Mafia II is a period piece, a brash spectacle of organized crime backdropped against a romantic vision of 1940s and 50s metropolis americana. It has old-timey slang, cars that drive like boats, and big band radio hits. There's also narcotics trafficking, racketeering, grand larceny, and murder.
Ten years after its initial release, the remastered version of Mafia II ends up feeling like a period piece itself. It's a throwback to when open worlds weren't staggeringly large and meant to pull the player in a million different directions. It's a reminder that games used to struggle to tell stories outside of cinematic cutscenes -- and Mafia II has more than two hours of them. In retrospect, they may not have been better times but they were certainly simpler times.
