The Godfather Review

The God father. Perhaps the first truly epic film I saw as a child. Ever since then I’ve always wanted to be a part of the Mafia, live the mysterious life of the underworld. Thanks to my criminal tendencies, I was a lonely child. I always dreamt on in secret, though! Let me introduce you to the game that made my dreams come true.

Welcome to Mafia, a 3-D action game played in the third person. The player assumes the role of a gangster, Tom Angelo (Tommy to his friends) in the city of Lost Heaven during the 1930s. This game follows his rise as a criminal, the death of his conscience and his final efforts to make things right. It deals with the darker, seamier side of the criminal world.

To begin with you should try Free Ride, in which you can drive around the city, killing gangsters for money. This mode helps to you familiarize yourself with the streets of Lost Heaven. The story mode is where the real action is though. You begin the game as Tom Angelo, a cab driver. One night you pick up two members of Don Salieri’s gang who are being chased by Don Morello’s Mobsters! Your mission is to drive them to safety. Eventually you are attracted to the easy life of crime and join Don Salieri. From then on you are given missions that range from destroying Morello’s cars to smuggling in illegal alcohol from Canada…You also have to sabotage Don Morello’s efforts to take over the city. The action is well paced and the plotline is superb. If only our Hindi movies were half as interesting!

Mafia has two styles of game play. The first is similar to Max Payne i.e. a third person mode in which the keyboard controls your movement and the mouse controls your aim. In this mode you get to use weapons like the tommy gun, pump-action shotguns and Colt automatics. You can’t just run-and-gun as one shot to the head DOES kill you. So you need to crouch while shooting and duck for cover while reloading if you want to complete these missions. When you reload, you lose the remaining bullets in your clip, so reload wisely! The second style of game-play is the driving mode in which you….drive! The game features a huge number of classic 1930s cars, each amazingly detailed with great controls and physics. Initially you only know how to drive a few cars but as the game progresses you learn how to steal more advanced cars. While driving in the city you must obey the traffic lights and stay within the speed limit. You can speed if you want to but you will be chased by the cops, if they see you. While driving, you can bring up a map of the city at the touch of a button and you also have an on-screen compass to guide you. These two styles seamlessly blend into one another. For example in one mission you have to drive to a motel out of town with Paulie and Sam to collect ‘protection money’. Once you reach there you are asked to wait in the car. Things go wrong, guns go off and you have to save the day. You have to sneak into the hotel (in third person mode, NOT in your car!) and save the captive Sam.

Depending on your hardware, the graphics of Mafia range from amazing to Mind-Blowing. The developers have created an entire city that is full of life with dozens of pedestrians, cars, a working subway and tram system and even a retracting bridge! The sound is perfectly executed with great voice acting, classic background music and excellent car and weapon effects. Once you complete the story mode, Free Ride Extreme is unlocked which gives you faster cars, some new sub-missions and best of all, no cops. Speed and smash to your heart’s content!

In conclusion, Mafia does have a few flaws. Perhaps the worst is its stupid cops. The police will fire at you if you draw a gun but will NEVER blink an eye if your enemies start shooting at you during a gunfight. This takes away from the entire experience. It also has no in-game saves and a few bad missions but since most missions can be completely quickly this is not really too glaring a fault. It has some bugs that cause it to crash at the loading screen but these can be easily avoided. The bottom line is that despite its few drawbacks this game is an amazing experience, and is a must buy. Period! An engrossing story, epic fire-fights, realistic driving, cutting edge graphics and great sound. What more do you want?? GO get this game!

HIGHS: Great graphics, Epic Gameplay, Perfect Sound.
LOWS: Weak Police A.I., High System Requirements, Loading Bugs
NUTSHELL: Game Of The Year Material, Highly Recommended
Rating: 93