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GTA - Italian Style

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: December 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have this game for the PC and it is a lot of fun. I have beaten it completely and, i gotta say, going through each mission and cutscene was like controlling a classic mob movie. The gameplay was great with hard, but not impossible missions. The graphics ran smoothly and the layout of the city was amazing. If you've ever wanted to ride through New York City in the 1930's while being gunned at by a group of mobsters, this is the game for you. The only flaw brought up is that the 1930's cars drive like 1930's cars. I think that by the time you get used to the driving controls, this won't even matter. Free ride is exceptionally fun, running or driving carelessly through the city, earning money for killing gangsters. So, in conclusion, this is a well-made game with a 5-star movie-like plot that will have you shaken up buy the end of the game. The only thing left is for you to buy it...

Great plot line makes up for long load times

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: February 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In Mafia, you play a lowly taxi driver who slowly moves up through the ranks of the local mob. It's a blend of Vice City with 30s era Chicago.

First, your environment. The maps of this city are HUGE and are sort of a mish-mash of all Italian cliches you can imagine. You've got bits of areas from New York City, from New Jersey (home of the Sopranos), from Chicago, and a few other cities thrown in as well. The resulting fictional city seems exceedingly authentic.

The maps are huge, detailed, and you can go down every back alley and around every corner. The downside to all of this is that the load times to move from area to area are simply AMAZINGLY long. I don't think I've played a game in years that has had such tedious load times. This is DEFINITELY a game that you play with a glass of wine (Chianti, of course) and plate of cheese in front of you, so you can snack and drink while you wait. It's a lesson in patience.

The graphics are quite nice, although not stellar. The cars in particular are a bit "shiny" most of the time and objects really appear to have painted-on skins rather than having textures. Still, you quickly learn to adapt to the look of the game and get drawn in by the plot.

The plot is where MAFIA shines. Other similar games have plots that often feel very contrived. You're being dragged along into missions just to achieve a cool stunt or go through a series of obstacles. In Mafia, you really get to understand the main character, his choices, his dilemmas. He doesn't always do what he's told. He's not an angel, but he tries to stay true to what he believes in. The maps' being large helps with the feeling that you are a real person making real decisions. There isn't any "Go directly left then go 2 steps forward" - you can take whatever route you want and if you take the wrong one, you have to figure out how to get yourself out of it.

This also makes replayability fun, because there are 80 different ways to handle each situation and you never know which one might be the most ideal.

There are a good collection of era-appropriate weapons (tommy guns, sawed off shotguns, etc) and a large number of cars for you to learn how to break into. The starting ones are, as in any game, the typical low-milage, low-speed clunkers. As you learn more about cars, you get your hands on better and better models for your garage.

The AI is reasonably good. If you're perched in a window, the enemy will figure out how to get behind you and shoot you from there. They will cover each other while approaching you. We did hit a few glitches where you aimed directly at someone from point blank range and the system jumped so it "missed". There were a few clipping issues too with the graphics, but that happens in just about any game.

Overall, the game is reasonably long, and can easily take a few weeks to play through if you go for quality over race-though-and-miss-everything. The free roam mode helps keep the game interesting for even longer. This is a game that is fun to blast away in, but also gives you things to think about and characters to relate to.

Recommended!

The best game of 2002 enters the world of PlayStations2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: January 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My sister's boyfriend recommended me to buy this game, and as soon as I launched the Czech PC version of the game - which is the version that I started with - I found it totally amazing. I am proud of my fellow Czechs who were able to construct this game - a game chosen as the best game of the year 2002 (at least in many European countries). The amount of data (contained on 3 CD's) that the creators had to put together is shocking, and initially it seemed to me that a team of 20 people would need several centuries to finish this task. Well, fortunately they have used a lot of modern technology, for example a system to scan the motion of the real actors which is subsequently translated to the motion of the artificial humans, and therefore the task was doable. There are many hours of "movies" in between the different scenes, and there is a lot of audiovisual effects everywhere. The individuals in the game have pretty good artificial intelligence, and you will be impressed how realistic all these objects and their motion are (unlike the cartoonish style of GTA, for example).

The Lost Heaven City is a completely realistic city, designed according to the actual buildings in the New York City and Chicago of the 1930s. Everything seems to work perfectly in this city - including the gas stations, public transportation, banks, hotels, shops, restaurants, prisons, car races, ships, small airport, and so on. Imagine more than twenty squared miles of the urban architecture where everything responds in a realistic fashion, including a plenty of things that are unnecessary to fulfil the game's twenty main missions (e.g. you decide jump from the bridge in order to see the ship from another side). There are 60 different models of the cars - that you can steal on the street if you learned how - that were carefully copied from the real cars in the 1930s (but they were renamed). All these cars respect all the laws of physics and they are described by approximately 100 physical parameters each. If you shoot at the car (or use some explosives), it's getting destroyed in a very realistic way.

Moreover, there are about 30 fan web sites dedicated to the game, and the people who understand computers well enough can have a lot of additional fun with modding the PC version of the game - changing the cars, textures on the buildings, music, sounds, and so on. The PlayStation2 version does not allow you to do it, I guess, but it has other advantages over the PC version - it seems that the graphics is even smoother.

The game has a tutorial where you learn how to control Tommy (which is you). On the PC version, the arrow keys and other keys on the keyboard are used for motion (and changing the weapons, jumping, and so on) while the mouse allows you to change the direction where you look (or shoot), and this combination is very natural. You can practice as the taxi driver - you will learn geography of the Lost Heaven City after some time (the map is recommended). The main game has 20 main missions with 106 checkpoints or so where the game is saved, and afterwards you may continue with the "free ride extreme" - 19 special tasks. Nevertheless, I needed about 50 hours to complete the main missions.

