Original Mafia

Its laughable that you'll say its only nostalgia making us think its a good game, yet you play a bunch of old games that are by todays standards terrible, because you got used to them when you played them years and years ago.

Driving is bad, GTA handling in general is bad, driving doesn't have to be fantastically realistic in every game ever, there is a lot of driving in Mafia 1, but very little of it is important, the only pain in the ass one is the first mission you try to get away from some guys, its got the painfully irritating "other cars are 5 times your speed till they catch up with you " bug that almost every driving/racing game has ever made. Beyond that, the racing track one was really quite easy anyway, asides from that its mostly driver from where you heard some great story at A, to point B where you'll play out more of one of the best stories in a game ever.

You're focusing on the driving like its GTA 3 and you're asked to drive and shoot as part and parcel of most of the story, and thats just not the case. Its living out a truly epic story in a real city, where driving simply gets you from A to B and is very rarely an issue.

Someones screwed up massively because the first mission where you damage the cars, you shouldn't have to deal with ANY guards IIRC, my guess would be you went through the front rather than the side entrance they tell you to, again, IIRC, its been several years since the last playthrough. You take the bat, smack the car a bit, and run away, not exactly rocket science.

The camera angles for driving, are again IIRC, as bad as with most driving games, and there were multiple camera angles, as with most driving games, and yet again, IIRC, they were pretty much the exact standard choice of angles almost every other game offers.

The combat was fine, the guns worked fine, everything worked fine, essentially it seems to boil down to, at almost the very start when they told you to go round the back, you tried to go through 6 armed guards at the front and didn't know why it wasn't working well.

It was and is a great game, because the game was 98% about the story, and the atmosphere of many of the greatest bits of that story, and that story and the atmosphere of those bits, are the same as they were. The gameplay mechanics are standard, basic and not truly fantastic, nor are the guns/aiming/ammo/movement any different to the majority of most "new" games, it was all about the story, which is still one of the single best in any game to date.
 
Played it again after trying the mafia 2 demo before the full game came out and fully enjoyed it. Very few games that are that old or more still give me the same enjoyment when playing through again. I am a bit of a nostalgia fan and love going back to old games that I loved the first time.

The difference between nostalgia blinding you and a game being truly great is the fact you still enjoy it now. There are many games that i have very fond memories of and tried to go back to but no matter how much I told myself that its great and i loved it, the game feels poor. Games such as Deus Ex, Mafia, Giants, Hitman etc for me give me the exact same pleasure playing them now as i did the first time. That makes it a good game.

Mafia 1 is harder than the second in every way but apart from the difficulty and graphics then theres not much difference for me. If its not the graphics that is getting to you then maybe its just too hard baring in mind it did a lot of things with very primitive game mechanics that were around at the time. Its much better than GTA3 in every way apart from the humor. its better graphically, story, gameplay. but they arent the same type of game aprt from the fact they both have an open city. mafia is still a pretty linear game even if it has no technical boundries, you are still pushed in one direction.

My opinion ofcourse.
 
i'm amazed no one has picked up on what was said in the first post about the compass not showing you every single little bit you need to go, it's a compass, it shows you need to go north, look at the map and work it out for yourself where you need to go. mafia 2 was really let down imo for showing me exactly where i needed to go. rather then forcing me to think about it.

also mafia 1 is a fantastic game. as drunkermaster said it sounds like you've got it wrong and are doing the missions incorectly. you can either walk through the front and get shot, or think about it and go through the back. you simple go through the back, smash all the cars with your bat, if you're impatient then you can smash one and then molotov 2, and then run away with peopel chasing you in their cars. however something people also miss is you can break into the wooden garage and steal one of their cars anyway which is much quicker.

other cars are 5 times your speed till they catch up with you
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i found this was much better and sad it was missing in mafia 2. mafia 1 forced you to think about driving and getting away. i really enjoyed having the bad guys car scratching up my side for me to then drive them into a lamp post. as you're forced to learn the map on how to get from a to b you learn short cuts, which is even better for when you need to get away knowing all the small thin alleys which you can drive down, jump out and then block the peopel chasing you in. mafia 2 i found so so so simple to get away it was a bit of a joke tbh.
 
Mammalian said:
i found this was much better and sad it was missing in mafia 2. mafia 1 forced you to think about driving and getting away. i really enjoyed having the bad guys car scratching up my side for me to then drive them into a lamp post. as you're forced to learn the map on how to get from a to b you learn short cuts, which is even better for when you need to get away knowing all the small thin alleys which you can drive down, jump out and then block the peopel chasing you in. mafia 2 i found so so so simple to get away it was a bit of a joke tbh.
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Totally agree with this.


