My sister's boyfriend recommended me to buy this game, and as soon as I launched the Czech PC version of the game which is the version that I started with I found it totally amazing. I am proud of my fellow Czechs who were able to construct this game a game chosen as the best game of the year 2002 (at least in many European countries). The amount of data (contained on 3 CD's) that the creators had to put together is shocking, and initially it seemed to me that a team of 20 people would need several centuries to finish this task. Well, fortunately they have used a lot of modern technology, for example a system to scan the motion of the real actors which is subsequently translated to the motion of the artificial humans, and therefore the task was doable. There are many hours of "movies" in between the different scenes, and there is a lot of audiovisual effects everywhere. The individuals in the game have pretty good artificial intelligence, and you will be impressed how realistic all these objects and their motion are (unlike the cartoonish style of GTA, for example).
The Lost Heaven City is a completely realistic city, designed according to the actual buildings in the New York City and Chicago of the 1930s. Everything seems to work perfectly in this city including the gas stations, public transportation, banks, car races, ships, small airport, and so on. Imagine more than twenty squared miles of the urban architecture where everything responds in a realistic fashion, including many things that are unnecessary to fulfil the game's twenty main missions (e.g. you decide jump from the bridge in order to see the ship from another side). There are 60 different models of the cars that you can steal on the street if you learned how that were carefully copied from the real cars in the 1930s (but they were renamed). All these cars respect all the laws of physics and they are described by 100 physical parameters each. If you shoot at the car (or use some explosives), it's getting destroyed in a very realistic way.
Moreover, there are about 30 fan web sites dedicated to the game, and the people who understand computers well enough can have a lot of additional fun with modding the PC version of the game changing the cars, textures on the buildings, music, sounds, and so on. The Xbox version does not allow you to do it, I guess, but it has other advantages over the PC version it seems that the graphics is even smoother.
The game has a tutorial where you learn how to control Tommy (which is you). On the PC version, the arrow keys and other keys on the keyboard are used for motion (and changing the weapons, jumping, and so on) while the mouse allows you to change the direction where you look (or shoot), and this combination is very natural. You can practice as the taxi driver you will learn geography of the Lost Heaven City after some time (the map is recommended). The main game has 20 main missions with 106 checkpoints or so where the game is saved, and afterwards you may continue with the "free ride extreme". Nevertheless, I needed about 50 hours to complete the main missions.
The story seems as a good piece of literature you are a taxi driver who accidentally becomes a member of Mafia, and you are getting increasingly difficult tasks. Well, you will have to shoot a lot of people, but from a moral perspective, I am sure that at the end you will agree that being a mafioso is not the best (and easiest) option for your life especially because your friend will betray you, and you will have to kill him. After the war, they will kill you anyway.
The game was banned in Italy for some time in 2002 because the authorities viewed it as a perfect textbook to become a criminal. The most natural audience for this game are almost definitely Americans like you, but the publisher company of the PC version did a bad job when they promoted this game in the U.S. and the success in the U.S. was much weaker than the game's achievements in Europe. Therefore you are sort of lucky to read this review. Mafia might be the best game ever (so far, as of January 2004), and it is much less known in the U.S. than it should be (so far). Don't get manipulated by the advertisements of less perfect games. Buy Mafia, and you will be impressed.
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This review is based on the PC version, but it's identical for all versions.
The game's graphics are nice, flows smoothly, and is colorful. There's a lot of cars moving around, and pedestrians too.
The game is a lot similar to GTA 3 and Vice City, only better. The gameplay is fun and hard. It's realistic (you run out of gas and need to refill), and has excellent sounds, voice acting, and intense gunfights too.
The sounds and voice acting is great and the story's excellent. You'll keep playing to see what happens next.
The only bad thing is that the cars are a bit slow--they're from the 1930s and move like so. They lose speed when going up hills, and there not fast overall. These cars are not sports cars.
Lastly, a realistic feature is that you can't just steal cars so easily. You need to learn how to do it (the game gives you the ability to do so) and you can't just steal a car in 1 second--there's a meter and it's your progress of picking the car's lock. People actually lock their cars, and you're picking the lock! Realistic!
This game is long and challenging. One of the best games ever made. Enjoy it!
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I just finished this game yesterday and I loved it. It took me about a week off and on to beat it so it's not too bad. Getting to play a gangster and driving the old timey cars and hearing the 30s music and seeing 30s settings was definitely a nice change from the everyday game. The cinematic cutscenes were wonderful and the facial animations and graphics were very welld one. The rest of the graphics in the game could have been better though so I was slightly disappointed in that area. But the sheer fun of the game more than makes up for it. This was my first gangster game to play and needless to say I will be looking for more of that type in the future with Godfather out now and Scarface coming in the future towards the end of the year. This game is pretty violent and the language is pretty bad though...but after all, this IS a MAFIA game. There was only one real letdown in the game though, but I will let you find that out for yourself. Those things aside, I highly recommend this game to those of a mature audience. You will definitely enjoy it. Before I forget, there is an added plus to the game. There is a race mode where you can race old timey cars! Coolness indeed! There is also a free roam mode too. Neat! Go out, buy it, enjoy!
Honest reviews on Mafia - Xbox
(Note: I'm writing this review on my wife's account.) What got me interested in trying this old game, was I've been playing Mafia II on my PS3 & have absolutely loved it. I couldn't help but look into finding out more about this original Mafia game that I had somehow missed playing years ago.
First off, prior to my PS3 & XBOX 360, I spent countless hours enjoying playing a variety of games on my XBOX. I still love & respect it's capabilities for a 10 year old $200 console. I remember the $3K-$6K gaming PC's of 2002-2003 were far supperior in everyway. But, with that said, this is an XBOX review, not another PC comparision review.
Clearly, this is a 2003 gen XBOX game, but one of the best at the time. The graphics & audio was pretty nice for 2003. It has a very good storyline with a variety of challenging missions. Some can even be right down frustrating, like having to win the race on the "Race Day" mission. But, don't give up when a mission frustrasts you or you'll miss out on a very good story & rewarding game.
I loved the 30's period setting (1930-1938) & enjoyed seeing the cars change as you progressed through the game. I recommend doing all the alternative missions when presented, you will pickup some of the games best cars through them. Also, while working through a mission, look for any opportunities to nab an exclussive car that may only be available during that mission.
If you still have access to a good working XBOX & can appreciate not only going back in time to the 30's in the game, but also to the 2003 XBOX console gaming world, then I believe you won't be disappointed playing through Mafia on XBOX.
I thoroughly enjoyed this game & don't know how I missed out on it when it was new, but am certainly glad I found it now.
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missions in this game are fun but the graphics lack a bit. the cars are realistic and the music is great to listen to in free ride.
