Mafia
Dmitriy Ansolis
CIS487
9/27/09
Introduction
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Title: Mafia
Publisher: Gathering of Developers (aka God Games)
Developer: Illusion Softworks
Release Year: 2002
Type of Game: Third-person shooter
Price (PC): $30-40 (originally ~ $50)
System Requirements:
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PIII 500
96MB RAM
32MB video memory
1.8GB hard drive space
Overview
Mafia is a third-person shooter that takes
place in the 1930s in a fictional city called
Lost Heaven
 The main character becomes part of the
mafia, and starts doing various jobs for
them
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Story
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The main character is a taxi driver named
Tommy Angelo
He gets involved with the mob (because of
money), working for the Salieri family
The story is told as a flashback
 Tommy
realizes he doesn’t like the “gangster” life
 He meets with a detective to tell him his story and
help take down the Salieri family
Player’s Role
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The main character works for the Salieri
family and completes various jobs for
them, including car chases, robbing banks,
shootouts...
Installation & User Interface
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Installation
 The
game takes about 20 minutes to install,
and comes on 3 CDs
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User Interface
 The
user interface is very straightforward, and
shows all basic information such as amount of
health remaining, the health of your
teammates, map, speedometer…
Gameplay
Gameplay mainly involves driving and
shooting sequences
 Somewhat similar to GTA – open world
 Weapons and cars are provided by
characters working for Salieri
 A lot of variety in missions, different ways
to complete the missions
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Scoring
There is no “scoring”
 The game rewards you by giving you
access to more weapons and better cars
as you complete the missions
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Artwork
Cars look very realistic, recreating the
style of the 1930s
 City textures aren’t always very detailed,
but generally good
 Character animations and cutscenes are
excellent for a 2002 game
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Sound/Music
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The music choice is excellent
 Music
matches the time period
 Played on the radio as you drive
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Sound effects (cars, weapons) are very
realistic
Other Information
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Special Features
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Freeride mode
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Manual
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Drive around the city completing various fun challenges
Unlock new cars
Not part of the story
Descriptions of characters, weapons
Map of the city
Technical information
Bugs
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Some texture problems
Game Review
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What is good about the game
 Great
story
 Gameplay is challenging, involves strategy
 Mission variety
 Details that make the game more realistic
Game Review
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What is bad about the game
 The
game forces you to drive to your next
mission
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This often takes a long time and can be frustrating
– if you exceed the speed limit, cops will pull you
over
 Little
to do in the city
 Sometimes too realistic
 Some people complain about the save system
Game Review
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Often compared to GTAIII
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Comparisons due to open world and driving aspect
 The two games are actually very different
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Mafia focuses more on the story and the main missions, and is more linear
GTA gives you tons of different things to do in the city, distracting you from
the main story
Mafia is also much more realistic
The games shouldn’t be compared because although they look similar
at first glance, they are actually completely different in terms of game
play
Mafia is better than many third-person shooting games because of
the variety of missions, interesting plot, and realism
Game Review
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Appropriate audience: rated M due to
violence and language
 Anyone
who enjoys shooting games would
probably like this game
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Design mistakes
Summary
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Great story
Challenging gameplay
Mission variety
Player must drive to the next mission
Save system
The game is worth purchasing
How could the game be improved?
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Allow the player to “jump” to the mission location, or incorporate
the drive into the game/story
More to do in the city
Mafia 2 – Coming Soon!