Between Swedish developer Digital Illusions' upcoming World War II shooter Battlefield 1942 and Czech Republic-based Illusion Softworks' newly available Mafia, September's turning out to be a banner month for great driving-shooting hybrids from European companies with the word "illusion" in their name. Arriving without much prerelease hype, Mafia is a highly engaging combination of the driving and living-city elements of Grand Theft Auto III and the story-driven third-person shooting action of Max Payne. What's more, it isn't plagued by the litany of problems usually associated with ambitious games from small development houses. Mafia looks and sounds great, it's exciting, it's suitably bug-free, and, at a time when eight hours is becoming the standard length for single-player shooters, it's long. Quite simply, Mafia is one of the best games of the year.

An onscreen map shows you where you are and where you need to go.

As implied by the first paragraph of this review, comparisons between Mafia and the famous Grand Theft Auto III are inevitable. Both games take place in detailed and sprawling clockwork cities, both games involve stealing cars and avoiding the police, and both games have plots in which you navigate a criminal underworld. The comparison breaks down when the details and structure of the games' gameplay are considered, however. In much the same way that Grand Theft Auto III includes an almost-complete version of Crazy Taxi as a minigame, Mafia can be considered a generally linear third-person shooter that features a miniature version of Grand Theft Auto III. Mafia's living city, a 1930s metropolis called Lost Heaven, is almost as fully realized as Grand Theft Auto III's Liberty City. Lost Heaven's bigger, in fact, and it features plenty of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, lots of different neighborhoods, working lift bridges, a train system, and even some outlying country areas. It lacks only Liberty City's dynamic day-night cycle and weather patterns--each mission takes place at a particular time and in specific weather conditions.

Almost every action sequence in Mafia is incredibly well done.

Most of Mafia's 20 large missions are split into sections. You'll usually watch one of the game's long but well-done in-engine cutscenes, get assigned a few weapons, choose a car, and then drive through the city to a given destination. At this point, a separate level--generally a third-person action sequence--is loaded. After you complete the level, you'll usually drive home. Some missions mix the structure up a little, and some offer an optional bonus task on the drive home. The most serious complaint that can be made about Mafia is that the city isn't as tightly integrated into the missions as it is in Grand Theft Auto III. Often, driving across the city is more of a mood-enhancing interactive cutscene than a gameplay element that poses an actual challenge. This is fine in the beginning, but by the time you've reached the halfway point, you may find yourself wishing that you could simply fast-forward through these parts. You're often free to deviate from the quickest path to your destination and go exploring, but unlike in Grand Theft Auto III, there's little reason to do so. There are no bonuses to find, and, while you can run people around in a taxi for money, this option is available only in a mode that's completely detached from the single-player campaign and must be accessed separately from the main menu.

Mafia's realistic car physics and police behavior both add to the occasional tedium of the straightforward driving segments. For the most part, the game's 60 or so 1930s-era vehicles aren't rocket cars. They don't often go very fast, they don't always start the first time you turn the key, and they have some serious problems climbing steep hills. You won't be making 300-foot barrel-roll jumps in any of them. Furthermore, the Lost Heaven PD will see to it that you don't even drive as fast as the cars will go. They'll pull you over for driving over 40 and running red lights, among other things. Even if you're in a really cool-looking old-time car, a simulation of driving the speed limit isn't exactly a recipe for thrills.