A experience that will stick with you for a long time to come... but slightly turned down by the bad porting.
You are Mike Angelo, a lowly cab driver in the metropolis LostHaven, a kind of mix between New York and San Francisco. One night, after meeting your fare, two thugs jump into your car and tell you to floor it. They are being chased by some other thugs and you are forced to outrun them and help the crooks. With this, Angelo is thrown into the world of organized crime, since after the chase, he's introduced to the don and becomes a soldier.
The whole game is told through very elaborate cutscenes, and the story is told by Angelo himself, as he's talking to another guy about his life in crime. I'm not going to detail anything, since it would spoil the game.
This game plays like GTA, but with a more elaborate view into the car riding. From mission to mission, you'll need to drive to the place, through the city, roads and bridges. By the end of the game you'll know the town like the back of your hand. And that's good, since you'll need to learn shortcuts and alternate ways to arrive in places on time and to find all of the cars you'll want to jack for your collection.
For weaponry, the game provides all kinds of gangster guns, from the classic Tommy Gun to the Lupara, the sawed-off gun used by the Sicilian mob in hits. You'll also get some melee weapons like bats, but you'll stick mostly to guns since the majority of the enemies are armed to their teeth. Most missions will take you a long while to finish, since the enemies ARE merciless. This isn't an easy game...
The graphics in the game are wonderful, Illusion really kicked butt with all the detail. The cars look amazing, people look respectable and everything is accurate to the time. The soundtrack of the game is composed by jazz tunes and some blues by big bands. It's just an awesome atmosphere.
The only gripe that I have about the game is the one sneaking mission. It's annoying since your partner is really vulnerable and kind of stupid... but it's nothing you'll throw the game out the window for, but you will suffer through it if you don't take the careful way.
Mafia is a experience to be lived. Simply put, if you like games, you need to play this. When it was released, the game was a system hog. Now, some years later, most people should have machines to play this on. I suggest playing this version of the game, since the console ports got really sloppy ports and ugly presentation, which is unfortunate, since the producers had sometime to polish the game... but if you don't have a choice, it's worth playing anyway just for the story.
Thanks for reading!