This game's design is outdated for a modern audience, and it shows in the first mission.

I've personally spent at least 6-8 tries trying to finish the very first mission that the game starts in until looking up a walkthrough on how to finish. The very first mission, and I needed to look up how to finish it. Why? Because the people chasing you has omnipotent observation, and knows where to look for you.

And this applies to the police as well, as going over the speed limit (40 miles per hour) is going to cause the entire Police Department to chase you in order to fine you, or arrest you. And they are hellbent on arresting you, with no way of outrunning them with your early 1930 cars, which will flip and crash if you so much hit a rock on the road.

They'll know where you are, and they'll get you.

The game is also unforgiving with how it deals with health. Sure there are medical cabinets in the game, but they're a one time use, and they only rarely show up in the missions where you're going to have a long firefight, and there are long firefights with no convenient checkpoints around. Hell, there are times where I started at the very beginning of the mission, from Salieri's Bar to wherever I needed to go and repeat because I died again.

Combat is horsecrap in the sense that, not only do enemies know where you are, they also stunlock you. Seriously, there are two missions where melee combat is the focus, and if somebody hits you with either their own melee or fists, you will be stunlocked until you have half your health on you, and if you let them, they'll chew through the last 30% or outright kill you.

The Story? The Story is unique, but it's not that great. Tommy Angelo has a destined meeting with Sam and Paulie and somehow outruns two assassins in his taxi. Said assassins beat up his cab, he runs to the Mafia, and though he said last night that it was better to be good, poor, and to die old, he joins the mafia the next day, saying that being bad and being rich is better.

So hijinks ensue ranging from winning a race (that most people had to cheat to finish mind you), escorting your future wife (that only shows up once), shooting up a brothel and a church (I hope you know how to conserve your health because you'll need it from start to finish), a shootout in the airport (where, if you let the car that you needed to tail out of out of sight, the game never tells you where to go, you just needed to know you had to go to the airport), a stealth mission (the one and only, as the game never does this type of mission again. It's not like the game mechanics were made around to have a stealth mission), another shootout involving whiskey a tight area where your two very AI companions are known to be very suicidal and, in my experience, will gladly accept a grenade thrown at them), surviving an assassination attempt in an Italian restaurant (where RNG will decide whether or not you'll have enough health to gamble your life against the assassins), an assassination on a senator on a boat (with a revolver with only six bullets and no more, in a game where even headshots won't instantly kill somebody, while he's surrounded by bodyguards), needing three days to kill one person (who needs three days because contrivances wants him to live, not because you are incompetent), finally assassinating the other mafia don (who dies in the most unremarkable way, though he either gets shot down in his plane or gets pushed off a bridge), another political assassination, now with a sniper rifle (in a prison filled with hobos with guns. How the hell do hobos have guns), stealing a truck to get your hands on luxury cigars (which were actually filled with diamonds and you and another companion gets mad at Salieri for not telling them), A Bank Robbery (and the only time the game gives you good guns at the start of the game), and finally, a final shootout (With the aforementioned long shootout with no checkpoints.

Dear Reader, after reading the previous wall of text, you tell me if the story sounds compelling.

Because you'll have to sit through all of the flaws in gameplay, with the voice actors' deadpan delivery. Seriously, they must've hired the entire lumber industry with how wooden these actors deliver their lines, with the only emotions being snarky or "angry."

I had high hopes for this game too when it became free. I enjoyed Mafia 2, but to my surprise, Mafia 2 isn't as highly regarded as the first game, and in that game, you're not punished for not knowing where you need to be with frame-perfect accuracy at any given notice, because if you watch any video on YouTube, any walkthrough, you'll see how the uploader knows where he needs to go, something you wouldn't unless you watch them.

What a waste of time. Its Freeplay mode is fun I suppose, but it feels like GTA: Lite than it does Freeplay. Because the same cops that hound you for going 45 mph will still know where you are, unless you get out of your car, and you better drop your Thompson before they see you again, because you need to get rid of them again on foot, or by shooting them.

tl;dr if you enjoy receiving C-B-T, this game is for you. Otherwise, go play the second, third, or remake of this game. The only reason I bothered finishing this game was to have merit on writing this bad review.

