Mafia

"Loading...Please wait."

I rented this game because of the hype it has received from the PC game and well...It falls flat on its *** IMO. But back to the awards...

And the winner, for favorite screen in Mafia is.....(drum roll) LOADING & PLEASE WAIT!!! Ok so its not anyones favorite screen but that is the screen you will see the most in this game. I'll get back on that later though.

Gameplay- The gameplay seems alright at first. You go through Lost Heaven, riding in 1930 style cars. Shooting or fighting whomever you wish. Even the cop chasings are sometimes intense. But once you start doing missions, the fun ends. When you start working for ''Boss'' as Tommy calls him, the fun ends and the game falls apart like a shattered mirror. Between the long, LONG driving and boring shoot outs the gameplay keeps getting worse as I kept playing it.

For a mission where you have to kill a person who has double crossed ''The Boss'' you have to drive from one side of the map to the other,through 3 cities and see a number of people. Shouldn't the mafia already know where this guy is?

And on a number of missions Paulie, a friend of your character will accompany you. But forget about backup with him. He keeps his lazy arse in the car and lets you do all the work. What's the point of having someone go with you if all they do is smoke a cig in the car???

For the last part about the gameplay is the enemies. I think your enemies must've joined the Army and signed up for sniper school because they just never seem to miss. So its basically one man vs a mafia full of super soldiers.

Graphics- This is one area of the game that does a good job of recreating the PC graphics. The cars look real,the people look real(although all of them walk with their hands behind their backs) and the buildings look real also. Some people complain about how the buildings look weird as you zoom by in your car. But who is looking at buildings while going 60-100 mph in a car???

Sound- There is no music to say. There are a few jazz songs when you are riding around but thats about it. The guns are what gets this area a 5/10. Shotguns sound like Shotguns and Tommy guns sound like tommy guns.

Story- The story is compelling. Although it takes a few missions to get into its like joining the Mafia...Once your into it, your in.

Tommy(you) was a normal cab driver until one night when he helped out some of Salaerie's boys. After putting in some thought and getting attacked by the rival gang, he decides to join Salaerie. Basically he is trying to get out of the Mafia and is telling a cop in a resturaunt about his life, which you live out.

Controls- The aiming system is so crappy theres no point in putting it in. It says to press R2 or L2 to lock onto targets. What happens if you press R2 or L2 during a firefight? Nothing, except you lose a bunch of seconds that could be used to bust out some rounds. And when you manually aim the joystick is so sensitive to movement you have turn the sensitivity all the way down.

Cars are also difficult to control. Besides the fact that most of them struggle to get past 30 mph, turning is by far the difficult part of driving. You can tap the auto brake to turn the corner and keep your speed up but you risk crashing into something and losing a ton of health. But pressing the auto brake isnt cinematic...Pressing the hand brake button down makes your car swerve those corners like in Hollywood movies and your risk of hitting objects like light poles and buildings goes down as well, saving you that precious health that can only be restored by going on another mission.

Replayability- Don't know why you would want to play this again after you've beaten it. Its like most other games besides sports games. They have 1 ending and there's no point of playing it again except to show your friends how you rule at the game.

Overall- I would rent this game. Its not worth $50 dollars in my opinion. You can beat this game in the 5-7 days blockbuster lets you rent games. It also doesnt even come close to the hype it got as said earlier.Bottom line, rent and enjoy it for a day.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/25/04