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Greatest Game (Possibly Ever)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've had Mafia for a while, but i'm finally writing a review for it.

I've seen the new games out that are 1 year more advanced than Mafia like Splinter Cell or Max Payne 2, but for some reason, it still seems that the graphics for Mafia are better. For the first time in a while, the in-game graphics are just as good as the cutscene graphics. And so far, no game has exceeded Mafia graphics wise.

Graphics aren't the only thing that haven't been improved. Mafia has an excellent musical soundtrack with the jazz that really gives you the 30's feel. And the gameplay is great. This is pretty much the 30's version of Grand Theft Auto. Only more serious. You can't go around on rampages like in GTA, but I feel the seriousness is more appropriete for the time.

Though the lasting appeal is not so great after you beat the game, it's possibly the best while it still is appealing to you. Free Ride and Free Ride Extreme don't come close to the actual game, but the actual game is enough. The storyline is the best story line for a game possibly ever. It's the story of a man named Tommy Angelo who is a mobster and is trying to get out of the business. He tells his story of how he was a normal taxi driver when he is unfortunately brought into the business. And even if you've beaten the game, you can still replay some of your missions.

In conclusion, i feel Mafia is the greatest game ever made, so far. I'm interested in seeing what the companies have in store for us in the not too distant future.

The don sends his regards

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Mafia takes you through the life of one man as he goes from a taxi driver to one of the don's top men. Mafia game play allows you to do many different things. From racing on a track, to drivebys, and foot missions mafia includes many different aspects to the game play. The game music is adequate and there is a few good tracks included as main themes but much of the music does get repetitive. This game requires a good speed computer. Check exact specifications, however on my 1.3gz computer there was still slow down during some of the heavier gunfights. (There are graphic change options to help with this) Mafia also includes an very close attention to detail, which I found quite impressive. Perhaps the three most important things about mafia you should know is that, first of all, much of the game you will be required to drive around. This can get quite boring, especially in the beginning when there is the most driving and the slowest cars. Toward the end of the game the cars become faster and many of the missions are shorter in distance. Nevertheless, it can get boring. Second of all, and the biggest problem with the game is the absurdly hard difficulty. There is no difficulty level change, except for one mission. It's not that I don't like games that are difficult but rather I don't like it when I have to play a mission and to beat it know the best position to kill every person in the area. That means a very long trail and error. There was one mission I must have done over 40 times. While some missions can be beaten easily much of the games missions are just to difficult. Lastly I need to mention the games amazing storyline. I find it very difficult to find a game with a good story line, even in RPGs. Even the ending is great, and made me glad that I did finish the game. Overall, I feel Mafia is a great game but the difficulty and driving missions hurt the game badly. I could even deal with the driving but the difficulty can get outrageous. Even so, you can beat the game with a lot of patience. Mafia is long in length, giving plenty of play time and storyline. Sadly, it does not offer a feature to watch the story line alone after the game completion. It does however offer free ride modes and missions for more game play once the actual game is completed. In the end, I would have to recommend the game. It's storyline is too great to do otherwise.

This game is not "trying" to be GTA...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Some of these reviews are rather lame, with people wishing for GTA-like handling on the cars, and neverending ammo supplies. Let me tell you what this game IS.

This game is a mafia-style adventure game set in the 1930's. THE 1930'S!!!! What, do you expect to see a Dodge Viper sitting around??? Of course the cars are slow and handle like boats. The freakin' automobile was just invented like 30 years ago! The guns are very realistic, except it should probably take a little LONGER to reload some of the revolvers. I fire revolvers, and unless you've got tons of quick loads in your pocket, 3 seconds isn't going to cut it! Aside from that, the reloading times become part of the strategy. Oh yeah, and don't reload prematurely. Just like in real life, if you reload while there are still rounds in the mag, you're going to lose those rounds. (I wish Counter-Strike did that.)

No in-game map: HIT TAB while driving. POOF! In-Game map. Oh yeah, and on the back of that nifty poster they included in the box, it's <gasp> ANOTHER MAP!

Can't skip cutscenes. Well, first, unless you've seen them before, I wouldn't recommend skipping them. They add a LOT to the story. Second, did you even try to skip the cutscenes? What did you do, sit and yell, "STOP" at your computer monitor?? The Enter key works fine for me, and others have reported the space bar.

"The cops suck." What? You're mad because you got pulled over for going over the speed limit? My biggest gripe about most games is that the cops see you driving a million miles an hour, running red lights, and wrecking into other cars, and they do NOTHING. I absolutely love the challenge of stealing a car, and then getting it back to Salieri's Bar quickly while trying to avoid the cops! The cops in no way behave like they have "GPS and satellites." Just yesterday, I ran into another car in front of a cop. Because I fled the scene, they chased me. However, I was in a faster car, so I was able to outrun them. I was doing fine until another cop saw me. (They had something called Radio back then..."Calling all cars. Be on the lookout for a man in a yellow race automobile.") I changed cars when I was out of sight of the cops, and drove right by another cop and nothing happened. They were looking for a guy in a yellow automobile, and weren't expecting a guy in a green Bolt Fordor. :)

This game is trying to be true to the time period, people. Don't expect Fast and the Furious, and don't complain when you don't get it.

