@ About, Gameplay, Content @

I have been playing Mafia II for over a year now and i really love the big city style layout and the missions but the longevity is not great and i wish there was a free roam mode. Best thing to do is load mission ten and rather than drive to the hotel just drive around the city. Its a fantastic city but you never really get to explore it, so it seems a waste. The are plenty of collectables such as wanted posters and playboy magazines which you can interact with in the menus. These add a little something to the game and at 80 gamerscore for both, quite high value achievements.

The missions and storyline are relatively simple to follow because as a Sicilian gangster working his way up in 50's america, there isn't really much to get confused about. Every mission leads to another with great cutscenes and a script with more harsh language than grand theft auto. There are a great number of classic american cars in the game but relatively few are based on actual cars. I found that the driving physics were great but where speed is concerned are not realistic. The driving, steering and acceleration is fine but since when was 100mph a realistic top seed in the 40's? Some cars can even do over 140MPh when tuned.

There are lots of customisable features in the game where you can put with the latest weapons and body kits for your car but for me its the little things that make the biggest impact - for example you can pick locks on cars pr smash the window. Your choice, and for me this is fast and easy to do, it just takes time to learn how to pick them. Police AI are quite thick in this game and i hate the car chases because they seem to pit manoeuvre themselves or get stuck constantly. If the were smarter i would be pleased but I'm sorry, its like grand theft auto 3 - poor ai programming.

@ Graphics, Sound @

Graphics are fantastic no matter what distance or size of an object. Its the attention to detail that makes it something special - you can customise licence plates, read small text on buildings and the game will play in full HD.crisp and clear gameplay without any blurred text or images where the programmers simply could not be bothered. The gun sounds are spot on and i think they do have some similarities to the real life weapons but the engine sounds from cars are only realistic at high speed when the engine is hard a work. When you run on tick over in a diesel engine (bear in mind this is the 40's) the engine just has a quiet grumble and even when you start the engine, it needs more oomph.

@ Overall @

I love this game its like grand theft auto gone back to the 40's and 50's but better because there is so much attention to detail, its realistic and it has a huge map but the main flaws for me are no free roam and poor longevity.

Still a recommended game though!