18-Aug-2002 Treat him with the respect he deserves and Mark Hill might just let you join his new family Treat him with the respect he deserves and Mark Hill might just let you join his new family
So there you are, leaning against the cab you've been driving all day and puffing on a cheap cigarette, the kind that roughs up your throat just for the hell of it. You hear a squeal of tyres and round the corner come two smartly dressed guys carrying pieces and legging it for all they're worth. Before you know what's happening they're both in the back of you cab and you're flooring the accelerator into life. Only you haven't moved more than a couple of feet before the rival gang's car behind you catches up, rams into the side and sends you flying into the stone steps of someone's front door. You recover, back out, reach the end of the street and make a sharp turn. You think you've lost them until your two passengers start shooting out of the windows and you're knocked again into a wild spin that ends with one street lamp less for the local dogs to piss on. You're about to step on it again when you catch the face of one of the wiseguys in the rear-view mirror. He's dead. The world fades to black and you still don't know what all that was about. Then all of a sudden, there you are again leaning against the cab you've been driving all day and puffing on a cheap cigarette...
STRAIGHT TO BUSINESS Most games like to cosset you for a while, hold you by the hand and assure you that you're the one in control. A select few - Resident Evil springs to mind - prefer to throw you in at the deep end. And you know what? That's exactly what happens to you here.
Mafia let's you know right from the start that you're in for one hell of a ride, that you're going to be as tense as if it were your own arse on the line, and that one tiny mistake is going to be enough to send you right back to the beginning of the mission.
Anyone who's played Hidden & Dangerous, the game that put Illusion Softworks on the map with a big shout, will know that really hard missions that have you kicking the cat with frustration as you play them for the 15th time are not necessarily a bad thing as long as they're good. And in Mafia, they're bloody brilliant.
But we'll get to that later. For now, let me put to rest any ideas you may have of this being a Grand Theft Auto III rip-off. It's true that there are obvious similarities. In both games you play a criminal, you drive cars, you're chased by the police. In both games there's a massive city to explore. And in both games you're sent on missions to kill people. But where GTA III was pure cartoon anarchy, Mafia is a very structured cinematic affair. This means you lose out on freedom but gain on story and characterisations.
Perhaps the most important difference between them though, is that GTA III is a superb driving game with some occasional shooting, while Mafia is a superb shooter with some occasional driving. Not that it seems like that at first. After shaking off the rival mob and delivering the gangsters to safety in the manic first mission race described in the opening paragraph, the game lets Tommy (that's you) become acquainted with the rather enormous city of Lost Heaven by getting you to drive customers to the hospital, the bank and so on. Unlike the taxi missions in GTA III though, you don't have a choice of who to pick up. Instead you have to get to your destination and wait for the next scripted passenger. And if you bash the car too much or run someone over, it's back to the start of the ride.
A FAMILY AFFAIR It wouldn't be much of a mafia game if you were stuck driving a cab for the rest of your life and, soon enough, that rival gang (headed by Don Morelli) from the first mission manages to track down your vehicle and proceeds to smash it to a scrap heap and you to a pulp, leaving you with no means of livelihood and a fierce thirst for revenge. Luckily, Don Salieri, the boss of the two wiseguys you helped escape can provide both. The first by welcoming you to the family, the second by sending you armed with a baseball bat and a couple of Molotov cocktails to Morelli's parking lot to smash up some cars of your own.
This would be interesting enough in itself, but what gives it a little narrative edge is that the whole game is basically a flashback of Tommy's life, as told years later to an Irish cop in exchange for protection. For once, you're given a proper character to play, one who - unlike the antihero of GTA III, for example - has thoughts of his own, doubts and feelings. Heck, he even has a family and changes physically through the years that Mafia encompasses. It's not a leap forward in the sort of game storytelling discussed in this month's Supertest, because it's very much a mission-led game, where the story is told mostly in cut-scenes. But the vibe of all those gangster films we know and love is captured extremely well. There's even a level where you walk the barman's daughter home, finger pressed on the SHIFT key to avoid running ahead of her while you talk. This right before you save her from a rape attack and are rewarded with the chance to test how much the springs on her bed squeak. Unfortunately, this scene is not playable, but the ensuing cut-scene helps to give it that 'you're watching a movie' feel.
GET REAL But it's the bits you play that matter. And here is where the main difference with GTA III arises: Mafia is all about realism. The period cars are recreated in full detail, from their acceleration, top speed, weight and suspension. What this means is that most of the vehicles move like milk floats when compared to the road rockets in GTA. But that's part of the game's charm. After a while you forget about the car's limitations and get sucked into the era. All the detail and realistic touches let you become totally involved and forget now and again that you're playing a game using mouse and keyboard on a beige monitor. It's true that driving isn't a bag of arcade fun (mainly because the ever watchful cops force you to keep to the speed limits), but that's not the point. You won't be nicking cars and cruising around just for the hell of it, but there's plenty of driving in the missions, and you do always have to get to places yourself, so the immersion factor is very important.
