Picture it, Sicily, 1943, on the heels of Operation Husky, 3 lonely paratroopers try to fulfil their mission and hopefully survive to see the end of the war. Not exactly what you expect in the opening moments of an open world crime franchise, but its all in the details. If you find the opening mission a bit much, this might not be the game for you, maybe check to see if Stardew Valley is on sale.
What you are looking at with this game is a 3rd person shooter, plenty of free roam, and some decent scenery to fill your time. Steal cars, beat people up, hassle the cops, or do your missions and go home, your choice. There is one playable character, Vito Scaletta, who is your window into the world of Empire Bay; along the way you will interact with a number of different characters, some of whom stay around, some of whom don't, but your partner in crime will always be Joe Barbaro, he'll always be there to help you out. Joe will be your trainer for the first third of the game, and you would do well to pay attention when he is teaching you something.
Driving is huge in this game, either driving to a job or running away from one, its more prevalent than the gun work, truth be told. The good news is that the car physics are great, this is a game that actually makes you feel like you are actually behind the wheel, and the music, while slightly anachronistic, is at least period appropriate and was beautifully picked, not to mention the news reports and commercials, altogether it really makes you feel immersed. Bad news, AI driving can be maddening, the newer versions of the game have helped out a lot, but AI drivers are still apt to turn directly in front of you for no good reason; sometimes this is designed to evoke an interaction with cops, but often it just seems random and glitchy. On the other hand, cops don't want you speeding and they have zero patience for hit and run behavior, even if you do stop, but they could care less if you run a red light or drive on the sidewalk to avoid an intersection, just keep your speed under 40!
Speaking of cars, the first time I played this game I started with a blank slate, if I needed a car I had to steal it. Since then I have gotten used to playing the special and definitive editions which give you a nice selection of cars. Sure, you can still steal and hoard a fleet, but none of them are as good as the ones given to you.
Guns! Guns! Guns! They got 'em, you want 'em! Great selection of firearms, all very period appropriate and well crafted, from the sound of each individual gun, to the recoil. The game even manages to make cover shooting feel pretty fluid, and once you have picked up a new gun it is available for sale at your friendly neighborhood gun shop, or Harry for the more exotic items.
While this is, strictly speaking, an open world game, that is one of the shortcomings, there just isn't that much to do outside the assigned missions. Only mission areas are destructible, and even then only in preassigned spots, but the heart of this game is the story after all. The game does a great job giving the city a huge expansive feel, while managing to keep driving times to a minimum, its one of the finer arts of gamecraft I always appreciate, it looks like you're in New York, but nothing is more than a few minutes drive away, love it!
There are, of course, achievements as well. This game was in the earlier years of achievement chasing, there are awards for mission completions and a few esoteric things, like killing people barehanded, but overall I think more could have been added in, it just wasn't deemed necessary at the time. I've always been a fan of what Red Dead Redemption did with some of its achieves, hit certain marks and you get an in game reward, I think this game could have benefited from that.
Along side the achieves is the collectables, mostly in the *ahem* visual arts. While this game takes place before Playboy existed that did not stop them from using it extensively for background flavor and finding pinups is pretty much a core mechanic. You don't need to look at them, ever, but they certainly are a great distraction.
Finally, lets talk about money. There are ways to make money, a lot of it, stealing cars or robbing stores, but a big mechanic in the game is chasing the next big score so the money you have in hand is of little value, you mostly get what you need from the missions, and each mission is just as likely to start out with you flat broke, so there is no need to save it; buy all the guns and ammo you want and upgrade your cars to the max, those upgrades are the only permanent use of your money you will find.