Mafia II is a beautiful and exciting game which nonetheless fails to fully utilize some of its biggest strengths.
As with any mob story, this one involves a lot of bullets, and the cover-based third-person-shooter mechanics are near flawless and really make you feel like a part of the action. The cover-taking system is easy to use, precise, and versatile enough to make the gunfights enjoyable and intense. Taking cover won't make you invincible - hanging too close to the edge of a crate or behind a wall too low to fully conceal yourself will leave you exposed even when "behind cover." This adds to the intensity of the fights, as you'll find yourself inching out towards the edge of your cover to squeeze off some shots, only to dart back when a bullet catches your shoulder. Fortunately, the same system applies to enemies, so you can take down enemies who are leaning too far out from a pillar or leave their feet exposed. The only real flaw with the combat is that your AI friends can sometimes do some of the work for you, giving you less to experience of the action. The rare moments in which you are on your own are the best in the game because they require you to exercise a delicate balance of caution, courage, and marksmanship, all while the destructible environment around you comes crashing down with incredible visual and auditory flair.
So it's a shame that the shooting action in Mafia II is so rare. You'll spend far more time driving to various locations than filling them up with Thompson rounds. This isn't all bad, though, because the cars are fun to drive and Empire Bay is absolutely stunning and full of incredible detail. You'll want to drive slowly through the streets just to soak it all in because it is so entirely charming, which helps make the driving feel like less of a chore and more like an excellent, albeit slightly over-represented, feature of the game. One part of the driving section which seems half-baked is the Empire Bay police, as the police system makes it rare for police to actually call you out on crimes such as speeding (and they don't care about red light violations like they did in the original Mafia, even if your passengers do), and all too easy to ditch if they do. It's also a shame that outside of the story missions, there's so little to do in Empire City. It's such a beautiful place that it would great to have a reason to explore it, but without side missions or rewards, there's no impetus to do so.
When you're not driving or shooting, you're either watching beautiful and well-voiced cutscenes which tell the game's all-too-familiar (Goodfellas is an obvious inspiration) but nonetheless interesting story or doing other things to advance the plot, like getting in intense but simple fistfights, using the cover system to sneak around enemy territory (which works very well and makes stealth segments very enjoyable), or performing any number of mundane tasks. While some of these things pale in comparison to the excellent gunplay, they are all such integral parts of the story that it never really feels like a chore. Cleaning toilets may not sound like fun, but when it happens (and it does happen, once), it's so seamlessly integrated with the story and game world that it actually ends up adding to the experience instead of detracting from it.
And that's the beauty of Mafia II - it's such a carefully crafted world that the whole game benefits from things that could ruin lesser games. It's greater than the sum of its parts because every part actually belongs in the game. A lackluster (and clearly DLC-oriented) end to the story, an underutilized open world, and not enough of the excellent shooting make Mafia II less than it could be. Everything is so good in Mafia II that you want more of it, which makes the few missed opportunities really stand out. It's not a shooter and it's not a driving game - it really is its own experience, a cinematic, engaging, and intense stroll through a story with telling in a city worthy of your time.