Mafia

Rating:
Summary: not bad
Review: the game is ok, but gta3 is much better. this game is very linear and the cars really [stink]. the details are not all that great, the weapon choices are limited. all of this is of course in comparison to gta3, which has much much more to offer. they are both fun games, and this one is very interesting, but if you are only going to afford one, get gta3 instead and you won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not without its frustrating drawbacks.
Review: I pretty much agree with everything written in the review by Matthew T Duren and most of the other positive reviews of the game here, so I won't bother repeating everything they've said. It's incredibly immersive; everything from the game's aesthetics to the realistic vintage cars to the fully realized city to the epic story and the characters are all superb and work together to make this one of the best games I've played this year.

One additional thing I have to say is that the main character (whom you play as, of course) is very well-done. He's as close as you can get to "a gangster with a conscience", yet he's still, ultimately, an awe-inspiring badguy. It's easy to relate to the main character because he starts out as an "ordinary joe" who slowly becomes unwillingly involved in the world of organized crime; throughout the story, he has his own motivations for going into each mission, all of which are understandable. Because you care about the main character, you actually have a stake in completing each mission successfully and you really want to know how things turn out, which makes the game all the more fun.

However, Mafia does have some major drawbacks. The game uses an auto-save feature, which works extremely well when it's implemented effectively, such as in games like Bungie's "Halo". But the auto-save points really need to be laid out just the right distance from each other. If the game is saved so frequently that the player can always just hop back to where they were 5 seconds ago whenever they get killed, then the game obviously becomes easy; but moreover, it kills a lot of dramatic tension because the player isn't really "on the edge of their seat", as they know they can easily undo any mistakes they make. There's a certain sense of satisfaction with a well-implemented auto-save system, when the player goes through a gauntlet of enemies and emerges victorious, that just isn't there when the player kills an enemy, saves the game, kills another enemy, saves the game again, gets killed by the next enemy, restores the game, then kills the enemy, and emerges victorious.

But on the other hand, if the auto-save points are placed too far apart for a player, the player can get very frustrated when they try to get through that gauntlet of enemies, are unsuccessful many times in a row, and get incredibly fed up with the repetitiveness to the point that the game is just no fun. This happened a fair number of times with me in Mafia, unfortunately, although not too often. In particular, though, there's a 5-lap race that happens a few missions into this game, which I won mostly by luck on the 4th or 5th try; but if I hadn't won it when I did, I might have eventually put the game down because repeating it over and over would get terribly boring and frustrating. In addition, there were a few instances where the goals of a mission were a bit too vague and I had to wander around the level aimlessly after killing all the enemies or reaching my destination, trying to figure out what to do; sometimes I'd get killed somehow while doing this (e.g., I'd turn a corner and a straggling enemy would deck me with a point-blank shotgun blast, or a time limit would run out), in which case I'd have to go all the way back to the last auto-save, kill all the enemies again, and then wander around aimlessly once more, playing the game of "hmm, I wonder what the game designers wanted me to do here...". Granted, these kinds of things inevitably happen with me on nearly all the games I play, but Mafia is one of those games where, in retrospect, I wonder if I was ultimately frustrated more than I was having fun. If you have to ask yourself this with a lot of games you play, you might want to think twice before picking this one up. Still, when the game is fun, it's extremely fun, and incredibly immersive, which makes my decision of "would I play it all over again?" all the more difficult.

Rating:
Summary: No car racing
Review: I liked this game when I first sat down to play it. I have played Max Payne as well as Grand theft auto III. I couldn't wait for this game to come out, I watched and waited. Now that I have played it, I wished I saved my money. I loved the first few levels, and I thought the driving around the town was actually enjoyable. The one aspect of driving I didn't like was being made to drive in a car race. If I want to drive in a car race, I will get a NASCAR game. I was just really suprised to come across a level in this game where you have to race 5 laps and WIN or else you loose and have to do it again. Leave the racing games to themselves please. After trying the race 20 or 30 times, I find myself just playing the FREE RIDE feature of this game, which can be fun.

Rating:
Summary: Great stuff...
Review: I've played this game, and just thought it was awesome! I want the sequel right now! Great storyline, turns of events, and play ability. I highly recommend Mafia as a Christmas gift...

