Assuming i never played it back in the day?
Im bored to the brink of tears. I need something decent so im grasping at straws.
Is Mafia still worth playing?
This topic is locked from further discussion.
Why wouldn't it be? Time makes no difference, it has always been the same great game
Games that people usually consider the best ever are usually at least 10 years old
Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awful written dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a bad game. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
It one of my favourite games of all time and I played it in 640x480 with all low settings at an inconsistent framerate.LOL!
And I played it with cheats all the way.The game is much more enjoyable that way.The story and the atmosphere of the game is what I played it for.Without cheats the game is just not worth bothering with and this is coming from a guy who has beaten ninja gaiden black in hard difficulty.
Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awful written dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a bad game. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
mfsa
awful dialogue?? i beg to differ. same with voice acting. i thought it was excellent.
anyway this game is definitely worth playing. definitely. theres a lot more to gta but mafia is more engrossing, and genuinely really exciting and the cut scenes are superb, they're really wel put together, music is good as well. very very engrossing.
[QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awful written dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a bad game. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
jpph
awful dialogue?? i beg to differ. same with voice acting. i thought it was excellent.
anyway this game is definitely worth playing. definitely. theres a lot more to gta but mafia is more engrossing, and genuinely really exciting and the cut scenes are superb, they're really wel put together, music is good as well. very very engrossing.
Out of interest, is English your first language? I ask because most or all of the people who praise Mafia's dialogue don't speak English as their first language, and so don't see - or are perhaps more willing to overlook - dialogue flaws.
Just in the opening few cutscenes are lines like: It was a bad time and some other people were worse off than me. Well it looks like Morello is really trying to make me mad. I show my gratitude to those people that help me and there aren't many left who betrayed me. It's not untolerably bad or anything, but people who speak English would not say things like that - It screams translation - and it spoils the experience for me.
[QUOTE="jpph"][QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awful written dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a bad game. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
mfsa
awful dialogue?? i beg to differ. same with voice acting. i thought it was excellent.
anyway this game is definitely worth playing. definitely. theres a lot more to gta but mafia is more engrossing, and genuinely really exciting and the cut scenes are superb, they're really wel put together, music is good as well. very very engrossing.
Out of interest, is English your first language? I ask because most or all of the people who praise Mafia's dialogue don't speak English as their first language, and so don't see - or are perhaps more willing to overlook - dialogue flaws.
Just in the opening few cutscenes are lines like:
It was a bad time and some other people were worse off than me.
Well it looks like Morello is really trying to make me mad.
I show my gratitude to those people that help me and there aren't many left who betrayed me.
It's not untolerably bad or anything, but people who speak English would not say things like that - It screams translation - and it spoils the experience for me.
Hmm, I never really took it that way, I always took it as a bunch of mobsters that were less educated than everyone else, not to mention most of the mobsters around in that period of time grew up on the streets. I always thought of the dialogue as more atmoshperical than anything.
[QUOTE="jpph"][QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awful written dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a bad game. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
mfsa
awful dialogue?? i beg to differ. same with voice acting. i thought it was excellent.
anyway this game is definitely worth playing. definitely. theres a lot more to gta but mafia is more engrossing, and genuinely really exciting and the cut scenes are superb, they're really wel put together, music is good as well. very very engrossing.
Out of interest, is English your first language? I ask because most or all of the people who praise Mafia's dialogue don't speak English as their first language, and so don't see - or are perhaps more willing to overlook - dialogue flaws.
Just in the opening few cutscenes are lines like: It was a bad time and some other people were worse off than me. Well it looks like Morello is really trying to make me mad. I show my gratitude to those people that help me and there aren't many left who betrayed me. It's not untolerably bad or anything, but people who speak English would not say things like that - It screams translation - and it spoils the experience for me.
Mobsters don't speak perfect english, what'd you expect?
[QUOTE="mfsa"][QUOTE="jpph"][QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awful written dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a bad game. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
TheGTAvaccine
awful dialogue?? i beg to differ. same with voice acting. i thought it was excellent.
anyway this game is definitely worth playing. definitely. theres a lot more to gta but mafia is more engrossing, and genuinely really exciting and the cut scenes are superb, they're really wel put together, music is good as well. very very engrossing.
