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Mafia II is an action-adventure game and sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, developed by 2K Czech. It was released on August 24, 2010.

During World War II, Vito Scaletta, a young poverty-stricken resident of Empire Bay (a Fictional Counterpart of New York City, with elements from San Francisco), is caught committing robbery and he chooses serving in the army during their invasion of Europe instead of going to jail. Vito is however wounded in service, and is sent home to Empire Bay for a month - but upon his arrival, he discovers that things have taken a turn for the worse. His father has died and has left his family with a massive debt of $2000... money which the local loan shark is getting quite anxious to get back.

While Vito has been gone, his friend, the small-time criminal Joe Barbaro, has been busy getting connections within the local Clemente crime family. He is able to use them to get Vito some forged discharge documents and a foot in the mob's door, offering Vito a chance to pay off the family debt.

A sequel, Mafia III, came out in 2016. A Definitive Edition remaster of Mafia II was released in May 2020, with all DLC included and Steam owners of the original release getting the Definitive Edition update for free.

An Alternate Universe DLC pair of expansions called Mafia II: The Betrayal of Jimmy and Jimmy's Vendetta were released on PS3 before all consoles also exists.


Mafia II provides examples of:

  • Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: Downplayed during "Balls and Beans", when Vito must sneak into a slaughterhouse through a sewer. Although the sewer has ample room for him to walk through and allows him to enter undetected, the trip is unpleasant, as Vito is unable to avoid stepping in revolting sewage water and even has unmentionable sludge dumped on him halfway in. It goes without saying that Vito's presence is easily sensed, or rather smelt, after that.
  • All Asians Know Martial Arts: Played with. The prison boxing matches feature one Chinese opponent, and he uses a fairly basic fighting style because the Mafia inmates were afraid that flashy kung-fu moves would give him an unfair advantage. In an ambient conversation at the same prison, a black inmate is asking an Asian inmate if he could teach him kung-fu. The Asian inmate agrees, in exchange for the black inmate teaching him how to play basketball.
    Leo: And none of that chop-suey crap!
    • Asian opponents do a fancy kick up to recover from being knocked down instead of the normal standing animation, but otherwise fight with the normal fighting style.
  • All for Nothing: Vito kills literally hundreds of Irish, Italian, and Greaser criminals. He performs numerous heists and amazing stunts. In the end, he ends up with absolutely nothing in his pockets, no home, no family, and his best friend executed. The mob also barely tolerates him for his screw-ups, deciding to make him The Exile to New Bordeaux in Mafia III. Crime doesn't pay indeed.
  • All There in the Manual: The Family Album you get after beating the game provides a lot of the backstory to various secondary characters not explained otherwise.
  • Anachronism Stew:
    • Playboy magazines appear throughout the game, which starts in 1945 and ends in 1951, when in Real Life Playboy's first issue was released in 1953.
    • The game also has a radio newsflash about polls showing Dwight Eisenhower and his running mate Richard Nixon easily winning the presidency in the 1952 election in September of 1951. Eisenhower didn't announce his candidacy until March of 1952 and even after announcing it faced a tough primary battle before getting the nomination.
    • Empire Bay has a SWAT team, as seen in the DLC's "Joe's Adventures", both of them set in The '50s, although the very first Real Life SWAT units weren't formed until 1968.
    • The song "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", performed by Dean Martin, is featured in the game, even though the song came out in 1960.
    • The Remington 870, a shotgun manufactured starting in 1951 can be seen used by the Empire Bay Police Department in 1943.
    • Several cars, such as the Shubert Beverly (second generation Chevrolet Bel Air), Smith Custom 200 (1957 Ford Custom 300) and Smith Thunderbolt (1955 Ford Thunderbird), are based on, and have the design aesthetics of, cars produced much later in the decade.
      • A similar, yet strange case exists with the Lassiter Series 69, a car based off a late '40s/early '50s Cadillac that for some reason is plentiful in the 1945 sections, where its bulkier post-war design makes it stick out like a sore thumb. And while the Series 69 still sees some occasional use as a Mook Mobile (in both the main game and in two of the DLCs) once the story transitions to the '50s, it becomes vanishingly rare among civilian traffic until it's phased out entirely by the late game. They had the right year for the car, yet placed it in the wrong one.
      • This situation is inverted with the Smith Deluxe Station Wagon. Despite the fact that it is based on a late '30s Ford car (with a continental tire at the back and wooden plating, both of which became popular in the early '40s) that wouldn't be out-of-place in 1945, the car doesn't actually appear until 1951. This mistake appears to be fixed in two of the DLCs that take place in the '50s, where the car does not appear at all.
      • With the right DLC installed (or owning the Definitive Edition), the player can drive concept cars from the latter half of the 1950's (the Jefferson Futura and Potomac Elysium, based on concepts from 1955 and 1956, respectively), even while in the 1940's part of the game.
    • Overall, most of the game is anachronistic being set in 1951 but containing things from all across the 1950s, especially the more well known elements from its latter half - most egregiously, the game changes the year of Tommy's assassination from 1957 to 1951 - they could have kept the original date and avoided most of the anachronisms that way!
