Mafia is an immersive world of gangsters in two-tone shoes, white-walled tyres, car chases and tommy-gun shoot outs.
A fascinating story of the 1930s underworld unfolds as you play through Mafia but you may find that your enjoyment of it may be sorely taxed by at times insanely difficult levels.
I bought Mafia based on advice from fellow GameSpot dwellers who had read my review of a similar, arguably derivative, "open world" game called "The Saboteur". Mafia predates that game and is itself a derivative of the Grand Theft Auto III (which I have read about, but not played). Anyway I'm not here to debate whether these games are "clones of GTA" as some claim, just like not all current FPS games are clones of earlier FPS games, each stands on its own merits in terms of narrative and gameplay. [For the record I own the Sold Out edition of Mafia (with Patch v1.3) with digital manual, but alas no map (although you can find one via Google).]
The narrative is where Mafia really shines and is reminiscent of, and tips its hat at, movies/stories like the period classics Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America. Mafia chronicles, as a flashback confessional, the highly immersive story of Tommy Angelo and his entry into and his rise through the ranks of the Salieri crime syndicate in its battles against the Morello syndicate and the police to control the city of Lost Heaven. Lost Heaven comprises nine distinct neighbourhoods: the Works Quarter, Little Italy, Chinatown, Central Island, New Ark, Hoboken, Downtown, Oakwood, and Oak Hill, which together cover a large area interconnected by bridges and tunnels which makes driving and knowing your way around a necessity.
Graphically the game is very good for its age (2002) with lots of texture detail on the (otherwise flat looking) environments but obviously cannot match the visual quality of say Saboteur (2009). Nevertheless the narrative is engaging enough that the graphics, and at times unusual AI animations, should not be an issue especially if you keep in mind the vintage of this game. I cranked up both antialiasing and anisotropic filtering to 16x via my Nvidia control panel and everything looked exceptional, but this is not essential as the game looks fine as is. Sound and voice acting (and script writing) are consistently good, both in-game and in the excellent cut scenes. You may notice that each of the neighbourhoods in Lost Heaven seems to have its own musical theme as you drive around. Weapons, traffic and suburban ambient sounds are well done and adds to the immersive experience.
Mafia is a challenging game from the very first car chase mission and unlike almost every other game I have played it does not have an adjustable difficulty setting ... it's a case of one size fits all. This I feel is a mistake and compounds the need to replay numerous (tightly) time limited missions usually involving driving, and this can lead to some frustration. Eventually you just need to get used to replaying those more difficult mission segments or just put the game back on the shelf. Indeed Mafia at times is inordinately difficult and this can really sap ones enjoyment of the game. Perhaps in a perverted way its getting past the difficult missions that makes one enjoy the cut scene "rewards" so much more. While I enjoy a challenge and don't want to waltz through a game I fail to understand why the designers made some levels ridiculously difficult.
Apart from the frustratingly difficult "Fairplay" car race, there is a mission shortly after where you need to clean some low lifes out of the neighbourhood armed with baseball bats, however as you will find it is difficult to inflict damage with a baseball bat unless you are behind the target but when there are three or more guys crowding you in this is not easy.
The camera is behind your car whilst driving forwards but you cannot use the mouse to look left or right. Reversing the cars is a pain as there is no rear view and the camera takes its time swinging over the top of the car to change the view point. The "traffic radar" that appears while driving has its uses in terms of identifying rival syndicate cars, trams and police cars, but is useless for navigating and is something done much better in Saboteur.
Character movement is generally fine except for the jump/climb function ... while Tommy can climb up unto large boxes he cannot jump knee high railings or hedges. Shooting mechanics are generally fine, however if you are too close to the cover you are hiding behind your gun may not fire. Crouching is highly recommended in shoot outs (as "crouch" is not a toggle I assigned it to the space bar so I could WSAD easily while crouched).
