Mafia

The Good
The best thing about this game, in my opinion, was the storyline. The characters were extremely well-developed, and the voice acting was excellent. As a driving simulator, it's not half-bad either.

The flow of the missions was very smooth. With a couple of exceptions (detailed in the next section), nothing was too challenging or frustrating, although some missions were a tad on the easy side.

As for the actual driving part, it's a blast. The physics engine has a couple of issues, but on the whole, driving a 1930's era car actually feels like.... driving a 1930's era car. They're sluggish, and handle like tugboats, but later on in the game, you can pick up some real high performance cars.

The <u>Free Ride</u> mode is a fun diversion, it's sortof like GTA3-Lite. You can drive people around in taxicabs and kill gangsters for money. Unfortunately, aside from driving around and exploring, that's all you can do in Free Ride, but it's fun to see how long you can last against the cops in a high-performance sportscar.

The city is also persistent - if you abandon a car on a street somewhere, and then come back hours later (at least, in Free Ride mode), your car will still be there, in the middle of the road. (In addition to about eight million other cars piled up behind it.) So, if you so desire, you can make use of some of numerous empty parking lots in the game to store cars in, when playing in Free Ride mode.

As an added bonus, once you complete the game, you unlock "Free Ride Extreme". There are a number of missions in this mode, and each one rewards you with a special, unique car. These cars can be used in the basic Free Ride mode.

The Bad
As mentioned earlier, some missions are very difficult, compared with other missions. Most noteably, "That Friggin' Race Mission". Completing this mission with keyboard controls is, at first blush, nigh-impossible, and caused no end of frustration. There is also one other mission where it's not really clear what you should be doing; I had to consult a walkthrough for this one.

While the music was well-done, it got repetative very quickly. I mean, very quickly. When toolin' around in Free Ride mode, I try to avoid Little Italy altogether, just because of its ambient music.

Do doot doot do de do...
Do doot doot do de do...
Do doot doot do de do...
Doot do doot doot do!
[.....]
Do doot doot do de do...
Do doot doot do de do...
AARGH! ENOUGH!

I mentioned the physics system earlier; it has one fault. At times, it's possible to knock your car on its side. No matter what you do, you'll never get it back on its wheels again. Ramming it with another car just pushes it around, instead of flipping it back over. Hope you weren't too attatched to that car...

There is one bug I've found with the AI, and it's actually almost a good thing, due to the humor it invokes. Check this out:

I got pulled over by the cops for speeding. I got out of my car, and paid the fine. The two cops went back to their policecar, and one of them got in the passenger side. The second cop opened the door, hauled the first cop out of the car, and climbed in. The first cop got back up, opened the door, hauled the second cop back out, and then SHOT HIM. The surviving cop then walked around to the driver's side, and drove off.

I'm still laughing about that one.

The only other drawback is that the actual storyline was over too quickly. I managed to complete this game in about a week, and it usually takes me forever to complete any game.

The Bottom Line
Fans of GTA3 may like this game. Even though it's not as freeform, it seems to be a lot more realistic, and the city feels a lot more "real". The excellent story more than makes up for the driving simulator's few shortcomings.

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.

The Good
This is not Grand Theft Auto 3. Let me make that a bit clearer. If you thought this game looked a lot like GTA3 then wipe the image from your mind. Mafia's only common ground with GTA3 is a living roamable city but that's where the comparisons may as well end. Sure that's a sizable similarity but Mafia has enough originality and style to shake the GTA3 clone stigma as soon as the game starts.

Set in the 1930's and telling the story of a simple taxi driver turned crime boss, Mafia has more gunfights, beatings and robberies than you can shake a tommy gun at, all told in such style and with such brilliance that you'd think it was written to be a film originally. As I said before, the script and story is expertly told and shot, keeping you on the edge of your seat and constantly wanting to see what happens next. The acting is first rate too for everyone from your own character, Tommy Angelo to the numerous NPC's that litter the streets. I honestly can't think of any other game to do the story telling and delivery aspect so well. It's really that good.

The whole experience is enhanced by making you drive to each mission in a living breathing city that changes as time passes. If you try to drive like you did in GTA3 you'll find the cops after you very quickly which of course is bad news unless you were after some trouble. Mafia is somewhat more sensible in regards to the cops than most games as Police can actually lose you and even call on a city wide search where every cop is on the lookout. Unlike other games of this type, just because they're after you doesn't mean they have any idea where you are. All of this is conveyed through some very pretty visuals and some of the best realtime human 3d animation yet seen in a game. Sound has also been taken care of with equal style. Old 30's music plays throughout the game and ambient noise is equally well dealt with.

Missions are very varied and each one takes you to very different and interesting places usually comprising of a driving element where you either must drive to/from somewhere or chase/evade someone, as well as on foot sections where the game takes a standpoint reminiscent of Max Payne and just as stylish. Those who own force feedback steering wheels are not forgotten with feedback fully supported for the driving sections (highly recommended.)

There are over 20 missions to get through, each one is highly different from the last and takes place in staggeringly varied environments. Even better is that once you've finished the game you can take any car out on the town in the Free Ride mode which, as the name suggests allows you free access to the entire city so you can just cruise for trouble.

The Bad
The game may sound perfect so far but sadly, it isn't. Some of the stages are quite unbalanced and you may find yourself struggling through one stage then breezing through the next. The driving/chasing also plays a big part in the game and since the physics are fairly realistic you may find yourself having a bit of trouble without an analogue controller handy, particularly during a race that pops up (you'll know it when you see it.)

There are also save points that seem to have been positioned perfectly for players who have already finished the game and know exactly where to go and what to do. This often leads to immense frustration because you have to repeat areas you already beat, some of which are very tough.

AI is utterly thick on other cars on the road. They'll act as if you aren't even there most of the time meaning you'll be rammed into a lot if you don't watch it.

The game also features it's fair share of bugs, some of which include chipmunk speed voices on certain systems, crashes and refusal to load. There are also numerous in game bugs and irritations that I won't go into here due to spoiler material and as of this review there is no patch.

The Bottom Line
Mafia is a stunning game with a brilliant story, delivery and atmosphere but is also very frustrating at times and carries it's fair share of bugs.

Despite it's flaws however, it's definitely worth getting ahold of.