    • The Version-Exclusive Content for the Definitive Edition includes the Samson Drifter, based off the 1970 Ford Gran Torino, as well as Lincoln's Vietnam-era civvies. Not quite as glaring as some of the other examples, though, given that only Vito gets to use them.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: The game does recognize when you run red lights or otherwise violate basic traffic rules (passengers will complain about it when you do it), but cops won't try to stop you for doing so, only for speeding or collisions.
  • Anti-Villain: Vito and Joe are just trying to make a few bucks. They're killers, gangsters, and more but are Only in It for the Money Punch-Clock Villain types.
  • Artistic License – Cars:
    • The Roller GL300 does not have gullwing doors unlike its real life counterpart, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.
    • Not only is the Walker Rocket way more common than its real-life counterpart, the Tucker 48, ever was in real life, but the car is portrayed as a conventional front-engine car. In real life, the Tucker 48 had its engine located in the rear. Said engine is also modeled as a V8, whereas the Tucker 48's engine in real life was a flat six.
    • Some cars are modeled with V8 engines even if their real-life analogues didn't have them as an option. Besides the above-mentioned Walker Rocket, some examples include the Ascot Baileynote , the Houston Waspnote , and the Potomac Indiannote .
  • Ascended Extra: Vito and Joe are the originally nameless hitmen who kill Tommy at the end of the first game.
  • Attempted Rape: Vito is subject to one of these in prison and just barely manages to fight it off.
  • A Taste of Power: The game starts with Vito as an American soldier in Sicily, 1943, with an M1 Garand, grenades and even enemy rifles and machineguns you can scavenge. Immediately after that, Vito isn't even able to steal a car, pick locks, or even grab a gun before Joe helps him/teaches him how. Given that that segment of the prologue is set two years later, Vito recently took a bullet, and is initially on leave from the Army before Joe forges him discharge papers, it makes sense.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Mostly averted with the gunfights, bullets will happily tear up bosses as easily as they do mooks. In the final fight Don Falcone can take about 3 or 4 times as much punishment as a standard Mook, but that still means he'll go down in less than a dozen shots.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Walker Rocket (based upon the Tucker 48, also infamous for being the same) is the fastest car in the game. That's provided that you don't get pulled over by the speed for disobeying traffic laws or that you avoid trying on bendy or rough roads, as it is hampered by its bulky weight and low acceleration.
  • Ax-Crazy: Sammy, Luca Gurino's enforcer. Notice his maniacal cackling while fighting Vito.
  • Bag of Spilling: There are several points in the game where you end up losing all your money and guns. This is especially aggravating if you spent time selling stolen cars to grind up your cash reserves, although it does help emphasize the game's point that the criminal life isn't all it's cracked up to be.
  • Badass Bystander: While robbing a store there's the chance that one or more customers will pull handguns and fight Vito. Random civilians can also pull guns and take on any enemy gangsters that start a shootout in the open world sandbox.
  • Being Evil Sucks: At the end of the game, it's clear that being a mafioso has done Vito more harm than good, such as his going to jail likely causing his mother's death, driving his own sister away due to to his now violent attitude, learning that some of the people he works for are the same ones that screwed his parents over, and virtually all his friends dying left and right.
  • Berserk Button: Mention Vito's father. Hurt Vito's sister. Mention money to Vito. Murder his colleagues. EVERYTHING.
  • Big Applesauce: Empire Bay.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: The ending of the game is ambiguous enough that it's unclear who exactly lives and dies. The game seems to imply that Joe dies but Vito lives, but it's also entirely possible that Joe and Vito would survive to take on the remnants of the Vinci family after already previously severely wounding the others. It's also entirely possible that the game has an outright downer ending where Joe and Vito have outlived their usefulness to the Vinci family, with the two of them being unceremoniously killed so the Vincis can rise to power due to no real opposition anymore. The sequel confirms that Vito and Joe survive, with the former exiled to New Bordeau and the latter serving as Leo's personal driver.
  • Broad Strokes: In the original Mafia, Tommy is killed in 1957 and not 1951 when Mafia II is set. Vito and Joe are also not wearing the same clothing as the hitmen in Mafia (although Vito can be, if you put on the corresponding suit before accepting the mission) and Joe shoots Tommy with a full-sized shotgun, rather than the sawn-off "lupara" shotgun that the hitman used in Mafia. And the house and background are slightly different, particularly the conical bushes in the yard. Mafia: Definitive Edition moves the date to 1951 to be consistent with Mafia II and changes Vito and Joe's outfits to their designs from II.
  • Brooklyn Rage: Joe is an excellent example of such while Vito is far more subdued.
  • The Brute: O'Neill, the Irish gangster. He's one of the toughest enemies in the game, when you beat him, he just gets back up again. It takes Vito slitting his throat with a shiv to finally bring him down.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In Chapter 14, you are given an assignment to assassinate a random pentito. For Vito, Joe, and newcomers to the series, he's just a guy you bump off for a quick buck. For players of the first game, this is a horribly tragic moment which reveals you are playing as the man who killed Tommy Angelo.
  • But Thou Must!: In Chapter 3, you can try and earn an honest buck loading crates onto a truck at the shipyards, despite all the prompts to give up and enter a life of crime, but after the fifth box Vito will get fed up and refuse to carry any more, forcing you to quit.
