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Mafia

28 August 2002
Mafia - cover art
Glitchwave rating
3.78 / 5.0
0.5
5.0
 
 
635 Ratings / 1 Reviews
#488 All-time
#19 for 2002
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Releases 7
3xCD-ROM
GB 5 02655 03384 8
DE 4 012160 371155
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DVD
XNA 7 10425 27121 2 SLUS 20671
2004 2K Czech Gathering  
DVD
XEU
Mafia Kolekcja Klasyki
3xCD-ROM
PL 5 907671 210477
2010 Illusion Softworks 2K  
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Title
Mafia: The Game of Lost Heaven
Mafia, released in 2002 by the Czech developer Illusion Softworks is an action-adventure game set within the fictional city of Lost Heaven, clearly inspired by many American towns from that timeframe (mainly San Francisco), set during the prohibition era. As the name suggests, the player takes control of the first and foremost taxi driver turned mobster Tommy Angelo, who does many odd jobs for the Salieri Family.

You could call it by just the desc. to being just an "Eastern-European copy of GTA". Although the subject matter is without a doubt comparable, I'd say that it does diverge from its western cousin. To start with its gameplay, probably the most commented-on thing from the whole experience, is first and foremost, driving slow cars through bustling streets, while still abiding by such funny concepts as "traffic laws". You could, based on it, pejoratively call the game a 1930s American Truck Simulator expansion, although I think that driving is an important aspect of the gameplay loop. It helps to ground the player in the game world and does give a nice experience at times. The twenty-year-old environments won't be obviously as decent as most you'd find nowadays, but the art direction remains, which is still neat, however without a doubt was realized way better in the sequel.

Another part of the gameplay is obviously the walking and shooting, which to be honest, feel incredibly wooden. Walking is often a chore, and shooting, while in some moments can feel challenging and generally almost fun, a ton of times it also feels unfair and exhausting. That's coming from me playing it in the hardest difficulty, which I finished all except the final level, which I dropped cause of the aforementioned reasons. Could be just a game reviewer issue, but that's up to the reader to decide.

The game is linear, following one story divided by levels, which generally are fun and filled with details and general detail polish of the older times. The story doesn't really stand out, being primarily motivated to lead the player to different situations. It tries to ask some questions about morality and honor, but in reality, it comes off as a pastiche of famous crime dramas, such as "Goodfellas" and "The Godfather", the English voice acting doesn't really help with it, but then again what could you have expected from a translation made in 2002?

In conclusion, Mafia definitely is for Central to Eastern Europe, what GTA is to America and most of the world generally, and Yakuza is to Japan, which is a pretty fun crime game, where you can screw around and do things you would normally not be allowed to do. It didn't age that fairly, and to the modern player it can definitely be offputting. I'd honestly just recommend playing the recent remake, which I tried out and was honestly better on every front from what I saw.

Mafia
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Nats482 2024-01-27T17:31:01Z
2024-01-27T17:31:01Z
2.5
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mafia
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Title
The godfather of video games
I'll start this review by mentioning the issue people bring up a lot when talking about story-based games, particularly for those of an open world genre, and that is ludonarrative dissonance. The matter of players' own actions not aligning with the given narrative of the game.

Mafia 1, while still not perfect, manages to offer up some solutions.



For example, take gta. The illusion of you playing as a smart, opportunistic and cautious criminal mastermind goes right out of the window the moment you open fire on random civilians just because you can and then promptly start a full-blown war against the police force.



Not saying it's not possible to do so in mafia 1, but you're more discouraged to do so on the account of just how many rules are set in place and how the game wants you to immerse yourself further in playing as a criminal. The police system is strict and works meticulously well. You're able to get arrested for exposing your gun, citations can be written if you are caught speeding or knocking out fire hydrants and other city property and even crossing a red light. Furthermore, arrests will only be made if the player refuses to collaborate, and shots will only be fired if the player shoots first.



The combat itself is clunky too,with headshots being really difficult to score and there being a lot of recoil. This, however, makes for really tense and memorable combat encounters as death can also occur really fast and there are very few healing items scattered about the levels. Any attempts to escape the law or drive recklessly are also hardened by the fact that your driving around in really limited and slow 30s' era vehicles and the persistent cop ai.



