Let’s face it; the Mafia is cool.

Gangsters are the new cowboys, with films like The Godfather and Goodfellas being in the top ten list of most men’s favourite films, and The Sopranos being one of the biggest TV shows to hit our screens in the last ten years.

It would be fair to say that the aforementioned films take themselves more seriously than The Sopranos, which slips a bit of humour in every now and then, and when I heard that Mafia II was in development one of the questions I asked myself was “which way is it going to go?”

The official game of The Godfather was received with disappointment from most quarters, feeling quite bland and not being a lot of fun to play, so I was eager to see what Mafia II did differently.

The answer is that while this is another game that lacks a humorous touch in general, the team behind it have absolutely nailed the approach they have taken.

From the writing to the acting, it matches the feeling of those films perfectly from the get-go, and the game itself is beautifully accessible – largely down to the fact that everything about the control scheme and the screen layout seems to be ripped out of Grand Theft Auto IV, which may sound unoriginal but it ensures you feel comfortable in control of your character from the first time you play the game.

The game has a few flaws but they are largely forgivable – the biggest one being the frame-rate, which can be choppy at the best of times.

The visuals are stunning (in-fact they’re some of the best I’ve seen), but it does come at the expense of some jarring slowdown. But if you can get used to it, this game is a treat.