  • Butt-Monkey: Poor Vito spends the entire game bouncing from one colossal fuck-up to another, without ever really getting a chance to enjoy La Dolce Vita. This is in contrast to Tommy from the first game, who's shown to live it up pretty well up until his fall from favor at the end.
  • Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: After learning that the Vinci Family intends making a move against the Falcone Family, Eddie Scarpa asks Vito Scaletta to kill Leo Galante as part of a plan to strike the Vinci Family first. Vito declines out of respect for their friendship.
    Vito: Sorry, Eddie. I can't do this. Leo was like a father to me back in the can.
  • Car Chase Shoot-Out: Several of these happen during the 1950s segment of the game, from the Assassination Attempt on Alberto Clemente involving Vito and Joe in a sedan chasing the latter's limo in the downtown district of Empire Bay, to a chase between rival gangsters and Vito, Joe, and Henry attempting to get away with recently-purchased heroin, and even Vito and Joe escaping the police and a number of federal agents following another successful Assassination Attempt on a former mafioso turned police informant.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: The friends in the car will continue to talk casually no matter what's going on. Even if you're driving terribly and keep on crashing into people, cars, and/or street signs. Even if you're being chased by the police. Here's some of the times Joe will scold the player for:
    • Running the red light.
    • Every other small infraction.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In Chapter 3, Vito steals ration stamps from the Office of Price Administration and sells them to gas station attendants around the city. Three chapters later, it turns out one of the attendants ratted Vito out. He goes to jail. But not before Joe forces the rat to leave Empire Bay for good.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Everybody in the Mafia, towards everybody else. The only exception is the bond of loyalty between Vito and Joe that endures throughout the entire game, which makes the ending all the more tragic.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Just watch this video. It has broken the previous record for most f-bombs in one game, previously held by The House of the Dead: OVERKILL. And even more were counted in this video, totaling in 380 uses.
  • Continuity Nod: Vito and Joe are the gunmen who kill Tommy Angelo from the first Mafia. Their faces even look very similar (especially in the case of Joe) and they even drive a similar red and white Ford Thunderbird-like car.
    • When Leo Galante decides to disappear (a situation almost identical to what happened with Frank in the first game), he off-handedly mentions that he's going to Lost Heaven.
  • The Consigliere: Leo Galante.
  • Controllable Helplessness: In the start of the prison sequence, you are marched single file into the prison facility. Policemen stand in front of the two opposite gates where jeering prisoners flock. You are able to use the controller to turn your head around, look at your hands (well, your fingers, mostly), but beside that, you're stuck.
  • Cool Car: Most of them could qualify, really.
  • Critical Existence Failure: In the fighting sequences, Vito can take a parade of haymakers, jab combos and uppercuts. But once his health is too low, a single jab will send him crashing to the floor in a heap.
  • Darker and Edgier: Just like Grand Theft Auto IV, Mafia II is a a dark Deconstruction to the criminal underworld.
  • Deconstruction: Mafia II deconstructs Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters and Wide-Open Sandbox crime games like Grand Theft Auto by juxtaposing the tense shootouts and high living with prison time, fearing for your life at all times, crossing a Moral Event Horizon or two and in the end losing everything you care about.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance:
    • The characters are about as racist as you would expect them to, the game being set in the 1940s and 1950s and all that. For instance, on the way to a bar situated in an African-American community, when asked about whether the place has changed since Vito had left for Europe, Joe goes on a bitter tirade against the local black community, calling them animals who only know how to sell dope, multiply and kill each other. Later on, while Drowning His Sorrows at the same bar, he tells Vito he walked there because he "wouldn't park [his] car in this neighborhood!"
    • Not to mention the countless times somebody says 'chink', 'dago' and 'mick'.
    • After beating up his abusive brother in law, Vito tells him to stop cheating on his sister, instead of encouraging her to divorce him and taking everything in the settlement.
      • This particular example might be a Subverted Trope since divorce laws were very strict and difficult in The '50s even in otherwise fairly liberal Northeastern states. Only a handful of Southwestern states like Nevada had anything resembling today's divorce laws back in 1951.
    • Drugs are treated as significantly worse than the extortion, prostitution, and murder the mafia regularly engages in.
    • Vito is sentenced to ten years in Federal Prison for the theft and sale of ration stamps. That sounds almost unbelievably harsh for a nonviolent crime now but that was indeed the maximum penalty for that particular offense during World War II.
  • Developer's Foresight: The Joe's Adventures DLC mission "In the Shadows" requires Joe to drive a taxi. The "foresight" is that it doesn't specifically have to be a Quicksilver Windsor taxi; If the player has a Shubert 38 taxi stored in their garage, they are free to use that instead. In the Definitive Edition, it's even amazing: If the player owns Mafia: Definitive Edition, then the Shubert Six they get from the game ownership bonus will also suffice.
  • Didn't See That Coming: Repeatedly. Mafia II really likes to emphasize how unpredictable organized crime can be.
    • Vito steals gas stamps from the Office of Price Administration only for Henry to find that they expire by midnight that night, forcing Vito to drive all over town selling the stamps to station attendants personally. This also gets Vito arrested some time later.
    • Vito and Joe disguise themselves as maintenance workers and pick the lock on a jewelry store. As they shove valuables into their bags, a car drives through the front of the building and a group of Irish mobsters jump out also intending to rob the place. This attracts the police, turning the quiet burglary into a shootout.
    • The hit on Don Clemente almost goes off without a hitch. The bomb is discreetly planted in the conference room, the roof is cleared, and Vito and Joe detonate the bomb from a window washing platform... only to find that Clemente was in the restroom when it went off and is still alive.
  • Die, Chair, Die!: A lot of Empire Bay's environment is destructible, notably the Hotel interior in Room Service and an entire Diner in The Wild Ones.
  • Dirty Coward: Several, most notably Sidney Pen, Luca Gurino and Mickey Desmond.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Most of the game up until the 2/3rd mark builds up to taking out Don Clemente. But then your own Don, Don Falcone, turns out to be just as bad if not worse.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • In the 2020 Definitive Edition, if you own Mafia III you have Lincoln Clay's Samson Drifter in your garage from the very beginning of the game. As a muscle car from the 1960's it blows away the 1930's to 1940's era cars you normally start out with, and is about on par with the 1950's era sports cars that are normally the best cars in the game.
    • The DLC vehicles include a couple of sports cars with top-of-the-line performance that you normally have to wait until Chapter 11, when the Ascot Bailey and ISW 508 become available, to achieve.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: This happens several times in the game, as befitting the mafia.
    • Vito is told to teach Brian O'Neil a lesson in prison for beating up one of Leo Galante's fighters. He ends up slitting his throat.
    • Joe has his truck full of stolen cigarettes burned and is called a wop by a Greaser. He responds by shooting him in the face.
    • Acknowledged in-universe when Vito and Joe are sent to teach those same kids a lesson. They are told to only use baseball bats and not leave a bloodbath. Instead, Vito and Joe end up killing them all with a little help from Steve Coyne as well as Marty Santorelli.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Seemingly Joe in the ending, but III shows that he survives.
  • Drugs Are Bad: Actually, the message is more "Drug dealing is bad." Henry comes to you with a chance to make a little money on the side by dealing heroin. So they borrow money from Bruno, and go to work only to be attacked by a horde of gangsters trying to steal their stash, Henry getting hacked to ribbons by Chinese Triads, and your money being stolen. So at the end of the day, your friend is dead, you're over fifty large in debt to a vicious loan shark, and the Triads and a rival family are out for your blood. And don't worry, it gets worse.
    • Leo and Vinci are heavy belivers in this trope, and forbids the families from selling drugs. This is what causes the Committee to start breaking down as both Clemente and Falcone are selling drugs in secret and want to start doing so openly as a way of replacing the income loss caused by the end of Prohibition.
  • Drunken Song: Joe and Eddie at one point drunkenly sing along to Dean Martin's "Return to Me" on the radio.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Joe does this after Marty's death, and get so drunk that he waves his gun around and scares off the other patrons. Vito must swing by the bar and pick him up, before things get really bad. They do.
  • Easy Level Trick: When you go to face Derek, park your car just a few yards away from the large door, then use it to enter the fighting area before any Mooks can spawn in. Get under the second floor of the building and you should be able to find cover a lot more easily, if only at first.
  • Enemy-Detecting Radar: Here, it detects all enemies and police.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Averted with most of the families except the Vinci family, who explicitly prohibit drug dealing. Given what happens after Vito and Joe's tryst into drug dealing you can see why.
    • Vito's an example of this too. Despite being a thug and killer for most of the game, he cares enough for his sister to kick the shit out of her abusive husband and hates misogynists in general. He's also the character who's the most respectful to minorities, rarely using racial slurs to describe them unless they're already being aggressive towards him. Overall he comes across as acting racist towards people he dislikes, rather than disliking people because of their race. Amusingly subverted in the fact that Vito doesn't have any major objections to dealing drugs.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: Semi-averted. Cars won't explode if you smash them or shoot the engine, but will burst into flames and explode if you Attack Its Weak Point.
  • Evil Versus Evil: C'mon! This is Mafia! And the police ain't no better, either.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's the second game in a series about The Mafia.
  • Fat Bastard: Frederico "Fat Derek" Pappalardo and Sidney Pen. Sidney is even nicknamed Fat Bastard by the protagonists.
  • The '50s: 1951, to be precise, but many elements from the rest of the decade crop up during the period. It draws about 5 songs from The '60s and cars up to 1957, so it's more or less The Theme Park Version.
  • Flashback with the Other Darrin: In the original game, the Pre-Mortem One-Liner said to Tommy Angelo right before he dies was voiced by Bill Buell. Here, Rick Pasqualone voiced Vito here, so naturally, that isn't Buell's voice coming out of Vito's mouth when he says "Mr. Salieri sends his regards," before Joe shoots Tommy this time around.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Henry says that his thirteenth contract is unlucky because he almost got his balls shot off. He dies in Chapter 13.
    • "...but how's [your] English so good?"
    • When Vito introduces himself to Derek, Derek mentions that his father "drank like a fish". Derek had Vito's father drowned at the dock.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: Chapter 14 (Stairway to Heaven) has numerous bugs that prevent you from progressing the campaign, forcing you to restart from the beginning of the chapter completely, which is particularly egregious as it's one of the longest chapters in the game.