Out of interest, is English your first language? I ask because most or all of the people who praise Mafia's dialogue don't speak English as their first language, and so don't see - or are perhaps more willing to overlook - dialogue flaws.
Just in the opening few cutscenes are lines like:
It was a bad time and some other people were worse off than me.
Well it looks like Morello is really trying to make me mad.
I show my gratitude to those people that help me and there aren't many left who betrayed me.
It's not untolerably bad or anything, but people who speak English would not say things like that - It screams translation - and it spoils the experience for me.
Hmm, I never really took it that way, I always took it as a bunch of mobsters that were less educated than everyone else, not to mention most of the mobsters around in that period of time grew up on the streets. I always thought of the dialogue as more atmoshperical than anything.
That is the first legitimate argument in favour of bad dialogue I have ever seen! But I don't buy it. The problem with the dialogue is overuse of words and unrealistic sentence structure, while I get the impression that less intelligent people (who don't have misplaced airs of intellectualism) would use shorter sentences with fewer words and a simpler structure.
For example, It was a bad time and some other people were worse off than me, is a very convoluted sentence. Something like, Life was tough back then, but I made a living, would be better. The line doesn't convey a greater sense of intelligence, but it makes more sense and the general sentence structure is more in line with what an English speaking person would say.
There's a difference between, I'm not sure how to word this exactly, good use of bad English, and bad use of bad English. Things like double negatives and colloquialism are examples of how English might be used realistically by someone poorly educated, while a bad translation has a broken sentence structure and uses more words than necessary.
I've seen many (or most) of the big gangster movies, and they all had dialogue that felt appropriate without conveying an unrealistic level of intelligence. So unless The Godfather had unrealistic dialogue, I stand by my argument very firmly here.
Mfsa, so now Godfather has unrealistic dialog? I hope I misread something in your post. You know that those films are "the Bible" to a lot of Italian mobsters in US? BTW, I hope you don't take this as an insult, but British = more expertise on how goodfellas form the '30s talk since when? We've all seen the movies you've seen. You have one huge point though. A lot of Mafia-fans don't speak English very well.
Still... Chicago-mobsters talk funny, I'm still not sure what you expect from the voice actors. It may not be perfect voice acting, but sometimes an illusion is just as good as the real thing. You seem to overanalyze certain things imo, but I understand that it's not something you can turn off. I can't watch most medical shows because they irritate the hell out of me...
TC, gameplay in this game is not for people that expect a GTA-game with mobsters in the '30s. I like it, a lot of people do. I don't mind driving around listening to great music, it's fun in GTA games and it's fun here. And the music in this game is oh so good. A lot of the cars are way, way faster than 25 mph.
You finished the game, Mfsa, right? Because the end of the game is what makes people cream their pants when they praise it on Internet.
Mfsa, so now Godfather has unrealistic dialog? I hope I misread something in your post. You know that those films are "the Bible" to a lot of Italian mobsters in US? BTW, I hope you don't take this as an insult, but British = more expertise on how goodfellas form the '30s talk since when? We've all seen the movies you've seen. You have one huge point though. A lot of Mafia-fans don't speak English very well.
Still... Chicago-mobsters talk funny, I'm still not sure what you expect from the voice actors. It may not be perfect voice acting, but sometimes an illusion is just as good as the real thing. You seem to overanalyze certain things imo, but I understand that it's not something you can turn off. I can't watch most medical shows because they irritate the hell out of me...
TC, gameplay in this game is not for people that expect a GTA-game with mobsters in the '30s. I like it, a lot of people do. I don't mind driving around listening to great music, it's fun in GTA games and it's fun here. And the music in this game is oh so good. A lot of the cars are way, way faster than 25 mph.
You finished the game, Mfsa, right? Because the end of the game is what makes people cream their pants when they praise it on Internet.
artur79
You must have misread my post (or I wasn't clear enough, I'll reread it and see if I'm making sense (I'm tweaked to holy **** and back on energy drinks atm!!)), because I was essentially saying that The Godfather is an example of how uneducated gangsters speak realistically, while Mafia is just an example of a bad translation.