Rating:
Summary: A lil dab of GTA3 and loads of Godfather
Review: Playing Mafia is like reading a book from Mario Puzo. Amazing story which was very well executed and implemented. The story of Tommy Angelo is as amazing as Michael Corleone when he was in exile in Sicily. Truly facinating. A must for any gamers who love a good plot.

Rating:
Summary: your caring friend
Review: first of all who ever wrote or had the name/its a1930's knock off of GTA 3 and wrote that mafia is a spin off of GTA 3 does not know there stuff obviously does not know anything about anything, they were working on mafia way before GTA 3.
don't get me wrong but they are both endivually good games.they are both unique in there own way.mafia is strickly about the mafia.

Rating:
Summary: DRIVE you crazy!!!!
Review: This game should have been called "Mafia-The Chauffeur"
You spend more time driving from one rediculous task to
another. If you like driving games, then this is one for you.
This game could have been great if you did more than drive
from one end of town to the other. You face endless attemps to
drive against the clock. Real Fun-Yeah Right! Save your money!

Rating:
Summary: One word....
Review: AMAZING!!!

Mafia is probably one of the most revolutionary games of this genre. Mafia is a 3rd person adventure game, which takes place in the 30s. You are a taxi driver, and save a few under atack mafia members and then accept a job opening from the don of the mafia.

The story line in this game, is, well, extremely good! After you are in the mafia, you raise from the ranks to become a feared mafia leader. You start up driving people and, once you go high enough up the ranks, you start stealing cars, eliminating enemy mafias, blowing up cars, and kill gang members.

There is a cinematic in the beginning and end of EVERY mission. These cinematics describe the story line that is not shown during gameplay, such as the private lives of the main characters, feelings they have, and the such.

The graphics in this game are unbelievable! The game takes on an advanced graphics engine, the freedom to go everywhere and do whatever you want, and even generate random scenes of theft, robbery, and destruction within the world of the character. This brings me to my first downside to the game. BECAUSE the graphics are so good, and BECAUSE the world is so interactive, this game requires a heavy PC. The game recommends 733mhz CPU and 32mb video card, 256mb of ram. I have an 1.1ghz athlon, radeon 8500 64mb, and 256 sdram, and it barely cuts it. I am running at 800X600 and it skips, begins to be choppy, and will even just pause for a matter of minutes until the game revives again. Make sure you have the rig to run the game!

The sounds are INCREDIBLE as well. Not so much the sound effects, but the music is excellent. The music wants to keep you going, and makes missions more exciting. For example, the mission I am currently on requires you to run away from the police in a banged-up car. It has swift and fast music, with very high notes, to show danger and excitement. There are some strange transisions from song to song, but besides that, the music and the sound effects are excellent.

The replay value is nice, but then again, there are no alternative endings or paths to take.

Another problem is that the game is DIFFICULT. You should expect to be on this game for a long time, for this game has one of the most respectively long and detailed single player games ever, and the missions are hard, and require skill, thinking, and trying over and over again!

There will be a patch for multiplayer soon, and that should bring excitement as well! There will be deathmatch, capture the flag, and all sorts of unique games like racing, and other games requiring cars. Expect to see many families (aka CLANS) against one another, and to see real virtual mafia action just like the 30s!

This game looks promising. Not only for the single player game, but also the multiplayer addon, and the other great mods and single player addons that will be graced infront of Mafia's shoes. Expect to be playing this game into 2006!

Rating:
Summary: Mafia is a dream game for all mob fans
Review: Mafia is an awesome game. The graphics- the action- the story.
If you liked the godafther or any other mob movie, ull love this game. mafia is a must have for ne true gamer.

Rating:
Summary: 1930s Knock-Off of GTA3
Review: The creators of Mafia seem to think they can take GTA3, dress the main character up in a pin-stripe suit, and call it something new.

Game developers spend lots of money on graphics and sound, and devote very little attention to plot, dialogue, and acting. Why do we see so many games, like this one, with state-of-the-art visuals trying to breathe life into a bland script that could well have been written by some high-school kid in the after-school creative writing club? The sensory aspects of action games keep improving over time, but the creative aspect has totally been left behind.