TL:DR - My first contact with the Mafia series. Didn't have big expectations, just looking for some short game for a change. It immediately got me hooked and genuinely transferred me back to 1930s' US with a banger of a story. A lot more driving than I expected but it's not a bad thing. Side missions and free ride were a bit disappointing. Definitely recommended from someone who completed the game 100%. My rating is 87/100.

Great experience, knowing now what I was missing by skipping on the Mafia series I can't wait to check the other titles. I took me around 45 hours to complete all it had to offer on Classic difficulty.

I have to start with the story and the characters - marvelous. Extraordinary character and story writing, not too complicated, especially at the start, it gets you into the gangster world at exactly the right pace. As it develops the plot starts to thicken up but still possible to follow. The NPCs like Paulie, Sam, Don Salieri and Frank are all captivating and interesting, there's also a couple lesser ones worth mentioning like Vinny or Ralphie. A lot of that appeal is there thanks to the flawless voice acting. I only wish Sarah was more developed so it would feel more engaging when Tommy gets his family in danger. Speaking of Tommy - I would say he's very likeable main character, not too flashy, down to earth, just a nice guy trying to be more than a cabbie but still do right by his friends and family which of course is not always easy living his kind of life. The ending was satisfying and what I would expect from such game.

Graphics are spot on, can't complain about any of it. Lost Heaven looks exactly like I would expect a 30s city to look and feel (mind you I am far from being an expert on this time period/setting but still I found it enjoyable). I would say nothing about the world/character graphics during the playthrough broke the immersive feeling. One complaint here is the UI - the design is fine but it got buggy at times: displaying wrong info (e.g. wrong gear), freezing or disappearing elements.

The main story gameplay got me engaged really swiftly. Although there's a world to explore I pretty much rushed through the storyline first - very uncharacteristic for me, I usually dive into side quests a lot. This time I only picked up a couple of collectibles during the main missions. I went for the classic difficulty with realistic driving and police response and any other settings to make it more challenging and glad to say it actually meant something - the game was satisfyingly challenging. I already mentioned it but it really surprised me - there's A LOT of driving in this game. I almost wish there was more shooting/combat based missions. The driving was the more challenging part especially with the missions like the track race or some of the side missions. I had to attempt the race like 30 times probably to finally complete it but it was still fun (if you're not looking for such a challenge then I'd recommend going for lower difficulty level and automatic gearbox instead of manual).

Combat mechanics are good. Not anything revolutionary but it does it's job. Feels really good to land a couple of headshots or blast someone with a shotgun. There's a decent choice of weapons but mostly in free play since missions sort of force them on you but at least it lets you check everything before deciding what feels best. I found the Tommy gun to be my favourite but also almost all the pistols are very cool.

A pleasant surprise - game actually has quite a lot of stealth opportunities if you're looking for them. I am quite a fan of such approach myself so when possible I enjoyed taking down enemies by sneaking and clearing some areas this way.

After finishing the main story I checked what else is available and my feelings are mixed. Some of the side missions were really challenging and satisfying, some of them a bit silly and some very easy but all of them were missing the same atmosphere as the main story had which I got very fond of. When I went back to some main missions to collect missing collectibles it made me realise how different it feels, almost like another game. So overall side content - not terrible but side missions lost a lot of charm because of this.

My final rating is 87/100. Glad to have finally picked up Mafia and will definitely check out the rest of the series.