The 20 missions missions that comprise the Mafia single player campaign are as follows; each mission comprises several sub-missions interspersed with excellent cut-scenes (the more difficult missions, for me anyway, are marked with an asterisk):
Part 1: Welcome to the Family
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse (1930)
2 The Running Man
3 Molotov Party
4 Ordinary Routine
5 Fair Play (1932)
6 Race Day*
Part 2: Life Gets Complicated
7 Sarah
8 The Whore
9 A Trip to the Country (1933)
10 Omerta
11 Visiting Rich People*
12: A Great Deal
Part 3: A Way Out
13 Bon Appetit! (1935)
14 Happy Birthday!
15 You Lucky Bastard!*
16 Crème de la Crème
17 Election Campaign (1938)
18 Just for Relaxation
19 Moonlighting
20 The Death of Art*
I am grateful to the players who have gone before me and made the effort to write walkthroughs and guides. At times I found that I had to refer to one or more walkthroughs as the way forward was not at all intuitive even though the game is quite linear or scripted.
Whereas I enjoyed all aspects of Saboteur, including the driving (except some of the car racing missions), for me Mafia just placed far too much emphasis or reliance on driving. Indeed the need to drive almost everywhere can eventually become rather tedious as is trying to navigate around the game map, although the pop-up map (Tab button) does help, especially in finding the access ramps for bridges. A GPS style map like in Saboteur would have been more useful than the "traffic radar". A few times the need to physically drive from A to B is replaced by a neat cut-scene however at other times long drives through the city and out on long country roads simply need to be done by the player. Much of this could have been handled by cut scenes showing the car departing location A and arriving at location B. Of course you can also get around town on foot or by catching a train or riding a tram.
Mafia also has a few scripted segments that seem to be time fillers, or time wasters, like walking to and from the terminal to get the airline tickets for Frank's family.
Where Saboteur is superior to Mafia is that undertaking the "free play" missions actually ehnances your character in the campaign missions and you can deftly switch in and out of a mission to engage in "free play" targets. Alas in Mafia, admittedly 7 years older, you play either the campaign missions or the "free ride" missions and the two do not interconnect. For me Mafia's basic "free ride" (FR) missions seemed rather pointless as all you do is drive your taxi, kill gangsters (earn $500 each), and destroy gangster cars ($100 each) to earn money which can be spent on buying weapons, buying petrol, paying fines to police, getting healed at the hospital (spend $1,000) or saving the game ($2,000 at Salieri's bar door) but that's it ... nothing you do in "free ride" feeds back into the main single player campaign.
The "free ride extreme" (FRE) is unlocked after you complete the campaign and is actually a series of 19 unlinked but challenging, sometimes quite bizarre, missions that unlock exotic vehicles, again the emphasis is on driving including a number of time limited missions. I've had a try at a number of these missions and they are not really my cup of tea, especially as few of them fit in with the Mafia theme. So whereas you do get to travel around Lost Heaven in FR and FRE and discover new places not encountered in the campaign the lack of interconnection with the main storyline or lack of character skill enhancement makes it all seems a bit, well, ... pointless.
My enjoyment of Saboteur is what led me here and Mafia has the most immersive storyline and development of a conflicted character since Max Payne, and that's saying something. The Mafia campaign is certainly a worthwhile and ultimately rewarding journey especially to see how Tommy Angelo's story is resolved.
Despite some of the criticisms above, Mafia is a very enjoyable gaming experience with an excellent genre narrative that tips its hat at gangster movie classics but stands on its own merits ... if only it was a little less difficult in places.
SUMMARY: Overall Mafia is an enjoyable experience with a wonderful immersive narrative filled with memorable characters and dialogue. Be prepared to be challenged as some of the missions are frustratingly difficult and at times not at all intuitive in their solution.
While primarily a third person shooter, there is driving (perhaps too much), stealth and puzzle solving aspects to it. The cut scenes are among the best in any game I have encountered in keeping the story moving while being entertaining. On balance, the pros vastly outweigh the cons and make Mafia a worthwhile addition to any serious gamer's library.