| Mafia (The City of Lost Heaven) | Illusion Softworks/ Take 2 | 2002 | |
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The story is told from the year 1938 in flashbacks. Thommy
Angelo tells in a small restaurant to a police chief his Mafia biography.
It begins in 1932 in the town Lost Heaven and is very linear but offers
an exciting story of murder, betrayal, loves and friendship. The missions
are eventful, from burglary through contract killing (attempts with the
sniper's gun, public execution in a swimming pool and bomb attempts) up
to "bodyguard missions". Unfortunately, Mafia allows no game saves whenever
you want - this is really irritating only in 2 missions (with a lot of
opponents and rather long time without saving possibility). Sometimes
also if one goes too impatiently through the town all of a sudden the
police are on the player. Positively you can use cruise control which
if activated, no police patrol will be angry. Also the odometer with every
car is a nice (even if playfully not relevant) gimmick. Play view is third-person
behind view and takes place clearly more on foot than in GTA 3. Design-wise
the game makes a good impression (using a modified Hidden & Dangerous
2 engine) as does the sound also. The music, however, offers (especially
in the vehicles) little variety. 20 missions lead to quite different areas
with a lot of different orders and surprises. Boredom does not arise.
The town Lost Heaven offers in PC action games to date an unequalled 30s
atmosphere. In German there is very good voice synchronisation especially
that of Thommy's pal Paulie stands out. Nevertheless, it concerns the
unmistakable voiceover of Joe Pesci (very much suitable to the character
of Paulie which resembles his roles in Goodfellas and Casino). Unfortunately,
Mafia offers no freedom of action. Thus one must go in a mission to steal
afterwards boxes from the harbour depot. The foreman in the place goes
on the toilet. To rush though there brings nothing, with the last box
taken the foreman appears again and gives alarm. Also follow and knock
him out brings no change because the guards are still alarmed... Also
there is only one degree of difficulty which makes life for newcomers
not easy. Whoever does not mind the lack of save game option and the low
freedom of action should find it a strong game with great action and story
structure. It's definitely worth buying at a budget price.
See also: #Mafia: Definitive Edition |
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