Right now, this is probably the most talked about game
for the PC. With all the acclaim that Grand Theft Auto 3
had last year when it came out for the Playstation 2, PC
gamers were waiting for their day.
A port wouldn't suffice, those never seem to work
out good because you're trying to convert game mechanics
that anticipate the use of a controller to a mouse and
keyboard. Doesn't work. Same reason the first person
shooters on a console generally blow chunks to anyone
who's used to playing these games with a keyboard and
mouse.
So, in comes Mafia to fill that void. Spawned from the
Pavel-heavy (seriously, the intro has more Pavels in it
than I've met or heard of in my entire life. Try and
find a name without an accent mark on it somewhere.)
development team at Illusion Softworks and published by
the former media darlings over at the Gathering of
Developers, Mafia is a game that isn't necessarily a new
experience, but given the fact that there's a whole vast
landscape of no PC gaming right now, it's a fun enough
ride to occupy your time and take your cash.
Sell Out! With Me Today!
The story starts off
with you getting ready to sing to the cops. The missions
take place as a flashback, as part of your dialogue with
the copper, as you try and secure a safe life for you,
your wife, and kid. So, you start telling your story,
starting back on the night where your cab was "hired"
abruptly by two mobsters trying to outrun the hot lead
whizzing by their heads. You get them to safety, and are
rewarded for your efforts.
Initially balking at the idea
of joining the mob, that decision gets made for you when
two guys start beating on your taxi with baseball bats.
you run to the only place nearby where you can get and
sort of refuge from, and that happens to be a bar run by
Mr. Salieri, who's two guys you saved not so long ago.
You decide that joining the mob beats getting killed,
and sign up with Salieri's operation, a generally laid
back bunch of guys. Unfortunately, rival gangster
Morello wants in on Salieri's turf and hence, the
violent interjections in your life. Welcome to the land
of nice suits and gunfire.
I've seen this somewhere
before...
Mafia borrows heavily from game mechanics
of games that have come before it. If you ever played
Hitman: Codename 47 for the PC a couple years back,
this game's going to seem REAL familiar, all the way
down to the fairly clunky combat system. Also, if you
played Grand Theft Auto 3, this game is going to
come with a heavy dose of deja vu. The stealing cars,
the "wanted" system, the 3rd person gunfire battles.
If
someone's trying to convince you that this game is not
going to remind you of GTA3, they're seriously mistaken.
It's set in a different era and all, and you can't go
around helping people in ambulances, but the influence
of GTA3 is so heavy that if any review doesn't mention
it, it's honestly not doing its job.
Not-so-Graphic
Violence
The graphic quality in this game's a bit
lacking. Everything looks OK, there's just something
that isn't quite right with their people...they aren't
quite modeled right. Nothing that's really going to
grate against you or anything, but there are a few
quirks with models here and there that detract from the
game's visual appeal.
Riding along in my Automobile.
Driving in your car is a big part of the game.
Learning how to lift new vehicles and the layout of the
city are integral to being successful in this game.
There are also Free Ride and Free Ride EXTREME modes to
the game so obviously, you know what the developer spent
the majority of their time working on. Unfortunately,
while it is probably accurate to the time period, the
clunky steering of the car makes it feel very
reminiscent of riding around in the vehicles from
Counter-Strike.
Driving is probably my least favorite
part of the game. Especially since coupled with the
clunky steering is the absolute worst radar system I've
ever seen in a PC game. Heck, even the overhead display
for the original Police Quest made it easier to
figure out where the heck I was going.
I end up having
to drive with one hand steering and the other hand
holding down the Tab key so the map overlay shows up on
screen. Cars in your radar are displayed as 2 x 3 pixel
lines. No streets or anything, just a bunch of lines.
You'd figure since there's buildings and everything in
the way (which don't show up in the radar display), that
they'd reduce the scope of the radar to show something just a bit larger to represent the cars. I would have
just thrown the damn thing out altogether if that's what
they were working with.
You Can Beat 'Im If You Him 'Im
With A Bat.
Aside from driving around all day, the
other thing you'll do in Mafia is make people dead.
Unfortunately, in 3rd person, the combat system isn't as
elegant as it should be. Any time the combat has to drop
to melee the engine can't really handle it. I've ended
up clipping into other people and not being able to move
out of them while I get pummeled by 3 different people.
You also can't chase people down and swing at the same
time...well, you can, you just can't hit them.
Also a
bit of a puzzle was that if you smack someone from
behind with a baseball bat at full power, they go down.
But, hit them in the face from the front, and they
proceed to hit you back. I don't know about you, but I
figure at full "swing for the fences" mode, it doesn't
matter where I hit someone with a baseball bat, face,
leg, whatever, they aren't getting up. In any case, a
full on swing to the head ought to put down anyone who
isn't on PCP. Instead, I end up in these epic battles,
where I'm constantly backing up and swinging as the
idiot AI doesn't figure out that it can't run and swing.
Mercifully, gun combat is much, much better than melee.
Watching people fly about being nailed with the
sawed-off shotgun is something to behold. I haven't had
that much fun shooting people for a long time. Most
satisfying computer death since the great TOW Missile
body explosions from Shogo: Mobile Armor Division.
There's enough gun combat in the game to make up for the
frustrating melee combat. Missions usually consist of 2
or 3 driving parts and 2 combat parts, so the game
manages to balance itself pretty well.
General
Griping
One of the things I wish the game would have
kept consistent more is the time period. There's a lot
of anachronisms in the game and the game isn't trying to
be that sort of game. For instance, when trying to get
protection money from a motel on the edge of town, some
of the folks from Morello's gang threaten you. One guy
comes out and threatens you with a gun...holding it 90s
gangster style. You can also run up and carjack people,
which I don't think started happening until the 90s
either. Some of the script just doesn't seem like people
in that day and age would be saying or doing the things
they are, and it detracts a bit from the ambiance.
I
also wish the game would have jettisoned third person in
favor of the more conventional first person. It would
have made combat so much more elegant. The movie
industry's got times in the year where critics expect
bad movies to come out. There are certain weeks and
months that studios choose to offload their bloated,
languishing projects so that they can just get them out
of their hair. Maybe the game industry's got something
similar, because this seems to be the point in time
where all the 3rd person PC games are coming out. In the
last, 45 days I'm going to say there have been 4 3rd
person games released. (Tsunami 2265, The Thing, Mafia,
and Syberia.)
Overall
I'd have to say Mafia's
worth your dough...and that's even without a gun pointed
to my head. Probably a little violent for the kiddies,
but honestly, parents, if you've got a well-adjusted
kid, and you've talked to him about the difference
between real and fake violence, and you've set
consequences for your kids, there really isn't anything
to worry about from a violent video game. Billy's going
to know not to go hitting people with his car...well, on
purpose at least. Anyway, I'm not going to go all
Gamespot and say this is one of the best games of the
year (although, looking back on the year, it probably
could be in contention.) but it's definitely worth your
time. An enjoyable romp while it lasts, I just wish
driving wasn't such a big part of it all.
 
MAFIA
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Mafia:
City of Lost Heaven
