Mafia Dmitriy Ansolis CIS487 9/27/09

Introduction Title: Mafia Publisher: Gathering of Developers (aka God Games) Developer: Illusion Softworks Release Year: 2002 Type of Game: Third-person shooter Price (PC): $30-40 (originally ~ $50) System Requirements:  PIII 500  96MB RAM  32MB video memory  1.8GB hard drive space

Overview Mafia is a third-person shooter that takes place in the 1930s in a fictional city called Lost Heaven The main character becomes part of the mafia, and starts doing various jobs for them

Story The main character is a taxi driver named Tommy Angelo He gets involved with the mob (because of money), working for the Salieri family The story is told as a flashback  Tommy realizes he doesn’t like the “gangster” life  He meets with a detective to tell him his story and help take down the Salieri family

Player’s Role The main character works for the Salieri family and completes various jobs for them, including car chases, robbing banks, shootouts...

Installation & User Interface Installation  The game takes about 20 minutes to install, and comes on 3 CDs User Interface  The user interface is very straightforward, and shows all basic information such as amount of health remaining, the health of your teammates, map, speedometer…

Gameplay Gameplay mainly involves driving and shooting sequences Somewhat similar to GTA – open world Weapons and cars are provided by characters working for Salieri A lot of variety in missions, different ways to complete the missions

Scoring There is no “scoring” The game rewards you by giving you access to more weapons and better cars as you complete the missions

Artwork Cars look very realistic, recreating the style of the 1930s City textures aren’t always very detailed, but generally good Character animations and cutscenes are excellent for a 2002 game

Sound/Music The music choice is excellent  Music matches the time period  Played on the radio as you drive Sound effects (cars, weapons) are very realistic

Other Information Special Features  Freeride mode Drive around the city completing various fun challenges Unlock new cars Not part of the story Manual  Descriptions of characters, weapons  Map of the city  Technical information Bugs  Some texture problems

Game Review What is good about the game  Great story  Gameplay is challenging, involves strategy  Mission variety  Details that make the game more realistic

Game Review What is bad about the game  The game forces you to drive to your next mission This often takes a long time and can be frustrating – if you exceed the speed limit, cops will pull you over  Little to do in the city  Sometimes too realistic  Some people complain about the save system

Game Review Often compared to GTAIII  Comparisons due to open world and driving aspect  The two games are actually very different Mafia focuses more on the story and the main missions, and is more linear GTA gives you tons of different things to do in the city, distracting you from the main story Mafia is also much more realistic  The games shouldn’t be compared because although they look similar at first glance, they are actually completely different in terms of game play Mafia is better than many third-person shooting games because of the variety of missions, interesting plot, and realism

Game Review Appropriate audience: rated M due to violence and language  Anyone who enjoys shooting games would probably like this game Design mistakes

Summary Strengths  Great story  Challenging gameplay  Mission variety Weaknesses  Player must drive to the next mission  Save system The game is worth purchasing How could the game be improved?  Allow the player to “jump” to the mission location, or incorporate the drive into the game/story  More to do in the city

Mafia 2 – Coming Soon!