    • At the construction site, if you stealth kill the first three goons instead of shooting them, Joe's A.I. will break and he'll just stand in one place on the roof doing nothing. Not only does this make the level much harder as you'll have to fight through a small army of goons without his help, but it becomes impossible to exit the level as you need him to trigger the exit door. The game also autosaves as soon as you change floors, so if you trigger the bug then trigger an autosave you're stuck and have to completely restart the chapter to fix it.
    • After dropping Joe off at El Greco's, you will be tasked with delivering the money earned to Bruno. When you arrive at Bruno's, the door that leads into the building will occasionally not allow entry, making further progression into the game impossible. Even more troubling is the fact that if the player is able to enter the door and trigger the cutscene, the game will sometimes enter an endless loading loop from which it will not recover. Supposedly this bug is caused by robbing shops during the chapter after picking up Derek's "retirement fund".
  • Genre Shift: The game mostly involves driving and gunplay, but in a couple of missions - namely "Enemy of the State" and "Balls and Beans" - it shifts to a stealth-based game.
  • Good-Times Montage: One shows up at the end of Chapter 9, appropriately set to "Let The Good Times Roll". And another one is in Chapter 12, as Vito, Joe and Henry get into drug dealing. Watching your character buy nice stuff and kick the shit out of a guy while "Let The Good Times Roll" plays is pretty representative of this game.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Optional, hidden Playboy centerfolds, as well the harder-to-find wanted posters depicting members of the development team.
  • Greaser Delinquents: They appear as antagonists midway through the game.
  • Greedy Jew: Bruno, the loan shark. It turns out that he's the very loan shark who Vito's family owed money to.
    Bruno: Now you know I trust you, Henry. But if you screw me, remember these wise words from the Bible: "And my wrath shall wax hot, and I shall kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless."
  • Hair-Trigger Explosive: Some of the missions tell you to be careful when driving with explosives in the car. They're safe if you scratch against another vehicle, but a light tap can be enough to cause a boom.
  • Heavily Armored Mook: Enemies wearing body armor appear in the Joe's Adventures DLC as particularly tough Elite Mooks. They come in two varieties; SWAT officers who appear towards the end of the Supermarket mission, who can take several bullets and use smoke grenades and automatic weapons, and 9 armored bodyguards protecting Rocco at the end of the final mission, serving as a Final Boss fight of sorts, capable of taking 18 shots from the tommy gun before going down and even able to survive a couple of headshots.
  • Heist Clash: In "Murphy's Law", the jewelry store that Vito and Joe are tasked with robbing turns out to have been the target of the local O'Neill Gang, when their leader Brian O'Neill rams his van into the store windows. The Irishmen soon enter a Mexican Standoff with Vito and Joe over the stolen gems, when the police promptly intervene, and the standoff soon devolves into a Mêlée à Trois between them, O'Neill and his men, and the police, with Vito and Joe successfully escaping, the Irish Gang mostly killed in the shootout, and O'Neill getting arrested.
  • Homage: There's numerous ones throughout the game.
    • Vito being a WW2 war hero is meant to be an homage to Michael Corleone of The Godfather according to Word of God.
    • The mission "In Loving Memory of Francesco Potenza" is an extended one to the body burial scene in Goodfellas. Similarly, Joe and Vito selling stolen cigarettes is based on another scene in said movie as is Leo Galante's cell.
    • In the denouement to "Room Service", Joe ends up doing some Reckless Gun Usage similar to Pulp Fiction and Vito has to clean up his "mess."
    • Vito is called to deal with his Domestic Abuse-dealing brother in law in an homage to Sonny in The Godfather. He's actually ambushed after it happens, though.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fistfight against O'Neil in the prison yard. After you land a few good hits on him, he automatically starts countering every single one of your attacks until your health almost drops to zero, which starts the next cutscene.
  • How We Got Here: The game starts with Vito looking in his photo-album and reminiscing his life. We finally catch up with him in chapter 15.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Consumption of food and drinks, including beer and cola, regains the part of your health that doesn't regenerate. Lampshaded by Joe:
    "You've always been a quick healer, must be your diet or something."
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: In stark contrast to the first game. The only thing that keeps it from getting too crazy is the frequent Bag of Spilling you go through in the main campaign. In the DLCs, on the other hand, you can eventually end up carrying a platoon-sized arsenal under your coat.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Joe will often chastise Vito for his reckless driving and running red lights. In the "Joe's Adventures" DLC it's entirely possible for you, now playing as Joe, to drive just as recklessly as when playing Vito. In fact, due to the time limit and arcade nature of the DLC's side missions, it's even encouraged to drive like crazy.
  • I Have a Family: Sidney Pen mentions this as he's begging Henry for his life. It doesn't work.
    Henry: Should have thought of your wife before you screwed me over!
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: The bartender of The Lone Star is killed by a drunken Joe by mistake when he slams his gun on the table, causing it to misfire.
  • Improperly Placed Firearms: The prologue level has Italian troops armed with mostly German weapons like the MP 40 and Kar 98, despite the more appropriate Beretta Model 38 being present.
  • Ignored Epiphany: The characters have it hammered into them several times just how shallow and dangerous the life of a gangster really is, but it just doesn't stick. They still think that criminal life is better than being a working "schmuck" (nevermind that most of the problems honest workers have are caused by the criminals).
  • It Will Never Catch On: One guard in the background at the government office describes his idea for an interactive television game, only to be scoffed at.
