My all-time favourite game! Honest! Okay, so yes, its a bit like GTA. Or rather, GTA is a bit like Mafia... This is MILES more fun. Everything about this game is fantastic. It has an excellent storyline, there are miles of roads and alleys to explore, and the music gives it a fantastic atmosphere. Then there's the cars. These are fantastic look-alikes of real 1930s cars with small changes. All (with the exception of the Ulver Airstream) have that coolness present in the real thing. This game gets even more fun if you add a steering wheel! Yay! Drifting in a Ford Model T (or Bolt Ace in-game)! Okay, so first, the things I really loved: The cars- the great majority of the cars are fantastic computer realisations of the real thing. The physics (both with the driving and the crashing) and damage systems are impressive for a 2002 game- one of my friends actually refused to believe a game this old could be this detailed. There are really cool little features as well, such as working mile counters. I'm sure that the car becomes more sluggish the more miles it has done... Also, there are some really cool cars to collect in the subquests and Freeride Extreme. 2) The music- the inclusion of 30s music rounds off the feel of the game. 3) The weaponry- a nice selection of period weapons with acceptable performance. Also, it's nice to see that the AI weapons have the same performance as your own. There are also some random "special" weapons that can be found. !!SPOILER WARNING!! My favourite has got to be in the mission "Better Get Used to It"- if you stop by the crashed truck in the car chase and attack the guy there, he picks up a plank. Kill him and you can pick it up and use it. /SPOILER 4) The scenery- some lovely buildings and items from the 1930s. 5)The racing level- honestly, this thing should be more exploited by the game developers- you know, add more tracks, a choice of any of the ai cars, and a decent 30s racing game is done... 6) The voice acting- this is of great quality, and expressive. Lipsynching is good as well for a 2002 game. Now the things I didn't like: 1) The driving everywhere- after a while, driving gets boring. You go to see Lucas, and then you are told by your friend "I'm beat, drop me off at the bar first". so you drive to the bar, then back. "Hi Lucas..." "Oh, hey Tommy, go to the street by the bar and pick up my friend will you, then drive him to the hospital up the road from here...". Erm, hello designers, maybe by changing the order of these kind of things the game would be, I don't know, less tedious? 2) The Ulver Airstream- somehow, with all the fantastic looking cars in the game, it appears the graphics designers took a day off for this one. The fantastic Chrysler Airflow, a beautiful car, and a design icon, has been totally ruined in its conversion to Mafia. Moving the lights to the wings, removing the big radiator, and making the car available in only the colours "No-detail Blue" and "Vomit Green" has made such a great car ugly. 3) The autosave feature- okay, this has some good points, such as the fact that it makes the game challenging, but sometimes, it becomes annoying. For instance, in one mission, I spent 15 minutes driving to the location of the next objective, then just after the cutscene my friend Paulie gets out of the car, runs in front of a tram, gets flattened and dies... result? I have to do all the driving again. 4) The bugs. This game has a great many bugs for some unknown reason. These include: lorry driver AI - for some reason, lorries will just randomly stop on places such as bridges, and the driver will just walk off. And not come back. Ever. Then there's the wierd one with the cops. If one of the cop car's doors is blocked, the cops will throw each other out of the car repeatedly, until it drives you insane and you walk over and tommygun them. Then there are the invisible walls that occasionally appear if you do something that the designers didnt want you to do, like drive over a hill into the air at 150MPH and go flying, then crash into a big wall of nothing... And the cops sometimes seem a little overenthusiastic. They will chase you for going 0.000000001 MPH over the speed limit, and they will go crazy if you are on a junction as the light changes. 5) My last complaint- there is no draw distance option without modding. So really big buildings that should be visible for miles just "appear", as do cars and people that should be visible. Overall however, I loved this game for its immersive feel, fantastic storyline, and overall great quality.… Expand

Great game. I just wish it was longer.

I think this is one of the best ever third person shooter games to come out. A note to those who complain about the slowness of the cars, ahem in reality the cars back in the 1930s were actually a lot slower.. jeez get real this is not Need For Speed. And there are plenty of mods available.

