After the runaway successes of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its excellent sequel Vice City I'm kind of surprised that there haven't been clones appearing on the release schedules. Mafia is a conversion of a 2002 PC game, and other than Sony's above-average The Getaway on PS2 and Activision's mostly awful True Crime, few developers seem to have been prepared to have a go at this drive/shoot/big city/crime genre - a major undertaking certainly, but if GTA's success is anything to go by then the rewards can be huge if the game plays well enough…

   

Mafia is set in 1930s America in a fictitious city called Lost Heaven, the Depression and Prohibition are at their height (or should that be 'depth'), and a guy called Tommy Angelo (that's you) is trying to earn an honest crust as a taxi driver.

One day the local mob are having a car chase and shootout with their cross-city rivals and their getaway car gets smashed up - Tommy is stood across the street next to his cab waiting for a fare, and they make him an offer he can't refuse, so soon he's evading the cops and driving the hoods back to their hideout. The bad guys' (Paulie & Sam) boss, Don Salieri thanks you by offering you a job. Soon you'll not only be a delivery driver, but a getaway driver, an enforcer, a bodyguard - even a hitman. During your time in Mafia you'll also need the help of Luca and stuttering Ralph (who teach you how to steal cars and tip you off where to find the best ones), and Vincenzo who supplies you with weapons (anything from a baseball bat to a Tommy gun).

   

Like GTA, most of the game is spent driving cars and the cars are definitely Mafia's strongpoint. Well-modelled and with varied handling, the speeds are mostly slow but cars' physics never fail to convince. The cars show crash damage and you can shoot them to bits - and even burst the tyres of an enemy's motor to slow them down. Even with the (mostly) sluggish 1930s cars, you'll still be involved in plenty of hair-raising car chases and mobile shootouts (the brakes are realistically terrible), and there are loads of faster ones to unlock and steal. If you break the speed limit in view of a Cop or drive wrecklessly your "wanted level" (a similar idea to GTA's) will rise and you can either stop and pay them off when it's at the 'ticket' stage or try to lose them or even shoot it out with them if things get too bad.

Out of the car and on foot the game plays a lot like The Getaway on PS2, or Max Payne without the bullet time. Despite a slight lack of finesse when aiming, some superb interior locations and set piece foot chases make an area of the game that could have been terrible (yes, I'm talking about you GTA3) into some of the most memorable segments of Mafia.

   

Lost Heaven is made up of four main areas comprised of districts styled on New York and many other US cities; Little Italy, Chinatown, Works Quarter, Central Island, New Ark, Hoboken, Downtown, Oakwood, Oak Hill and a countryside area that gets used for a couple of missions. The city loads in sections as you travel the bridges and roads that link the areas (a la GTA3 and Vice City but slower), but the deliberate to-ing and fro-ing from one side of the city to the other can sometimes become an annoying chore. The draw distance is rather poor and pop up is a problem, the fogging that tries to mask it doesn't really work and this spoils the look of things when driving around. The lighting in the game always looks good though, the city always has a slightly watery atmosphere that, along with the bustling traffic and pedestrians, brings it to life, and the sunshine flare and car headlights look nice too.

The city's buildings look excellent from a distance, with realistic and varied textures that lack detail close up, but certainly capture the look and feel of a U.S. Metropolis - you can even ride the streetcars or the el train if you don't fancy driving or walking (and enjoy the views in first person) - and it's also a way of shaking off the cops. It's only possible to enter buildings when they're directly involved in the current mission, and even some streets and back alleys are mysteriously blocked off before and after they've served their purpose - it doesn't exactly add to the Lost Heaven's immersive qualities, and looks like a bit of a botch.

   

Outside of the main story mode you can enter races or go for a free ride, but these are both completely separate and don't feel as well integrated as in GTA3 or Vice City - you seem to be either working or playing, and never the two shall meet. Once completed you can select any of the 22 missions from the story mode individually including each one's different sections. Sadly there are none of the online multiplayer modes that the PC game boasted to add some variety.

   

A compelling story is aided by some top voice acting by led Mike Sorvino and William Demeo, and most of the game's sound effects are good. The background period Jazz/Ragtime music adds some atmosphere at first, but it has no separate volume control and could drive you nuts after a while - it's also sometimes just too darned loud and drowns out conversation between characters - which is plain daft. despite a slightly flaky game engine I played Mafia to the end and wanted more. The on-foot shootouts are much better than GTA's and there are some clever ideas (especially the dockyard/rail truck bit), but the overall lack of variety (no motorbikes, boats or helicopters - but hey - but it is set in the 1930s!) will mean it pales in terms of gameplay for most GTA veterans. Mafia is a good but flawed game that demands a look from fans of the genre, and deserves a highly polished sequel.