This game's design is outdated for a modern audience, and it shows in the first mission. I've personally spent at least 6-8 tries trying to finish the very first mission that the game starts in until looking up a walkthrough on how to finish. The very first mission, and I needed to look up how to finish it. Why? Because the people chasing you has omnipotent observation, and knows where to look for you. And this applies to the police as well, as going over the speed limit (40 miles per hour) is going to cause the entire Police Department to chase you in order to fine you, or arrest you. And they are hellbent on arresting you, with no way of outrunning them with your early 1930 cars, which will flip and crash if you so much hit a rock on the road. They'll know where you are, and they'll get you. The game is also unforgiving with how it deals with health. Sure there are medical cabinets in the game, but they're a one time use, and they only rarely show up in the missions where you're going to have a long firefight, and there are long firefights with no convenient checkpoints around. Hell, there are times where I started at the very beginning of the mission, from Salieri's Bar to wherever I needed to go and repeat because I died again. Combat is horsecrap in the sense that, not only do enemies know where you are, they also stunlock you. Seriously, there are two missions where melee combat is the focus, and if somebody hits you with either their own melee or fists, you will be stunlocked until you have half your health on you, and if you let them, they'll chew through the last 30% or outright kill you. The Story? The Story is unique, but it's not that great. Tommy Angelo has a destined meeting with Sam and Paulie and somehow outruns two assassins in his taxi. Said assassins beat up his cab, he runs to the Mafia, and though he said last night that it was better to be good, poor, and to die old, he joins the mafia the next day, saying that being bad and being rich is better. So hijinks ensue ranging from winning a race [spoiler](that most people had to cheat to finish mind you)[/spoiler], escorting your future wife [spoiler](that only shows up once)[/spoiler], shooting up a brothel and a church [spoiler](I hope you know how to conserve your health because you'll need it from start to finish)[/spoiler], a shootout in the airport [spoiler](where, if you let the car that you needed to tail out of out of sight, the game never tells you where to go, you just needed to know you had to go to the airport)[/spoiler], a stealth mission [spoiler](the one and only, as the game never does this type of mission again. It's not like the game mechanics were made around to have a stealth mission)[/spoiler], another shootout involving whiskey [spoiler]a tight area where your two very AI companions are known to be very suicidal and, in my experience, will gladly accept a grenade thrown at them)[/spoiler], surviving an assassination attempt in an Italian restaurant [spoiler](where RNG will decide whether or not you'll have enough health to gamble your life against the assassins)[/spoiler], an assassination on a senator on a boat [spoiler](with a revolver with only six bullets and no more, in a game where even headshots won't instantly kill somebody, while he's surrounded by bodyguards)[/spoiler], needing three days to kill one person [spoiler](who needs three days because contrivances wants him to live, not because you are incompetent)[/spoiler], finally assassinating the other mafia don [spoiler](who dies in the most unremarkable way, though he either gets shot down in his plane or gets pushed off a bridge)[/spoiler], another political assassination, now with a sniper rifle [spoiler](in a prison filled with hobos with guns. How the hell do hobos have guns)[/spoiler], stealing a truck to get your hands on luxury cigars [spoiler](which were actually filled with diamonds and you and another companion gets mad at Salieri for not telling them)[/spoiler], A Bank Robbery [spoiler](and the only time the game gives you good guns at the start of the game)[/spoiler], and finally, a final shootout [spoiler](With the aforementioned long shootout with no checkpoints[/spoiler]. Dear Reader, after reading the previous wall of text, you tell me if the story sounds compelling. Because you'll have to sit through all of the flaws in gameplay, with the voice actors' deadpan delivery. Seriously, they must've hired the entire lumber industry with how wooden these actors deliver their lines, with the only emotions being snarky or "angry." I had high hopes for this game too when it became free. I enjoyed Mafia 2, but to my surprise, Mafia 2 isn't as highly regarded as the first game, and in that game, you're not punished for not knowing where you need to be with frame-perfect accuracy at any given notice, because if you watch any video on YouTube, any walkthrough, you'll see how the uploader knows where he needs to go, something you wouldn't unless you watch them. What a waste of time. Its Freeplay mode is fun I suppose, but it feels like GTA: Lite than it does Freeplay. Because the same cops that hound you for going 45 mph will still know where you are, unless you get out of your car, and you better drop your Thompson before they see you again, because you need to get rid of them again on foot, or by shooting them. tl;dr if you enjoy receiving C-B-T, this game is for you. Otherwise, go play the second, third, or remake of this game. The only reason I bothered finishing this game was to have merit on writing this bad review.