Work of art. One of the best games to date.

This is probably the first game to have me caring about the characters. Some of the scenes are genuinely moving and you'll be amazed at what they got these pixels to do. The game has the feel of a first run movie or an "important series" at the least. The subject and the story are treated seriously with lots of cut scenes and conversations to make the story hold together more than any other game I've played. Believe it or not this is a computer game with a story of redemption at it's center.

Huge number of vintage cars. You can and will drive them as though you were in real traffic. You'll have to because the police will stop you if you speed or run lights until you finish the game and then you can have the city without the cops in extreme mode. While the cars are no where near as nimble as modern cars, they're a gas to drive and if you're old enough, you'll experince some deja vu from the ambience. Somehow, it's just a gas to putter around in these jalopies. GTA 3 had high performance sports car thrills, but this is different and welcome. Mafia's vintage cars are unique in gaming, as far as I know.

You'll also be able to go into buildings and the interiors are gorgeusly decorated. Once again, it's like you have a time machine. You get to see what those dilapidated buildings in your old downtown looked like in their day. It's not perfect, but it's definitely good. It might have been nice if they had some vintage coke machines or licensed cars, but they did a great job.

While it's a big city and you can go anywhere, you can't go anywhere anytime you want. There are times when you're indoors and times when you're outdoors. Different game engines, I think. The good news is that Mafia runs much better than GTA3. Frame rates are much more consistent. About the worst framerates I saw were in the opening cinematic as the camera crossed the water. Once it went to the interior shots, it ran smooth as glass.

The gun battles are intense, but there's quite a bit of driving to be done to get to them. Some people might feel this is boring and like someone else said, it'd be nice if they gave you the option to get to the action, but then there wouldn't be much game left. Most of the shootouts are pretty quick compared to most games where you run along gunning people down and grabbing health and weaponry. In Mafia, there is seldom more than one health upgrade. If you die, you start from a checkpoint, which is often the beginning of the level.

I found the guns to be pretty clunky. The camera has some problems too. In real life, you'd have some idea of how long it would take to reload, but not so in Mafia. There is no reload progress bar like in Rogue Spear and you can't see your hands. It's annoying to wonder whether to look for cover or just wait for your gun to reload. Makes for some tense moments. The camera will go to first person if you back up against a wall. I found it distracting. It would have been nice to have a first person view rather than the camera moving in and out while you're trying to get a bead on someone. Sometimes if you're too close to a wall, your gun won't shoot. All this takes some time to get used, but I'd say it's worth it. At least they balanced the game so the AI has some of the same problems. I think you'll find the Mafia gun battles challenging and exciting, especially when you get the more powerful weapons. Best double barrel shotgun since the original Doom.

There's a race in the middle of the game that some people find very difficult. Once again, using 30's era racing machines. Definitely a treat. Delightfully dangerous racing. Great crashes and scenery as well as a challenging track. It was during the race that I hooked up my Sidewinder joystick. The analog joystick made handling easier and more fun. I've yet to work out the perfect assignments for the buttons. With the joystick, I'm not sure what I did, but for awhile, I could be outside of the car and looking around. I couldn't go back to the view being locked behind the car. This is something you want in a game with cars this nice. You want to be able to circle around them from outside as you drive along because looking at yourself and your vehicle are part of the fun. I know I can look back at myself while driving by holding down the , and . keys simultaneously. I know how to scroll through the five or so views, but how do I unlock the camera to look around and then lock it back in place to make driving easier?

EDIT: When I wrote this review, I thought I was near the end. I've since played further into the game and now I have no hesitation at all to say this is one fine piece of action gaming. The shootouts and cutscenes get way better towards the end and they weren't bad in the beginning. They make other action games like Max Payne look pale in comparison. I got chills from some of the dramatic cinematics and the subsequent fights were a total blast. You get armies of bad guys shooting it out, cars blowing up, people shooting out the windows with tommy guns and shotguns. Too bad there's no replay. I'd love to see some of these chases from a controlable distant view.

The locations keep getting better and better too. It's obvious they put a lot of effort into this.

In a way it's too bad they have you going through so many dull levels in the beginning before they actually have you in the big fights. Mafia will test your patience, but not without reward.

If this thing had an editor, I think we'd be getting excellent fan missions on a par with Thief for years to come. (how I longed for a shadow to hide in!) The game engine is one of the best in quality for story telling and action. Let's hope there are many sequels.