A word to the gangsters of Empire Bay: don’t mess with Vito Scaletta. For a middle-rung mobster, he has more unwashable blood on his hands than Lady Macbeth. By the end of Mafia II, the belated sequel to the 2004 Xbox sandboxer, the body count is stratospheric. As Vito, you’ll consider how you got here — how it came to this.

That’s the beauty of his story, the centerpiece of this 1950s crime epic. Over the course of 12-ish hours, you’ll form relationships with the people you meet. They’ll endear themselves to you. You’ll be sad to see them die. In short, they matter. Truly, Mafia II’s strongest asset is its narrative — a strength supported by stellar voice-acting from nearly everyone in the cast, and highlighted by Vito’s sidekick, Joe Barbaro.

One notable chapter takes you from a hotel basement to rooftop and back down again via a window-washing platform as you try to blow up a rival family. Another sees you speeding through Empire City, trying to reach a friend in time to warn him of an impending attack. And yet another offers a brilliant flashback to the original game’s ending. The missions include driving, shooting, stealth, and melee combat, all mixed up enough to prevent the action from growing dull — and with rock-solid controls whether you’re on foot or behind the wheel.

Illuminating everything are breathtaking graphics that span two distinct seasons. The art direction and attention to detail are stunning, and they make you want to take in every nook and cranny, leading to a surprising fact about Mafia II: it’s not an open-world game. It has all the trappings of one (mini-map, citywide mission prompts, and so on), but it delivers a very linear experience. Free-roaming activities are limited, and the game does a lousy job of nudging you toward the few that exist or even giving you any reasons to wander its beautiful world.

Our other big issue with Mafia II is how many of its greatest moments occur in cutscenes, without you at the controls. The aforementioned nod to the first game’s ending, for instance? All you do is drive to the spot and the cutscene does the rest. It’s disappointing.

We understand the tightrope any game walks between narrative cohesion and player freedom, and Mafia II makes its choice clear. As a result, its best aspects are exceptional, but we can’t help but think that it could’ve offered so much more.

On Xbox 360

+ Engaging characters in well-paced, impeccably voice-acted gangster story.

+ Visually incredible.

- So big and beautiful a game world, so little to do in it!

? Why do the police pursue you for speeding but not for recklessly running red lights?

8.0