Mafia is AMAZING! (1 Viewer)

[Paul_D]

Brilliant so far. The gameplay is pleasingly varied. Very linear, but it doesn't feel restrictive. You get a great feeling of the consequences of your actions, unlike the other 'living city' game.
The best description for the gameplay is GTA3, but with Max Payne segments mixed in. The game looks as good as both of those classics, and is littered with picture perfect building interiors and cityscapes, including tunnels, autumn country roads and some of the best shadows I've ever seen.
Shoot outs in churches, on rooftops, hotels, warehouses, abandoned gas-stations, and one spectacular shotgun shootout at a farm during a thundery-night, complete with background lightning and swaying trees!

This is probably the best game I've played since MOH:AA. Great voice actng. Great engine. Great stuff. A definite recommended purchase.

 

[Scott Simonian]

Yeah this one looks amazing! I cant wait to get my hands on it.

 

[Scott L]

Cool! Thaks for the mini review. I myself am currently addicted to MOH:AA multiplayer but if I'm ever in the mood for something new this will be next on my list.

 

[Romier S]

Paul, what kind of system you running this on and how is the engine performance? I've been looking into getting this one but have been holding off for a bit. I'm hoping my agin Geforce 3 and p3 700 will be able to handle this one decently (God I have to upgrade my PC soon!)

 

[Paul_D]

Romier, I'm running a P4 1700, 256 RDRAM, GeForce2MX ( :frowning: ). The video card is obviously the weak-link. I'm running it on minimum resolution, but with everything else turned on fully. The game still looks stunning! I've gotten great frame-rates throughout, except during one rainy-driving sequence through the busiest part of the city. Slowdown was minimal, and it was very brief. I had to run GTA3 on minimum resolution wioth everything turned down, to get it running OK. Mafia has finally persuaded me to get a GeForce4 (128), which will arrive on Wednesday.
The box recommends a 700 CPU, so with a good GeForce3, I think you'll run it fine. An upgrade wouldn't hurt though.

 

[Allan Petersen]

I agree completely. Mafia really lives up to the hype. There is so much to relish with regards to the feel of the environments. The shootouts are intense because you can't rush into them, Max Payne-style. You really need to keep you head down when the bullets start flying.
The environmental sound effects are really good. Lots of ambient sounds and plenty of subtle detail. EAX support was a bit iffy at first but I got it working.
The cars are hard to control at first, but it soon becomes second nature. Don't expect to pull GTA3-type stunts, though.

 

[Paul_D]

Quote:

I've managed to flip the car twice, but both times it really surprised me. The handling and speeds you can go at aren't conducive to realising the desires of you crash-freaks out there.

 

[Adnan Sheikh]

The missions are great once you actually get to do them. Lots of tedious driving. I can only admire the scenery for so long!

Like I said though, once you get out of the car it's amazing.

 

[Romier S]

I finally went out and picked up Mafia tonight. I started playing at 1am and I just now jumped off (Its 8:00am almost). To say that I like the game is an understatment.
I'm going to say something that many will consider blasphemy but you know what, to me its the absolute truth. In my opinion this is a more enjoyable game than Grand Theft Auto 3. There I said it. Now throw all the stuff you want at me.
Right from the gorgeus introduction sequence to the first conversations Tommy has I was completely drawn in and I could not stop playing. The driving can be a bit plodding but once the missions begin and you are given more of the story that plodding is quickly made up for.
The shootout sequences are phenominal. The missions you are given are varied. One of my personal favorties so far was simply walking Sarah to her home and watching the 2 characters converse on the way
I shutdown the game on the "Better get used to it" mission. (Which I believe is chapter 7). Most reviews said this game is long so I hope I have allot more to go!!
The game runs great on my system by the way so thanks again for the performance information. Mafia is a must have game. No doubt about it!

 

[Paul_D]

Glad you like it Romier! It is a classic game.
Regarding the Sarah mission,
I love the fact that the walk before and after the fight is part of the mission and not a cut scene. Stuff like this really helps to immerse you in the game and enhances the realism.
Reagrding an earlier mission,
How did you find the race track mission. I think it's a nice break from the other, but I found it quite frustrating to complete. The A.I. is designed so that another racer will win if you make even the slightest error. I did get through it in the end though. Being such a seasoned gamer, perhaps you did it much quicker.
Have you reached the hotel yet? I can't remember if the "better get used to it." is after or before. If so, what did ya think? This has to be the best action mission in any game I've ever played. Kept me on the egde of my seat.

 

[Romier S]

Paul,
Regarding the race track mission
I found it horribly frustrating at first. The combination of the AI and me trying to use the keyboard to race the car just did not work.
I grabbed my sidewinder pad and set the a button as accelarate and the x button as brake. With that configuration I was able to win the race in two tries. I honestly don't know how anyone could possibly win that thing with the keyboard controls! (I've been using the gamepad to drive my vehicles around the city since then.) All in all it was an interesting diversion but my least favorite mission in the game so far.
The mission I'm on currently is:
Its the mission directly after walking Sarah home. (Love the very cinematic love scene ). Tommy went dipping into Luigi's pie.
Don Salieri has ordered me to find the gang of thugs along with Paulie and quote: "Break every bone in thier bodies. Make sure they are in wheelchairs when your done." How to put this delicately...I'm really looking forward to this mission.