  • Kill the Creditor: Loan shark Bruno Levine specifically warns Henry, Vito and Joe against trying this if their "sure thing" doesn't work out and they cant pay back their loan, as the money doesn't belong to him, it belongs to his mob financers. If they kill Bruno, they'll still be in debt and they'll have angry mobsters from out of town after them.
  • Knife Fight: Vito and Brian O'Neill
  • Luxury Prison Suite: Leo Galante's cell.
  • The Mafia: As the title shows, the game is about the Mafia.
  • Mêlée à Trois: In the open world sandbox, the cops can randomly join in on firefights between you and enemy gangsters, and will shoot at anyone they see firing off a gun. Random civilians who turn out to be packing conceal carry pistols can also get in on the action.
  • "Mister Sandman" Sequence: For the 1950s when Vito gets out of prison, complete with the song in the trope name. note 
  • Mob Debt: During two separate sections of the main story, the Scaletta Family, and later Joe, end up owing a mob-affiliated Loan Shark a huge amount of money. It's thanks to the former case that Vito ends up becoming associated with The Mafia. The latter incident, meanwhile, ends up leading to Tommy Angelo's assassination and Vito realizing that working for the mob is ultimately not worth it now that his world is collapsing around him.
  • Mood Whiplash: The host of Press Radio News gives one of these while reporting the finding of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. A bit jarring given on how he usually remains professional in the rest of the game but here he takes a moment to compose himself and actually apologizes for reporting such disturbing news.
  • Mook Chivalry: During the slaughterhouse mission, Luca and his goons just stand around and watch Vito fistfight the interrogator, instead of simply pulling out their guns and blowing him away while he's unarmed.
  • More Dakka: The Model 1928 Thompson, M1A1 Thompson, MP40, Beretta Model 38, and, ultimately, the MG-42.
  • My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Averted in regards to the cops. They'll arrest NPC citizens for the same violations of public order that they'll arrest you for. NPCs will even bribe the cops to leave them alone just like you can. The cops will also attack anyone they see firing off guns, not just you. This is in contrast to Mafia III, in which the cops will shoot at you for crimes they witness committed by others.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The scene where Vito slowly lifts a few crates and brings them to a pallet, then refuses to do any more, is a bit of Self-Deprecation regarding the agonizingly long segment of one of the first game's penultimate missions when you had to do this in seriousness.
    • In the hotel mission, after Joe detonates the bomb in the room full of mobsters, then he and Vito find out their target survived because he happened to be in the bathroom at the time, Vito mutters "lucky bastard"— which was also the name of a mission in the first Mafia wherein a rival mobster kept surviving the Salieri family's attempts to kill him through improbable coincidences until Tommy was forced to just chase him down and shoot him (which Vito and Joe also have to do here).
  • No Ending: Vito has fulfilled his end of the "deal" that Leo has tasked him with to kill the Big Bad and save his own life. Its too bad that Joe wasn't a part of the deal. The sequel however shows that not only are Vito and Joe both alive, but depending on the endings Vito can end up as the Don of New Bordeaux, so things end up working out.
  • No Flow in CGI: Mafia II averts this, at least partially, with the loose ends of your character's jacket, tie or trenchcoat flapping about when in motion, courtesy of an improved Phys X engine. This feature was a selling point promoted by the developers before release, even though it has absolutely no bearing in gameplay. It's not perfect either; push the limits of the game engine, and said parts of Vito's clothes may end up stuck and mangled within his body. Possibly due to these reasons, it was removed from the Mafia II: Definitive Edition remaster.
  • No-Gear Level: Played straight in Chapter 11 (when you also lose your money and nearly all of your clothes) and Chapter 14.
  • No Honor Among Thieves: One of the main themes of the overall story, in contrast to the more romantized version of "The Family" seen in the first game.
  • Not Quite the Right Thing:
    • Joe decides to adopt a neighborhood kid enamored of the mafia lifestyle and show him the robes. It gets the kid killed.
    • Vito goes to beat up his brother-in-law for his Domestic Abuse. It results in his sister cutting all ties with him.
    • Vito and Joe attack the Triads to get revenge for Henry. This results in the mob wanting to turn them over to avert a war. Especially when it comes out that Henry was a rat.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The window cleaner disguises Vito and Joe use during the hit on Clemente which basically just consist of different clothes and fake moustaches. Henry reveals that he spotted them a mile away when he calls you the following day.
  • Pink Is Erotic: Joe is a member of the mafia and he enjoys spending his nights with prostitutes. In the '50s, Joe's apartment gets redecorated with a pink color scheme.
  • Police Brutality: Vito is both a witness and a victim of it in prison.
  • Politically Correct History: Oh, so averted. Racism of all stripes, segregation and sexism are on full display. Of course, to avoid being too offensive, they did have to dig up some pretty antique slurs.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Invoked. When Vito and Joe are hired to assassinate Tommy Angelo, they are ordered to dramatically declare "Mr. Salieri sends his regards." before blasting him.
  • Previous Player-Character Cameo: It turns out that Tommy and his family was moved to the suburbs of Empire Bay. Oh, and you and Joe are tasked with killing him.
