Does Mafia leave you with an offer you can't refuse or dump you in the river with a concrete overcoat?

Mafia has you playing as taxi driver Tommy Angelo who one day has to help the local mafia Don escape from the police. Don Salieri liked what he saw and invites Tommy into the 'family'. The game is set in the 1930s and everything is authentic to that time period, including the clothes, music and cars. The missions given to you by the Don are really good; these include stuff like beating people who invade your turf, collecting protection money and getting involved in a race. Between the missions are cut-scenes that play out the story and give you your missions, they are very well done as well. At the start of each mission you have the chance to meet Ralphy (who's the family's mechanic) and your vehicle supplier, Vincenzo (who's your weapons guy); they'll give you what ever you'll need for the mission with weapons like pistols, shotguns and Tommy guns.

   

Heaven City is pretty big and is populated by people, cars and police. The police can pull you over and give you ticket if you're seen speeding or crashing into stuff - but you can just speed off if you think you can out run them. The driving feels good and you can speed around and power slide, you can also stick any weapons out of the window and fire mobster-style, and it looks even better with a couple of passengers letting rip with Tommy guns while you're driving. During the game you'll be taught how to steal all the various types of car and once you bring them back to the garage you'll be able to use them whenever you want. You can also walk around the city beating people up or stealing cars.

The on-foot sections (when you go into buildings or where cars can't go) are very good, having fistfights or using baseball bats or knives, and is better than the GTA combat. The gun battles are also brilliant, one mission has you going to give a warning to some thugs by beating them up but when they pull out guns you have to use your guns and you'll have people ducking behind barrels and you'll be rolling between cover popping up and firing off a few rounds which is very cool. So in general the game plays very well.

   

Unfortunately Mafia is let down by poor graphics. The cars and characters look and move really nicely. But the low-res textures on the characters clothes and on city buildings are really naff. Things look better inside and stay smooth, but when driving the frame rate takes a hit. The worst thing is that when watching the cut-scenes they look like real time game engine graphics (I think they're from the PC version though) and then when you get to the game you feel slightly disappointed. But where the graphics let down the game the sound really picks it up. Mafia features excellent orchestral music with the main theme being the highlight. The voice acting is superb, not only with the main characters but every single person, and really helps give the cut-scenes a cinematic feel. Some of the best sound in the game was on a mission where you have to go to an abandoned barn in the rain, and you can hear the rain hammering down on the metal roofs outside and in, and it sounds great. All of the other sound effects such as gunfire and the vehicles' engines also sound nice and varied.

   

So Mafia is a great game to play let down by sometimes really naff graphics. The game provides an absorbing story, truckloads of atmosphere and plays really well. I'd say if you can get over the graphics you'll find a great sometimes hard game in here. Mafia would have scored higher if it looked nicer.