The missions are fun, but as a GTA knock-off it leaves a lot to be desired. Many aspects of the game are pretty frustrating, and I'm not sure how everyone else has overlooked the fact that it's extremely buggy.

A neat premise is ruined by a moronic leveling system, cardbord characters, a cliched story, and bland environments. I had some fun with it, granted, but it was not what it claimed to be, and was simply mediocre.

You can put 100 on this movie without hesitation. I've played it 4 times. It is the ultimate; it's the supreme game. I'm loving it!

This game kicks ass!!!! One of the best storylines in a game ever!!! Graphics sounds and playability are all top notch... In all seriousness, this is one for every PC game players collection.

They don't date this reviews, so it's hard to say what everyone else was used to. For 2005 though, this game is a prime example of developers who had no idea what makes a game fun to play. Endless driving through the city back and forth, underpowered, poor handling cars, and an environment full of police who jump on you the moment you travel over 40mph. (The cars even have a governor so you can stay within the speed limit, which you really have to do most of the time since unlike GTA where you have a fighting chance against them, unless you hide from the police in MAFIA, you're going to lose. A decent storyline, some nice graphics, and an otherwise fun game marred by level designers more interested in showing off their handiwork than in providing a fun experience for the user. Unless you're bored, I'd recommend skipping this one.… Expand

Like Gamespot said, one of the best games of the year...except I would go farther...one of the best games of the last decade. Let's clear this up...it may look like GTA3, but the 2 are almost nothing alike...and this was started before GTA III. (it may have a bit of inspiration from GTA and GTA2 though) Don't be fooled by people who like GTA3 better (and there aren't many...this game rocks.… Expand

This is one of the best games i've ever played. The graphics are outstanding and the story line is one of the best i've played out. Im in the process of beating the game for a 2nd time. I would like to tell the people who gave mafia a 1 because they couldnt get XP to work, It works fine on all my XP computers.

The game has the best graphics on the planet, they are far better than gta 3+ vice city, you can go miles and miles round a detailed american city or you can go blasting around the country side in a lassiteer v16 that you can get in a 2 story car park on freeride small city mode, drive around the working quarters/ industrial district next to an hardware store ''lost heaven hardware co''. drive up the ramp and in the corner on the second level should be a large green car, its unlocked! drive it fast and see the money fall into your bloody killer hands. … Expand

MAFIA is one of the best games ever made ! It kicks the crap out of Vice City & gta3.

It is a best game I've ever played.Graphics are amazing,the gameplay is brilliant.I was all in game when I've played it.

Awesome Graphics...faces, cars, animations...Awesome Gameplay...unlike GTA 3 and Vice City the missions are fun...It runs extremely awesome on my Radeon 9200 with 1280x1024 resolution all details up and Anti-Aliasing 4x. O yea the best thing was IT WAS $10!!!!!!!!!

Amazing.

Still my favorite game now in 2005. this filmlike story (cosa nostra) with great voices, amazig graphics and several perfectly smart levels, huge and complex - hard to describe. just GREAT. And as for the guy who "cannot drive around" - just not true, after you finish the game, prety optional freedrive & freedrive extreme open with helluva hard tasks. but as i said, this games rocks... and compliments to the check programmers, they've copied vienna (austria) art museum 1:1, i was amased, since i've been working there as studen, and spent hours and hous in the museum. nice one. with message too!… Expand

It's a great game and its like watchin a real time movie.

Its the best game i ever seen. even now in 2005 it remains to be the best game in my chart, and Bricouler, i'll tell yuo why the "handling is poor" and so on and so on... because the game is VERY simular to real life, and they obviosly did the cars very real as well and... EXCUSE ME???? "like in GTA where u have a chance to fight them??? Once u fight them, the wanted level gets higher and higher! whilst in Mafia u have a chance to hide form them. This game has the best graphics, music, gameplay and story i've ever seen.… Expand

Definitely one of the best games ever on any platform. The graphics still look very good today although this came out more than 3 years ago. Apart from the grpahics, the story, acting, voiceovers, action, makes this game not to be missed.

10 thumbs up to this wonderful game.

