Playable Characters | Crime Families | Other Gangs | Others
The playable characters from both the base Mafia II game, as well as the Downloadable Content packs.
Tropes exhibited by all playable characters:
- Anti-Villain: They only work for The Mafia because they get a huge amount of cash from them. Otherwise, they're pretty nice people.
- Badass Driver: All of them are shown to be really good behind the wheel.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: All of them, really. See Virtual Paper Doll below.
- Being Evil Sucks: Eventually, all of them come to realize that working for or with the mob isn't exactly what it cuts out to be.
- Cool Car: Each of them own and drive several throughout the game.
- One-Man Army: All of them are more than capable of fighting against dozens of heavily armed mooks and living to tell about it. By the end of the game Leo mentions that half of his and the Chinese triad's men are dead because of Joe and Vito's rampage. Jimmy himself takes it a step further by virtually wiping out no less than four entire gangs by the end of Vendetta.
- Virtual Paper Doll: By virtue of the player being able to choose what outfit to wear.
Vito Scaletta
Vittorio Antonio "Vito" Scaletta
Voiced by: Rick Pasqualone (English), Martin Trnavský (Czech) Other
The protagonist of the base Mafia II game, an ex-soldier and ex-convict who decides to join The Mafia after being released from prison.For his actions in Mafia III, see this page.
- Affably Evil: He cares for his friends and family, but is also willing to use increasingly violent methods in order to solve his problems.
- Ambition Is Evil: His wanting to eliminate his family's debt on time is part of his Start of Darkness.Vito: I sure as hell ain't gonna make the same mistakes my old man did. I need to pay off his debts then get back on my feet and get my own place. I need real money and punching a clock ain't gonna cut it.
- Anti-Villain: Shapes up into one by the end of the game.
- Ascended Extra: It's revealed in Chapter 14 that he and Joe were the two originally nameless hitmen that killed Tommy Angelo. In his case, he's the one who gives the Pre-Mortem One-Liner to Tommy.Vito: Mr. Salieri sends his regards.
- Been There, Shaped History: He's one of the hitmen who kills Tommy during the first game's Cruel Twist Ending.Vito: What'd this guy do?
Joe: Says here he ratted his family out to the Feds.
Vito: Guy's got it coming to him, then... Wait a minute. If he cooperated with the Feds, that means he was under protection, right? What if he still is?
Joe: Even if he is, we're getting paid a few grand for this job, so it's more than worth the risk. - Being Evil Sucks: He learns this the hard way big time. By the end of the game, he has lost contact with his sister, his mother has been implied to have died due to his being in jail, most of his friends are dead, missing, or in critical condition, and he has nearly caused a Mob War to get out of hand.Vito: This wasn't how I imagined it when we were starting out. I dreamed of money, cars, women, respect, freedom. I guess I ended up getting all that, more or less; but along with it came prison, living in constant fear, and the blood of my friends.
- Berserk Button:
- Money and money problems. When Joe tries to tell him material goods and money are just things at the end of the day Vito lashes at him that he hurts and kills people for money so he can buy those things.
- He also hates misogyny as he defends a woman who was being blamed for a car accident that wasn't her fault and he helped another woman whose car broke down. He also pummels his sister's husband after finding out he had been abusing her.
- Big Brother Instinct: Age-inverted. He beats up his sister's abusive husband upon learning what he did to her.
- Big Little Brother: He eventually outgrew Frankie.
- Born Unlucky: Zig-Zagged. Vito gets screwed over... a lot during his adventure; for every good thing that happens to him, two bad things come to take their place. You could say he deserves it for choosing a life in the Mafia, but you can't help but feel bad for him when things go wrong.
- He gets arrested for robbing a jewelry shop, only to enlist in the army during World War 2 to avoid jail.
- He comes home from the war alive, but Vito finds out his family is in dire straits as they have to pay a $2,000 debt left behind by his father.
- Vito and Joe get to join the Clemente crime family at the cost of five thousand dollars, but they later discover there's no fee and were just being extorted by Clemente and Luca Gurino.
- He steals gas stamps from the Office of Price Administration and makes enough money to pay for his father's debt, but then Vito gets arrested after one of the gas attendants snitches to the police about the stamps, and he gets sent to a federal jail for a decade.
