4/5 ★ – Hello_there's review of Mafia II.

This was a really good game. I played the remake of the first one earlier this year, and I was not disappointed by the remaster of the sequel. The gameplay was honestly great. It had the normal feel and gunplay of the Mafia franchise. The only thing I can say I didn’t like about the gunplay, is how after using a gun, the gun stays up, instead of going down. You have to push another button in order to put it down. However I got over this after the first few chapters, and just kept the gun up all the time. The enemies are also very balanced, and don’t ever feel that annoying. It was fun taking them on, and I felt rewarded every time I won an encounter. The graphics and audio design also did this game a giant favor. I played the remastered version, and it looked really good in most spots. It especially looked good during the first act, which was in winter. The winter vibe of the game made me wish I played it during Christmas, and I kinda wish they kept that feel during the entire game. The music was great, and had some really good 60s songs on there. The story was also a strong entry. I don’t know if it’s better than Mafia 1, but they both have their strengths. Mafia 2 had real star power in Vito and Joe, who were amazing characters. Tommy is still my favorite Mafia character, but Joe really is a close second. Some other characters also stand out, like Marty (who was annoying but funny), and Leo (who was badass). Henry was also a great character, that I was happy became more prominent in the last act. Those 5 characters made the game for me. Also some of the set pieces were great; some of my favorites are the War fights in the beginning, the jewelry store, the hotel, and the biker gangs safe house. Now not everything in this game is good however. This game has a good amount of bugs and glitches. The game crashed on me twice while playing, which was annoying. Also in the beginning of the final mission, the environment glitched out, and made it start raining in the apartment building. That’s not the bad part however; when I left the apartment, the ground glitched away, so I was falling into the infinite void. I restarted the mission, only for the exact same thing to happen a second time. The game also has a few texture glitches that can be very jarring at some points. Spoilers The rest of the issues I have with this game are hard to get into without getting into spoilers. So here’s a summery of the issues, without spoilers… Racism that hurts the plot, rushed final act, leaving stuff for DLC. A lot of it didn’t age to well. Pretty much all the black and Asian characters were the same, one note character, and I know that was too display the racism that was around in this games time period, however they could’ve done more with these groups. Some of these characters had potential, but I couldn’t take it seriously, due to the forced stereotyping. For example, the black guy Joe accidentally shoots, that could’ve been a big moment where Vito sees how useless some collateral damage can be, while he dispossesses of the body. But we get none of that. Another issue is how rushed the last act is. Falcone was nothing compared to Morello, and it didn’t feel that satisfying killing him in the end. Also the reveal of Henry being a rat feels unearned after we had no hints about it throughout the story. Same with Darek being the one to kill Vito father. I forgot Darek was even in the game, and the reveal of him killing Vito father didn’t do anything for me. Also the downfall of Vito’s life felt out of nowhere and rushed. It started with Marty dying, then his sister leaves him, and then his house burns down. This all happens in the span of less than 2 chapters. I was fine with Marty dying, and thought it gave for some great moments with Joe, and I was fine with the house burning down. But the sister hating him just felt so wasted, due to being on a random phone call. The final fight with Falcone also didn’t feel satisfying ether, and the ending felt like it had no revolution. We just see Joe get taken away, while Vito looks concern. Just overly rushed. Then saving what happens to Joe for the DLC is so dumb and pointless That’s all for the bad. Some things I like how it felt like no character had plot armor in this story. Henry, Marty, all got killed. Vito is a military solider so it makes sense that he’d be more capable than your run of the mill gangster. Joe is Joe so he’s allowed to have plot armor. Okay spoiler section over So overall, this really good game. A lot of good, some bad, but a strong installment in the franchise. Overall 8/10