Original Post
This has to be one of the greatest games of all time. When I played it with just the keyboard, I hated the driving sequences, but I have since hooked up a simple USB controller, and it has made a world of difference, the driving sequences are stellar.
The inside jokes during the game are hillarious. At one point, you are supposed to meet a man from Kentucky named William Gates to buy some booze from him. As it turns out, he is not actually from Kentucky, but is a thief that stole the booze from your rival. And then he dies! When he tries to sell the booze to you, the guys he stole it from come and kill him! Bill Gates!
So, anyway, the graphics are amazing, I think, especially the faces of the characters. A lot of work went into them. You can even see the eyelids wrapping around the eyeballs. There have been points where I have forgotten that I was watching a game. Too bad the hands look like blocks, and most of the clothes are painted on, except the collars (some people wear jackets that you can see the edges of.
The car models are great, very nostalgic. The city detail is amazing. Just as large as GTAIII, only more detail and a lot more style. In GTAIII, everything looked like a cartoon to me, in Mafia, everything looks real.
The main game of Mafia is very linear compared to GTAIII, however this is, to me, welcome, as I don''t have to learn the city before I can do anything. The free roaming aspect isn''t lost, however, as there is a free ride mode in which you gain money for speeding, blowing up cars, and killing mafiosos.
Speeding, that''s another thing. The roads have laws! If a cop sees you in excess of 40MPH, he''ll fine you. If he''s on foot, you can usually get away, but if he is in a car, you are probably in for some trouble, especially early in the game. You can''t let a cop see you run a red light, or crash into another car, or hit a person, or run around brandishing a gun. In GTAIII, it was like the cops were there to give you trouble if you hit them, and that was pretty much it.
Also, this provides incentive to drive like a normal person, or not drive at all, you could take the trolley or train, which is integrated seamlessly, no loading time ANYWHERE when travelling in the city, even between islands. Not only that, but if you wreck the car, it will be much harder to drive, unlike GTAIII that would let you drive at full speed until the car was on fire.
There are no stupid "Kill 100 Cubans" missions, no "torch 1,000 cars" missions, no stupid game gimmicks. Everything you do ties into the story. The story itself is amazing, I just wish the timing on the voice acting was a little better.
The music is great. The cinematic music during heavy action is really great, really pumps up the intensity. The radio music while driving the cars is good, and very true-to-period (1930''s). Unfortunately, the only way to change the song you are currently listening to is to drive to another district.
GTAIII gave us organized crime action like we had never seen, but it lacked polish, as well as style, with no lack of mundane tasks. Mafia, to me, is GTAIII to perfection.
("OH SHI, He''s driving 30 miles per hour! We''ll never catch him!"). That, and the traffic laws annoyed me. Yeah, it''s realistic, but is it fun? It mostly just made the driving aspect of the game rather mundane in my opinion. If I want to experience the pure joy of driving an extremely slow car under the speed limit while properly obeying the law I can do that without a game. 
