Mafia

"Life in the mafia could never be so sweet..."

A lot of games have been released lately that were hits on the PC. Max Payne, GTA series, Deus Ex, and The Sims to name a few. So if Mafia was a hit on the PC why would there be any problems with it on the PS2? Guess what, I didn't find many problems at all.

What Mafia does is drag you in to a deep, compelling story that keeps you begging for more. You're Tommy Angelo a man in his early 30's who had troubles growing up and eventually ends up a taxi driver. One night while he's on his break the Salieri mob is being chased down by the Morello mob. The Salieri's force Tommy to help them. Tommy does as he's told and the Salieri family gives him a good sum of money and tells him if he needs a favor to stop on by. The next day, Tommy is being beatin by some Morello gangsters and decides to ask Salieri for that favor. Tommy then just decides to join the mafia so he could feel safe. Oh and the game takes place in the 1930's. WOW!!!! What a story, how could you not want to play this mafioso masterpiece? Plus the game is set up perfectly to resemble the 1930's. The car's are great, along with the setup of the city.

Mafia has tons of strong points other than the story. The gameplay is pretty solid for one. By that I mean shootouts, and driving. When the cars have different handling abilities, it shows. When one gun has more power that the other, it shows. I don't think this game would be much without such solid gameplay. Also, the game features I nice ''power up'' system. If you want a one hit KO the game makes you power up to get that easy melee kill. This system could really help when you're unarmed.

There are some flaws however: Now I wouldn't say the game is hard(even though that's what it seemed liked). I just think that you would have an easier time killing mobsters with a keyboard than with an analog stick. Plus the game can really get slow with loading screens and driving. Yes, driving. It's not that the cars are slow, it's just you have to follow all the laws so you can't be reckless like in GTA. Just be thankful the 30's didn't have as many traffic lights as there are now.

But all of these flaws won't matter when you start getting into the story. And the loading screens aren't even half bad to look at while your waiting. Mafia has a great movie-storyline and some top solid gameplay once you figure out the difference between a keyboard and a joystick. I guaran-damn-tee that if your a patient person, you'll be hooked in no time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/04