The game traces the rise and fall of Tommy Angelo, a mafioso in the 1930s, told through Tommy telling his story to the police in exchange for a witness protection program.

Mafia is an action and driving game set in the 1930's in Lost Heaven, a fictional city in the USA modeled after New York and Chicago of the Prohibition Era. Similarly to GTA games, it consists of free-roaming (driving or on foot) in a large city, completing missions to advance the narrative. The missions often include driving to various locations, car chases and one race; however, most of them are structured like fairly large and long third-person shooter levels.