Mafia II (VS GTA 4)

If I wanted to summarize this game in one sentence, I'd say "fifties GTA" but I really should get into more detail, otherwise I wouldn't be much of a game critic. It was developed (surprisingly) by the Czech developer 2K Czech and is an action-adventure game with A TON of resemblances to the GTA series.

How many similarities with GTA can you count in this screenshot?

The story is about an Italian guy Vito who gets involved in all kinds of dirty mafia business with his buddy Joe and eventually it leads to all kinds of trouble. Ever played some GTA games? Well he's exactly your typical GTA main character! A quiet tough guy with big dreams who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty and does any job as long as it pays. The game is somewhat linear, meaning that you only ever have one mission available but you can do some random stuff in between, like collecting old playboy magazines (WARNING: their breast standards were much lower at the time) and collect some nice vintage fancy cars for your garage.

The fifties setting was pretty impressive in this game: the radio played some weird old tunes as well as cigarette commercials about their beneficial effects on health, some guards were talking about TVs as some kind of rich man's dream before I killed them and everybody wore a fancy gentleman's hat. Honestly, this game made me reminisce about Scarface and The Godfather trilogy since the gangster storyline and the fifties setting fit so well together.

On the other hand, the gameplay somewhat lacks. The fighting and action mechanics are kind of awkward and the NPC interaction is very limited, at least in comparison to GTA IV (which I played way too much so I felt the difference right away).  I like the fact that this game is much more realistic than GTA IV when it comes to survival. You can't jump off a 50 feet building on your car and survive, nor can you handle more than one shot of a shotgun, which made it quite challenging at times, but all for the better of course. NPC AI is also rather lacking, since I could jack a car right in front of a policeman and he would just pass by. I could also rob a store, kill everyone, get out and a policeman standing outside would say "Good day to you sir."

So there are good things and bad things about this game. But if you want a simple decision, ask yourself: Do you want to play another GTA game (assuming you played one) but fifty years back in time with inferior gameplay? If the answer is yes, then go ahead, but remember I warned you.