Anyways to those who are playing Mafia 1 for the first time now. There some graphics mod that might make it a little more enjoyable. Increased draw distance etc..
 
drunkenmaster said:
Its laughable that you'll say its only nostalgia making us think its a good game, yet you play a bunch of old games that are by todays standards terrible, because you got used to them when you played them years and years ago.

Driving is bad, GTA handling in general is bad, driving doesn't have to be fantastically realistic in every game ever, there is a lot of driving in Mafia 1, but very little of it is important, the only pain in the ass one is the first mission you try to get away from some guys, its got the painfully irritating "other cars are 5 times your speed till they catch up with you " bug that almost every driving/racing game has ever made. Beyond that, the racing track one was really quite easy anyway, asides from that its mostly driver from where you heard some great story at A, to point B where you'll play out more of one of the best stories in a game ever.

You're focusing on the driving like its GTA 3 and you're asked to drive and shoot as part and parcel of most of the story, and thats just not the case. Its living out a truly epic story in a real city, where driving simply gets you from A to B and is very rarely an issue.

Someones screwed up massively because the first mission where you damage the cars, you shouldn't have to deal with ANY guards IIRC, my guess would be you went through the front rather than the side entrance they tell you to, again, IIRC, its been several years since the last playthrough. You take the bat, smack the car a bit, and run away, not exactly rocket science.

The camera angles for driving, are again IIRC, as bad as with most driving games, and there were multiple camera angles, as with most driving games, and yet again, IIRC, they were pretty much the exact standard choice of angles almost every other game offers.

The combat was fine, the guns worked fine, everything worked fine, essentially it seems to boil down to, at almost the very start when they told you to go round the back, you tried to go through 6 armed guards at the front and didn't know why it wasn't working well.

It was and is a great game, because the game was 98% about the story, and the atmosphere of many of the greatest bits of that story, and that story and the atmosphere of those bits, are the same as they were. The gameplay mechanics are standard, basic and not truly fantastic, nor are the guns/aiming/ammo/movement any different to the majority of most "new" games, it was all about the story, which is still one of the single best in any game to date.
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You make too many presumptions and twist to many things. First things first:

I havn't recomended anyone to play any of the old games I listed like so many did about mafia.

Second of all DK and aoe are most certainly playerble easily. Theme hospital is also pretty straight forward. Gangsters: organized crime on the other hand is a nightmare to all those but the determined and I would certainly never recomend anyone tryed it without being determined.

I also never said to anyone they were good old games that are still great today. I just said I still play them even though their graphics are terrible.



Driving in GTA is nothing like that of mafia. Mafia's driving is terrible. GTA's is just arcadey and quite frankly humerous that you can do 180 spins so easily. GTA's races are definitly hard as well. But not as hard as mafia's was. I'm glad you find it easy, have a medal. Why don't you try a google search and see how many people think the complete oposit to you and hate it with a passion? It should never have been put in. It's a love hate thing it appears but more hated it then loved I would wager.


The reason driving is so bad in Mafia compared to GTA is that IT IS NOT FUN. As you so clearly just said it's put in so you can get from A to B. "where driving simply gets you from A to B"

Guess what? In GTA I have a laugh speeding about, running people over. In mafia its just tedious and damn right annoying. Further more it takes me a life time to get to my mission which is pointless because it's just wasting my time making me drive somewhere pointlessly when it is so boring!


Also as far as im aware I didn't screw up because I did go around the back and you have to destroy all 3 cars and use the molotovs that they give you. Using the molotov causes them all to run out. I even threw it over the wall when I wasn't even in there and they still all came out. Maybe my game was buggy, who knows. I'm just stating what happened.


The camera angles in GTA are no where near as bad as that of mafia. Sorry. You're just making statements for no reason. I don't want to keep coming back to GTA but you said they are as bad as any game. It's just not true.

Combat isn't fine and i'm not the only one to have mentioned it. It's hidiously clunkly and just poor all around. Down to the way you change weapons and the amount of bullets it takes to kill weighed up against the damage certain guns do.

Like you said, you've not played in years and I played both these games within the last few months. You just want to defend it for the sake of it.


Quite frankly I don't want to turn this into a "why GTA3 was better then Mafia" becuase thast irrelivant. But it the mechanics of the game are just terrible in comparison.