  • Prison Level: "Time Well Spent" is a Deconstructed Trope version of this, as the player is essentially enduring a long period of Controllable Helplessness for most of the level, and is simply defending himself from would-be attackers the rest of the time, and only finally able to relax once he begins training to defend himself once he gets acquainted with Leo Galante. No Great Escape here, with Vito serving six years in prison.
  • Prison Rape: A few thugs try to pull this. Chubby convinces Frank to go outside for his smoke, and try raping Vito when he's in the shower. He beats one unconscious, with the guards breaking up the fight with the next thug and putting Vito in solitary again.
  • Product Placement: Playboy magazine shows up (even if it's before 1953). Justified in that it amplifies the period atmosphere.
  • Punk in the Trunk: In the seventh chapter, Joe and Eddie Scarpa take Vito for a night out on the town to celebrate his release from prison. However, there's also the matter of needing to bury Frankie Potts, whose corpse has been in the trunk for "a couple of days" and is starting to smell. Not quite the welcome home Vito wanted.
  • Real Men Cook: Leo Galante cooks for himself in prison, and has a rather nice kitchen in his mansion.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: You have the option of wearing a pink suit and fedora, which is not very far-fetched as the color was associated with boys up until the late-1950s. Still, the notion of going on a murderous rampage dressed in what is now considered a girly color will strike some players as being ironic and hilarious. Wear it to the tense and dramatic initiation scene and watch the atmosphere dissolve!
  • Regenerating Health: Moving away from the first game's reliance on wall-mounted first aid kits, Mafia II now has the player's health roughly refilled automatically by up to 60% after taking several serious hits and avoid further injuries for several seconds (except during fistfights). The rest is healed by eating or drinking.
  • "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc: Much like Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. The game opens with Vito in hard times, with the rest of the game showing his start as a petty thief, before fighting in WWII, getting discharged, rising through Empire Bay's criminal underworld, and finally becoming an official mobster. Unlike the first game's Tommy Angelo, however, he only briefly gets to enjoy the gangster life, before a handful of bad deals turn his life upside-down again.
  • Roof Hopping: In "Murphy's Law", this is how Joe and Vito escape from the police.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The game has a number of these as befitting a mafia story.
    • Joe goes on one after Marty is killed, tracking down Clemente and filling his car with lead.
    • Joe and Vito go on another one after Henry is killed and end up wiping out half the Triads.
    • Vito, after he discovers who killed his father.
  • Romantic False Lead: One of those prostitutes that Joe brought along and who clearly showed she had hots for Vito, and was later saved by him when she accidentally bumped into some hothead's car upon leaving? She's never mentioned again and Vito, quite surprisingly, hasn't got in a relationship with any girl by the end of the game.
  • Ruder and Cruder: While the first game wasn't clean in terms of language it only used profanity sparingly when characters got angry and frustrated in specific scenes. Mafia II on the other hand is filled to the brim with swearing (see Cluster F-Bomb above).
  • Scenery Porn: Empire Bay is really quite gorgeous, especially in the snow.
  • Schizophrenic Difficulty: With good cover, you can take on entire armies of wiseguys. Without cover, you die after couple of shots. Regenerating health helps a lot, but you better pray there isn't any mook hiding with Tommy gun. And don't think hiding in the car will save you, like in GTA- here, you are a sitting duck.
  • Shoplift and Die: Attempting to steal items from a gunstore will cause the owner to pull out a shotgun and shoot you. If you are quick enough, you can gun him down and get away with it- assuming you can outrun the cops.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shown Their Work:
    • It's a fairly accurate period piece; notably, when Vito mentions to Joe in 1945 that he's driven a Jeep, Joe replies, "What the hell's a Jeep?" as the first civilian models didn't appear until later that year.
    • Averted in other areas. Barring the storyline, many aspects of the game appear ahead of their time, like songs ("The Fat Man" by Fats Domino, a 1949 song, shows up in 1945 Empire Bay, and Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" only debuted nine years after the end of events in the game in real-life) and cars (especially those circa 1951, like the Shubert Beverly, a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air look-alike). Seems more like the creators opted for an Artistic License to make the most out of the time periods the game is set in.
    • The most egregrious are a 1961 song in 1951note , and a 1963 song in 1945, as well as a 1949 Cadillac Expy in 1945 and a 1957 Ford expy in 1951. Also, you can find Playboy magazines as early as the second level, in 1944-ish, when Playboy didn't come out until 1953. The worst part is that most anachronisms had been avoided had they just set the 50's in 1956, as almost all the music would fit and so would the cars.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: The loan shark, Bruno Levine has a minimal amount of scenes but it's his role that sets up the entire game. As he was the same loan shark who Vito's father loaned money from, resulting in his murder when he couldn't pay it back. The same debt that lead Vito to the life of crime in order to settle it.
  • Smug Snake: Luca Gurino and Bruno Levine.
  • Stealth Pun: The Mafia II is set in World War II, plus it has around 200 F-Bombs in a game.
  • Stealth Sequel: The game appears to be a thematic sequel whose storyline has absolutely no relation to the storyline of Mafia 1. That is, until Joe and Vito show up on Tommy Angelo's doorstep and gun him down in cold blood.
  • Suspect Is Hatless: The police dispatch's description of the protagonist is laughably vague; usually something along the lines of "Caucasian male, dark hair, medium build." Although this never seems to prevent policemen from recognizing Vito on sight.
