What happens when you add Grand Theft Auto with 1945 American history?
You get MAFIA II.

You are the son of a poor immigrant searching for his own piece of the "American Dream". As Vito, an Italian American who is looking for a way out of poverty when you are consumed by the power and wealth of Organized Crime. The story continues 20 years after the first Mafia game which saw Vito arriving home after war. Now you're back you work to prove yourself to the Mob and make a name for yourself on the streets.

It's hard to say much about the game except that it feels like a 1950s version of Grand Theft Auto. All your basic, stealing cars, mowing down innocent and killing mobsters but with a story behind it. I think its a great game for any fans of GTA or your usual open-world fan, but besides that it's nothing much.

The 50s: since it's an upgrade from those 1930 slow jalopies, the cars are faster and prove to be much more fun for all your car-to-car gunfights or if you simply want to run someone over, you know they're not gonna be able to out walk your slow moving 1930s bum of a car.

Elaborate Missions: ever wanted to blow up a meeting room full of mob bosses? Now you get the chance. The developers have remembered that bombs like other technology in the 1950s, were pretty much crap compared to today's standard. So they've gone about having to use these ideas creatively and making it fun with 1950s arsenal. Missions are much bigger and have been said to have more than one way around a situation (but from my guess it will either be shoot or sneak). With that in mind you do get to pump some mobsters with holes.

Cops: Police levels will be different, as in the original mafia, if you ran a red light, you'd have the entire force on you. However developers have changed it a bit with different severities from punching someone on the street to murdering someone in broad daylight.

The Storyline: As you progress through missions the story changes as you begin to move up the ranks. When you start out stealing cars and doing small crime, it's not until the later ranks that you have cars brought to you (probably from the lower ranks you were once). As you progress you also begin to make a name for yourself as at the beginning of the game no one knows you, while later people in the streets fear you.

Choice: In most open-world games, missions are made available through icons on a map, which you can visit or ignore as they become available. Mafia II, takes a more linear approach, with most missions beginning when Vito gets a call from Joe about some work that needs doing. Similarly, side missions will be something you stumble across when the story calls for it. For example, you might witness a hit and run while driving home from a job, and you’ll have the option of either pursuing the culprit or ignore it.