I can't really comment on the story. I stoped playing at the race mission because I'd had enough of all the rubbish it kept chucking at me. I have heard from many a person the story is good though. But as far as im conserned. The story is only fun when it is experienced in a smooth way.


Like someone said before, it's just your opinion as this is mine. But seens as I am only 1 of 4 I beleive in this thread who bought it recently after hearing it was good and finding out it was rubbish I think it may just be your nostalgia as to why you can still play it and we do not find it fun.

I will say that the cut scenes for their time were well done and the graphics were quite good for their time as well.

Lets just leave it at that huh? I don't see anyone coming into this thread saying that they bought it recently and enjoyed it, maybe I missed it. But I think we can at least sumize that from this "debate" and leave it.
 
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so basicly it sucks because its to hard for you? lol

there was a time when pc games were hard , they didnt spoon feed you the story you had to earn it
 
I was so impressed with Mafia 2 that i bought the original Mafia. You can instantly see how much games have improved over the last 8 years as Mafia 2 is much much prettier.
The original Mafia draw distance is very poor and I've had a few problems with flickering shadows but I'm going to persevere , because the original Mafia got great reviews.
 
Never played original Mafia, but Mafia 2 is worth a shot if you can get it cheap enough ;)

Very pretty and the story is quite exciting once you get into it, im quite near the end now and cant wait to find out what happens next!

But actual gameplay wise and replay-ability its not the best game on the planet, either wait till it comes down in price or find alternative means of getting it would be my opinion :)
 
smogsy said:
I bought Mafia which is now on Steam for £6.99

I don't see what all the fuss is about. so far its been very boring
though, i have just started I admit.

it took me 20 attempts to get past the taxi part!. the compass is poo it takes me the wrong way half the time get to the coast then notice I need to go across a bridge.

please tell me what's fun about it when it starting getting fun... the driving is really annying me personally

opp wrong section mod please move :(
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People expect too much from it since there a lot of games which do the basics right now and we get used to the high standards. Rewind 8 years or so and then play this, you'll soon realise how good this game was/is. Even reading reviews, you'll see why people are fussy :)

In my opinion though, I still think the game is great and Drunkenmaster has explained pretty much my opinion nicely. The atmosphere and story is simply awesome for a game.

People complain too easily about the driving imo, iirc when I first played it, I enjoyed the challenge even though the handling was a bit dodgy.
 
Mafia is an overrated game, but it is good as an overall package once you get going.

The taxi mission is very annoying. I actually gave up on the game for 3 years before coming back to it and then it seemed a lot easier for some reason? I think the main thing is learning about getting on to the bridges (similar to GTA3) and not just going down to the coastline as you say. Also you have to play a bit more in character than some driving games i.e. in those ancient cars that don't drive well you don't really wanna be flooring it around the city and getting cops on your tail because it is pretty hard to evade them.

I think one of the downsides to the game is that because the game is fairly linear if you get to a hard/boring/repetitive/timeconsuming mission you have no option but to keep slugging away at it, compared to say GTA games where normally you have a range of missions to choose from at any given time.

As for the graphics it is nearly 5 years since I played the game but I'd be surprised if they look that bad, IMO the engine worked well with smooth animations and they should be perfectly functional. You're not going to be getting amazing realtime lighting but people shouldn't need to be 'looking past the graphics'.
 
Well the game was never an outright classic and it was described as a flawed gem. The driving was always very Marmite too, people either loved it or hated it.
 
IMO the driving in Mafia was part of what helped immerse the player into the game. GTA felt much more like an arcade thrill compared to this. Mafia was very much about the story, the setting and the characters. I went back and played through a couple of years ago and it still impresses me.

Give it a few missions to warm you to it. The cars and missions do improve...
 
I've been playing Mafia since it came out - and I've still yet to complete it!

However - I'm now on chapter 16 out of 20 (up until a month ago I was only up to chapter 7!) and the story is just getting more and more immersive!

The graphics, even now, are still great.

However - great graphics a game does not make. I've put many graphically impressive games to one side, because I didn't like the story or style of game - much like some have done with Mafia.
 
I think the problem with going back to Mafia now having never played it 8 years ago is that it comes from a time when games didn't hold your hand. They gave you the game mechanics and expected you to get on with it. Now we are used to being hand-held through everything.

Mafia remains one of the best story led games ever made and whilst there are some problems with the controls in gunfights, try going back to the early GTA games and you will see that in comparison Mafia's controls are excellent.
 
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