I've played through a good portion of the game, and I can't say enough positive things about it. It's extremely cinematic with a great story, and it's very very fun! The detail and size in the city are amazing. The only complaint I have is in line with what the IGN review said; You always have to drive to your destinations, and the city is so big that the driving time can seem a little unnecessary.

Overall, it's an amazing game. Great action, car chases, and awesome atmosphere. If you have any doubts, just look at the IGN and Gamespot reviews. Both in the 9-10 range.

Okay - I got it from EB for 39 bucks... it was a pricematch with Gamestop. This game friggin rules. GTA3 comparisons aren't without some validity. There are plenty of parallels between this and GTA3... driving, boosting cars, large city, and murdering pedestrians. The story in this game is much more rich though. My only complaint is that this game is too linear. You seem to be forced from one mission to the next without any time to breathe. GTA3 allows you to choose when you want to take on a mission. There is a free roaming mode of the game that allows you to just run amok... but it seems a little too detached. It would've been nicer had they incorporated it into the story mode. It's a small gripe though...

The graphics in this game are incredible... the lighting is rendered realistically rather than faked. Real-time light and shadows make this game so immersive. Reflections are accurate and wonderful. Even the cigarrette smoke is cool looking (not perfect, but good). Driving physics are a bit more realistic than GTA3 which also makes it a bit more difficult to drive in this game. Since the cars are all from the 1930s, they handle like crap. It's still very charming anyway. GTA3 runs like crap on my PC (which is a speed demon) and yet Mafia, which looks 100x better, runs smooth as silk. I haven't encountered one bug yet.

A few missions in you have to win a car race. It's by far the most difficult race I've ever had. Once you get the hang of it, it's not so tough - but the cars set into a spinout so easily... Anyway - my tip for that part... just make sure you are ahead of the pack coming out of that first turn and drive safely for the rest of the race and you should be fine. Try and cut off anyone who tries to pass you and they'll probably crash - if they manage to get next to you, they'll crash you.

The acting in this game isn't the best, but it's not bad. The character you play looks alot like Mel Gibson... the detail in this game is amazing... the character's faces are very lifelike - some of the best seen so far in video games.

This game moves a bit slower than GTA3 and is much more linear and story-driven... it's also a bit more challenging. If you like 3rd Person Shooters that move along at a slow pace and the Godfather movies, then you should pick this game up immediately. My pick for Game of the Year 2002 so far. I had been looking forward to this game for almost a year, and I'm so glad they got it right and didn't dissappoint.

What's the control like? Are you playing with a mouse and keyboard? I bet it's a bitch to drive like that. Thanks.

The driving is actually controlled entirely with the keyboard--it works quite well, in my opinion. You only use the mouse while driving if you want to shoot at somebody out the window. The on-foot controls use the mouse, as well. The controls are excellent, overall.

Everything madmike said... The controls are really easy to master if you've played any recent FPS game on the PC. In first person mode, the mouse acts as your camera - the left button fires your weapon, the wheel (if you have one) switches weapons, and the right button opens doors or talks to people or picks stuff up. WASD are your movement controls, and there are about 5 other keys you typically use. Driving is really easy since it's just WASD or the arrow keys and one key for the handbrake (have mine set to the space bar).

The driving isn't too tough except for when you're trying to shoot out the window at the same time - when you have a weapon selected, your camera moves from being fixed behind the car to being controlled by the mouse, but you still have to use the arrow keys to steer and drive. That takes a bit to get used to, but it's not so bad. The other challenging thing with driving with a keyboard is that when you go to turn, you're cranking the wheel. This would benefit from analog sticks greatly. Expect controls similar to Hitman if this hits consoles.

This game is still a blast - I'm on the level called "The Whore" - if you've played it you know which level I'm talking about. I made it to the church and I still can't get over how much detail there is and how smooth it runs.

I'm just about in the same place. these shootouts are simply fantastic

I don't know what game you played, but it couldn't have been Mafia. The graphics in Mafia are better than 95% of anything that has ever come out on PC. The cinematics are using the in-game graphics engine and look fantastic. The detail on the faces is incredible as well. The graphics in this game easily out-do Max Payne. And Max Payne didn't have such an enormous city that you could free-roam around in.

