Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is third person action game where you play the role of a gangster in an American city of the 1930s, and get a chance to live through gangster's rise and fall. Mafia is played through a series of flashbacks of Tommy's life. Tommy, whose taxi is taken over by a gang of runaway mobsters chased by their enemies. Tommy manages, thanks to his exceptional driving skills, to shake off the pursuers. Consequently, he is offered the job as a driver for Salieri _family_ headed by Don Salieri who controls the gangsters he saved. He initially refuses but when the pursuers find him, destroy his taxi, and nearly kill him in revenge, he reconsiders the offer and accepts the job. Tommy must perform missions for the Don and his consigliore to advance in the standings of the family, driving period cars around the huge area that is Lost Heaven. Tommy narrates the entire story in retrospective.

In Mafia you do a lot of shooting and driving, and you can perform many of the same actions that are available in Grand Theft Auto III. Well, Grand Theft Auto III and Mafia are quite comparable (the bright lights/big city idea, cars, pedestrians, traffic, cops, prostitutes, murderous thugs and similarities in interface), but I don't think that Mafia is a pathetic copy of Grand Theft Auto III nor does it pretend to be :) Mafia is more about the story and the feeling of playing a real-time criminal. The game is structured into different totally linear missions that you've got to take on in order to progress - get a mission, complete it, get a mission, complete it :) The crime ..(cough)...story must go on!

Mafia features over 12 square miles of this 1930's American city, 20 action-packed missions with tasks including from mob hits, car chases, bootlegging, shootouts, assassinations of persona non grata, bodyguard missions, enormous battles against rival hooligans, bank robberies and even simply going for a romantic walk with your love, 30 highly realistic indoor locations (airport, banks, galleries, restaurants, the harbor...), 60 historic cars (based on models that were on the road in the 30's) with realistic physic and finally over dozen weapons to choose from including baseball bats, knuckledusters, sawn-off shotguns, sniper rifles, Magnums or the legendary Thompson Tommy gun.

Pros

an excellent story that works like an autobiography
nice learning curve (good tutorial), though driving cars needs a little practice :)
all the missions are challenging + I never found the game to be repetitive
nice cinematic cut-scenes (rendered with the game's engine)
smooth camera (probably better than camera in Max Payne)
a nice map of the city
fantastic chase scenes
cars has realistic physics
you can shoot right out of your car while driving + you can shoot tires
you cannot destroy your car, but the car takes some damage - dents, scratches, and broken glass
a handy speed limiter that will keep the Police off your back as long as you obey traffic signals
all the NPCs have voices

Cons

no multiplayer
totally linear structure of the missions
combat system could be better done, especially the melee combat is a bit frustrating - when you have three people punching you, and you can't get one hit off.
NPC AI isn't too great
AI during gun battles can be a bit inconsistent at times
limited save-game system (100 automatic save points

Besides the single player mode, Mafia includes a Free Ride mode where you can drive anywhere you want and try out the different cars and even earn cash by taking taxi missions, without having the restrictions of time and people pressing players to move forward in the game. Once you have completed the game, you'll unlock a completely new mode called Free Ride Extreme which gives you access to some bonus cars. All in all, Mafia is a good game that is worth your time, especially for those who love 1930's gangster theme and solid story. If you don't already own it, put aside the money because it is well worth it.

For hardware requirements visit the official Mafia homepage.