Mafia (2002)

Mafia is an action-adventure video game developed by Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in August 2002 and later ported to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. The game traces the rise and fall of Tommy Angelo, a fictional mafioso in the 1930s.

On September 25, 2020, Mafia saw a remake developed by Hangar 13 and published by mh:crappygames:2K Games, known as Mafia: Definitive Edition, with improved graphics and extra content, and was also included as part of the Mafia: Trilogy bundle released around the same time.

Overall

 * 1) For its time Mafia was one of the best looking games. The details of the characters, their facial expressions, and the particle effects are notable.
 * 2) A great story about a taxi driver turned gangster and the drama that ensues as his time as a gangster.
 * 3) A huge variety of cars based on real brands of this time period including early 20s Ford Model T-style cars to old-timer racing cars.
 * 4) The way cars handle is just like the way their real life counterparts do, and just like in real life, they can run out of fuel and you have to fuel up at a gas station.
 * 5) The damage model is realistic, as unlike in the GTA series, you also take damage from crashing your car.
 * 6) There are many weapons to chose from and fun to use. Once again, unlike GTA you can only hold three weapons, which is an interesting feature that fits the realistic tone.
 * 7) Lost Heaven is a huge city to explore and there are no loading times between districts. Also, the game even includes a huge countryside to have a relaxing drive.
 * 8) 20 missions with different tasks to do like assassinating a party on a ship, smuggling booze, fighting with hooligans, robbing a bank, etc.
 * 9) Memorable characters, such as Frank Colletti, Don Salieri, Ralphie, and Tommy Angelo.
 * 10) A great and emotional musical score composed by Vladimir Šimůnek.
 * 11) An awesome selection of the 1920s and 30's music including songs from The Mills Brothers and Django Reinhardt.

Original

 * 1) After beating the story mode, you unlock the Freeride Extreme mode where you can do out of place tasks (chasing a UFO, saving a girl from a monster) to unlock special cars.

Definitive Edition

 * 1) This edition improves on many aspects of the original while also altering others for the better. Here is a list of differences.
 * 2) * The remake's graphics are very stunning to look at now making it look even better than the third game.
 * 3) * The cutscenes are more like other Mafia games with it being more cinematic as it almost feels like you're watching a mobster film.
 * 4) * The epilogue gives more detail into Tommy Angelo's life after he killed Sam and changes Tommy's reaction when Vito asks him his name, this time replying in a way of him accepting his death instead of a confused "yes?".
 * 5) * The third-person shooting is improved since it's been modernized and the gunplay feels good.
 * 6) * Events in the story are given more detail compared to the original game, such as Morello's death and Tommy's relationship with Sarah.
 * 7) * Much like Mafia II, there is now a garage that lets you store cars.
 * 8) The police AI has finally returned to the style from the first two games, though you can choose whether or not you want the vehicles or police AI to behave realistically, something carried over from Mafia III.
 * 9) There are now 5 kinds of collectibles to find Pulps, Cigarette Cards, Mysterious Foxes, Post Cards and Comics.
 * 10) While most of the collectibles give you nothing, the Post Cards give you hints as to where hidden cars are similar to the special vehicles from L.A. Noire.
 * 11) While the licensed soundtrack is completely different to the original game, it still fits the 1930s era, including artists like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.

Overall

 * 1) The basic Freeride mode doesn't offer too many things to do.
 * 2) In his narrations over the ending, Tommy mentions that he and his family were given new identities after his release from prison. When Vito and Joe show up at his house to kill him, he answers to his real name before they murder him, which is pretty stupid of Tommy to do.

