MAFIA: THE CITY OF LOST HEAVEN

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Illusion Softworks

Publisher : Gathering Of Developers

Engine : LS3D Engine

Genre : Historic Action Adventure and Third-Person Shooter

Release Date : August 28 , 2002

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 98 / Windows 2000

CPU : AMD Athlon XP 1500+ / Intel Pentium 3 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 128 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0 Compatible Video Card with Memory 32 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 2 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Mafia is set in the 1930s, between the fall of 1930 through to the end of 1938, during the later part of Prohibition which ended in 1933. After a not-so-casual encounter with two of Don Salieri's henchmen, Sam and Paulie , Tommy is given the 'chance' to work for the Salieri Family. Tommy refuses politely, preferring to remain poor but legitimate. However, the very next day he is attacked by two hitmen sent by Salieri's arch-enemy Morello, as revenge for him helping Paulie and Sam escape them. Tommy is saved by Salieri's men, who, when Tommy escapes into their bar and the Morello men follow him, murders the attackers. Indebted, Tommy becomes a Salieri getaway driver. Through a series of assignments given to him by Don Salieri, Tommy quickly becomes deeply involved in the activities of the Salieri business, concerning extortion, bottlegging , assassination jobs and a lot of unexpected gunfights, often with the opposing Don Morello, whose power Tommy describes as "built on violence". He is also made to carry out jobs to avoid Salieri having to face prosecution, culminating in an assassination mission involving the bombing of a hotel. Although he carries out the bombing, he discovers that the assassination target is his girlfriend's best friend Michelle, an informant to Morello. Unable to bring himself to kill her, he instead orders her to flee the city and never return. Tommy eventually marries Sarah, the daughter of Salieri's bartender Luigi, who gives birth to a girl a year later. Though being a friend of Frank for more than 20 years, Salieri orders his death. Tommy finds Frank at the Lost Heaven International Airport, attempting to flee to Europe. In one of the game's more emotional moments, Tommy lets Frank go and he flees to Europe with his family. Believing Salieri will never find out, Tommy later saves his boss from being assassinated while dining at a luxurious restaurant. Morello's brother, Sergio Morello, is also killed on Salieri's orders. These actions shatter the Morello Crime Family and Salieri finally orders the death of his rival. After having succeeded, the game pauses to present times, while Tommy shows Detective Norman a photo of a young Salieri standing next to another young man revealed to be Morello.

Following the assassination of another politician not co-operating with the family, Tommy, along with Sam, is presented with a plan to rob a bank by Paulie. Both men refuse, Tom mentioning the danger involved if Salieri were to discover such a plot and Sam citing his loyalty to the family. The three then steal what is ostensibly a batch of Cuban cigars on Salieri's orders , but Tommy and Paulie discover that the cigar boxes contain a considerable amount of well-hidden diamonds. Tommy joins Paulie in his bank robbery plan, risking their lives if Salieri would find out. The robbery is successful, but the following day Tommy arrives at Paulie's apartment to find him murdered. Sam also tells Tommy that Salieri has mistrusted Tommy for some time after discovering that he had killed neither Michelle nor Frank, both of whom were eventually found and murdered by the mafia. During a climactic battle on the top floor of the museum, Tommy gets the upper hand on Sam, but when he runs away, finds that he cannot bring himself to kill his former friend. Ultimately, as Sam is stumbling towards the exit, Tommy watches him from above and fires a bullet into his back. Shivering and astonished, Sam delivers his final words, a warning of Salieri's power, and is then shot to death by Tommy. The detective agrees to put Tommy and his family under the protection of the police, and Tommy is free to testify against the Salieri family. Don Salieri is arrested and sentenced to prison for life, presumably dying during his detention. 80 gangsters are convicted, some sentenced to electrocution and the family is destroyed. After the trial, Tommy is relocated to the other side of the country with his family, all under new names. He starts a whole new life and buys a two-story house in a beautiful neighborhood, working as a driver "for a respectable company". The epilogue, set circa 1957, shows an old Thomas Angelo, grey-haired and moustached, standing outside his house watering the grass. Two men pull up to the side of the street in a red 'Tudor' car and approach him. Addressing him by his real name one of the men pulls out a sawn-off shotgun. The other assassin tells Tommy that 'Mr. Salieri sends his regards', and both barrels are emptied into Tommy's body. The game ends with Tommy's thoughts, as he is left to die on the grass of his front lawn.

Most of Mafia's 20 large missions are split into sections. You'll usually watch one of the game's long but well-done in-engine cutscenes, get assigned a few weapons, choose a car, and then drive through the city to a given destination. At this point, a separate level--generally a third-person action sequence--is loaded. After you complete the level, you'll usually drive home. Mafia's realistic car physics and police behavior both add to the occasional tedium of the straightforward driving segments. For the most part, the game's 60 or so 1930s-era vehicles aren't rocket cars. They don't often go very fast, they don't always start the first time you turn the key, and they have some serious problems climbing steep hills. You won't be making 300-foot barrel-roll jumps in any of them. Even if you're in a really cool-looking old-time car, a simulation of driving the speed limit isn't exactly a recipe for thrills. The 20 missions include more than 100 automatic save points. Once you finish the single-player campaign, which should take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours, an extra mode called "freeride extreme" becomes available. This mode lets you drive around Lost Heaven without any police interference while uncovering 19 wild driving challenges. Completing each one unlocks a special vehicle. The first task involves chasing down a man in his underwear who can run 50 miles an hour and has flaming feet, for which you're rewarded with a psychedelic hippie mobile. The missions get weirder from there and will occupy at least another five to 10 hours of your time, if not more.

"Quite simply, Mafia is one of the best games of the year".


GAME REVIEW :-

9.5/10

Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven Trailer :-