Mafia

aka: Mafia Classic, Mafia: La Cosa Nostra, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Moby ID: 7190
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Tommy Angelo was an ordinary taxi driver trying to make a living on the streets of Lost Heaven until one day an unexpected meeting changed his life forever. Two men jump into his cab, telling him to drive as fast as he can. Bullets begin to hit the cab, and a car with armed pursuers gets closer. Barely escaping a violent death, Tommy obeys the instructions of the two men and delivers them to a bar of their choice.

Impressed with his driving skills, the men pay him and offer him a job in the mafia. The next day, while Tommy is taking a coffee break, his cab is smashed by two rival gangsters. After this, he recalls the proposition from yesterday, and, without much hesitation, joins the Salieri family, making his first steps on the path of organized crime. While performing missions for Salieri, Tommy gradually begins to regret his choice. However, it turns out that joining the mafia was much easier than leaving it.

Mafia is an action and driving game set in the 1930s in Lost Heaven, a fictional city in the USA modeled after New York and Chicago of the Prohibition Era. Similar 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.

The player will have the chance to drive over sixty vehicles that are reminiscent of the 1930's period. Each car handles it differently, with various degrees of damage. It is possible to smash windows, destroy bumpers, lights, and mirrors, dent the car, shoot out the tires, or shoot the tires so much that they fall off. To add to the realism, if the car's gas tank gets punctured, gas will slowly leak out until the car totally empties. There are gas stations scattered throughout the city, allowing the player to refuel. With these vehicles, the player is able to explore twelve square miles of the city, visiting areas such as Central Island, Chinatown, and the Downtown district.

Complementing the vehicles is an array of weapons, such as pistols, tommy guns, shotguns, explosives, baseball bats, and crowbars. While driving a car, Tommy can perform a drive-by, sticking his hand out the window and firing. Trying to impede him is the police force; they will act on anything suspicious. If they see Tommy carrying a weapon, they will attempt to arrest him. Going over the speed limit, running red lights, crashing into buildings, cars, or objects will result in fines.

Tommy is often given new cars to use during the missions, usually provided by Ralph, the mechanic of the Salieri family. The player can also save hijacked cars in the backyard of the bar belonging to Salieri. Weapons can be acquired at the beginning of a mission by Vincenzo, the local arms dealer.

Spellings

  • Мафия - Russian spelling
  • מאפיה - Hebrew spelling
  • 四海兄弟:失落的天堂 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

196 People (195 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Development Director
Producer
Lead Programmer
LS3D Engine Director
Music
Director Of Photography
Art Director
Written and Directed by
Level Design
Programming
Collision, Facial Animations and Cutscene Editor
AI Programming
Physics Engine Programming
LS3D Engine Team
Additional Programming
LS3D Editor Plug-ins
Character Design
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 53 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 215 ratings with 9 reviews)

You can't feel sorry for these animals!

The Good
Graphics:

The theme of the game is meant to be around the 1930's and it is done nearly perfectly. Im not saying that the actual graphics were the best i've seen but when I was playing Mafia I actually felt like I was driving around the city of Lost Heaven.

The cars you see driving around lost heaven look good as well. When i'm driving around the city in one of those I can fell like i'm a big mafia man and prove it by pummeling the guy who nipped my car. Another part of the graphics that adds to the atmosphere is the view when you are looking out off a building or looking over the water it always looks great.

Sound:

The voices of Tommy and all his boys sound surprisingly good compared to all the other voices i've heard in games lately (all the resident evil series etc.) The sound is actually one of the best parts of the game. The music is perfect for depicting a day driving (or walking) around the city around the era of the prohibition.

The cars sound awesome. If you have got a beast of a car then everyone will know that it goes off by the sound of it. Going around corners, your tires screeching while you can hear an enemy gang shooting there tommy guns at you all adds to the flavor of the game.

Gameplay:

The gameplay for Mafia was the best i've been lucky enough to come across (in the story mode anyway.) When you are playing through the missions running or driving away from enemy gangsters it feels like the game is unfolding like a movie. The story is great, I actually felt like crying when the ending was over.

When you are driving around Lost heaven you can to many things to keep you entertained if you are not doing missions. In GTA: Vice City you could shoot other cars tires and I thought that it was fantastic. Mafia takes it one step further and you can actually shoot the bolts in the middle of the wheel and make the wheel come of the car, even if this a bit unrealistic its still allot of fun to see a civilian trying to drive of with noi wheels on his/her car.

