Get your tommy gun out!
The game is set in the 1930's and you follow the story of a young Tommy Angelo, a cab driver with a stable life and good income. But on one fateful night he is spun into a spiralling downfall into the dark world of the mafia, queue big opening scene, plenty of smart Italian suits and big cigars. You start off with very small jobs, helping out here and there, but as the respect is earnt by a variety of ways (smashing rival mafias vehicles up, killing trouble makers, stealing cars) you are slowly accepted into 'The Family'. Now if no one knows what this means, a family is a close knit of gangsters, not necessarily blood related who 'look after' each other. Most of your time in the city of Lost Heaven is driving about in classic cars that are more important in looks than speed, but this doesn't matter, you can enjoy the views that city has to offer you, pedestrians milling about and the odd dodgy driver cutting you up. Now all this law breaking behaviour cannot be ignored, there are hordes of police officers waiting to stop you speeding, arrest you for brandishing weapons in public or even running a old women over, I thought this was a bit harsh, she just walked out in front of me!
The little things in this game impressed me, for instance by pressing F4 automatically put a speed limit on your car, preventing you from being put down for excessive speeding. The fact that the characters you meet all have very distinct personalities. The environment was accurately designed and the city came alive.
I don't remember why I decided to buy the game, maybe due to my obsession with gangsters, the title was a winner. Now I don't have a particularly good pc, so have never been able to enjoy Mafia at its best, but game play overall is great. And the playability is very high.
My final words would be, if you have a PC and a mouse plus keyboard, buy this game.