- In jail, he finds Leo Galante and understands more about the Mafia in Empire Bay. However, Vito also learns the truth about the fake fee; even worse, his mother dies out of shame and horror at her son being condemned to ten years in federal jail.
- Not long after being released, he beats up his sister's abusive husband, but she cuts off ties with Vito when she can't stand his own violence. Despite doing something right for a change, Vito effectively ruins his relationship with the last member of his family.
- After becoming made, Vito enjoys the wealth and luxury that comes with it. Unfortunately, a pissed-off member of the Irish Mob, Micky Desmond, sets fire to Vito's home for killing Brian O'Neill in jail. Though Vito escapes, he loses everything in the fire, including the money he saved up at that point, leaving him broke as a beggar again.
- Right after the incident above, Vito joins in the drug trade, albeit reluctantly, to re-earn some money and get back on his feet. Henry receives a loan from a loan shark to pay for said drugs, but Falcone gets wind of their deal and demands a cut of the profits, significantly lowering their own.
- Things go from bad to worse when Henry is hacked to death in broad daylight by the Triads, who take the money from the deal as they escape. After Vito and Joe chase the Triads, they fight through the Red Dragon restaurant and find their enforcer, Zhe Yun Wong. Wong reveals that Henry was a federal informant, but Joe refuses to believe it and kills Wong, sparking a war between the Italian mafia and the Chinese.
- Vito certifies Henry, so the latter can join the Falcone crime family, only for Henry to get killed by the Chinese Triads. To make things worse, Leo reveals that Henry was working for the feds; Vito and Joe killed dozens of Triads and almost started a gang war over a rat.
- For his final screw-up, Vito has to kill Carlo or be killed himself to fix the mess he made with the Chinese and Henry; he succeeds with Joe's help but finds out Leo's deal to save his skin, only counts for him, not Joe, and he's forced to watch his best friend gets driven away to Uncertain Doom. Vito can't catch a break, can he?
- Brains and Brawn: The brains to Joe's brawn.
- Bully Turned Buddy: Vito originally became friends with Joe because he stood up to the latter when he bullied Vito as children.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Tommy Angelo, the hero of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, was an innocent man forced to join the mob who was gradually seduced by the life of a mafioso. Vito was always a criminal even as a teenager, and after paying off his family's debt, decides he likes being a gangster and is willing to hurt and kill people for money, even, along with Joe, being the ones who killed Tommy.
- Dangerous Deserter: Subverted. Technically Vito didn't desert the army, but he did leave it by illegal means. When Vito returned home on leave after getting injured, Joe helped him by getting phony discharge papers so he wouldn't go back to the front. Also, Vito isn't that bad of a person; sure, he goes back to being a criminal and joins the Mafia, but he's still a decent person deep down.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has his share of moments.
- Demoted to Extra: In the "Joe's Adventures" DLC, he shows up at the beginning of the "Witness - Frozen Memories" mission being arrested and found guilty of his crime, and doesn't show up for the rest of the DLC. Justified, as he's still in prison for another year at the time of Joe's return to Empire Bay.
- Dueling Player Characters: As far as it can be considered a "duel", anyway. He and Joe are the ones who kill Tommy Angelo, the protagonist of the first Mafia game.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: He was part of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Cares deeply for his older sister and mother. And in spite of spending most of the game expressing disappointment in his father, he's quite enraged to learn that he was murdered by Steve.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- See Wife-Basher Basher below. He may be a crook, but he is not an abuser.
- He doesn’t like or enjoy drug trade one bit.
- He's horrified by Joe's Accidental Murder of a bartender.
- Experienced Protagonist: He gained marksmanship skills in the military.
- Expy:
- There are a lot of similarity between Vito Scaletta and Vito Corleone from The Godfather, as well as his actor in his younger days, Marlon Brando. Both are Sicilian immigrants who moved to the East Coast of the United States (Empire Bay in Mafia; New York in The Godfather) and both have tragic reasons to enter The Mafia.
- Also, his bio reads a lot like Michael Corleone's.
- Freudian Excuse: Seeing his drunken father sinking into debts, growing up in poverty, and being trapped by his father's debts made Vito really materialistic and more than willing to take shortcuts to achieve his goals.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: Played With in that he was already a petty crook before being forced to join the army. Otherwise, this trope is played straight once he returns from Europe in February 1945. Vito is also currently the trope picture.
