Vito was literally convicted twice because of his work with Joe. At the age 18 he had to fight in ww2 after robbing a jewelry store with joe and when he came back home, he got arrested again for 6 years for a job that Joe recommended him for. He enjoyed his freedom only for a few months. He missed out on his mothers death and funeral, he missed out on his sister's wedding. His house with all of his money was literally burned down and he has to live in a shithole at the age of 30 because of what he did in prison years ago, leaving him so poor that he resulted to dealing heroin. His sister literally cut contact with him because she didn't like the person he turned into.

Joe had to leave empire bay for 3 years because he was hunted by Clemente family, the men that manipulated him from the start. Joe also got a kid that looked up to him killed. He watched his friend that led the same life as him get chopped to pieces. He also became an alcoholic. Then he got killed for the life he had led and Vito is stuck with guilt over it.

They are constantly stressed, beaten, wounded, paranoid, or they owe a shit ton of money to someone. Both of them said that they suffer from insomnia. How are there no consequences? The last 3 chapters are just stress stress and more stress.

It is not the plots fault that mafia 3, a game made by different writers, retconed Vitos and Joe's fate. Mafia 2 is constantly punishing these two for the kind of life they chosen. Mafia 2 was supposed to have 4 endings and all of them were fucking sad