This game is spectacular, however, like some have said, it's a resource hog. I've got an AMD XP 2700+ with a 128MB ATI Radeon 9600 Pro and 1Gig of RAM. It runs great on my system, and is a fine game. I give it 5 stars, and if you've got the hardware, it's worth the money you can spend on it! At the time of this writing, I paid $29.99 for this, and it's well worth it.

Worth more than you may pay for it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have almost completed Mafia and I must say that it is a great game. It installed easily and I have had no problems running it on the highest resolution with my old pent3 machine (with an upgraded gforce4 video card).

I must say that the voice acting is superb. Very few games do I actually sit through the cut scenes but with this game I have watched and totally enjoyed every one. The imersion factor is good and the city is huge and well layed out. The missions are challenging but I have yet to become overly frustrated trying to make it through a level.

A few of the other reviews mention that the driving aspect is difficult and many have problems with the race track level. I had a old MS racing wheel left from a racing game I used to play and it interfaced with the game perfectly. This game IS designed for the use joystick or wheel and once you hook one up the driving becomes easy and quite enjoyable. The developers put quite a bit of research into the various vehicles and it shows. (Also keep in mind when your driving your using 1930s tire technology:)

The other big complaint I hear is the lack of quicksaves. This was not a problem for me, and in fact it actually helped extend the playing time and enjoyment of the game. You just have to restart the level and better plan your moves each time. The first time thru you get the thrill of not knowing what will be coming at you and where it will come from. If you die then you have to better plan your attack the next attempt. Eventually you get things down to clockwork and you can whiz right through it. It was like solving puzzles where the puzzle pieces were shooting at you. Quite fun. (I even replayed a few levels I went through the first time just to see if I could do them better than I did the first time around.

And... after you finish the single player game you still have the free ride modes to add to the replayability of this gem.

Overall I think this is one of the better games I have ever played and for the price you can not find a better value.

-Buzzz

Mafia

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My first video game review on RottenTomatoes, and actually, the first game I've gone all the way through since I registered here.

I rented this game on PS2 a few weeks ago, and although I loved the story and the driving controls, I, like many other people I'm sure, just cannot seem to work a first person shooter on a console. It just doesn't work for me. I have to have keyboard and mouse, that's just the way an FPS was meant to be played. Also, the loading times for the PS2 version was TERRIBLE.

But, since I did like the story, I bought the game for the PC when I saw it for 10 dollars at the store. Was the best decision I have made in a while. The game is fantastic for the PC. Loading times are minimal, the graphics are realistic enough to make you want to keep playing, and the story is just excellent. Something that will be a drawback for some people is that the game is very challenging, and there are no cheat codes for you pussies that use them... *whistles innocently*.

I would consider this game to be along the lines of Grand Theft Auto 3 with more story, better graphics, a bit less bloody, a bit more challenging, and set in the 1930s.

The game is only 10 dollars, so just friggin buy it.

Amazing game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Mafia has to be one of the best games that I have ever played, and I am an avid gamer. Graphics and character animations are incredible. Gameplay is suberb. Story is incredible and replayability is very, very high. What else can you ask for? And to top everything off, its only $10. Just go and buy it. You won't regret it.

BEST MONEY YOU'LL EVER SPEND!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is first class on virtually every level right down to the music. The only tight spot is learning to drive a car with the arrow keys. After some practice, a piece of cake. Every aspect of this game is played in a movie atmosphere very similar to Max Payne and just as brilliant. Unlike some games, this game is not linear and you can think your way through the episodes. This game can be purchased for about
$10.00 in most stores and should be valued at 50!

This game is totally awesome, but a little glitchy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Overall this game is so much fun, especially for the price

Pro: The graphics are decent
The map is huge, and lots of fun to explore
Most driving missions give you plenty of time
The weapons are a nice variety, from knives to shotguns to molotov cocktails
The missions are difficult but not impossible, and even though there are only 20 actual missions there are several parts to each. Plus, there are many sub-quests which can only be unlocked after beating the game.
Can you really beat the price?

Con: It runs blocky even on my computer (2.8 GHz P4, 512 MB RAM, 128 MB graphics card)

Note: Cheats for this game are basically nonexistent (if thats your thing)

One of the best games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played many excellent games; Halo, Max payne, GTA, (their sequals), but no game beats Mafia. Mafia is a 1st person shooter based in the 1930s during prohibition. You are a regular citizen who gets caught up in business with the Mafia, who soon turns into a regular mafioso. Throughout the game you play a wide variety of missions. They're all very fun because they make you do really crazy things, and yet they're all really realistic because they're things that mafias would do. For instance- you have to drive a race car and win first place so that the mafia can win their bets, you have to escape the police over rooftops after blowing up a whorehouse, you have to bang up a bunch of cars to get back at your enemy. They're all part of the life of a mafia, and they're all intertwined with great cinematics and flashbacks. Not only are these missions great but all 25 (or so) of them are quite long- most take about 5 hours to complete because they include many different parts and optional subquests.

