The "Mafia" series

[Iwata]

So... what do you think of them?

I remember I thought the first game, which I had for the PC, was an underrated jewel that suffered from being released too close to GTAIII. And I loved it to bits.

I just recently bought Mafia II for the PS3, and I'm eager to start, but at the same time I'm afraid it won't have the impact of the original.

Thoughts and opinions?

 

[DustyDrB]

Mafia was the first time I'd ever seen a sandbox game. My friend rented it for his PS2 and we played it for about ten hours, and I was amazed they could make such a big game.

But today, I'm completely burnt out on city-based sandbox games. Having to drive a car across a big map is just an annoyance to me now. I didn't finish Mafia II. I don't think it was bad. It's just an extreme case of genre burn-out.

 

[Rock Beefchest]

I remember one mission in mafia 2. It was the last one I played because it was so badly designed IMO. You start on a peir and are being ambushed by a bunch of dudes trying to stop your labor uprising. After fighting through them you enter a shipyard building to continue the fight towars the main bad guy only the room is WAY too dark and four or five dudes are chucking molitov cocktails all over the place. While you try to avoid the fire they flank you and tear you to pieces. If your not on fire your in almost complete dark.

I died many many times at that part then got pissed and shut it down. Maybe I was missing something obvious, but it seemed like poor level design.

 

[Woodsey]

Mafia 2 was good but flawed (the result of a problematic development), Mafia was great and overlooked.

The series suffers from a bit of an image problem, in that the games are actually one thing, but the majority of people ignore that and expect GTA: 1940s and refuse to see anything else.

If you want two wonderful examples of that, look at the Eurogamer reviews (hilariously, written 7 or so years apart by different writers, but equally idiotic) for both games.

 

[DanielBrown]

Played Mafia on PC and thought it was awesome. Got Mafia II for PS3... and thought it was awesome! Some flaws, but I still had a great time.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

So... what do you think of them?

I remember I thought the first game, which I had for the PC, was an underrated jewel that suffered from being released too close to GTAIII. And I loved it to bits.

I just recently bought Mafia II for the PS3, and I'm eager to start, but at the same time I'm afraid it won't have the impact of the original.

Thoughts and opinions?

The first one was amazing, had a great story, and had a very realistic gameplay to it, without being too realistic. Mafia 2 feels like hollywood made it. Its still a good game, but its not Mafia.

 

[Squilookle]

The first Mafia was one of the greatest game stories ever told, if not the greatest ever told. Car physics were perhaps a little too realistic, but you can't deny it kept up the immersion in the world. It was one of the first games I played where I was so eager to see where the story went next I virtually forgot all about exploring anything else. It was that addictive. It also had that very rare quality in a Sandbox where lulls in action could be quite peaceful- especially when driving a car at night. Driver had it, so did Just Cause (though you'd be hard pressed to stop the action long enough to discover it).

Anyway, I've enjoyed other sandboxes more, but to me Mafia 1 is probably the second best-crafted sandbox ever made.

Haven't played Mafia 2 yet, but I am comfortable in the knowledge that I will pick it up some day. I won't expect another Mafia 1, just for the story to be better than GTA and the like, which I'm sure it will be.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Never played the first, but the second was great. Definitely a must-play.

I remember one mission in mafia 2. It was the last one I played because it was so badly designed IMO. You start on a peir and are being ambushed by a bunch of dudes trying to stop your labor uprising. After fighting through them you enter a shipyard building to continue the fight towars the main bad guy only the room is WAY too dark and four or five dudes are chucking molitov cocktails all over the place. While you try to avoid the fire they flank you and tear you to pieces. If your not on fire your in almost complete dark.

I died many many times at that part then got pissed and shut it down. Maybe I was missing something obvious, but it seemed like poor level design.

I agree, this mission sucked, and was really the only major flaw in the whole game. Fortunately, there's a huge glitch that makes it a bit easier, though I don't remember exactly how it works, just that it involves driving a car into the water and then going in through a door at the top of the steps which I guess was otherwise locked.