Great game , great story.Finished 3 times and the secret levels that open funny cars.

Realistic, thrilling, and intriguing, I wish all games were this good.

Awful game. Getting pulled over for speeding at 40mph is just irritating as hell. A lot of missions are impossible because you die way too easily and you don't have enough ammo. This game was just a god awful experience and I quit playing it after a few missions. Just terrible all around.

Sorry but tons of users cant get this game to work, myself included.. Huge driver problems with XP, and Soundblasters. Blame who you will but no patch, and no patches planned... Buggy.

Yo this game rocks, its like GTA 3 thrown back in time. But of course the gaming engine is different so naturally the game is nothing visually like GTA 3, in fact, it is better. This game kicks, its like living in the footsteps of Al Capone.

This game suck....the racing suck......I give mafia away cause the racing sucks.

The graphics are realistic, and the weapons are nice to use. However, there are no in-game saves and there are occassionally errors in the game.

Could have been longer. Some really tough bonus stages as well. Make no mistake, this is a great game. Some really cool missions. Great graphics.

One of my top 10 games of all time! Can't wait for the sequel!

It's easy to see when game developers like to play themselves.... A game done with love and carefulness.. And as for makers of the Driv3r... c'mon guys, are you kidding me? Have you tried to play it at all? I just love Mafia, can't wait for the sequel.

At it's base, it is a lot like Max Payne minus the bullet time, mixed with alil GTAIII. I don't know who "ActionTrip" (who?) got to do their review, but this is an all around great game with a great plot that draws you in even more.

Easily one of the best, if not, the best game I have ever played. I wish more games had stories laid out like this. It truly is like playing out a character in the movie. It never disappoints from the start and from the very end. A++

I just gave it a nine because the racing level was pissing me off. Then I learned how to cheat.

This really sucks. I have xp and my graphcs are horrible. I can see through walls and i can only see the wheels on the cars. what is dis. how i fix dis shiot.

The best pc game I've played for last 5 years.

Great game. Great story. Could have been longer, still the bonus stages help....

Probably one of the best games ever in its genre. The atmosphere, the storyline and the great deal of possibilities left to the player are all well composed and fit seamlessly together. The artistic detail of the virtual world (city and exteriors) is astonishing as for the date of release. There is just one emminent drawback to the game. The player cannot save during missions, so he must start the whole mission all over again, if he dies. But, after some time one becomes used to it and develops survival techniques to prevent rash deaths. Even though some technical glitches remain, even after the release of patches, the concept of the game and the devotion it was made with qualifies it for highest rankings. I not only recommand everyone just to play it, but to even recommand it further!… Expand

Given we have had Scarface and The Godfather games, who would have thought a fictional gangster game called Mafia could outdo them both and be the No.1 game to immerse you into the world of the 30;s and the life of a Mafiosi!

Un-paralled entertainer.Truly amazing modern(in 2002) gameplay. Great missions and masterly concept.

If u like GTA for ps2 then youll love this, same type of theme where u can steal cars, but the graphics are top notch quality ( if u have a pc that can handle the graphics turned up high) fun game and it was stared before GTA so they kinda coppied mafia.. all and all a great game, i dont buy much games unless thier good because I get bored of games real quick, but jesh i play the demo everyday a couple times :D heh its that good, i gavei t a 9 because I think the lack of some lilttle tiny things here like some repeates of house paints, but all and all I think its a great game.… Expand

Brilliant game. The best agme I have ever spent. I couldn't stop playing it. I give it 11 out of 10.

Why are you reading reviews, and not playing this game? True... some may see a slight comparison to GTA, but is stops at slight. The city is on a grand scale, gameplay is damn addicting, and graphics kick @ss. As far as the story goes, I haven't been this involved since the last season of "The Sopranos." GO GET THIS GAME! Fugetaboutit...

While not as light or fast paced as gta3 and vc, it is much more realistic, has a huge map, much more cinematic, and very different gunplay. The game felt more like Max Payne with cars to me, but I think its because the graphics are so similar. After you've finished GTA3 and Vice City you need to play this game. Its great.

