Sandbox

[What?]

Is there any way to play this as a sandbox? I've beat the game, but I want to walk and drive around this city. The city is beautiful, the buildings, the cars, the atmosphere, I want to explore.

I need my daily dose of Art Deco.

[dkfqwmdu]

That's what Free Ride is for. Most buildings are inaccessible in Free Ride though, so you may want to use a mod that opens them up.

[What?]

Originally posted by dkfqwmdu:

That's what Free Ride is for. Most buildings are inaccessible in Free Ride though, so you may want to use a mod that opens them up.

How is free ride accessed|?

[dkfqwmdu]

Via the main menu. It is unlocked after the first story mission.

[Rexali_]

Personally, I don't like to call it a sandbox game, because sandbox means you play inside a box, but it isn't just that. In sandbox games, you can modify almost everything, like in Minecraft or the new HITMAN games, in which you can make your own contracts. The Forza Horizon series is sandbox racing, which means you can make any kind of race class on any route and share it with other players.

It isn't also open-world either... So let's stick to a linear or sandbox, as you said!

The map is great and huge; it's worth exploring. If you go for collectibles, you will visit places where you didn't go there by playing the main story. Also, there are 12 free-ride missions that are worth a try.

P.S. One thing I hate about Mafia 2 is its small map. Though, in video games, you shouldn't calculate maps by the engine's metric and scales. For example, by calculating the math and measuring the scale, the GTA V map is bigger than the GTA San Andreas, but you never feel that it's actually bigger. The GTA V map actually feels very small when you play it. Just a city on the bottom and a country side above, while GTA SA has three big cities with so many country sides and villages! That's why spirit is necessary in video games, because you feel them by their spirit, not by their metrics and scales. As I mentioned, GTA V has a bigger map than GTA SA if you calculate it by math, but you never feel like it's actually bigger.

Remember In that GTA SA mission, where you need to travel to San Fierro for the first time along with the guy named "The Truth", it took almost half an hour to reach the city from the village. That's why people feel GTA SA has a bigger map compared to GTA V, while the math doesn't say that. Because GTA SA has spirit in its environment, and, TBH, spirit is the right measurement, GTA SA has a really bigger map compared to GTA V, no matter what the math says!

That's why, when you calculate engine metrics, Mafia 2's map is bigger than Mafia 1's on paper, but you never feel it is actually bigger, and Mafia 1 counts as a huge map. Though you should also consider the speed at which you access the maps in every video game. For example, if a game has a big map but the cars inside it move at 200 mph(High Speed), you'll feel that the map is small.

But if a game has a medium or small map but the cars inside it move at 50 mph(Low Speed), you'll feel that the map is big. This is one of the other possible reasons we feel the largeness inside video games. While in Mafia 1, you usually don't cross 40 MPH because the police will chase you if they see you put metal on the pedal!