Review: Mafia – The City Of Lost Heaven

One epic story, from start to finish

Mafia 2 have already been reviewed on this site and now the time has come for the prequel. It’s actually been ten years since Mafia saw the daylight, but it’s clearly not a game that was typical for that time. Never before had we seen such cinematics and dialogues as in Lost Heaven. The game was fantastic ten years ago and is even better now, if that is possible, with the thoughts of what kind of games we have around the world today.

Light it up: Smokin' mafia-style.

The listener: You're whole story is being told to a detective named Norman.

The story of Mafia starts very similar with the one in Mafia 2. You’re character is an average Joe, who is up to no crime, before he against his will, have to join some criminals to keep his life. You play as Tommy Angelo, a cab driver in the streets of Lost Heaven, a big town similar to New York. One night working graveyard and relaxing in your cab, something that’s changes your life happens quickly. Two gangsters have been in a pretty bad fight with some rivals and is heading you’re way. They badly need a ride and one of theme is hurt. They’re names are Paulie and Sam. These two are going to be your closest friends the next couple of years, as you spend the years from 1930 and down to the late 40’s, working for the well-known Salieri family. A family that has traditions in the districts and who is run by the mob boss Don Salieri.

Many of the stories and missions in Mafia are truly epic and it’s almost impossible to not like what you see. The missions are always long and is presented in a way never seen in a video game before. The presentation of the missions in Lost Heaven are actually much better than in the sequel. The actor job in this game was also amazingly done. Many of the characters that have their voices used in Mafia are well known actors from other Mafia movies, so the game feels real the whole time. The graphic was  maybe the best of all games, when it came out in 2002 and it was a lot of machines that had trouble running the game, and i bet there still are.

What are they planning now?: The mission briefing room is being well used.

In cold blood: Sam takes another role at the end of the game.

If you take the gaming sequences in Mafia, you'll have yourself a brilliant Gangster movie, from the top class movie list. There is enough game sequences in this game to make a pretty long movie and you will keep watching intros, outros and epilogues over and over again, because they just are so damned fantastic. I cannot on the top of my head, bring up a game that have set deeper tracks than this one. It’s pretty weird if you get bored when playing this, because the game has always so much to say, and a lot of that comes from the great movie sequences that pops up from time to time. When you play, you will be waiting for these over and over again and i could really wish you didn’t have to play at all! Even if the game is fantastic there also, especially for the time being.

Buying booze: Problems occur, of course.

Stay down!: Now is a great time to pay the Salieri family a visit.

If you in some way haven’t heard about this or didn’t try it at the time, you should definitely do now. It’s a story full of surprises and twists, as well as a sad ending I didn’t like, but this doesn’t bring the game down at all. It just reflects the hard Mafia life of the 1930’s and 40’s. When finished with this you should also give the sequel a try, as it is at the same level. 2K Games is the new Gangster game expert. A Mafia game maker like Martin Scorese in the movie world. The only complaint is that i wish this game would never end, as a fantastic story like these don’t grow on trees.

The Don himself: Tommy finds out that he shouldn't cross the Don. In the end, he have to pay for it.

Gamescore

Mafia - The City Of Lost Heaven (2002)

Graphics: When this got out ten years ago, it was the best of the best, for those who managed to run the game. Rumors had it that many had to run the game on low specs, but now in 2012, this game can be run at a high detailed level. Of course, details wasn’t so good then as it is now, but the facial details of important people, as well as the graphics on the cars in the game, was fantastic. The action packed sequences between play is also amazing, but seen on with eyes of today, details in environment are a little short. 7/10

Audio: Maybe the best game voiceovers that has been done ever! Fantastic from the first to the last word. This game scores high over what is normal for a PC game. It even scores high for a movie. 10/10

Gameplay: The game is great, what so ever! The missions are varied and will keep you occupied long enough to think that you find yourself in a big American town at the beginning of the 1930’s. There are twenty missions in total and I wouldn’t mind if there were a hundred of them. The first thing you think when completing the last mission in Mafia is: I have to play this again as quick as i can! And of course you should then. It’s one of the best game stories ever!  10/10

Controls: Here’s what the game scores lowest on and the only possible thing the game could have been better at when it came out. The controllers doesn’t always work so good. Problems in getting in to cover can be tricky and you just feel awful when you die at the same mission the 20^th time, because you had a hard time aiming. This goes in the “forget this” book anyways, because the problems aren’t major enough to drag this game down. The story is to good! 8/10

Overall Score: Would have been a clear 10/10 if this was ten years ago. It almost is now actually. You have to turn a lot of things upside down to find a so amazing story as you find in this game. The replay value is also amazing, with all the in-game movie sequences being the most fantastic things, alongside with the actor work and audio work. Because graphics starts to get a little bit outdated (not much) and the controllers can be tricky, this receives a 9/10