This is a truly fantastic game. It really just would not let me go. I just kept wanting to play and play some more. When I get home tonight I'll pick up where I left off.
PS: I really should not have bought this. Just yesterday I recieved Ikaruga in the mail. Along with 2 other DC games I ordered recently. I'm still playing Socom and still working my way through Mario. *sigh* It never ends...(Mafia has moved to the top of the heap though, I'm not going to stop playing until I beat this sucker!)
EDIT: I fear this wonderful game will go completely below the radar too:frowning:. I hope it garners some good sales numbers. It would be ashame for Mafia to end up like so many other brilliant games like Clive Barkers Undying and The Longest Journey.

 

[Allan Petersen]

Just FYI there are 20 acts (missions) in the game - I just finished it. LOVE the ending.

 

[Dave F]

Romier - how is the performance on your PC? We have similar PC specs...

-Dave

 

[Romier S]

Romier - how is the performance on your PC? We have similar PC specs...

Pretty good. No major complaints here so far. A couple hundred more MGHZ wouldn't hurt of course but its runs damn nicely on my box.
I let the configuration utility auto-detect my settings and it set me at 1024X768 resolution with most of everything on the high settings (suprisingly). I immediately went into the game and turned the shadows down to medium (saves some frames there). The final adjustment I made was to turn on 2x FSAA. The game is too gorgeus to deal with jaggies. The 2x AA did give me a bit of a framerate hit but nothing that makes the game anywhere near unplayable. I might just remove the 2x AA and try bumping the rez to 1280X1024 and see how the game runs on that resolution instead...
Indoor missions and "on foot" exploring all run extremely well (high 50-60fps). The texture quality, lighting, weather and time changes, its all stunningly gorgeus too. I did see some instances of slowdown here and there but again Dave you should be pleased with the performance...

 

[Dave F]

Cool, thanks for the tech eval. I'll have to check it out.
-Dave

 

[Kelley_B]

I am going to pick this one up I think. Hopefully my little AthlonXP 1800+/512MB RAM/GeFORCE3 PeeCee can run it.

 

[Romier S]

Well, Im moving along nicely here.

Paul,

Did you get past the:

Escape from the church shootout directly after the rooftop chase. I'm having a hell of a time trying to kill those sawed off shotgun wielding maniacs that run through the front door! Any tips?

 

[Paul_D]

Ooooh, I've got a big-time useful tip for this one.

I started off hiding behind a corner at the other end of the church from the door and I got killed every time. With a little trial and error I figured out the best place to hide before they come in... there's a small nook, next to the door, between the church wall and the wooden structure that encloses the entrance. You can look out and see the entire church but still remain fairly well-hidden. You can whack the first guy that comes out, and then the others spend a little while searching for you. Eventually they'll find you, but the gap is so small that they can't all come at once so you can dispatch them and have plenty of time to reload between guys. Hope that helps.

What a game!

Wouldn't it be a shame if this one didn't take off. It really has what it takes to become a classic.

 

[felix_suwarno]

i usually prefer a review that gives a game the lowest rating. but, this review :
http://gamerankings.com/itemrankings...reviewid=96982
that review sucks. dont trust it. i havent played the game, and mafia themed game is not my cup of tea. but that reviewer must be one of the dumbest reviewer ever.
"Since much of the game focuses on driving, let me touch on that for a second. They look and feel very much like the popular cars of the time period. And in the day and age of driving games like Gran Turismo and….GTA3, that ain't necessarily a good thing. They're blocky, loud, smoky, and slower than molasses running uphill in January. They handle like crap, and are extremely difficult to maneuver. The top speed of 80% of these cars is somewhere in the 60mph range, and it takes at least 4 or 5 full missions to get a car that does a decent rate of speed. Yay. "
see? he wants 1930's car to be as fast as the cars featured in gran turismo game. dumb, really dumb.
"This game looks and feels like GTA3, only better looking and not as funny and 'open-ended.'"
he wants a funny mafia themed game. idiot. imagine the movie "the godfather" done with chris tucker, jackie chan, and jim carey in it. would it make sense??? off course it has got to be serious!!! and he complained about the "close ended" nature of the game. well, as far as i can tell, mafia is a game based on reality. in reality, can you do what you can do in GTA3? if you want an open ended game then why dont you just play GTA3 instead of complaining about mafia? if mafia were made exactly like GTA3 with 1930's look, then i am sure everybody would complain that the game is a copycat of GTA3.
i havent been mad like this at a reviewer before! i want to make him to lick a cow's asshole!!!

 

[James Zos]

Great review of a review, Felix! Made me laugh. I actually read that review before reading your post about it, and to be honest I wasn't as bothered by the things you pointed out, but your review of the review made me think again.