2.

On the one hand, it's sort of boring.

On the other hand, if you think about great mafia movies, they usually don't have shootouts every 5 minutes or tons of action. And the dialog/story in this game is pretty great. I'm just not sure what else they could have done other than lay on the cutscenes and driving sections for missions like "Go to the burlesque club and then bury a body on the outskirts of town" without adding "rival gang interrupts and shootout occurs" to every mission, which would get predictable and tedious quickly.

I think the more I'm playing it the less I'm seeing it like a GTA and more I'm seeing it like Heavy Rain or something. Maybe the story isn't enough to hold up the rest of the game, but I'm enjoying it. I'm just a little torn on whether more "gamey" elements would have made the game better. I'm not sure they would have.

I guess it's a dilemma all developers who want to focus on story have. Adding the silly GTA side shit probably would have watered down the importance of the plot. Maybe they could have just added more of that to do AFTER the story was done and the split between the two sides would have made more sense. Tell your story, then give the more game-like elements a chance after.
 
Just as a disclaimer, I did rent the game for free. I surely would be a bit more disappointed at $60. I think it's absolutely a game that shows what's wrong with the current pricing structure in games. The developers put an immense amount of talent and effort behind creating this game, but because it's so story-heavy, you won't be playing it for 50 hours like a GTA. I wouldn't want to, either. Where does a game like this fit? I thought the same about Heavy Rain, which I never played because i didn't see $60 as being worth that experience.