The easiest way to describe Mafia is to compare it to Grand Theft Auto 3. Both games have somewhat similar gameplay, but Mafia is more realistic, less open-ended, and Mafia is set in the Depression. Mafia's single player campaign is told in a series of flashbacks that span over the main character Michael Angelo's career in the Mafia. You rise from an unlucky taxi driver to a made man in the Salieri family. The objectives vary, but most of them involve a very slow, but realistic drive to wherever you're going, followed by a shootout. There are also many chase scenes where your can shoot from you car. The missions vary from protecting Don Salieri to rubbing out people who betray the family. Throughout the game you are often accompanied by your buddies Paul and Sam. They have decent AI, but often get themselves killed very quickly; which results in mission failure. Most of the game time is spent in a car. The cars are very realistic, and to be true to the time period, very slow. Crashes can hurt you or even kill you. As cars get damaged, they get slower, and can blow up. The cars can get flat tires, and run out of gas, which very rarely happens, unless someone shot your gas tank! As time progresses, new cars are available, but the fastest cars you drive are in the racing level. That particular level requires to steal a racing car you to sabotage it, and later come in first in a race. The race is near impossible, but the patch, now available, makes it much easier. Unlike GTA 3, you can't indiscriminately steal any car you see, you first have to be taught how to steal it by the Don's mechanic. You can store cars that you were given or stolen in the Don's garage, which can hold a lot of cars. The city of Lost Heaven is extremely detailed, complete with mass transit. The parts on foot are much more difficult and so are thefire fights. I spent most of my time crouched behind something. The weapons are all true to the era, pistols, shotguns, and of course the tommy gun! Unlike Liberty City, Lost Heaven actually has laws. You get fined for speeding, driving red lights, and crashes, but they just slow you down since there is no money. All other minor offenses aren't enforced, you can still drive on the wrong side of the road. If you hurt someone or run from them, the police will try to arrest you, or kill you. You can switch vehicles or hide for a while to get them to stop chasing you. There are two other game modes besides the campaign. In Freeride, you get money to buy more guns by killing enemy gangsters, speeding, and destroying cars. It gets old pretty quickly though. The other mode Freeride Extreme, which is available after beating the game, is different. It's entire point is to unlock cars for the Freeride mode. To unlock the cars, you have to complete various missions. I never beat all of them though; I cheated to get every car. Mafia is one of the best games to come out in along time, and I recommend it to all action game fans.

Score: 9.5

Wise Duck