When GTA and Saints Row have the open-world market pretty sewn up, it takes something mighty special to stand up and get noticed. Sleeping Dogs managed it thanks to taking Batman: Arkham's combat and adding environmental interaction, but both Mafia games have always struggled to get recognition outside their immediate fanbases. And that's a shame, because for Mafia 2 especially, it's a solidly-voiced characterful tale that developers 2K Czech clearly put together with a lot of love for the 1950s Americana. Radios crackle with timely hits, the fictional Empire Bay cribs from GTA by rolling together a number of high-profile cities into one, and a trio of gameplay styles involving gunplay, driving and brawling work a treat. Mission structures tend to go from high-speed chases in rickety old cars, straight to impactful fights with you slamming faces into the sides of dumpsters and back again - a nice variable quality that even GTA tends to fall down on with its fairly stale setups. In the end, you'll come for the gameplay but stay for the characters, and if you're a fan of the time period itself, there's no better 1950s-themed game out there.
