MovieChat Forums > Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (2002) Discussion > A great game, better than GTA!

A great game, better than GTA!

posted 19 years ago by JackTimmons5
11 replies | jump to latest

I love the 1930s era! The cars, the clothes, the music! I think "Mafia" did an amazing job in capturing the flavor of the time. I bought it a few days ago for the Xbox and finally beat it. WOW! Awesome ending! More involving and poignant than GTA. My opinion, MAFIA destroys GTA!

Good points:

1. Great graphics/sound effects
2. Great detail to cars
3. Racing and Free Ride
4. Beautiful countryside and city vistas
5. Decent voice-overs
6. Great music by Django Reinhardt (I love jazz!)

Not-so-good points:

1. While driving on bridges, game suddenly cuts to loading.
2. No feeling of freedom or open-endness, not much to do other than missions given
3. Game gets slow when there's too much onscreen
4. Dual thumbstick use (drives me crazy!!!!!)
5. When you run over pedestrians, they don't die, but get up and continue moving.
6. During cutscenes, the character models do not maneuver correctly or falsely, like picking up a glass or opening a door

So basically it evens out. But I tend to side more on the positive side and give the game a 9/10 because finally there's a game where I can roam the streets of the 1930s and feel like how Al Capone must have felt - like a badass! The way the gangsters come back in the 1950s and kill Tommy Angelo like that. Like out of a movie! I actually felt very sad that the game ended. I had to play it again and kill Sam just so I can see the ending again. It really moved me! (The music score also helped.)

There has to be a sequel! Please say it is so!

BTW and FYI, it's a good idea not to compare this to GTA. If you can believe it, most people are angry because the cars weren't fast enough. HELLO! It was the 30s, geniuses! Forget GTA I-III, Vice City, and San Andreas! MAFIA kills all their collective tails. An absorbing, immersive game that transcends the genre and knocks some doors down. (They say the word $hit!)

"If God were a woman, he'd look like Angelina Jolie."

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] The_Bobcat 18 years ago

There is no way this game is better than GTA. There is not as much freedom and the cars are not as cool (although it is set in the 1930s.) The controls are not as good either, but Mafia is still a kick ass game.

"We're not Mexicans......WE'RE MEXICOOLS!!!!!!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] The_Bobcat 18 years ago

Yeah, I guess that is another way that Mafia is better than Vice City, but what good is it to have a lot more space if you can't go into any buildings in Freeride. There is hardly anything you can do. At least in Vice City and San Andreas you could do police, taxi, fireman, and paramedic missions or buy guns. I love Mafia, but I still prefer the GTA games.

[–] jimmymagnusson 18 years ago

In the PC version, no. 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are absent on the bad-list. PC rocks the concole anyday, atleast for Mafia.

[–] Griff_man 18 years ago

You can't really compare Mafia to GTA. Mafia is more realistic and GTA is more exagerated and over the top. It depends on personal taste. If you like realistic games more then you're bound to go for Mafia rather than GTA. If you like arcade games then you're bound to go for GTA. Still, Rockstar did an impressive feat creating that big and detailed world in which GTA takes place. At the same time Illusion Softworks (the creators of Mafia) did a great job in creating a game that wasn't a GTA ripoff and was really different.

I for one can't stand how weapons are portrayed in GTA after you kill an enemy. They float in pink and orange baloons! That gets on my nerves very much. And I think Mafia blows the Godfather out of the water, they can't be compared.

[–] Trioxin_Zombie 18 years ago

Mafia is the real gangster game. The Godfather was played once by me, then upon the second time around a few missions into it, I grew bored of it's gameplay. Mafia's gameplay is ten times better. You dont need 50 million side missions to keep it interesting. That kind of thing like side missions is brought into it when there is not enough storymode to go round. Mafia's main storymode has better and more immersive missions then every GTA to date and it is way better than The Godfather. Mafia makes you feel like you are living in the 1930's, the others are just fun untill they are turned off, they dont remain in your memory as much as Mafia does after it is all gone and the credits roll.

The original poster complained about loading times going over bridges, etc. Well that is what you get when playing console games I'm afraid. There is no loading times what so ever on the PC version of the game - when traveling through the city. The entire city is loaded, in one go, untill you venture into the countryside then it loads in on Free Ride mode. Which you can't do on the console version, be it Xbox or PS2. You have to choose one or the other - city or countryside in free ride mode. You can't travel back and fourth between the two, you can on the PC version.

The PC version of Mafia owns.

"When the world isn't the same as our minds believe, then we are in a nightmare."

[–] bestintheworld82 18 years ago

Mafia is the better game imo. The only thing you can do in the Godfather that you can't do in Mafia is change clothes.

I buried those cockaroaches Tony Montana (Scarface)

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] m-slovak79 14 years ago

A great game, better than GTA!

Agreed! ... Mafia (on PC) is easily better than ANY of the GTA games to date.

Mafia is a masterpiece. GTA is not. it's really that simple.

also, i replayed Mafia (on PC) many times where as the GTA games i beat once but i never really cared to go back to them.

Mafia also has much more interesting characters than the GTA games and Mafia feels like a quality mob film where as GTA does not.

and also, the general gameplay is better in Mafia to as the weapons feel much better shooting than the weapons in GTA. the Cars are also better to drive although since they are slower in general i can see how most teens would find this as a turn off. but they don't feel as 'arcade' as the driving in GTA which is why i liked the driving of cars better in Mafia than any GTA game.

Mafia is just a more sophisticated game than GTA in general but it seems you have to be a certain type of person to fully appreciate Mafia. most of the GTA fans seem to just like running around and blowing stuff up.

in fact, i consider Mafia (on PC) to be one of the best single player games of ALL TIME. because Mafia gives you a 'experience' (especially on my first playthrough) that i don't think i ever got in any other game to date. i also like Mafia even to this day which i can't say that about to many other 3D games that are around that age or older.

p.s. Mafia II is due out Aug 24th 2010. this is the official release date right from 2K.

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