Realistic and excellent graphics... except that there are some errors in the game.

This is a truly amazing game, its got everything, the story is engrossing and the car chases and firefights are ace! beats the hell out of GTA! GET IT NOW!!!!

This game is definitely the best game i have played in years more eloquent and stylish than GTA/GTA Vice City but it has a host of stability issues it crashes occasionally on my GeForce 440Mx system...maybe it has some incompatibility issues....

Those people who rated mafia as a poor game are not real gamers at all. mafia is ok , improve your playing skills !!

One of the best games Ive played. The story line is amazing. HUGE city to explore. Very realistic. It makes you feel like you actually lived during this time period. The cars drive like they should. As the game progresses so do the cars. They get more horsepower and get less boxy looking. It keeps the game interesting. Once again the story line is awesome. I always kinda wanted them to write a graphic novel or something based on this game.… Expand

Absolutely amazing game, one of my favs. Every aspect of this tittle is nearly flawless, but without a few patches you will find some bugged elements in the gameplay. Without a doubt it's included in my personal top 10 list of games I've played:).

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I first played Mafia many years ago when it came out, I was drawn into the story, found the style fascinating and even though i also had GTA at the time, I spent my hours playing Mafia instead. I recently played the game again for nostalgia and again, I can simply say, Mafia is one of my favourite games of all time. There are so many memorable missions, such as the levels where you attack the airport trying to catch someone, or where you break into a persons house to steal from his safe, or the mission where you assassinate someone from miles away and then make a getaway. The game is absolutely fantastic, and even though some people cannot get it to work, i feel that is a real shame as this game truly is one that everyone should play through atleast once.… Expand

A decent game that could have been much better. First of all if I'd wanted a driving game I would have bought one. Secondly, I couldn't complete one mission due to the moronic AI of a companion - had to cheat in the end. There were other minor bugs. More positively, the story is good and the game keeps you interested (when not driving constantly) and I did start to care about my character. The missions were varied and interesting and the cut scenes done well. The game was very interactive in its time and the city is excellently rendered. This game minus most of driving and one game breaking mission, was a nailed on 9/10.… Expand

Doesn't show you know where to go. Slowest cars I've ever seen. I spent more time trying to find the excat spot to stop those "bikes" (yes that's right. cars are powered by padels judging by speed) to reach or to advance the story. I never had any problems playing Mafia 2 so I see why this is interier. And it is way interier than GTA. 5 missions into Mafia and I'm still frustriated.

Epic game. Epic story, characters, gun fights and graphics (at that time,but still good today), city ... everything. One of the best games ever created.

One thing I'm going to say about this game.It's a MASTERPIECE.The story is awesome with strong characters, the gameplay fantastic and the world is so real ant believable. This game is one of the best of its type.

Mafia:The City of Lost Heaven is a great game! The graphics are not the best but if you see this game was made a pretty long time ago,like 9 years (in 2002).I've given this game a 9 rating because it's a very good game but not perfect either.The story is great,explains every part of Thomas Angelo's life,and you can enjoy a big adventure in this game.The music is very good,and the graphics are good for a 9 years old game.I saw lot's of reviews were people rated 0,1,2 or 4,that wasn't a decent rating.These people didn't even play the game or they are some trolls who want to spoil a such a good game! If you like the "mafia" type's of games I recommend to play this game.… Expand

Most realistic game ever! I usually hate that but for 2002 the graphics, story and authenticity were and still for me remain- unmatched. If you have any interest in 1930s America, a good gangster story or anything along those lines, you HAVE to experience this game. It's sold 2 million copies on PC and it plays NOTHING like a GTA. This has nothing in common at all with Grand Theft Auto. Free roam is a separate game mode. The actual story is linear, with no free roam. What gets me is how the city is so beautifully designed, it's large, the graphics are a million times better than GTA 3, the guns and cars are very realistic, with a greater variety in them. There is even an encyclopedia of the cars included in the game menus. The soundtrack is STUNNING. But the game is entirely driven by the story and the characters. It's a very good story but also told in an interesting way. The level design, soundtrack, graphics, and realism in everything from getting scratches on your car, running out of fuel and getting fines for speeding to the motion capture and gunplay- all contribute to making this a masterpiece in generations to come. This is a once-in-a-decade game that does everything well, and it was developed by a small team too. This game should NOT be compared to GTA 3. It should be compared to the finest films and novels out there. It's something VERY special that MUST be experienced to be believed.… Expand

