Quite simply, one of the best games I've ever played
Graphics- The graphics are extrordinary for the time and feel less cartoony than Gta 3. Character models look good, along with the cars and set pieces. I generally never say much about graphics. Of course, they aren't so good nowadays but were great for the time.
Gameplay- One of the main things you'll be doing, driving, feels hit or miss. The cars do greatly feel like the 1930s, but that's good and bad. It feels realistic, but they are clunky and slow and driving takes forever and you do a lot of it. Some of the car chases are pretty good though, and if your speeding or going through red lights, cops will pull you over and give you a ticket which is cool.
The shooting feels really good and there's a variety of guns from that very. It feels good to shoot down mobsters in an expensive suit with a Tommy Gun. The shooting scenes have variety, taking places in many locations and there's even a bit of stealth in there. So the gameplay is good, but not epic.
Difficulty- This is the biggest gripe, the difficulty. Some missions are extremely hard and your health goes down pretty quickly, especially if your enemies have shotguns. The worst one is at an airport, when all the bad guys are hiding and you just keep on dying just you're not expecting them.
Overall this game is fantastic and recommended to fans of gangster movies and games. However, this isn't an open world game. It has free ride, but Gta fans might not like it.