The Bad
Graphics:

I said above that the views look great, but that means you have to be far away. If you get up close the graphics on building, trees and people aren't exactly the best and saying that is a very big understatement.

Sound:

As I said before the sound is one of the best aspects of the game but there is one flaw. If you are driving along listening to the song and you need to look at the map or go to the main menu then the song will start from the beginning again once you get back in and so you could end up listening to the same song about 5 or 6 times and it tends to get a bit annoying after a while.

Gameplay:

The story mode of the game is one of the best I have ever played so I have no real complaints there apart from it being a bit difficult. But the real problem is when you beat the game and go to Free ride it gets boring after about 30 mins. After blowing up cars, killing a few people and getting shot by gangsters it just gets boring.

The Bottom Line
If you want a game with a great story line but not so great free ride option then this is a game for you. Don't expect secret packages and such like in GTA though.

PlayStation 2 · by Horny-Bullant (49) · 2004

One of the most revolutionary games of all time

The Good
Nearly everything is to like about this game.

You are Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, a regular day-to-day taxi driver back in the early 1930s. Tommy goes about doing his taxi duties, until one night while taking a break he hears a sound coming from an alley. Two men come out of the alley, one of them is wounded by a gunshot. They hold a gun to Tommy's head and tell him to get in the car and drive them to a certain restaurant. As he drives them, Tommy realizes the two men are gangsters who are running away from their assailants. From here on out the game turns into an awe-inspiring mafia story of epic proportions which basically plays out like a top of the line mafia film.

You have everything you would expect from a mafia story here. You have dozens of beautifully modeled cars with huge amounts of detail that look and drive just like old 30's cars did, and with impeccable damage modeling usage. Do not expect the cars to drive fast as it is the 1930s, the realism factor is very evident here. You have a wide array of weapons (from a simple bat to Molotov Cocktails to pistols and revolvers and automatic weapons and sniper rifles) and all of them are in great detail and operate as they should in real life.

The game revolves around a city called "Lost Heaven" which is basically a real life Chicago or New York back in the 30s. The city design is extremely well done and features high quality rendered buildings and street lights, roads, bridges, and anything you would expect. Since the city consists of certain islands which can only be crossed by bridges or by train, the water detail is impressive, the train tracks are nicely situated throughout the city for easy access. Boats are seen from time to time in the waters and airplanes appear up in the sky. People are walking and talking in the streets just like normal people would. The people models look very different from each other and with different clothing and hats that suit the 1930s era.

The main character models are the best around in any genre or system to date. With superb detail to every little aspect of a model's face or body or clothing. This is backed up with some of the best speech and acting around, to an extent that you can truly relate to and understand every character in the game.

Music in this game is perfectly suitable to the 1930s and it probably won't appeal to everyone (especially teens) as it features old Jazz and melodies of some of the best performers of the time. You won't find Pop/Rock/Rap/Disco/Dance/Soul/whatever here, so if you can't appreciate true music, please stay away. During the intense moments of the game, the game features a kind of dramatic music to increase the effect and it really does the job well.

The game features an incredibly strong and long story that will certainly keep you up during not so few nights, featuring superb car chases and gun-fights in the old style.

You can also choose to play "Free Ride" which is different from the story mode since it allows you to roam the city freely and do whatever you want. If that is not enough for you, once you complete the game once, you get to play "Free Ride Extreme" which basically consists of many little quests that you have to do throughout the city, with every mission you complete you get a new fancy car in reward. Those cars are nothing like the game's regular cars as they are some of the most bizarre cars (and fast too) you'll see.

The Bad
If one had to be VERY picky about this game I would say that it is somewhat disappointing that you do not have enough freedom and other activities to in the city outside of the main story mode.

Another little rant I may have is about the fact the you'll have to spend a long time driving just to start a particular mission and thus just getting to the point where you can start a mission may sometimes be a little tedious.

However, these little rantings should not keep you from missing a game of a caliber of this size and strength.

The Bottom Line
Bottom Line - You need to own this game already. It does not matter whether or not you like action games, this is so good it can appeal to everybody who can appreciate a true art of a game.

This is easily one of the most revolutionary games of all time and one that is at the top of my game list, one that I'll probably play when I'm 60 and one that I will forever remember and enjoy just thinking about. Folks, games don't get better than this and all should appreciate the art that is this game.

