Mafia

[Cartman189]

Story:
In Illusion softworks’ Mafia, We are dropped back into the 1930’s as Tommy Angelo is telling his life story to Detective Norman, starting from the beginning when he was just a local cabbie who was forced to drive 2 injured gangsters away from other hit men that were after them. Seeing that Tommy was able to drive better than the 2 gangsters they offer him a position under the power-hungry, Don Salieri working from his bar as the headquarters. From this point on, Tommy rises in the ranks of the Mafia, from transporting liquor during the prohibition to breaking and entering. In his new post as a member of the mafia, he meets new people. Frank, Salieri’s right hand man and friend from the beginning, Sam and Paulie, his partners in crime, Ralph, the family mechanic, and Vincenzo, who provides you with the firepower needed to take on the streets. Tommy also meets Sarah, the bartender’s (Luigi) daughter who he falls in love with and soon marries. The game’s missions mostly revolve around Don Salieri’s and Don Morello’s feud to become the most powerful Don in the city of Lost Heaven.

Graphics:
Graphically, Mafia is simply amazing using the very flexible LS3D to manipulate the characters expressions, from smiling to a raised eyebrow makes the cut scenes more realistic and more enjoyable to watch. There is over 30 in-door location to explore such as hotels, airports, restaurants, and banks. There is also the general environment of the city. Hearing people talk, cars zoom by, dogs bark, and the music containing many blues/jazzy songs.

Gameplay/Features:
This game is set in the 3rd person, much like Max Payne, except in tight squeezes where it turns to a very sloppy 1st person. The weapons in this game come in all shapes and sizes. From your bare hands steel pipes, baseball bats, to handguns such as Colt 911's or Magnums, to saw-off/pump action shotguns, Molotov Cocktails and even the classic Thompson, Tommy gun. What is a 1930's game without some historic cars to reek havoc in too? Mafia contains 60 historic cars that are a little a bit more difficult to obtain than in GTA3. The mechanic must teach you to pick the lock and start the car before you are able to steal it, which is a refreshing concept considering not everyone that drives leaves their door unlocked like in GTA3. In driving cars you are also able to perform drive-bys and actually aim at what you want to shoot at. Along with that, cars also are able to run out of gas. Fortunately gas stations are marked off on the city map. AI is very advanced in this game as well, shown in the pedestrians that actually try to dodge cars that are headed for them and the gangsters that chase you down after you crash into their car. It is also shown in the police, enabling them to write you tickets, arrest you, or shoot to kill. After or during you campaign of rising in the ranks of the mafia the ‘Free Ride’ option is open. This allows you to start either in the city or countryside and day or night with your choice of car and just roam the city and cause some disturbances with some gangsters walking the streets or driving around on the streets. You are able to earn money and buy gas, weapons, repair cars, or save your game back that Salieri’s Bar. When you complete the full game you unlock ‘Free Ride Extreme’ which puts you at the wheel of many fast cars.

Final Thoughts:
This is not only a very great single player game, it is very addictive as I found myself playing up to 2 and sometimes 3 in the morning. The amazing graphics and invigorating and refreshing gameplay. The storyline alone is well worth the dollars spent on this game even though it lacks multi-player features. I applaud the creators and developers of this game and suggest that fans of 3rd person games to pick this one up.

[ThaMaster]

Nice review there man, I totally agree with it

[Cartman189]

Thanks dude

[Redeemer]

Yep, good review.

[dis]

I dont know about you but I have hte game installed on win XP Pro fresh installation with a Geforce4 Ti 128 MB and 1 Ghz processor and the game stalls. If you have anything less dont buy the game.

[Bucky]

Since I run it on Win2k, 1.4ghz cpu and an ATI 7200 w/ 32 megs ram without any problems, I'd say:

1) You don't have enough RAM on you system (I have 512 Megs.)
2) You don't have your rig set to run games properly.

Don't blame the game. The problem is on your end.

[nayked]

Agreed... Game rocks.. Ran crappy with a lot of tearing in the screen. Untill i got refresh rate fixed.
Pent 1.8
Ti 4600 w/128meg
1024 megs Rambus
XP on dx9

Great game, Great review, Get Nayked

[Cartman189]

I've got Windows2k - 512 DDR - Athlon 1800 - Radeon 8500 LE and it ran perfectly fine with mine.

[Bucky]

Get yer ass back in here and write more reviews!!!!!!!