 

[Zhukov]

Never played the first one.

Mafia 2 was... eh, competent but nothing special.

The combat was quite nicely done, so long as you don't mind cover-based TPS gameplay. Also, I think they did a really good job of recreating the aesthetic or 'look' of the setting.

Sadly, the story was kind of lacklustre. Most of the characters were uninteresting and poorly defined. The protagonist was especially bland. He never expresses... well, much of anything really. He just tags along with whatever the others come up with.

Also, the whole city sandbox was pointless. It just ended up turning the game into 40% commute.

 

[babinro]

I've only played Mafia 2 and I felt the game was fantastic.

The driving segments certainly drag on more than they should as all sandbox games do, but the story and gameplay came off as above average. I'd class Mafia 2 up there with inFamous and Arkham Asylum as my best sandbox (semi-sandbox) games.

 

[vrbtny]

Having to drive a car across a big map is just an annoyance to me now.

You played the Saboteur yet? If you do decide to play it, book a spot in a mental asylum ahead of time. You're going to need it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Original Mafia is one of my favorite games of all time. Perfect story, amazing atmosphere and phenomenal characters. Any flaws it had are simply overshadowed by the awesomeness of what it did right.
That's why I was so disappointed with Mafia 2. It was so obvious that half the contend was cut out because of lack of time to finish the game and then the DLC contained some missions from footage that was released a whole year before the actual game. Main character's voice actor is not the best. Vito is a very shallow character with emotionless voice that no one can relate to. I just didn't care about him.
Joe on the other hand is amazing, and his voice actor is one of the best I've ever heard in a video game, if not the very best. Every like Joe delivers is absolutely perfect and it sounds like the guy was really in that scene.

Atmosphere is top notch though. And that's one of the most important aspects in a free roaming game for me. It feels like a real city in the 40's and 50's. Streets feel alive. It's very immersive. Which is why it's disappointing that there is no free ride mode like in Mafia 1. Unless you play on PC. In that case there is a free ride mod you can get. But there is still not much to do in this city. It wasn't a big deal with Mafia 1 because it was year 2002 and no one expected it to be a free roaming experience like that. But it's a problem in Mafia 2 because gamers learned to expect some things from a free roaming game.

Anyway, by itself, Mafia 2 is a satisfying game. It has an intriguing story and it's fun to play. But if you're a die-hard fan of Mafia 1, expect to be disappointed.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Having to drive a car across a big map is just an annoyance to me now.

You played the Saboteur yet? If you do decide to play it, book a spot in a mental asylum ahead of time. You're going to need it.

It's so worth it though. The Saboteur was great.

 

[vrbtny]

Having to drive a car across a big map is just an annoyance to me now.

You played the Saboteur yet? If you do decide to play it, book a spot in a mental asylum ahead of time. You're going to need it.

It's so worth it though. The Saboteur was great.

Yeah. Nothing else really like the ole' open world,parkour, nazi killing game. Quite original game using an awesome open world setting.

I never get over sneaking up on a guard, and performing a sneak kill. Then Sean grabs the barrel of his assualt rifle like it's a baseball bat and swings it at the nazi's head. Priceless.

 

[DustyDrB]

Having to drive a car across a big map is just an annoyance to me now.

You played the Saboteur yet? If you do decide to play it, book a spot in a mental asylum ahead of time. You're going to need it.

I played it for a while. I quit not long after the zeppelin crash. Yeah, that game just loved having you drive across the map to meet someone, then drive all the way across to actually start the mission. It also had an insanely frustrating section where you lure Nazis into an ambush. That blonde lady fights, and you fail the section if she dies. But she kept on running straight towards the enemies and got herself killed over and over.

There were good parts to The Saboteur, but it really started to grate on me overall.

 

[hazabaza1]

I gave up on the first Mafia pretty quickly. Having to repeat the same melee combat bullshit over and over got real tiring really fast.
Mafia 2 was decent. Nothing to phone home about, but entertaining enough. Too much driving though.