- Heel Realization: Has a huge one in Chapter 14, after realizing the hard way that Being Evil Sucks.
- Hero of Another Story: In the original Mafia. He has an entire backstory explaining why he is in a life of crime, but that doesn't matter to Tommy; all he sees is the guy who was sent to kill him on Don Salieri's behalf.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: His primary motivation for joining The Mafia.Vito: You see, where I grew up, the only guys who mattered were the guys who had the balls to take what they wanted. And after years of doing everyone else's dirty work, I was willing to risk anything to finally be somebody.
- Irony: Early in the game, he planned not to make the same mistake his father did only to turn out he actually did, right down to borrowing money from the exact same loan shark.Bruno: I knew a Scaletta once, but I must say, you're much better at paying back your debts than he was. His poor wife had to do it for him.
Vito: So it was you who lent my father the money.
Bruno: Your father? Ahh, like father, like son. I see you don't approve. But I didn't make him borrow the money, now did I? Just like I didn't make you. - It's Raining Men: He was a paratrooper in World War II, sent home after Operation Husky
. - Knight Templar Big Brother: Deconstructed. His violent behavior scares his sister away to the point she wants nothing to do with him.
- Only Sane Man: Alongside Leo, he is one of the most rational characters in the game.
- Promoted to Playable: Although it isn't immediately apparent, he was actually an NPC in Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. In fact, he's one of the two men who killed Tommy Angelo.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's bigger than Joe, has raven hair, and is quite dashing.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Oh, and he's got a sarcastic streak to go along with that.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Decides to enlist in the Army rather than spend time in jail for robbing a jewelry store. And then he decides to go back to a life of crime.
- Tragic Villain: Really, you'll feel sorry for him by the time you find out his Back Story during the game.
- Villain Protagonist: Compared to Tommy from the first game, Vito willingly joins the mob in order to make himself a name to remember by.
- Wife-Basher Basher: If there's anything that disgusts him, it's others hurting women, especially those he cares for. It even comes to the point that he beats up his own brother-in-law for hitting his sister. Unfortunately, it also causes his sister to never want to see him again due to his growing violent tendencies.
- You Killed My Father: Towards Derek and Steve during The Reveal in Chapter 14.
Joe Barbaro
Joe Barbaro
Voiced by: Robert Costanzo (English),Vlastimil Zavřel (Czech) Other
Vito's best friend, and The Protagonist of Joe's Adventures.- Acrofatic: Despite his portly appearance, he can run and mantle with the best of them and is extremely capable in combat, even having his own unique fighting style.
- Affably Evil: He is a caring and loyal friend to Vito, who also happens to take part in the same questionable things Vito does.
- Ascended Extra: He and Vito are the originally nameless hitmen to kill Tommy Angelo. Joe is the one who pulls out a shotgun and shoots him point-blank.
- Been There, Shaped History: He'e one of the hitmen who kills Tommy during the first game's Cruel Twist Ending.
- Big Fun: Is he ever. Throughout the course of both main game and Joe's Adventures, he's shown to be extremely fond of drinking and partying with women.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is more fun loving and stupid than Vito but just as dangerous. He also has a pretty good reputation in the mafia and runs his own prostitution ring on the side.
- The Casanova: He manages to get girls to sleep with him at his place in every other chapter.Joe: When you measure seven soft, you don't have to be good with words. You get my drift?
- Combat Pragmatist: In contrast to the more boxing-like Good Old Fisticuffs fighting style used by Vito and Jimmy, Joe has a unique, more MMA-like fighting style incorporating things like knee strikes to the groin, hammer fist punches, and wrestling slams.
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Compared to Vito, he manages to make the most out of working with the Mob until Chapter 14. He was also once the trope picture.Joe: The working man's a sucker, that's for damn sure.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: At the end of the game, though it's ambiguous as to whether he's killed or not. The third game reveals that he possibly survived and is now Leo Galante's chauffeur..
- Formerly Fit: A picture frame of him from 1941 can be seen in his apartment. Vito remarks that he hasn't changed much... at least in the face.
- Hookers and Blow: Joe lives a life of constant partying when he's not engaged in mafia activity. This includes regular hookers, two at a time. His drug of choice is beer, though.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Drunk after Marty was killed, he accidentally discharges the gun he’s waving around into Leon the bartender’s head.