And then there's the part of mafia which makes it different from any other game. Everything in mafia is extremely refined unlike most other games. The shooting physics, the graphics, the driving physics, the sound engine. Every single nuance has been altered so that it's as realistic to life as it can be. This not only adds to the missions, but makes it fun just to do regular things- driving around, running over telephone booths, doing whatever. I've spent countless hours just doing nothing in freeride, and it's fun. (because of this I highly suggest you borrow or buy a force-feedback driving wheel, it makes the experience so much better) This also adds to the freeride extreme feature which gives you crazier cars, crazier guns and crazier missions.

In general, it's a strong game in all aspects it can be. I highly recommend this game, because it will entertain. I've had the game for at least 4 years and have probably spent a couple hundred hours playing it, and I still haven't finished freeride extreme.

An amazing experience, and a pretty good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Whatever you feel about playing Mafia (PC), its place in gaming history is concrete. The very first open-world game to represent gangster life of the 1930s (and do so with a high degree of historical accuracy), Mafia drops the player into an alternate reality New York city. "Lost Heaven" is teeming with criminals, immigrants, and upper crust debutantes, each making their way in a fully realized cityscape of the past. Shantytowns, elegant Victorian era hotels, rural city outskirts, even a fully functional A-Train fresh off the engineer's drawing pad are at your disposal. Add in amazingly appropriate music tracks, a massive selection of ersatz 30s era jalopies, sympathetic characters living in a believable storyline, and great voice acting, and youve got a fully immersive experience. And the gameplay itself is nearly as good.

The developers made a commendable effort to give the player as much control over his environment as possible, and largely succeeded. The on-foot engine has a similar feel to the GTA (PC) scheme, and suffers some of the same frailties. A stiff somewhat unresponsive movement mechanic can make some basic interactions (like opening doors or hand to hand combat) awkward, but is honestly no worse than the average 3rd person shooter. And considering the lack of fistfighting required to advance, it's really not a hurdle. Much of the game is spent in vehicles, which is a saving grace of the gameplay. Like the boys at Rockstar, Mafia's developers (Illusion Softworks) are clearly car enthusiasts who put painstaking efforts into their digital machines. While none are licensed, car buffs will instantly recognize shapes, sounds and other characteristics of classic cars in Mafia's invented models. A Model T clone sputters and grinds its gears, emitting a perfect "A-OOOOO-GAH" horn blast; another closely resembles a Stutz Bearcat with its sleek lines, rumbling exhaust and powerful pull. There's even a brilliant race level where a vintage open formula racer gurgles, smokes, and squeals its way around the city's racetrack, leaving the player stunned with the sensation of speed and danger.

Unlike the world of GTA, however, Lost Heaven exists within an alternate reality instead of an inconsequential pulp-fiction fantasy universe. Bad behavior bears retribution in Lost Heaven: cars are not easy to steal (initially), traffic infractions result in tickets, and violent behavior brings grave consequences. Players who have completed the game certainly get this. And along with the compelling storyline comes a much stricter path of advancement. While the city is lovingly crafted with the finest era-specific details laid out over many square miles, there is honestly very little to do besides the main story missions. Besides indulging your wanderlust, visiting remote areas of the town bear no rewards beyond the visual. And close examination reveals a city that doesnt want to be examined. Many building textures are dull and low-res, and there is little interactivity with NPCs or objects beside cars. Buildings are non-enterable and even certain areas (like the racetrack and the countryside) are sealed off after their part in the storyline is played. And the "side-missions" are silly and superflous; probably only included to give the illusion of depth. This, for me, was the biggest disappointment of the game: that waking-from-a-dream feeling when I was continually reminded that Lost Heaven and the game overall were rather superficial or "fake". And that criticism only results from the occasional taste of the fully realized explorable universe Mafia could have been, although that may have been an impossible job for a small independent east European developer. I'm sure the game was a Herculean task as it is.

The graphical detail of Mafia supports what I've suspected for a while: that game level designers are frustrated architects. There are a few levels in Mafia, including the hotel assasination and farmhouse raid, that are just breathtaking. While the actual gameplay never strays too far from the simple "kill all bad guys" formula, I had to occasionally put down the tommygun and soak in the stunning atmosphere. Creeping about a deserted farmhouse on a stormy fall night in upstate Lost Heaven, not knowing if the next barn door I open would be my last, was a chilling experience. Sneaking about an opulent 19th century hotel detailed in near photorealism was a sight I can't begin to describe. (Screenshots you've seen dont do the game justice). Even if the game itself were mediocre, it would deserve a play just to witness the amazing level architecture. Yeah, that good.

So if you're a PC gamer who enjoys a solid adventure or 3rd person shooter, find time for Mafia if you havent already. As a final note, this is like so many other modern era 3-D PC games that flat out lie about system requirements. You really can't do the game justice without a decent rig, at least 2-2.5 gig P4 with a an Nvidia 6xxx or higher card. It eats some resources, but put it on a system that can display in a high resolution with no frame drop and it's an amazing experience. And I had good success with a Logitech Dual Action controller (in the left hand) and mouse (right hand) setup. The analog sticks are a great assistance with driving, although it will take some effort to map all the buttons to your liking.

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