Mafia is an uncut diamond. It's got a great story which embraces every mobster cliche with open arms and tells that story using above-average dialogue and cinematic camera work. The car models are beautiful and like the Four Fat Chicks say, the game just "oozes class". But that's where the toasting ends and the roasting begins. The overarching issue with Mafia is that its just... well... UNFINISHED. Driving around an open-world New York city circa 1933-1935, I was struck by how empty it felt. The city is bare, repetitive and mostly non-functional. Unlike Grand Theft Auto (especially GTA 4 and San Andreas), there's very very little to see and even less to do. Bugs and glitches abound, ranging from popping textures to screen tearing to getting your car stuck in the scenery constantly. While they're well done, the same 3-4 driving tracks that play over and over will have you gouging at your ears long before the game is over. A secondary (but still crucial) complaint is vehicle handling. Since you spend roughly 50% of the campaign behind the wheel of a car, its important that vehicle physics be spot-on. Or at least manageable. They are neither. Cars are so underpowered that they just barely sputter up a small hill but it's also incredibly easy to earn speeding tickets. All but the best 3-4 vehicles are floaty and a complete displeasure to operate. On many occasions I found myself skidding (or spinning, flipping, crashing, take your pick) wildly out of control from the slightest steering adjustment while the police pursuing me drive in such a way that the laws of physics seem to bend to their will. Mafia is very good at what it does right but unfortunately it's only 3/4 of a game that feels like the lofty goals of its developers got cut off at the knees in order to make a deadline. What a shame.… Expand

You can play it on 13 years old computer from now, and you can still be impressed of graphics,sounds,characters,cars and the manner of treatment..After play this game,if you can still compare with the others,so you must definitely uninstall it.

Pretty good tutorial, but that's about it. The AI likes to get hit by cars making you lose the level. The cars are extremely slow and even struggle to get up bridges and if you damage the car enough forget about driving up the bridge, you're walking. Shame, because most of the missions involve driving.

If you enjoy watching paint dry, this is the game for you!!!! (I will re-review if it gets better, but I'm overcome by the lack of FUN or excitement that this game offers)... Has not aged well at all!!!

Things to know about this game: -Its linear (as linear as it gets). -Its Sandbox (but NOT like GTA) -It WAS MADE IN 2002 I say this, because i hear people complain about the graphics being dated, the game not being like GTA, and the speed limit being 40mph. But if you actually think about it. The game is not like GTA, because for one it is linear, and most importantly, unlike GTA, Mafias "main bit" is the story. A well writ, well directed movie. A movie where YOU play as the main character. With that out of the way, Id like to say that while I played, the main thing that pushed me to continue through is the "whats gonna happen next". Maybe I wasn't too much into the actual gameplay, but I can say I really was into the game. The gameplay maybe did lack a little something, but if you complain about that you're just missing the point. The "speed limit" is 40 mph but you can go over that by just putting your foot down. Do expect a fine or two though. You also get fines from destroying road posts and skipping traffic lights. Handling is a bit tricky at first, specially with the worse cars, but you start getting used to it and since the game is based in quite a range of years, new better cars are made which you get to drive. Mafia doesn't seem to have a defined "difficulty curve" (where the game gets progressively harder), instead missions vary substantially, but that is quite satisfying since you sometimes get very easy missions right after finishing some very hard ones. I personally found the first mission quite hard since I wasn't used to the driving and your car is considerably slower. The story as I said is very well told and contains all the "cliches" you might expect from an Italian Mafia game/movie/book. The game was just what i was hoping and I don't see why people would criticise such a fine piece work. Murder, car chases, guns, torture, cars, prohibition, gambling, love, betrayal... exactly what I would expect from a game that chose "Mafia" as its title.… Expand