Step into the shoes of lowly cab driver Tommy as he goes about his daily business in the busy 1930’s US city streets. However one particular day is set to change his life forever as he gets caught up in some gang land shoot out and is forced to drive two wounded mafia members away from their pursuing assailants. With little choice Tommy drives like the wind as the gangsters give chase however due to his superior driving skills is able to evade the pursuers and drive back to the mafia headquarters. Impressed by Tommy’s driving skills the mafia members offer him the chance of more work and bundle him some cash for repairs on his bullet ridden vehicle.

Being a normal law abiding citizen Tommy wasn’t interested in getting caught up anymore in the criminal under world .He gives thanks that he is actually still alive and so returns to his normal cabbie routine. However the gangsters who were chasing his mafia passengers had taken note of his number plate and traced him. He was involved now as these guys would probably want him dead for certain. That mafia offer of work didn’t seem so bad after all. What would his life be like now constantly on the run with no protection from anyone? Tommy steps into the mafia owned restaurant to speak with the boss. Welcome to the Mafia. Game on.

Gameplay:

Playing Mafia blends two genres together, driving and 3rd person action. Similar to how the GTA series has evolved. However unlike GTA’s freeform nature Mafia is much more a mission based story driven game. The story is definitely one of the games strong points as the between mission movies along with the whole 1930’s setting does create a captivating plot.

Controlling your on screen character/vehicle is pretty standard fare and will take casual gamers no time to get to grips with. Perhaps the first thing you will notice about the driving is the overall speed of the game. Although in keeping with the technology at the time which was limited in terms of a road cars power, having this realism in a game seems a little self destructive. Cars accelerate with the speed of a tranquilized three toed sloth and with the large map available a lot of time is spent mindlessly driving from one location to the next which seems to take an age. One section early on in the game requires you to go from one area to another several times in one mission (the areas being quite a distance from each other). In any other game this may not pose a problem. However in Mafia this veers closely on being mundane and almost boring. Those asides there are plenty of 30’s vehicles for you to hijack and steal to go into your collection of these classic cars.

The 3rd person action sequences are much more entertaining as you shoot your way through gangster henchmen. The action playing much more akin to Max Payne minus the bullet time than say GTA. Again these sections are not without their problems either as the weapons have a tendency to miss their target even though the cross hairs are spot on. This may be another one of those realism excuses but personally I think its sloppy programming.

The missions themselves are quite varied and offer the player a number of gangster driving, shoot outs, beatings and perhaps clichéd dialogue. Most missions are broken down into sub-missions making the game of reasonable length. Also included is a separate mode where you are able to freely roam the streets collecting cab fares and stealing cars etc. However its appeal is somewhat limited as its has no real point to it other than earning a high score doing the same things over and over. Why the developers simply didn’t try and copy GTA formula I don’t know, perhaps to emphasise their superior story. Either way I think it limits the enjoyment factor of the game not having the freedom to pick and choose yet still follow the story.

Graphics:

The graphics in Mafia are reasonable supporting some nice details on the character models and vehicles. The overall look is a lot more detailed than GTA but does exhibit some horrible looking surfaces. The whole 30’s city is realised well (especially during the opening movie) and is vast to explore. On a technical side The draw distance did seem pretty low and fogging quite high which was more noticeable during the driving sections. However these issues do not affect the game play at all. There were moments of slow down during some driving sections when things got a little too busy on screen but these moments were not too frequent.

Sound:

In keeping with the whole style of the game the music is also of the 30’s period too with some classic sounding numbers being played throughout the game. This is supported by some excellent voice acting and scripting as the actors do a great job of going all American/Italian in true Mafiosi style. The actual game play sounds are all standard fare for a shooting driving game of this type as I am sure many gamers have heard countless gunshot/engine effects now.

Longevity:

Mafia is a reasonable length game split into the three modes. With a number of missions to wade through in the story and the freeform city mode will keep players entertained for a reasonable time. A racing mode is also available for those wishing to burn rubber on the city racing track (a feature from the story). I am not sure how much more time you would spend after completing the main story. Mafia is strictly a single player experience so no two player moments to be had here. Overall Mafia offers a decent amount of variety yet maybe could have blended the modes together as one big game.

Overall:

Mafia is a good game which neither disappoints nor excels either. While the whole 30’s setting offers players a new twist on the driving/ action genre apart from the actual story the game play seems very familiar. If you are bored of GTA and want something similar to play then look no further as Mafia is probably your cup of tea. With a little patience regarding the overall speed of the game you will find an entertaining title that will grip you to the end. Not essential but a good game all round.