Original

 * 1) While it was good for its time, the original hasn't aged well for many of the reasons listed below.
 * 2) * The third-person shooting didn't age well and is pretty janky especially when making long shots. This was fixed in the remaster.
 * 3) * You can get chased by police for running red lights or speeding; while this is realistic, it can be annoying at times when trying to get to point A to point B as fast as you can. Fortunately, you will only be fined upon letting them catch you and not disobeying their orders. This was improved in the remake as now this kind of behavior is optional.
 * 4) * The infamous racing mission, "Fairplay" and Freeride Extreme mission, "Exploding Celeste". These two missions are infamous for their difficulty spikes.
 * 5) ** The former was considered nearly impossible to beat due to how perfect the enemy AI drive and how hard it is to control the race car. This resulted in two patches, one slowed the opponents' cars down a good bit, and another patch added freely changeable difficulty levels if the player feels the need to use it.
 * 6) ** The later involves driving the Bolt, one of the most sluggish and unwieldy vehicles in the game, down a bridge and around a bend. Sounds easy enough - except there's a zeppelin overhead that inexplicably and violently bombs the bridge to try to wreck it specifically. It's possible with a little luck to drive on through unless you're playing above 30 frames per second, in which case the bombs drop so frequently that you cannot win. Of course, you can always push the Bolt across the bridge with another vehicle, go back to accept the mission, and then drive that across the bridge at a faster speed to have a higher chance of survival, then grab the Bolt and finish the mission without any issues.
 * 7) * The voice acting hasn't aged too well as some of the voice actors' performances (most noticeably Tommy's) will sometimes be dead panned.
 * 8) * The graphics have noticeably not aged well due to a number of low polygonal environments and especially the character models with the worst being the faces which fall into the uncanny valley with their soulless eyes.
 * 9) When dodge rolling, a glitch will occur where Tommy will continuously leap forward. The only way to fix it is by reloading your game.
 * 10) The console conversions pale in comparison to the PC version as it was severely cut down due to memory limitations. The load load times are longer and the reduced geometry and texture detail resulted in the game (especially the PlayStation 2 release) ending up looking like an N64 game in comparison to its contemporaries. It could be due to the fact that the porting house aimed at a direct conversion, ultimately having to compromise when it became apparent that the level-based game engine was ill-suited for consoles.
 * 11) Due to copyright issues, the Steam and GOG.com releases of the game omitted the licensed music.
 * 12) The ending is kind of anti-climatic since after you kill Sam, Tommy monologues how he left Lost Heaven and has a family, Don Salieri got arrested, and then shows Tommy as an old man watering his lawn before being gun down by people sent by Salieri.

Definitive Edition

 * 1) Unlike the original version, you cannot ride on trams nor trains unless you have a mod installed.
 * 2) NPCs can somehow magically phone police even when they're nowhere near a phone booth. This may also occur in the countryside even if there is no NPC in the area.
 * 3) In PC version, Refresh Rate is capped to 60 Hz though you can uncap it.
 * 4) Freeride Extreme was not a part of the remaster.
 * 5) Missed Opportunity: The remaster could've been more like Mafia II and included mechanics like being able to customize Tommy, customize vehicles, and eat and drink, but unfortunately this didn't happen.
 * 6) The only thing you get for collecting all of each collectible is an achievement.

Critical reception
Mafia was well received by critics and players upon release as more realistic and serious than a usual Grand Theft Auto-styled game. Mafia contains a much bigger city to explore than most video games of the time, with multiple forms of available transport in addition to an expansive countryside. Dan Adams of IGN gave the game a rating of 9.2/10, while GameSpot described the PC version as "one of the best games of the year" and rated it at 9.3/10. Game Informer compared it favorably to Grand Theft Auto III, and wrote that "from the living city in which you reside, to the incredibly realistic vehicles, this title has the heart and soul of a blockbuster."

While the original PC game received widespread acclaim, the versions for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox were considered inferior by many critics, and received lower scores as a result. In the Czech Republic, the country where the game's developers come from, the game received universal acclaim from both critics and players. Mafia was elected the best video game developed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in a survey by Czech server BonusWeb when it received 3866 votes out of 13,143 as every reader could choose three games to vote for.

Sales and awards
Mafia won GameSpot 's annual "Best Music" award among computer games, and was nominated in the "Best Single-Player Action Game on PC", "Biggest Surprise", "Best Sound", "Best Graphics (Technical)", "Best Graphics (Artistic)", "Best Story" and "Game of the Year" categories.

According to Take-Two Interactive, Mafia had sold 2 million copies by March 12, 2008. Its computer version received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom; and a "Gold" certification from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Definitive Edition
Mafia: Definitive Edition received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

IGN gave the game 8/10, writing: "Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Mafia: Definitive Edition features excellent performances from its new cast, a fantastic driving model, and a beautiful and authentic city oozing with 1930s atmosphere like overfilled cannoli." GameSpot gave the game a 6/10, praising the story and performances but criticizing the dated combat and movements. Game Informer gave the game a 5.5/10, writing: "Faithful almost to a fault, Hangar 13's remake puts a glossy finish on a title that is fundamentally musty by contemporary standards."

The original developer and writer of the first game, Dan Vávra, praised the remake's graphics, though criticized some changes to the script, as well as certain physics elements involving weapons and vehicles. Vavra departed 2K Games in 2009, and had no involvement or knowledge about the game's production.

Sales
In its first week of release the game was the third best-selling in the UK, with the Mafia Trilogy finishing sixth.

Videos
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