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Could be better....
I've been playing Mafia for about a week now and I'm addicted. However there are some things that could be better about it. For example the save feature is terrible, the game only auto-saves and only at certain points. Plus the police AI are a little to smart, making it difficult to do a lot of really fun stuff. In the actual 1930's gangsters could pretty much walk around with thompsons because there were no laws that covered sub machine guns. Now if they used it that was different, but in Mafia the police don't start shooting because you're shooting they take shots at you if you're seen with the gun. However that's really nit-picky and other then those few things the game is really awesome just be prepared to play the same sequence over and over again until you can get it perfect.
One Amazing Game
This is a definite purchase for anyone that liked the idea of the massive interactive environment in Grand Theft Auto III. It sucks you into the 1930s where you play a cab driver that, after a run in with several mob members, earns a position under one of the two major dons in the city of Lost Heaven. The major difference between this title and Grand Theft Auto III, aside from the obvious settings in time, is the realism. While GTA 3 was a sort of cartoonish looking game, Mafia has a very realistic environment, from the buildings to the people to the cars of the era.
There are two modes in the game, free ride and story mode. Story mode is amazing. This is where the bulk of this game can be found. I don't want to give too much away, but I would compare story mode to Grand Theft Auto III with a story and not just random tasks. Expect to find everything you would find in a mob movie: beatings, gunfights, hits, backstabbing, and even a small love story. As you complete missions, you will learn how to jimmy the locks on new cars, which can be used in missions or just for fun in free ride mode. Free Ride mode is just that. You pick a car, which you've earned in the story mode and tool around the city. You earn money for killing mobsters, blowing up cars, or earning fares as a taxi driver. With the money, you can purchase new weapons, fix your car or heal yourself. Pretty basic, but can lead to great fun.
Of course there is always something that could be improved and while they are few in this game, I think they should be mentioned. One thing that bothered me was the fact that all missions start and end at the don's restaurant, which translates to a lot of driving when a mission takes place on the other side of the city. On the other hand, with such a beautiful environment, this gives you a chance to get a better look at some areas that you may not have to visit during a mission. The only other annoyance that I can think of is the frustrating difficulty of some of the missions. Again, I don't want to give to much away, but sometimes the AI is just too good. Otherwise the AI is very fun to deal with. Guys hide and duck behind objects, they run when they know they're in trouble, they whistle for help when they need it. The AI is overall fantastic.
Overall this is an amazing game. It is very addictive and engrossing and will keep you entertained for hours.
PROS:
Very realistic and massive environment
Great Artificial Intelligence
Engrossing story
Tons of cars and weapons
CONS:
Frustrating at times
Great Game, but eats even high end systems
I've just completed the game, having been addidcted to it for 3 weeks. It has a great twist at the end, well worth seeing, and i had to remember iwas playing a game and not watching a great gangster movie. No game is perfect and this also has its negative points, which are the no save game option whenever you like, this means you might spend half an hour killing mobsters and sneak into a room only to get blown away with a single shot from a guy carrying a pump action shotgun, yes trust me you get cheesed off trying to get to the same point again. The other thing was that I thought I had a very powerful PC until i played this game, I run a microstar Nforce motherboard with an athlon 1800xp cpu, and a Gforce 4 TI400 graphics card (thats 128mb) and also 512 mb ddr ram, and 60gb 7800 rpm Hard drive, yet all this and i still found the frame rate quite jerky, especially whilst driving a vehicle. I did have all the options on high however, but GTA3 runs very smoothly with the options on very high.
All in all the positives far outweigh the negatives, and i would reccomend this game to anyone.
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