But the crux of the game lies in the shooter sections, and these too are far removed from mindless arcade mayhem. Whether you've been sent on an assassination attempt or are involved in a vendetta strike, the action is always tough and unpredictable. Although the engine has a similar feel to Hidden & Dangerous, it also works very much like a third-person Counter-Strike. It's all about ducking behind cars, creeping round corners and being extremely careful about everything you do. And when I said it was unpredictable it's because, while the enemies are roughly in the same place every time you play a level, they never seem to do the same thing twice (bar certain scripted moments). As if it wasn't hard enough already. The AI - except for occasional glitches - works well as a team too. So once you've been spotted they'll try to surround you and then roll away and take cover when you start shooting.
I can't emphasise enough just how much the tension builds up when you're expecting someone to put a cap in the back of your head when you least expect it. But at least they have the same disadvantage as you: limited bullets.
PLAY IT AGAIN, TOM I've never been so aware of AI enemies having to reload and only having a limited amount of ammo. This is very important tactically. The best time to roll back into view is when you hear them reloading, and you can either wait for them to use up all their ammo and run at you with a knife or take them out quick so you can pick up as much ammo as possible. If you know what weapon they've got, you can even count the shots.
One type of reloading you can't count on though is one involving save games, since the game only saves between missions. On the one hand this is great, because it gets rid of the gameplay destroyer - constant quicksaving every two steps. But Illusion could have been a wee bit more generous. There are some extremely long missions - so long you have to load a few new sections - that have no autosaves in between. So, after a dozen attempts you make it right to the end and then something else unexpected happens and you have to start over. It's equally frustrating and rewarding, with every ten bursts of anger balanced out with a real sense of achievement you wouldn't get otherwise.
At least you can complete each mission in many different ways, and they're varied enough that you don't get bored at any stage. One minute you're shooting your way out of a carpark where you've been set up, the next you're making a hit on a traitor, stealing a race-car, entering a race with a different race-car, robbing a bank or stealing documents from a mansion with the help of an expert safecracker. It's intense stuff all the way. Some of the scraps you get into will remind you of the fantastic shoot out at the end of LA Confidential, and you really will feel the tension getting to you after a while.
HEAVEN AND HELL Despite its greatness, and like all games, Mafia isn't perfect. There are a few gameplay niggles and inconsistencies. The city of Lost Heaven could have done with a bit more atmosphere (street urchins running in the streets, fruit and vegetable stalls and so on). There could also have been a few more people working for the family, because you never really get the feeling you belong to a big, powerful organisation.
For all its cinematic power the script isn't all that hot either. Illusion has said its aim was to use high-quality acting so you could really believe you were in a film. Well maybe their version has top of the range Czech actors, but the English ones are very average. Not necessarily bad for a computer game - except in a couple of cases - but certainly nowhere near the excellent range of voices provided by GTA III's impressive Hollywood cast.
Some of you will no doubt also be put off by the increasing levels of frustration such a hard game with no saves entails. But then you wouldn't be able to call yourselves real gamers. It's the knowledge that every little mistake is going to cost you, that you can't afford to panic (which is precisely what you'll do), that you have to take every chance you get, that makes this the powerful and gripping experience that it is. Health is hard to come by and so is ammo, which means that although the action isn't as fluid as in something like Max Payne, every little success makes you feel like you're on top of the world. And that's a very rare achievement.
BADABING! Special mention should be made about the music, which is fabulous at all times. From the original score to some great Django Reinhart numbers and other jazzy period pieces (if you're a Woody Allen fan you'll recognise many of them from his films). You can see for yourself that the graphics are also top-notch, especially the interior levels. The engine is superb, even if it can feel a little awkward when you're shooting from a tight and confined space when the camera backs into first person.
We could list all the great references (or steals if you prefer) from some of the greatest films of all time - in particular the first two Godfathers - but it'll be more fun to find it all out for yourself. Let's just say that some of the things Tommy does, have more than a touch of Michael Corleone about them, and one of the members of the family is a lawyer-type very much in the vein of Tom Hagen (the Robert Duvall character in The Big G).
Despite the flaws and the gameplay niggles, Mafia, like Hidden & Dangerous before it, has a special quality about it that means when you're involved in one of the missions, you don't care about anything else. You're completely absorbed in this world of honour, backstabbing, assassination and robbery. You're a man with a job to do, respect to win and a family to provide for.
One day we'll be able to have a game with the freedom, depth and raw fun of GTA III and the story, characterisation and class of Mafia. For now though, they're both essential.
Mark Hill
// Overview
Verdict
Tough, intense and utterly compelling.
Uppers
Very tense action Lots of variety Great story Excellent AI
Don Salieri. The boss of the family isn't up to Marlon Brando's standards, but a quiet air of menace and a reasonable demeanour make up for that. Has a large cigar permanently glued to his fat fingers.
Paulie. The Joe Pesci of the gang. He's small, very aggressive and gets on well with Tommy. Just watch them swagger together with baseball bats in their hands ready to beat someone to a mush.
Sam. A bit of a non-entity. Doesn't say much but is handy with a gun, which means you only really notice him when there's a big firefight going on. Also has a nasty habit of getting shot and needing to be rescued.
Tommy. That's you that is. You backstabbing bastard. How can you show your face around here after betraying the family? Squealing to the police for protection like some old woman. You're the lowest of the low.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Very tense action