And, no, I didn't finish the game. I got to the shootout in the church, or thereabouts, and decided it wasn't worth my time. I find the cutscenes grating and the gameplay awkward. I probably won't give it another shot, but there are plenty of games I acknowledge as great (Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate for example) that I also can't stand. It could be the best game ever, but it's not gonna make me like it.
Back to the topic....ahem.
Play this game:
I enjoyed this so much more than San Andreas. Really awesome story, lots of action.
MFSA, is this a freaky english class? jk, I might buy the game if it was on steam for 10 bucks, but for now im not searching for it.harrisi17
Well, there is no defacto right or wrong, and I think if someone is buying a game based solely on the opinions of others, they deserve to hear the good and the bad.
If it was me asking this question for example, and then I bought the game based on this thread, I might actually be pretty pissed off.
[QUOTE="harrisi17"]MFSA, is this a freaky english class? jk, I might buy the game if it was on steam for 10 bucks, but for now im not searching for it.mfsa
Well, there is no defacto right or wrong, and I think if someone is buying a game based solely on the opinions of others, they deserve to hear the good and the bad.
If it was me asking this question for example, and then I bought the game based on this thread, I might actually be pretty pissed off.
Mafia to you is like Half Life to me, it seems.
Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awfulwritten dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a badgame. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
mfsa
i would also like to add that it's surprisingly short, and i feel the story didn't fully tap into the rich vein of the genre to become a truly memorable mafia epic. also, despite its borrowing heavily from the GTA games, Mafia is actually not a full-fledged sand-box game -- instead, the core gameplay is entirely structured in and limited to the progress of missions, the quality of which varies greatly from one another.
regardless, it is still a game that is very easy to recommend. some of the more action-packed missions provide an exceptional thrill that would warrant playing through a 2nd time. the gun-fights are especially rewarding, and in this respect Mafia easily outshines its GTA counterparts.
[QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awfulwritten dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a badgame. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
Jinroh_basic
i would also like to add that it's surprisingly short, and i feel the story didn't fully tap into the rich vein of the genre to become a truly memorable mafia epic. also, despite its borrowing heavily from the GTA games, Mafia is actually not a full-fledged sand-box game -- instead, the core gameplay is entirely structured in and limited to the progress of missions, the quality of which varies greatly from one another.
regardless, it is still a game that is very easy to recommend. some of the more action-packed missions provide an exceptional thrill that would warrant playing through a 2nd time. the gun-fights are especially rewarding, and in this respect Mafia easily outshines its GTA counterparts.
I'm glad you agree. I think you are so immersed into the story and its atmosphere that you will appreciate what the characters say and believe how they sound.
I don't know how it "borrows" from GTA - wow it also has an Opened city world and both are about crime..
[QUOTE="Jinroh_basic"][QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awfulwritten dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a badgame. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
biggest_loser
i would also like to add that it's surprisingly short, and i feel the story didn't fully tap into the rich vein of the genre to become a truly memorable mafia epic. also, despite its borrowing heavily from the GTA games, Mafia is actually not a full-fledged sand-box game -- instead, the core gameplay is entirely structured in and limited to the progress of missions, the quality of which varies greatly from one another.
regardless, it is still a game that is very easy to recommend. some of the more action-packed missions provide an exceptional thrill that would warrant playing through a 2nd time. the gun-fights are especially rewarding, and in this respect Mafia easily outshines its GTA counterparts.
I'm glad you agree. I think you are so immersed into the story and its atmosphere that you will appreciate what the characters say and believe how they sound.
I don't know how it "borrows" from GTA - wow it also has an Opened city world and both are about crime..
i honestly think that's the part where Mafia fails.
and yes, i do think it borrows from the GTA, which is in fact the very first sand-box criminal series that gave birth to a plethora of imitators. it's not an opinion -- i'm afraid it's a fact. of coz, it doesn't automatically means Mafia or any other game is inferior.
[QUOTE="biggest_loser"][QUOTE="Jinroh_basic"][QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awfulwritten dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a badgame. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
Jinroh_basic
i would also like to add that it's surprisingly short, and i feel the story didn't fully tap into the rich vein of the genre to become a truly memorable mafia epic. also, despite its borrowing heavily from the GTA games, Mafia is actually not a full-fledged sand-box game -- instead, the core gameplay is entirely structured in and limited to the progress of missions, the quality of which varies greatly from one another.
regardless, it is still a game that is very easy to recommend. some of the more action-packed missions provide an exceptional thrill that would warrant playing through a 2nd time. the gun-fights are especially rewarding, and in this respect Mafia easily outshines its GTA counterparts.