  • Suspiciously Apropos Music: A lot, assuming you leave the radio on default stations—for instance, after you get handed a pistol for the first time, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" comes on. As well as "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe", "Maybe", "Chow Mein", and "Come Softly to Me" , and their granddaddy - "Bellville".
  • SWAT Team: One appears in the DLC "Joe's Adventures", which is a major anachronism as the first SWAT units weren't available until 1968, seventeen years after the events of this game.
  • Take Cover!: Essential for your survival in gun fights, especially on hard difficulty.
  • The Theme Park Version: How the game treats The '50s and to a lesser extent, The Forties. Such as a certain 1964 song appearing in 1945, and a song of the same year in 1951. Cars too.
  • The Triads and the Tongs: The latter play a pretty important role fairly late in the game.
  • Third-Person Shooter: With plenty of driving.
  • Think Nothing of It: Joe's "Remember those five bucks you owe me?" after the death of Carlo Falcone. An even more cathartic moment when Joe ends up taken away.
  • Time Skip: Vito's years in prison are quickly glossed over, and only covers his meeting and befriending of Leo, and him killing O'Neill. You wouldn't know it actually covers six whole years if the game didnt tell you.
  • Tragic Villain: Vito, forced into the life of villainy only to save his own family from a monstrous debt - and ending up wasting all his effort! He also ends up becoming violent himself.
  • Two Shots from Behind the Bar: Bartenders will pull a shotgun on Vito if he tries to rob them.
  • Ultimate Job Security: The mafia-backed loan shark, Bruno Levine is deeply trusted by the families and is ruthlessly loyal to them. He's made it clear to customers that killing him won't achieve anything, as the money belongs to mafia families and they will punish any deadbeats who try to cut themselves out of the deal. Mickey the Crab tried that and lost 3 of his fingers on his left hand, whereas, Antonio Scaletta was murdered because he couldn't pay back the debt.
  • Universal Ammo: Averted; despite the fact more than half the game's arsenal uses the versatile .45 ACP round, you can only collect more ammo for a certain gun from dropped guns of that specific type. So, you can't fill your tommy gun with bullets from a Colt 1911, or even from a M1A1 Thompson which uses regular mags instead of drums. Partially justified in that while all these weapons use the same bullets, the magazines for each are wildly different.
  • Updated Re Release: The 2020 Definitive Edition remaster features improved graphics including all new, completely redone, high-resolution textures and new lighting effects. It also supports high refresh rate gameplay, whereas the original version would break at high FPS without an external mod. However, it also removes cloth physics and many minor physics in general, and also has draw distance and Z-fighting issues. Some of the loading screens in the DLC are also censored as they depicted female nudity.
  • Vice City: Empire Bay, a seemingly peaceful and nice-looking city on the outside that's controlled by various organized crime rings in different parts, often resulting in blooshed and violence.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Henry have a brief one when he rants about Sidney, who shot him in the leg. He shoots Sidney's dead body (after Vito and Joe kill him) and then threw his gun down at the body.
  • Villain Protagonist: In contrast to Tommy from the first game, a law-abiding schmuck who pretty much only joined because he needed protection and was gradually seduced by the Family way, Vito makes it clear he sees himself as a man of violence who is willing to hurt people for money and is simply in it to get rich or die trying. However, by the end he learns that Being Evil Sucks.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Derek. So you've gotten the hang of running and gunning. From cover, without it, doesn't matter to you, so long as you meet your enemy face to face. Not this guy. Not only is he surrounded by Elite Mooks, but he never stands still, uses cover almost constantly, and lobs molotov cocktails at you from the high ground. Be ready to have your skills tested.
  • Wanted Meter: For minor infractions like speeding, the cops only want to ticket you. For more severe crimes like beating people up, they'll bring out the cuffs and try to arrest you. Start killing? The gloves are off, and they'll bring out the guns - first pistols, then shotguns, and then Thompsons. If you're fighting someone and no one has died, however, a cop will just stop the fight. At lower wanted levels, it's also feasible to simply bribe the police.
  • Weeding Out Imperfections: Invoked by Tommy Angelo during the trial of Ennio Salieri.
    Tommy Angelo: I witnessed at least fifteen occasions where murders were sanctioned by Ennio Salieri himself. He orders the deaths of his employees and clients in the same way that a gardener pulls weeds from his flower bed.
  • Wham Line:
    • For players of the first game.
      Vito: Mr. Angelo?
      Tommy Angelo: Uh... yes?
      Vito: Mr. Salieri sends his regards. [Joe shoots him]
    • Derek has Vito come along to intimidate some striking workers. One of them recognizes Vito...
      Worker: But what are you doing working for [Derek]? After what he did to your old man?
  • What the Hell, Hero?: The dock workers working for Derek end up calling Vito out for joining up with the mob. It's them who reveal to Vito that Derek had his father killed.
  • You Killed My Father: Vito to Derek.
  • You Bastard!: Although the game never chastises you for it, it's hard for the player not to feel guilty for being the trigger man in killing Tommy, especially if you played the first game. It ramps up the sad music and everything.


 
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Mr. Salieri sends his regards

In Mafia II's version of Tommy Angelo's death, Joe Barbaro loudly cocks his shotgun just before blasting the ex-Mafioso in the chest.

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