- Irony: He doesn't believe in God and hasn't been to church since Easter of 1941, yet wears the Catholic Cross as a necklace.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On the surface, he's a lot more brutish, rude, and more impulsive than Vito. He's also more empathetic than him, takes their friendship more seriously, and always looks out for his friends.
- The Lancer: To Vito. Though due to being a Villain Protagonist like his best friend, he qualifies as more of The Dragon.
- The Protagonist: Of Joe's Adventures.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
- He empties an entire magazine from a Thompson into Alberto Clemente after his and Vito's assassination attempt goes awry and Marty gets killed.
- After Henry is killed by the Triads and the money they owe Bruno Levine is stolen, he suggests raiding their base of operations and killing them all.
- True Companions: Joe and Vito's Undying Loyalty towards each other stands out among the constant backstabbing amongst all the other characters in the mafia towards each other.Joe: Come un frate, you're like a brother to me.
- Uncertain Doom: At the end of the game, he is taken away in a limo, presumably to be killed, with his final fate remaining ambiguous. The third game reveals that he overpowered his captors and fled to Chicago, seeking asylum from old gang contacts there, but was eventually sold out to the Commission. The ending implied he possibly survived and is now Leo Galante's chauffeur.
- Undying Loyalty: Joe takes his friendships very seriously, which ends up causing a ton of trouble in a world where there is No Honor Among Thieves. He and Vito have been best friends for years and he helps him get on his feet whenever he's in trouble. He's the only one to take Marty seriously and is trying to show him the ropes, and his death puts him in a Heroic BSoD. He refuses to believe that Henry was a Federal Bureau of Narcotics rat and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against his killers. And in the end, when Falcone offered Joe the position of capo that he always dreamed of in exchange for killing Vito, Joe decides to help Vito kill Falcone.
Jimmy
Jimmy
- Anti-Hero: Becomes a Nominal Hero by virtue of ridding Empire Bay of the remaining crime rings by the time of Jimmy's Vendetta.
- Affably Evil: A self-proclaimed Nice Guy who'll do a few contracts from car theft to contract killings for some cash.
- Almighty Janitor: Unlike Vito and Joe, who become soldatos midway into their story, Jimmy remains a lowly, but highly competent, enforcer, due to not being of Italian-American descent.
- Assassins Are Always Betrayed: And he's no exception to this rule, as the ending of Betrayal shows.Jimmy: I was so busy tying up loose ends for my employers, I didn't realize the only one left... was me.
- Contract on the Hitman: Happens to him several times throughout the course of both DLCs.
- Cool Shades: Almost always wears his trademark sunglasses, with the exception being during his time in prison.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of his lines definitely fall under this category.
- Didn't See That Coming: He didn't expect that his two close friends in Sal and Tam would betray him at the end of The Betrayal Of Jimmy.Jimmy: That particular day, for everybody else, it was Thursday. For me, it was the day I got fucked.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Compared to Vito or Joe, he manages to get off pretty well. By the end of Vendetta, he's successfully wiped out the Gravina Crime Family and Brody Gang, killed his two former friends/employers for setting him up and attempting to kill him, and killed Judge Hillwood, the real Big Bad and the one behind sending him to jail in the first place.
- Genius Bruiser: As shown in Jimmy's Vendetta, he's very knowledgeable on the inner workings of both The Mafia and The Irish Mob, as he manages to dismantle both gangs piece by piece with almost military precision.
- Karma Houdini: He manages to get away from any ill repercussions he's done during Betrayal by the end of Vendetta.
- One-Man Army: Even when compared to Vito and Joe, Jimmy's even more of a show when it comes to being this. For the record, every mission where Jimmy fights against dozens of mooks has him do this all alone, something the other two don't always do.
- Only in It for the Money: In Betrayal, he does his jobs as a mob enforcer solely because it makes a lot of money.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike Vito or Joe, Jimmy does his job solely because it earns him a decent amount of money.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His entire motive in the aptly-titled Jimmy's Vendetta. And unlike Vito or Joe, he manages to succeed with no ill repurcussions.
- The Unreveal: We never find out about his past or last name despite the cutscenes implying that there's more to him than what he seems.
- Villain Protagonist: In Betrayal.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: What Sal and Tam under the orders of Judge Hillwood do to him after he finishes dealing with the Triads and Bombers.
