The storyline for Mafia 2 is a gritty drama and chronicles the rise of Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will join a crime family and become "a made man." The game will include multiple situations where the player can decide the outcome and their choice will lead to one of several different endings.
The story begins with the player character Vito returning home from world war II . Vito had joined the U.S. military as a way of avoiding jail time for a botched robbery. Vito reunites with his old friend, Joe Barbaro, and the two quickly embark upon a life of crime. Their criminal ascension starts with Mikey, a car mechanic who gets in a conflict with Joe. Mikey also needs a certain type of car to chop for parts, and will pay $400 for one that the police are not tailing. Soon enough, Vito, Joe, and Henry Tomasino (already a made man) find themselves battling with, for, against, and around three crime factions: the Falconi, Vinci and Clemente families.
The game will contain two hours of in-game cutscene. The original game, Mafia: The city of lost heaven, had a screenplay of 400 pages, opposed to the 700 pages of the sequel. Daniel Vavra, the writer and director of the original and the sequel, discussed the new angle of the game stating: "The old game was a tribute to gangster movies, a romantic vision. Mafia 2 is grittier, real, a darker world, and the effects are based in reality." The Official Playstation Magazine states: "A high body count is still promised in this tale set in a fictional city 'inspired by' New York of the 1940s and '50s, but those casualties will come the hard way -- through small-scale operations rather than mass firefights."