All these deliberate design choices make it so that the player is not entertained by going off course in the narrative and engaging in spontaneous shootouts or other different crazy activities, but more likely inconvenienced and frustrated. It helps that the city in Mafia 1 only serves as a background for the story and not a virtual playground.

There's only one optional set of missions involving you stealing various cars and keeping them for yourself.



The story itself (at least in my opinion) isn't all that great.It's riddled with mob movie clichés, and even one of the main characters is heavily based on the mob boss from Goodfellas. Also, the voice acting is not all that great.

But it's the way it's actually presented that makes it so memorable, not to mention all the little-in game details that go a long way into making this game even better. Stuff like wheel support, vehicles getting more deformed as they're damaged, ability to run out of fuel etc. And the cutscenes looked great for the time and still look presentable, to the point where I didn't start picking on all the little weird details, like in Vice City where you could see the individual polygons making up the characters.

Overall, to close, I recommend this game to anyone who wants to relive some early 2000s experimental gaming goodness which brought us so many gems such as this one.
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fleshtache 2023-01-13T12:38:15Z
2023-01-13T12:38:15Z
4.5
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only game to play before you die
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agazmah 2023-07-17T20:15:34Z
2023-07-17T20:15:34Z
5.0
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Catalog

Ufostal Mafia 2024-03-20T21:24:50Z
2024-03-20T21:24:50Z
1.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
nangtec Mafia 2024-03-18T21:07:18Z
2024-03-18T21:07:18Z
1.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
polaroid_android Mafia 2024-03-15T19:50:01Z
2024-03-15T19:50:01Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Smooth1e Mafia 2024-03-15T15:19:31Z
2024-03-15T15:19:31Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
PopaGascoigne Mafia 2024-03-13T19:42:40Z
2024-03-13T19:42:40Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Trifonas Mafia 2024-03-11T15:38:59Z
2024-03-11T15:38:59Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
eliottstaten Mafia 2024-03-11T01:30:33Z
2024-03-11T01:30:33Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Zhentic Mafia 2024-03-06T15:54:03Z
2024-03-06T15:54:03Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Kluwenblauw Mafia 2024-03-05T19:53:21Z
2024-03-05T19:53:21Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
quiinn2k Mafia 2024-03-05T01:30:12Z
2024-03-05T01:30:12Z
4.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Vektor_Zvuka Mafia 2024-03-04T19:36:45Z
2024-03-04T19:36:45Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
superkitty1210 Mafia 2024-03-03T22:30:21Z
2024-03-03T22:30:21Z
4.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Content rating
ESRB: M
Player modes
Single-player
Media
3x CD-ROM
Franchises
Also known as
  • Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
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  • Previous comments (4) Loading...
  • Coldplaz 2022-03-27 23:23:09.133187+00
    This game has absolutely massive cult following here in Eastern Europe, it is regarded as the best game ever on par with OoT and Silent Hill 2.
    reply
    • RaurosAmmonoidea 2023-06-28 20:14:18.79849+00
      Rightfully so.
      I have played throughout it thrice or four times if you count the remake (which, regrettably, feels subpar is so many aspects) and it still is a seamless gem through and through.
      So much to love about Mafia: the City of Lost Heaven.
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • townandcountry 2022-09-08 02:32:13.973499+00
    Took me probably 20 minutes to load it but the Community Modpack is absolutely essential. Makes this game really shine.
    reply
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  • lowplacelikehome 2022-12-07 01:01:57.348623+00
    i won't lie I remember it being a difficult game. but for the time it was amazing just to experience it
    reply
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  • townandcountry 2022-12-15 16:11:04.068572+00
    reply
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  • dougalcedo 2023-04-14 21:53:47.419913+00
    hide Removed by mod
    This post was removed by a site moderator.
    • Lamneth 2023-05-30 10:45:25.354185+00
      hide Removed by mod
      This post was removed by a site moderator.
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  • Circuz 2023-06-26 01:00:26.698698+00
    So if the remake is this bad, how bad is the original game? Because this shit is terrible
    reply
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  • DomMazzetti 2023-08-29 17:37:07.209532+00
    That's how mafia works
    reply
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  • DomMazzetti 2023-08-29 17:41:27.26157+00
    This game only exists for people to mention that there's a speed limit in it.
    reply
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