Mafia 2 revisited

This week (perhaps after watching lots of Sopranos) I decided to give Mafia 2 another shot. I got most of the way through it in my intial play through but for whatever reason just stopped playing (happens with pretty much every game I buy!).

I didn't realize it, but when stopped playing the game months back I was only 3 missions from the end. This week it didn't take long at all to complete the game, so I went back and played through some older content again. After playing through it quite a bit I gotta admit - despite the mixed critical reception, I thought the game was outstanding.

One criticism of the game was its lack of a "free roam" mode. Free roam is available, but it's only available when you're on a mission and you need to get from Point A to Point B without a time limit. One observation I've always had about the GTA clones (with the one considerable exception of the Saints Row series) is that none of them have figured out how to make free roam as fun as GTA. GTA popularized the living, breathing city because of how interactive, detailed, and varied that city was. All the clones, however, just kind of made a city with roads and buildings. One of the most impressive clones I've ever played was True Crime: Streets of LA because of its massive and true-to-life rendering of Los Angeles, but the novelty is lost when the player realizes there's nothing to do except drive around.

Mafia 2 is not much different from the other clones in this sense. It's a big city and there are many places to go, but not a lot of things to do other than driving around. But that's not the point. The city is there to make the missions as incredibly realistic as possible, but ultimately it's a linear, mission-based game.

Like I said, I was really impressed. If you haven't played the game, it's at least worth a rental. If you have played it (and finished it)......

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SPOILERS!!!!!!

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... What do you think happened to Joe at the end? And why would Leo leave him out of the deal, knowing he works with Vito (and saved Vito's life)?