I'm glad you agree. I think you are so immersed into the story and its atmosphere that you will appreciate what the characters say and believe how they sound.
I don't know how it "borrows" from GTA - wow it also has an Opened city world and both are about crime..
i honestly think that's the part where Mafia fails.
and yes, i do think it borrows from the GTA, which is in fact the very first sand-box criminal series that gave birth to a plethora of imitators. it's not an opinion -- i'm afraid it's a fact. of coz, it doesn't automatically means Mafia or any other game is inferior.
How does it fail?
Although there is no real "incentive" to explore the city as with GTA 2, Lost Haven still provides an appropriate location and degree of immersion for Mafia.
In other words, the game is linear, yes, unlike GTA. However you also have a much tighter and engaging story. Unlike San Andreas which is just a jumbled mess, with missions having little or no relevance to the plot.
Calling Mafia an "imitator" because its about crime is like saying Half-Life is a copy of Doom or Quake (Yes Msfa, I know HL runs on the same engine as Quake).
It stands on its own merits as the first game to introduce players to the Italian mafia in the era of Prohibition.
It is one of the best games evar. It can be hard at times though, which I personally love. The sweeter the victory...
In one of the missions you are in a race and the developers actually patched the game and made that mission easier because of all the whiners ;P
You should definately play it
[QUOTE="Jinroh_basic"][QUOTE="biggest_loser"][QUOTE="Jinroh_basic"][QUOTE="mfsa"]Personally, I don't think it was worth playing to begin with. It has mediocre voice acting, awfulwritten dialogue (and with the game being so story driven, these are important issues for me) and the game bitterly clings to realism in a way which negatively affects gameplay - car chases at 25 MPH are just boring.
I'd suggest you check out the demo before buying the full game. I got much more out of the GTA games. Much more.
But that's certainly not to say it's a badgame. It clearly has no shortage of supporters - just make sure you know what you're buying before you buy it.
biggest_loser
i would also like to add that it's surprisingly short, and i feel the story didn't fully tap into the rich vein of the genre to become a truly memorable mafia epic. also, despite its borrowing heavily from the GTA games, Mafia is actually not a full-fledged sand-box game -- instead, the core gameplay is entirely structured in and limited to the progress of missions, the quality of which varies greatly from one another.
regardless, it is still a game that is very easy to recommend. some of the more action-packed missions provide an exceptional thrill that would warrant playing through a 2nd time. the gun-fights are especially rewarding, and in this respect Mafia easily outshines its GTA counterparts.
I'm glad you agree. I think you are so immersed into the story and its atmosphere that you will appreciate what the characters say and believe how they sound.
I don't know how it "borrows" from GTA - wow it also has an Opened city world and both are about crime..
i honestly think that's the part where Mafia fails.
and yes, i do think it borrows from the GTA, which is in fact the very first sand-box criminal series that gave birth to a plethora of imitators. it's not an opinion -- i'm afraid it's a fact. of coz, it doesn't automatically means Mafia or any other game is inferior.
How does it fail?
For one, the terrible dialogue and okay-at-best voice work.
In other words, the game is linear, yes, unlike GTA. However you also have a much tighter and engaging story. Unlike San Andreas which is just a jumbled mess, with missions having little or no relevance to the plot.biggest_loser
Well, firstly, SA's story is pretty coherent if you stick to the story missions - the optional side missions are exactly that, optional. It's also well worth noting that Vice City has a much better story than SA - SA is hardly representative of all GTA games, it's just the most recent. Secondly, I didn't find Mafia's story engaging at all. I found it tedious. Having a great story is, well, great, but unless that story is presented in a good way, it can effectively kill it... for some people, anyway.