Windows · by Clark Gable (72) · 2004

So good I would join the Mafia to get it! Capisci?!

The Good
The first decade of the 21st century was marked by a rise in creativity in Eastern European game-making. Among the new games that were developed in those countries that used to dwell in the shadow of communist regimes, the Czech Mafia stands out as the one that found its way into the mainstream and became an instant hit within its genre.

Mafia was truly one of those "games you can't put down" for me. From mission to mission, my appreciation to it grew and increased. It was so clear that the Czech developers loved their game so much and invested everything in it, left in it a part of their souls. When a game is created with so much dedication, you just feel those vibes coming at you.

Since Mafia was conceived as a GTA clone, the inevitable question is of course "how does this game compare to GTA games"? I can only give you this advice: don't compare. I started playing Mafia while thinking of GTA, and that was a mistake. It took me some time to appreciate this game for what it was. GTA games are great at what they do, and Mafia is great at what it does. Their goals are different. GTA is about pure fun, diversity, and humor; Mafia is serious and realistic. In GTA, you are happy to perform all kinds of crazy things even though you know they are impossible; in Mafia, you are immersed into a genuine life of a mafioso. GTA is arcade-like fun, while Mafia is hardcore action. GTA is about insanely versatile and totally unrealistic missions tied by silly plots sparked by satire; Mafia is about down-to-earth assignments and serious third-person shooter gameplay crowned by a meaningful story. They are different, they are both great, and we need them both.

That doesn't mean that there is no fun to be had in Mafia. Oh no, there is plenty of it. Just like in GTA games, you can wreak havoc in the city, running over pedestrians, shooting people, blowing up cars, etc. You can hotwire and hijack cars and just drive around, enjoying the beautiful scenery. But it is clear that the focus of the game is not on that. In GTA, driving was clearly more important than shooting; in Mafia, it's the other way around. The "meat" of the game are its missions, in which shooting sequences take much more weight than the driving ones.

Mafia is above all a fantastic action game. It is challenging and sometimes frustrating in a good way. The large, varied, excellently designed levels, the tricky foes, the realistic way the weapons are handled - everything indicates a first-rate shooter. It is full of unforgettable moments - I'm sure each player has fond memories of how he crouched behind a wall with only two hitpoints left and no health kits in sight, with vicious shotgun-wielding maniacs waiting around the corner; how he desperately charged into a guarded building, diving to the side and giving the gangsters a taste of the old trusty Thompson; how he finally reached that checkpoint, read the magic words "the game was saved", removed the sweaty, trembling hands from the mouse and sat back, pouring a glass of water to quench the thirst of the dry throat...

Mafia never lets go, it is always ready to greet the player with yet another nerve-wrecking episode. There is always great variety in the shooting parts of the game: besides the usual "kill everyone" missions, there are stealth missions, melee fighting, sniping; the levels are massive outdoor environments, narrow corridors, a boat, an abandoned prison, docks, airport, art museum; each and every level is memorable, each and every mission is different in terms of goals and execution, but similar in the amount of pure suspense and adrenaline-raising action. Mafia would have been a great game even if it didn't have the driving parts.

But the driving is also great fun. The city in Mafia is a wonderful place to explore. Everything is done with outstanding care. The city is very large, with several drastically different areas: busy city center with skyscrapers, charming areas with old buildings, a rich district with villas, a workers' quarter, a lovely countryside, etc. There is a vast amount of different cars to steal and to drive; all of them have an authentic look and feel of the thirties. There are fully interactive trams and trains in the city that you could board if you are tired of exploring the city by car or on foot. While most of the driving serves as just a prelude to the actual missions, there are also several suspenseful chase sequences and an incredibly challenging (fortunately, with a difficulty level slider if you apply the much-needed patch), but excellent racing mission with the coolest cars you've ever seen.

Mafia has beautiful, detailed graphics, excellent music and sound effects. I just love the main theme (the music that plays when you access the main menu and also during the most important cutscene). It is done in the style of those heart-wrenching Italian melodies for gangster movies and it fits the game's story so well.

