The game starts out looking very nice. The intro is one of the nicer ones I have seen. Although the graphics are good, they are not the best, especially when compared to some PC games, but the story draws you in right away. You are a very high Mafia boss and you have called a meeting with a police officer and want his help. In return for his protection, for you and your family, you will tell him everything you know about the Mafia. The game starts as you explain how you first came into contact with another Mafia boss. The story flashes back to 1930 and plays the story as your character does the voice over. Very interesting, but unfortunately, that is where the game takes a bad turn.
The first story involves your meeting with another mob boss. In a car chase, two mobsters crash their car and then see you, a taxi driver, and get you to help them escape. Right from the start the controls seem wrong. The car moves very slowly, which makes sense, since we are in the 1930s, but still, when your use to driving at high speeds in pretty much every other game, it seems kind of boring. The car controls badly, spinning out at every fast turn. You finally make it to your destination and go back to your normal job as a taxi driver, not wanting to be involved with such bad people.
The next few missions are regular taxi missions, which are really dull. Since you are a law abiding citizen, you have to obey the speed limit, stop at lights and pull over for the police. There are four of these missions before some action comes your way. While doing these missions, the many glitches in the game seem to pop up every few seconds. For one, the controls are terrible and you cannot map the buttons as you wish, only choose from four pre-settings, all of which are bad. Outside of the car, the controls are even worse, after so many third person games, I figured there would be a standard, I was wrong.
The graphics have a lot of holes also. When reaching inside a pocket, the characters hand disappears, when smoking, his mouth does not open. The loading isn't too bad, but occurs every five minutes or so, every time you go to another island, restart a mission or finish a scene. The cut scenes themselves are nice, the voice overs are well done and the characters faces are detailed, but what good is that when the game is so bad. The direction indicator for your missions is terrible and your only guide is the map given to you in the case. The time indicator is a analog watch, so you don't have an exact indication of how much time you have left. When you exit the car, customers keep talking to you as if you were still there and when you stop in the designated area, they sometimes do not get out, even though the indicator arrow disappeared, suggesting that you are in the right spot. Most of these are minor issues, but when added to bad gameplay, you just want to turn off the game once you fail a mission.
The good points are also present, but with such gameplay, they are no reason to continue playing. You have a Restart Mission option, which is always nice. You can skip the cut scenes after seeing them for the first time. The game is also filmed like a movie and has a nice overall look. They even went through the effort of having your turn signal flash when you turn, even when you are racing down the streets. You can also use the black button to turn on the Speed Limiter, which prevents you from passing the speed limit when you are a taxi driver and when on the street, you can hear other peoples conversations.
I heard the PC version is much better, so if you have the choice, try the PC demo, but pass on the console version, since the PS2 version is equally lousy from what I am told.
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