Joinng the Mafia (Mafia - The City Of Lost Heaven (PC))

Member Name: Bazza1603

Product:	Mafia - The City Of Lost Heaven (PC)
Date:	16/11/02 (2640 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellant game, Enjoyable to play

Disadvantages: Too short and very quick to complete

The Mafia is a game that has just been released in the last month by Illusion Software, which is part of the Take Two Games company. This company was responsible for Grand Theft Auto 3, which I loved so much and I am glad to say that this game has following GTA 3 layout and therefore success.

The Game costs £34.99 and comes in a DVD case with 3 CD's to install the 1.8GB game. The manual was on first impressions a bit basic at 30 pages, but you get everything you need from it, as the controls for this game are remarkable easy to master. You also get a map showing the important places and this also doubles as a poster.

The game does require a good spec of computer to run smoothly. It is essential that you close down all programs that are working in the background of your computer like MSN messenger and especially anti-virus and firewall software so to realise the extra memory and processing power for this game. It is always a good idea to defragment your hard drive before installing a game of this size. Before I wet you appetite for this game and then disappoint you later on, the minimum specs are: -

Minimum: - Pentium or AMD 500MHz (Recommended 700Mhz)
96MB of Ram (Recommended 128MB+)
16-speed CD or DVD drive (Recommended 32 speed)
1.8GB of free hard disk space
16 MB video card with Direct X 8.1 compatible drivers (Recommended 32MB)
Direct X 8.1 compatible sound card
Windows 95, 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP


The Mafia
++++++++

The game is set in the 1930?s and you are the lead character Tommy Angelo a taxi driver 'who gets involved and ends up working for Don Salierei the Local Mafia leader. You start of with basic missions to get in the swing of things while at the same time you build up your trust with the Mafia leader.

The main characters are: -

Paulie is your sidekick and helps you on most missions. He can become
a pain i

n the neck as when you are clubbing someone to death he stands in the way and takes the beating himself. If during a mission anyone on your side dies you fail the mission.

Sam again he helps on missions where more muscle power is required. He plays a bigger part during the end of the game.

Frank is Don Salieris best friend and he is the brain behind the operation sorting out the finance and legal side of the business. He and Don Salieri will give you your mission instructs at the beginning of the game and at any time your objective can be seen by pressing F1.

Vincenzo is the weapons expert and you need to visit him to get your weapons which can range from a baseball bat to a Tommy machine gun.

Ralph is the Mafia?s mechanic and he will sort you out with a set of wheels. As the years roll by the cars become more fun and faster to drive.

Morello is the leader of the rival Mafia gang. His gangs try and muscle in your money-making businesses.

Lucas Bertone likes fine cars and is again a motor mechanic but for the top end models. Visiting him regularly during the game will help upgrade your motors to the very latest luxury models as he shows you how to acquire one.


What I like about the game.
++++++++++++++++++++

The graphics are so real and cool. Every detail down to the movement of people when they move is so realistic. The City of lost Angel?s covers an amazing 12 square miles and like 'GTA 3, you can drive anywhere you want.

The best thing I like about this game is it actually feels like a film and you are playing one of the lead characters. At the start of the mission you get movie like cut ins that explains what is happening and what you target will be. They are a lot of these cut its mainly when a character cannot do the required action, for an example climbing through a window. Some cut ins can become boring as they are so long, but you have to
watch once. The goo
d news is that by pressing enter you can skip it the second time.

The game is so easy to play. The controls are very simple and easy to master. I used my mouse to control the different directions and the mouse buttons to be the fire and actions buttons. Everything else is controlled on one side of the keyboard next to the arrow buttons. Its so easy to find your way around with massive city with the help of the Tab button you can call up a map that show you and your destination. They is also a compass on screen during the game while driving the car that helps you keep your directions correct. And show you were your target building is.

The cars handle so well and you get the feel of driving a 1930's car. The damage is realistic and depending on the impact of the crash the damage gets worse which makes it hard or impossible to drive. Therefore you may need to pinch another car, but you can only take cars you have been learnt how to steal. I would have like to see a driver's view from inside 'the car, which shows the dashboard instead of just the bonnet.


What I dislike about the game
++++++++++++++++++++++

I am a novice computer game player for this type of game?..Yet I managed to complete this game within only two weeks. Therefore to me I did not get my £35 moneys worth out of the game. I greatly enjoyed it but the 20 missions were not long enough for me. If someone plays games all the time, I would expect them to complete the game in only 3-5 days. There are bonus missions after you finish the main game that then become unlocked, but to be honest are a waste of time. I don?t get the same enjoyment seeing it's a can run things over that run as stupid speeds and neither do I like trying to corner a wagon from one side of the city to the other at speeds above 40mph. If you complete these missions you are rewarded with multi technocoloured hot rods. These missions are very childish a
nd it takes away from the profession
al feel of
the Mafia game.

A multiplayer game is where I feel this game could have been improved. I would have loved to see teams of Mafia hitmen drive around the city and smash each other and their business interests up. With a city of the size of Lost Angels you could easy have had 4 teams fighting for overall control against with players on the Internet.

Half way through the game is a mission where you have to drive a car at a racetrack and come first. This take about 12 minutes to complete and if you crash once, its impossible to win. I took 2 days to complete this level and it really made me upset with software designer. I hate racing games, so if I made wanted one that?s what I would have bought. It is very hard to complete and wouldn't have been so bad if you could have cheated by shooting the other drivers or their tyres. There is a way to do it and if anyone needs help please email me.



Overall
+++++++

I loved this game and hope to see Mafia 2 or something along the same lines from this company. They have a war game coming out called Vietcong, and I will be looking out for early next year. The details are excellent in this game and the missions are all different meaning you don?t get sick of playing it. If not a hard game to master and the tutorial at the start teachers you all the moves. Okay it's a bit of a short game, but it makes up for it. I give this game about 92 percent, but it's a bit harder to show it here on this rating system.

If anyone needs help with completing this game please email me at bazza1603@hotmail.com

Thanks for Reading

Baz

Summary: