Mafia - to continue or not to continue?

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:07 pm

Yep, it's an old game. Very old.

I picked it up some time ago and played it for a time until each chapter felt like more of a chore than a game. I mean, I drive around in real life all the time, and muddling through traffic with AI that's worse than the intelligence of real life drivers isn't terribly fun. So, if I took the driving around out of the game, then it feels like a poor man's version of a Max Payne shootout.

Of course, there's the ongoing story which is done well enough and I vaguely care about the character. But is the payoff of the endgame worth the wait? Somebody out there knows the answer (or at least thinks they do), and I'd love to hear your opinions as to whether I should just put the game to rest or not.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:24 pm

Yes, it is worth it. I will say that I found the driving around to be one of the best parts, though. I loved the atmosphere - there are plenty of games where I can shoot people, but not many where I can tool around in a Model T listening to Django Reinhardt.

ChuckB · Post by **ChuckB** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:40 pm

IMHO, one of the best games ever made. Graphic was superb back then (and still looks good) and the atmosphere is fantastic. I personally liked the driving since I thought it was great to create true immersion.
I got stuck at one point and didn't touch it for a while (can't remember the name of the mission), but luckily picked it up again after a while and finished it.
I installed it on my newest systems, but haven't played it yet, mostly because my backlog of other games is already soooo long (I'm not a replayer).

I think it says a lot that everyone I know who played "The Godfather", which came out a few months ago, wished it were as good as the old Mafia.

If you're not convinced, I'll make you an offer you can not refuse ...

Chuck

yossar · Post by **yossar** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:44 pm

I think it's a game that appeals to people who really like immersiveness, even at the expense of gameplay. That's not me so I also felt that the driving parts felt like a boring waste of time. But some people really like the fact that the world feels "alive."

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:14 pm

I will say that this game provided one of the more humorous moments in my gaming career;

During a mission on a yacht where I was supposed to knock off a political figure with a gun hidden in the bathroom ... I couldn't figure out how to get the gun, but I found a metal pail in there. So, with little left to try, I take the pail out to the deck of the boat and bludgeon the poor guy to death with it in front of the stunned crowd and his equally stunned (yet firing) bodyguards.

Hey, at least I completed the mission

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:18 pm

Dan_Theman wrote:I will say that this game provided one of the more humorous moments in my gaming career;

During a mission on a yacht where I was supposed to knock off a political figure with a gun hidden in the bathroom ... I couldn't figure out how to get the gun, but I found a metal pail in there. So, with little left to try, I take the pail out to the deck of the boat and bludgeon the poor guy to death with it in front of the stunned crowd and his equally stunned (yet firing) bodyguards.

Hey, at least I completed the mission

You were in the wrong bathroom. Wish I would have thought of using the pail!

gameoverman · Post by **gameoverman** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:34 pm

That's one of my most hated games, thanks to the lack of a savegame option. I gave up on it around the airport mission and never looked back. I don't regret not finishing it, but I DO regret all the time I wasted doing those same stupid missions again and again and again and again...

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:38 pm

Great game with a great ending.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:53 pm

I thought the game was great and i thought the "Free Ride" part where you did the challenges to get all the amazing hot rods was pretty darn cool too. Somewhere I have a screenshot of my safehouse with all of the hot rods in it.. it still makes me smile to look at it.

On the other hand, if you don't enjoy driving around in the old cars, you may as well just send the game my way, cause I sold it a second time and now I want to play it again!

[edit - found it, bye bye forum formatting -- edit again, I turned it sideways to preserve the formatting

]

Intruder · Post by **Intruder** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:31 am

Dan_Theman wrote:I will say that this game provided one of the more humorous moments in my gaming career;

During a mission on a yacht where I was supposed to knock off a political figure with a gun hidden in the bathroom ... I couldn't figure out how to get the gun, but I found a metal pail in there. So, with little left to try, I take the pail out to the deck of the boat and bludgeon the poor guy to death with it in front of the stunned crowd and his equally stunned (yet firing) bodyguards.

Hey, at least I completed the mission

Real men used their fists...

Rincewind · Post by **Rincewind** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:26 am

One of the finest games of this generation. If you don't continue its your loss good sir!

Poleaxe · Post by **Poleaxe** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:50 am

Incredible game, but can be frustrating. I was glad I stuck with it.

Orgull · Post by **Orgull** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:08 am

One of the top ten best games of this century so far. Definitely worth sticking with. Some of the later missions were tremendously cool.

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:35 am

Orgull wrote:One of the top ten best games of this century so far. Definitely worth sticking with. Some of the later missions were tremendously cool.

Shame that no one picked up on the game system and produced a sequel.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:41 am

The missions get better. I agree that that driving was the worst part but it shouldn't take more than a few tries each mission to figure out the right route.

The ending is overrated, in my opinion, but the later missions are a decent enough payoff.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:21 pm

If you don't enjoy the driving OR the shooting portions of the game, then I can't imagine why you would force yourself to keep playing. It isn't like either kind of gameplay is going to change between the part you are at and the end. It is only going to get harder.

I enjoyed the game up until the race, but then I got the save file and cheated my way past that annoyance and enjoyed the rest of the game.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:16 pm

I finished Mafia but I was really really really tired of all the driving I had to do by the end. I was wishing there was a insta start mission option I could use. I also thought it was about 5 missions too long.

I then started Godfather and got pretty far into it before I got sick of the driving again and gave up on it.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:04 pm

One of my fav. games by far. Defiantly play it all the way through it's worth it.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:06 pm

Octavious230 wrote:Defiantly play it all the way through it's worth it.

There's something amusing about that statement. It makes me think of "The Race" and "The Parking Garage"

Crabbs · Post by **Crabbs** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:20 pm

There are times when I hear certain music in the movies or on TV and I get very happy flashbacks to long nights playing Mafia. It was so nice and immersive, so well put together. Always wished they had modded it for Multi.

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:41 pm

coopasonic wrote:
Octavious230 wrote:Defiantly play it all the way through it's worth it.
There's something amusing about that statement. It makes me think of "The Race" and "The Parking Garage"

Yeah that parking garage was a real nightmare. Didn't stop me from finishing the game though.

Crabbs · Post by **Crabbs** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:07 pm

Greg Wak wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
Octavious230 wrote:Defiantly play it all the way through it's worth it.
There's something amusing about that statement. It makes me think of "The Race" and "The Parking Garage"
Yeah that parking garage was a real nightmare. Didn't stop me from finishing the game though.

+1

I actually used a downloaded savegame to get past the racetrack. I just couldn't do it with just the keyboard.

Poleaxe · Post by **Poleaxe** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:47 pm

Crabbs wrote:
Greg Wak wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
Octavious230 wrote:Defiantly play it all the way through it's worth it.
There's something amusing about that statement. It makes me think of "The Race" and "The Parking Garage"
Yeah that parking garage was a real nightmare. Didn't stop me from finishing the game though.
+1

I actually used a downloaded savegame to get past the racetrack. I just couldn't do it with just the keyboard.

I cheated past the race, but never had the problems that others did with the garage. Don't get me wrong it took three or four times, but I thought it was fun level.

I would never have made it through the race.

ChuckB · Post by **ChuckB** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:05 am

Weird, I didn't have real problems with the race ... and if I remember, I played it pre-patch (I think the patch is suppose to make the race easier). And that's me, someone who now plays a lot of games on "easy" to avoid frustration.

Chuck

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:58 am

Crabbs wrote:
Greg Wak wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
Octavious230 wrote:Defiantly play it all the way through it's worth it.
There's something amusing about that statement. It makes me think of "The Race" and "The Parking Garage"
Yeah that parking garage was a real nightmare. Didn't stop me from finishing the game though.
+1

I actually used a downloaded savegame to get past the racetrack. I just couldn't do it with just the keyboard.

Beat the race on my second try. I was using a gamepad and I play a lot of driving games so I guess that might have something to do with it. The garage was hard but it certainly didn't drive me nuts or anything.

whispa · Post by **whispa** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:13 am

Great game! Great atmosphere, story and music!

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:16 am

In my experience, people who are familiar with racing didn't have as much of a problem with the racing level. People who don't know squat about racing (like me) found it damned near impossible. (Yes, I downloaded a save.)

Hemlock Bones · Post by **Hemlock Bones** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:05 pm

I had problems with the race until I got out my joystick. Then it was no problem. The only part I "hated" was the final gunfight but the payoff is sooo good. Best game ending I've encountered.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:19 pm

One of my favorite games of all time. That being said, I set the race difficulty to easy and didn't feel bad about it one bit. The racecar was just too twitchy for me with the keyboard.

I should go back and play around with the free ride stuff sometime. I only did a little bit of that before moving on to other things.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:24 pm

My all-time favorite game.

da Toad · Post by **da Toad** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:02 am

One of my favorites. Also one of the few GTA clones that worked with my wheel with no fuss. I gave it to my buddy and he loved it as well (and is usually more discriminating than I). This game is definatelt a tough one. You should give finishing it a go.

Am I the only one who wanted to take Mafia's epilogue and stick it on to Goodfellas afterwards?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:37 am

This thread got me to buy it again. If anyone else is interested, CompUSA has the jewel case version for $4.99

Quitch · Post by **Quitch** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:42 am

My dad sucked at this game, struggled with all the combat, yet still raved about it. I constantly hear good things... ordered

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:08 am

I'll be breaking out the d20 tonight in order to decide if I should keep playing based on the recommendations here, just as I do with any major decisions in my life.

Thus far, 1-3 is a no and 4-19 is a yes. 20, of course, is a critical hit and I won't be able to go to sleep until the game is done.

skystride · Post by **skystride** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:46 am

I disllike GTA and GTA style games but I loved this one. Probably because of the setting and the combat was much closer to regular FPS.

Inverarity · Post by **Inverarity** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:30 am

The game had its moments, and I don't mind challenges, but when all the challenges involve getting past deficiencies in the engine and there isn't a save-anywhere option to compensate, the game ceases to be fun. You people who played it through and remember it fondly have a lot more patience than me. I played it through and remember it like a root canal.

Great music though.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 11:05 am

I remember only two spots that I thought needed another checkpoint. It wasn't all that bad.

In any case, nothing beats an early-game car chase up a hill, with both cars struggling along at 10MPH.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:33 pm

Blackhawk wrote:In any case, nothing beats an early-game car chase up a hill, with both cars struggling along at 10MPH.

LOL. I really hated that long winding hill that led up to the fancy neighborhood. Traffic tended to clot at the top of the hill going up, and trying to get around that line of practically stuck cars while not getting run off the road by cars coming down the hill was often quite a not-so-fun challenge.

Navaros · Post by **Navaros** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:40 am

After reading the first few posts of this thread, it feels as if I have entered Bizarre-O World.

Mafia is hands-down one of the top 5 PC games ever made, period.

The gameplay is darn near perfect, as is just about everything else about the game.

The mixing of the story seamlessly into the gameplay is easily one of the best and most engrossing stories ever put into a game.

About the only legitimate thing to criticsize about Mafia in my view is the horrible racing level. Other than that, I can only wonder what the heck you guys are thinking to say Mafia gameplay has anything wrong with it.

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:41 am

For those keeping score at home, I rolled a 13 (I'm just lucky that way) so the game stays

Octopus Overlords

Mafia - to continue or not to continue?

Should I keep playing?

Mafia - to continue or not to continue?