Calling Mafia an "imitator" because its about crime is like saying Half-Life is a copy of Doom or Quake (Yes Msfa, I know HL runs on the same engine as Quake).biggest_loser
I'm not that pedantic! [bad humour]However, the Half Life engine actually a modified version of the Quakeworld engine, which is itself a modified version of the Quake engine, so you're clearly completely wrong in saying that Half Life uses the Quake engine. [/bad humour]
Still, the FPS genre was, before it became known as the FPS, known as Doom clone - that was literally the name of the genre. For better or worse, things copy things, and Mafia is clearly a copy of GTA. Now, fair enough, it's impossible to make a game like that and it not be compared with GTA, but that is just how things are. Everyone compares things with other things, and as the original and arguably finest entry into the driving-and-shooting crime genre, it's not unreasonable to compare Mafia with GTA. I'd say, anyway.
It stands on its own merits as the first game to introduce players to the Italian mafia in the era of Prohibition.biggest_loser
No argument from me on that - the setting is original enough, but setting is a relatively minor factor when faced with far more significant things like gameplay elements, especially when one game is arguably much better than the other.
One of the best games! It feels like you are in a movie! (i think)
I played it twice but i did not finish it yet, tsk tsk.. I won't forget that racing part, very hard to control and very slippery race track.
I'm gonna play it again....Want to race to the finished? Reply here if you finished it. lol
Ithas one of the best, endings in a game Ive ever played..The city was like a city in the 30s..The car mission took me for ever..Once i beat that, it all came together..People take to much, into voice acting.Its a game, for all that matters.Not sure why so many people, gripe on voice acting.No one cared back in the day, with the old kung fu movies.Sure we all, made fun of it.We still watched, kung fu Saturdays.
Its still one of the best, games ever.Maybe that's why, there making a sequel.Lot of other people, think the same as the rest of us.Try to remember, its just a game.
well, a few months back i've told this other guy why i think Mafia story is severely unaccomplished...oh well.....
although rarely featured in video gaming, mafia epic is actually a popular genre in many mediums, with a number of established elements -- and Mafia's story did surprisingly little with these elements. for instance, in a family-based mafia organization, the father figureis an essential symbol to allow the revolving of a powerful saga. in Mafia, this symbol is neither central nor engaging, and the game makes very little efforts to explore the already fragile bond between the protagonist and his Don ( forgot the name ). the same goes to his bond with the rest of the family -- friendship and kinship is hardly the focus throughout the narration, leaving you wonder just why you even care to risk your neck for these badly voiced hoodlums anyway. love story is covered by a mission and a lousy sex scene.....err, no thank you. Mafia did try to depict the classic personal struggle of conscience against loyaltythat every crime story would eventually lead to. the game's inevitable ( and thus predictable ) ending is therefore one of the very few emotional moments in in the game.
all in all, Mafia could have been much better with a strong cast of memorable characters, professional voice acting, and most importantly a dynamic storyline that taps more fully into the realm of mafia genre. but, as it is, i often wonder why people would call Mafia a game with a strong story. i respectfully but wholly disagree.
Msfa: San Andrea's story is a series of disconnected missions that don't add up to any conclusion. Sure there's the thread about Ten Penny framing you etc, and that works well, but then there's all that rubbish with the CIA guy and the hippy and the blind asian. That really didn't add up to anything. Its too fragmented to be a good story.
And I'm afraid it is representative of the series given that it bloody well sold the most lol.
But in fairness I have not played Vice City and Im optimistic about the fourth game.
Mafia was praised at the time for utilising cut scenes which looked great back in its day. Thats what made people engage with the story. It wasn't presented to you as text or an audio briefing. It was like being in a gangster epic. Are you going to dismiss it because it has a few rough lines of dialogue? How about "My damn shoot is gone" ...yeesh...(apologies to Psycho and co.)
You are entitled to your opinion certainly, but a lot would disagree with you.
There's always gotta be at least ONE person who doesn't like something!
Mafia was brilliant, imo. The slow pace might take some getting used to, especially if your coming from GTA, but I think it really suits the game. The shootouts were WAAAY more exciting than in any version of GTA3, and the city felt very alive. Great story, great music, and great voice acting even if their grammar wasnt top-notch.
Quite frankly, I never noticed anything wrong with the script. And even if there is, I just can't find a reason to care. The only fault I can really placeo n the game is that some missions (mainly the early ones) were amazingly long and annoying. The second half of the game more than makes up for it, though.
Bah. All this mafia talk is making me want to play it again!
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