The open world video game has been tied to organized crime from the very beginning. From Grand Theft Auto 3 and The Getaway, to the True Crime series (which gave us the cult classic Sleeping Dogs), and the original Mafia, all these 2000s era games sought to insert players in a gangster classic straight out of Hollywood where they get to leave their mark as they take over a fictional urban sprawl.
In the next decade, however, the open-world crime game had become old hat for everyone not called Rockstar Games. After all, playing as a (probably white) gunslinger who wants to own the city will always be less interesting than playing as Gotham’s Dark Knight, or a wizard, or even a stoic Yakuza who’s great with kids and loves karaoke with buddies. But as the industry zagged towards creative spins on the open-world formula, developer 2K Czech doubled down on that original vision, Mafia 2. And this month, Amazon Prime Gaming is giving away the Definitive Edition of this fantastic follow-up for free.