The story seems as a good piece of literature - you are a taxi driver who accidentally becomes a member of Mafia - an offer you can't refuse - and you are getting increasingly difficult tasks. Well, you will have to shoot a lot of people, but from a moral perspective, I am sure that at the end you will agree that being a mafioso is not the best (and easiest) option for your life - especially because your friend will betray you, and you will have to kill him. After the war, they will kill you anyway.

The game was banned in Italy for some time in 2002 because the authorities viewed it as a perfect textbook to become a criminal. The most natural audience for this game are almost definitely Americans, but the publisher company of the PC version did a bad job when they promoted this game in the U.S. and the success in the U.S. was much weaker than the game's achievements in Europe. Therefore you are sort of lucky to read this review. Mafia might be the best game ever (so far, as of January 2004), and it is much less known in the U.S. than it should be (so far). Don't get manipulated by the advertisements of various less perfect games. Buy Mafia, and you will be impressed.

Amazing!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: December 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is by far one of the best games that I've played. The story itself, the cut-scenes that lead to the next mission, the cars, characters...it's just all amazing. I love this game! It has good AI too. This is one game you DON'T want to pass up. (PC VERSION)

prequel to GTA

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game reminds me of a prequel to the GTA series. Set as a gangster in the twenties one can grow in popularity in the crime mafia. Set hits and fight for place at the top while driving a model T in this fun computer remake on the ps2. This game is very life like and will become the next big thing.

REALLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY COOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: February 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Buy this game right now! It has goood features if you and if you dont like it just trade it in game store.

The realest gamer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 17
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After reading the review of the game, the game sounds like it is going to be a nice game. I hope it have better graphics than any other game. For example, graphics like True Crime. I want to really enjoy the game.

This is a cool F!"$&=) game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I mean you see the game the getaway, gta or any other games would not compare to this game,I mean gta is the best modern preview of mafia, but all you dudes out there this is gta`s grandad!It is reaaaaally cool recommended fully. see ya dudes

Mafia info...is it a good game?should u buy it or rent it?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: February 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Mafia a knew game for PS2 is the knew best game. The game is great. The first few missions are alright nothing too exiting but as you get into the missions it getS really exciting,and agrivating at the same time. You race the fastest cars around,you do numerous mafia hits, rob a bank, escape from the cops, do drug deals, and protect the don.The weapons are tommy guns, pistols, shotguns,sniper rifle, bats, knives, sticks, crobars,and moltov cocktails. It's kind of like grand theft auto yet, a lot more realistic, and a way better story.The game is like you're playing a movie. The only negative part of the game is the loading it takes a very long time to laod.
You can do free rides where you walk around the enourmous city racing, beating cops, and hitting gangsters that you get money for. I would rate this game among one of the best. Now should you buy or rent it. If you stick to games and play them for hours on end and don't quit you'll finish in about 3-4 days, and the rest of the time you have until the games due do free ride. I finished it in 5. So in my opinion i would rent it.

Pay No Attention to the Detractors!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I read these bad reviews and decided to rent this game first and make my own decision, which I think you should do to. That turned out to work in my favor, because I LOVED it! This is one of the best 1st person shoot-em-up games I've ever played! I own GTA3 and Vice City, and I love those games to the edge of infinity, but this game gives you something that even those don't; an authentic depiction of mob life in the 1930's! I had been waiting for years for somebody to release a game like this, where you get to stroll around as a 30's mobster and sic your loyal strong-arm goons on people. This is IT! First of all, some corrections to the game flaws mentioned by previous reviewers. Some have said that the cars don't handle well. I couldn't disagree more. These reviewers are obviously too used to the turn-on-a-dime handling of Vice City's cars, which is unrealistic. Besides some of the bulkier 4-doors and sedans that you have to choose from, most of these cars are VERY fast, responsive, and actually quite fun to drive! If you want a good small and agile ride, I'd recommend the Bolt Coupe (2-seater) and the Bolt Touring (my personal fave car, tiny but seats four comfortably, for your cronies). You only need to advance two or so missions to start collecting these, it isn't that hard! You can steal any car on the street that you like and bring it to Ralph's garage, it's all a matter of preference. Secondly, some previous reviewer suggested that there were no other methods of transportation besides a bulky car to drive over the wide expanse of territory in this game. Said reviewer must have either not been looking hard enough, or he must have given up on the game too soon, because he is completely and utterly wrong. In mission mode, you can conveniently get around the city with automobiles OR an active circuit of trains AND cable cars! Get to any train platform (or trolly-route sidewalk as the case may be) and wait for the car to pull in. When it stops, use X to board and enjoy a fast and fun trip to multiple points throughout town. For some reason, the trains and cable cars don't seem to be present in Free Ride Mode, but I'm not far in the game, and perhaps you have to unlock them in the missions somehow, just like with the cars?) It is a chore getting your goons with you on a trolly car, but it's worth it! Some people have said that the controls are impossible to master. I would tend to agree that they are difficult, but that's because this game was originally released on PC, and they never really re-formatted the controls to suit the PS2. In other words, this is NOT GTA!!! But they are certainly not impossible, and after adjusting to them, you'll find you get quite good with them. I think the haters who have reviewed here just gave up on Mafia too soon. You learn new things about getting around in the city and how to get ahead every time you play it, it's like an unfolding mystery! I'm not saying you should go right out and buy it, but please do yourself a favor and rent it first. You owe it to yourself AND your PS2 library to look into this game further!

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