Speaking of which: Mafia is a very story-driven game, much more so than the GTA games, in which the stories were there mostly to tie the missions together and also served as excuses for bringing up as many satiric scenes as possible. The story of Mafia is very serious, tragic, and could in all honesty serve as a plot for a good gangster movie. There is something indescribably honest and direct in this story: it is warm and humane without being sentimental, concise without being dry or underdeveloped, and moving without being melodramatic. There is a lot of understanding in this story, but also a lot of realism, which is naturally not always pleasant, since it is a story about organized crime, after all. Above all, it is poignant and very sincere. The dialogues might appear plain in the beginning, but there is a lot of power in those precise, clear sentences. Characters tend to have moral discussions, so those dialogues are full of quotes that illustrate the happenings in the story and are stuck in the memory of the player. The story just gets better and better as the game progresses, with plot twists to follow, until it culminates in the outstanding ending.

The Bad
Mafia will satisfy you only if you don't come to it expecting crazy GTA-style antics. It is less ambitious and it generally goes only for what matters most. I imagine some people wouldn't appreciate its austere nature, sparse side activities, and relentless difficulty level. Be sure to apply the patch, since the race is almost unbeatable without it. Also, being killed by the last enemy left in the level and having to restart the whole mission is understandably frustrating. I don't like limited saving options in games and strongly oppose this treatment; but somehow, the gameplay here was so engaging that I almost didn't mind.

The voice acting could be called "uneven". Not just because some actors are better than others; the same actor's performance can range from convincing to adequate to almost fake during different dialogues. In a game with such a dramatic, serious story, everything that falls below "convincing" reduces the intensity of the experience. I also think that they could have worked more on the expressions on people's faces; they are absolutely bland. So many times Tommy is distressed, angry, or desperate; his face never betrays any of these emotions, and sometimes it just looks silly, especially when combined with the less than emotional voice acting.

The Bottom Line
Mafia gives you everything you would expect from a great action title: nerve-wrecking suspense and intense fights, great levels and atmospheric scenery; it also gives you a gorgeous city to explore while driving cool, stylish cars from the thirties; and on top of this, it has outstanding cinematic qualities and tells a good story. If you don't go and play this game now, I'll have to liquidate you on behalf of the Don.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2015

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
References to heavy metal?! Simoneer (29) Sep 12, 2010
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven Indra was here (20756) Sep 1, 2010

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

German version

The German version of Mafia has been censored. There is no blood when running over or attacking people. Also, pedestrians cannot be killed, they just lie down on the ground and take cover. Interestingly enough, the in-game cutscenes still have all the blood effects.

Phaeton

The game features a fictional luxury car called the Phaeton. Two years after the game's release, Volkswagen has released a new luxury car also called the Phaeton. Coincidence?

References

  • One mission has you entering a hotel named "Hotel Coreleone". Coreleone is the famous family name from the The GodFather movies.
  • Another mission has you stealing cigars from a box labeled "Scorsese Import/Export". Scorsese is in reference to the film director Martin Scorsese, who has directed many mob movies, including GoodFellas and Casino.
  • The names of the opponents during the car-race are taken from actual people, mostly frontmen of heavy metal bands, like Mark "Barney" Greenway from Napalm Death, Chris Barnes from Cannibal Corpse or Kirk Windstein from Crowbar.
  • The museum at the end of the game is a detailed clone of the "Kunsthistorisches Museum" in Vienna, Austria. Illusion Softworks, the Czech-based company who developed the game, obviously chose the building as an inspiration for the level.

Voice acting

In the German version of the game, Mogens von Gadow voices Paulie. Von Gadow is the German voice of actor Joe Pesci who performed in Scorsese's mob movies Goodfellas and Casino.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002– Best PC Action Game of the Year
    • 2002– Best PC Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002– #6 Best PC Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – Best Music of the Year
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • February 13, 2003 - Best Game in 2002 (Readers' Vote)
    • February 13, 2003 - Best Action Game in 2002 (Readers' Vote)
    • February 13, 2003 - Most Innovative Game in 2002 (Readers' Vote)
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 11/2005 - #4 Game Which Absolutely Needs A Sequel (it eventually got in in 2010)

Information also contributed by Daniel Saner, Gargaj, Indra was here, Lumpi, Wizo and Zack Green

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Xbox added by Corn Popper. PlayStation 2 added by Horny-Bullant.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Isdaron, Jeanne, Zack Green, Crawly, Klaster_1, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Victor Vance, FatherJack, UgraUgra.

Game added September 4, 2002. Last modified March 6, 2024.