The cars aren't identical - at first you get some old clunkers and the more you progress and whatnot, the better the cars you can get. Look in the car-cyclopedia and see all the different cars you can drive... I don't even think that's the complete list. The car physics are outstanding - not too arcade-like and not too realistic. You slam on the E-brake while turning and you to a 180 - I like that. Where I'm at in the game, I have about 10 or so cars in my stable and the fastest one will top out at about 85 or 90mph I think. There are cars that'll do almost twice that.

I've encountered several weapons - about 5 different handguns, a sawed-off shotgun (sweet), a pump-action shotgun (uber sweet), a baseball bat, a crowbar, knuckle-dusters (brass knuckles), and a tommy-gun. I suspect there's at least a few more weapons since I haven't even gotten to snipe yet.

Admittedly, the game starts out kinda slow - especially in story mode. You have to escape these goons in your Taxi (which is a slow-ass car) and then drive to a bar where you are later recruited to do odd jobs for. The jobs start off small until you build a reputation. After the race job, they get really really interesting. I just finished a job where I had to go pick up some canadian booze at a farmhouse... it was raining at night and there were all sorts of creepy noises and whatnot. This game beats half-life in the sound department.

As for people not exploding into bloody messes when you run them over, when have you ever seen a person explode into a mess of blood when they are run over by a car doing 40 or 50 mph? Robocop? If you look closely at them after running them over, there's enough blood to make it look realistic. I'm sorry, but people don't go "squish" when they are run over by a car.

Maybe you haven't found the map yet, but if you press TAB while driving, it'll appear on your screen while you're driving as an overlay. It also shows you where you are and where you need to be. The compass and radar are only handy to see if cops are around or just to keep your bearing.

The city doesn't look the same all over... it's huge and every building is different and unique. The same can be said about GTA3 until you play it enough to start knowing where things are. The city looks damn realistic as does the cars as do the people and everything.

The graphics scale with distance and if you are running slower equipment, you won't see the same level of detail as you would if you were running with optimal settings and hardware that can take advantage of the T&L and whatnot. It's easily one of the best looking games ever... maybe I'll bust out with a screen shot or two from my own PC.

The one thing I'll agree with is that the game takes up alot of space. Not a problem for me since I have a 120GB HD.
Here's what I suspect to be the actual reasons why you poo-pooed this game...

1. You didn't play it for more than an hour (and probably not more than 10 minutes)
2. You were expecting GTA3
3. You need a computer upgrade which is why the graphics didn't look good to you.

You're entitled to your opinion and if I'm wrong and you actually gave the game a solid chance (playing it for several hours), then I think that's a completely fair assessment. However, I just don't see how you could've given it a fair chance and come up with that review. Just my 2cents.

I've held off giving it a review until I was at least far enough into the game (it would be better to wait until I finished it, but I'm gonna be playing this for a long long time) to get a good feel for it... I think I'm there and I'll give this game a 9/10. That's a super-high score since I hardly ever give out a 10.

My grading scale:
10 = Best Ever - don't argue with me.
9 = Awesome, near-perfect, go buy it.
8 = Good, totally worth buying
7 = Worth buying for those highly interested, better than average
6 = Average - worth a rental
1-5 = suck at varying levels.

Trigger is right, discostu1337 is way off base. This game is incredible. It's one of the best PC games ever, and I think a lot better than GTA3.

I'm stuck here:



Any ideas?

The game still sucks At leas to me and everyone else I know hehe. The GFX are bland, and the city is poorly designed and too large. All the cars drive like poo and are super boxy and clunk feeling. Props if ya like it, but I dont.

My friend has gotten through the first 5 levels and has no desire to ever play it again. Does it magically get better soon?

Yeah - it gets better and better. If he's simply not into it, then he probably won't be. If he's 5 levels in, does that mean episodes or save points? Anyway - if he gets through the level called "Whore" and he still doesn't like it, then he should take it back to EB before his 15 days run out.

I'll ask him, but I assume it's episodes. He doesn't have to worry about returning the game, his mom sent it to him because it was causing her nightmares.

Comparison to GTA3 does nothing to increase my desire to buy Mafia. GTA3 is one of the most overrated games in recent times....

Now there's a word I could stand to see less of.

$40 at BB this week. Looks like I'll be waiting at least another week.