Is Mafia II like GTA?

I wouldn't say it's like GTA, but it's a very good game. I highly recommend it, it has a great story and a great 20's-30's ambiance.

I prefer Mafia II over GTA even if it has a bit less entertaining or truly living world.

First off MAFIA II IS AMAZING, currently it is my #1 most favorite game.

At jbond said, it has kind of an old type of amiance rather than the more modern type that GTA has.

There are quite a few key differences though.

~Mafia II has a MUCH shorter lenght than GTA has

~Mafia II FOLLOWS HEAVILY ON A STORYLINE while GTA is a more floppy, with not a strong storyline but rather just doing missions

~Mafia II IMO has a better story and deffinetely more gameplay value than GTA has

~Mafia II's DLC is kind of like GTA, there is no story, but rather it's just doing a bunch of missions

GTA has tons of stuff to do in the open world city, but in Mafia II even if you have an open world city there is not a lot of stuff to do unless missions, but game is still very good, its not really like GTA, but all these games with open world city have something in common, but story in Mafia II is pretty interesting, in GTA games story was always something secondary.

Mafia II is like GTA but with MOBS , Mafia is a really good saga :3

i much rather prefer Mafia, the original one, is really really good, Mafia 2 was ok.

Mafia 2 is story driven and has a great ambience. Look at a few vids/letsplays if you need to. But it definitely is worth it.
GTA is like a b-movie action films. Mafia 1 & 2 is The Godfather and Goodfellas. If you like mafia-style stories and characters you'll love the games.

Yes and no?
There is the gang variable which was present in gta III i think. There is the open world-ness but Mafia II does it in chapters as there is no Free Ride(That's the Free Roam) this time in Mafia II. There are mods that add it though. The story DLC's which are Jimmy's Vendetta and Joe's Adventures add a bit of free roaming to it but you won't play as Vito Scalletta. If you liked GTA, maybe you'll like this too

In both games you get to shoot people and drive cars.

Mafia II reminds me of L.A. Noire (highly recommended), without investigations and interrogations. GTA is more like a sandbox type of play, whilst Mafia focus on a storyline - you are told what to do during the game. The game is cheap (and was free some time ago) so you don't risk too much funds.

It gets all good thinks from GTA, but it's very defferent. I don't like GTA, but Mafia 2 is great. I play it last week and I can't beleve that I don't do it before.

No.
It has playboy magazines

I hate GTA, but I enjoyed Mafia II. You do the math.
PS: snatch an ISW 508

Mafia II has a really good story and if you love mafia stories this one is good and interesting and the DLC is worth it but only on sale,unless you really want the achievements though Joes Adventure is the best one of the bunch to try and not spoil anything i will just say this one ties in more with the original. story.Jimmy Vendetta is decent it does give more mini missions.

The other DLC are just cars and clothes but the hot rods are fun to drive but not really needed but the nice thing about them are you get a decent fast cars at the start of the game.If you like oldies music you will enjoy the soundtrack it is one better ones it fits the time line and sometimes i have just as much fun driving around to the music and screwing around then i do doing missions.

There is sandbox but as said before it is limited to robbing stores,buying clothes,eating,and you can kill people and run them over and shoot the cops but they get mean quick.One more tip if you do play it you can die from crashing at high speed i found out the hard way lol.

It's like a more linear GTA, with less freedom, but with a more interesting story.

I remember playing one of those old Mafia games on the original Xbox. I played Mafia 1 and some other mafia game back to back, cannot remember which was which now. Anyway. One was more open world and has GTA car thefts and stuff. But obeying the rules of the road actually counted. Police would chase you for going through a red light. So I just drove on the sidewalk, there was no penalty for that.

In a way, they could be the same, but Mafia 2 focuses more towards the story, and it's set in the olden days.

Has some elements of GTA like stealing cars, however it's chapter based, I found out you don't really get a chance to explore or roam in between missions. There are no "saves" either. Just Chapter to Chapter. Tons of fun, great story, and PLAYBOYS. :P

Mafia II is great. First Mafia, though, is amazing

You are half of the time driving a car, the other half enjoying the story or killing a few people. It's like if it was more focused into the story than the gameplay. But yes, it is good (unlike Civ V, since you said you didn't like it). The ending, even if people don't like it, is perfect, and very convincing.

Was a total surprise when I played it. Loved it from start to finish. The shooting mechanics are better than any GTA game, the driving is good as well. You get a nice feel of the city however the "free roam" seems limited with no real objectives other than the main story line. I really recommend this gem.