|
|
|
|
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
|
| |
|
| |
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is a third-person shooter video game initially made for PC and released in . It was later ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox in . It was developed by a Czech based company Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers. The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who has to accomplish various missions in order to advance in the game.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven' Start a new discussion about 'Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is a third-person shooter video game initially made for PC and released in . It was later ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox in . It was developed by a Czech based company Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers. The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who has to accomplish various missions in order to advance in the game. It received strong critical reaction and continued to maintain a loyal cult following. As of March 12, 2008, Mafia has sold 2 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive. IGN gave it a rating of 9.2/10 while Gamespot stated in their review: "Quite simply, Mafia is one of the best games of the year." and rated it at 9.3/10
On August 21, 2007, Take-Two Interactive announced Mafia II at the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, under development by Illusion Softworks.
Gameplay
The bulk of Mafia's storyline gameplay consists of driving, mostly for general travel between game locales, as well as car chases and races; the remaining portions of the game consist of on-foot third-person exploration and shooting, similar in style to the Grand Theft Auto series. In addition to the entire city of Lost Heaven and countryside, several detailed interior levels were also included for many of the on-foot levels, including the city's airport and museum, a church, a hotel, an abandoned prison, a restaurant, and Don Salieri's bar. Weather and night effects are also available in the game.
Mafia offers players the opportunity to drive a total of 51 classic cars based on real-life counterparts, in addition to another 19 bonus vehicles (including five classic racing models) available for unlocking in a new mode upon completion of the game's storyline. Unlike the Grand Theft Auto series, however, cars are introduced progressively through time in the storyline, with 1920s models available earlier on during the storyline, while newer varieties from the 1930s appear later. In addition, the players must "learn" how to steal a car by acquiring such knowledge from experts or experience, as opposed to the Grand Theft Auto series, where players are free to acquire any type of vehicle, superior or otherwise.
Police would book players for minor offenses such as speeding or running a red light, and car accidents caused physical harm to the driver. There are also many forms of transport available, such as trams and elevated rail, though neither of which are drivable by the player.
During "Free Ride" mode, the player is able to purchase weapons at "Yellow Pete's" as well as additional health at the city hospital for $1000. All of the game's weapons are available for purchase albeit for a rather inaccurate and inflated price for the era (i.e: 1 grenade: $100, baseball bat: $10, Sniper rifle: $2000.) The player has many methods to raise money such as killing fellow (but now enemy) henchmen for $500 a pop, speeding above 65mph nets $100 every other second, as well as exploding vehicles for $100 a piece.
Mafia is also noted for having damage physics on nearly all vehicles. While substantially more robust than their real counterparts, smaller and weaker vehicles stand less abuse before breaking down and finally exploding than large armoured vehicles. More realism is added here compared to other games in the same genre such as the ability to puncture the fuel tank, overheat the engine, and the ability to break transmission gears. Many exterior components (such as windows, tires, headlights, and bumpers) can be removed from most vehicles with physical means such as crashing, hitting with blunt weapons (fists, baseball bat) as well as firing bullets at them.
Law & Order in Lost Heaven
The Police department in Lost Heaven uphold the various laws that have been set. When these laws are broken in view of the police, they will respond. Offenses can be minor or serious offenses. Minor offenses will end up with the player being fined (-$1,000 in Freeride mode, no monetary value in campaign mode), and serious offenses can lead to the player being arrested for the first offense, or a shootout with the police until the player or they are dead. A series of four successive minor offenses will lead to the player's arrest. Police force increases with the severity of the player's disregard of the law to a point where now well armed police form blockades with tire spike strips in attempt to defeat the player while firing from behind their armored cars.
Certain criminal acts most people would expect to warrant a response from the police do not occur, such as: driving on the sidewalk, driving on the wrong side of the road, and ignoring yield and do not enter signs (in the early stages of game development, these were supposed to be considered as an offense but were later changed).
Plot
Plot summary
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. The game is set in the fictional American city of 'Lost Heaven' (loosely based on New York City and Chicago of the same time period).
Although the plot is not directly taken from the movie, certain names such as Paulie, and certainly the faces of the characters, the style and pace of the story, and many scene elements appear to be heavily inspired by the 1990 Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas". Indeed, the front of the box playfully announces "Welcome to the game of the greatest 1930s gangster film Scorcese never made."
The player takes the role of taxi driver Thomas (Tommy) Angelo, who, while trying to make a living on the streets of Lost Heaven, unexpectedly and unwillingly becomes involved in organized crime as a driver for the Salieri crime family, led by Don Salieri.
Through the events of the game's story, Tommy begins to rise through the ranks of the Salieri 'family', which is currently battling the competing Morello family, led by the sharply-dressed Don Morello. Eventually becoming disillusioned by his life of crime and violence, Tommy arranges to meet a detective (Detective Norman) in order to tell him his story, to be given witness-protection, and to aid the detective in the destruction of the Salieri crime family. The 'Intermezzo' chapters of the game depict Tommy sitting in a cafe with the detective, relating his life story and giving out important pieces of information at the same time.
Detailed summary
After a not-so-casual encounter with two of Don Salieri's henchmen, Sam and Paulie (who escaped from Morellos men and while trying to get away had a car accident), Tommy is given the 'chance' to work for the Salieri organization. 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 (later revealed to once have been his companion) 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, bootlegging, assassination, arson 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. This begins the process of his eventual rejection of his new vocation.
Tommy eventually marries Sarah, the daughter of Salieri's bartender Luigi, who gives birth to a girl a year later. However, a fatal shootout at a farm where the Morello mob and police surprise them trying to buy Canadian whisky nearly kills Sam. On the same day, Frank, Don Salieri's consiglieri, hands over Salieri's account books to the police. 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. Salieri has his bodyguard-turned-traitor, Carlo, killed along with Morello's ally, the councilor (who is shot while giving a speech at his birthday). 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. He tells Norman that this photo proved to him that "This life is poisonous", and is one of the main reasons why Tommy wants to betray the local Mafia.
After the death of Morello, the Salieri family runs the town. 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. Convincing Paulie not to steal any of them, Tommy acts as though he is unaware of the diamonds and surreptitiously probes Salieri for information about the matter. Deciding that Salieri was well-aware of the diamonds and intended to cheat him out of his fair share, 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. Tommy panics, and is tricked by the ever-loyal Sam, to meet him at Lost Heaven's art gallery. In the midst of a gun-battle it is revealed that Salieri, having discovered Tommy and Paulie's unauthorised bank-robbery, has ordered their deaths. 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. Here, Tommy's story to the detective (and thus the game) ends, telling that he fled to Europe but decided to return and to testify against Salieri to ensure the safety of Sarah and his (unnamed) daughter. 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 (resembling a 1957 Ford Thunderbird) and approach him. Addressing him by his real name (which was changed beforehand by the FBI), 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.
Characters
Reception
The game was well received by critics and gamers upon release as a more realistic and serious Grand Theft Auto-styled game. Police would book players for minor offenses such as speeding or running a red light, and car accidents caused physical harm to the driver. Such was the realism that unless a mission was timed, many found that actually obeying the road rules proved to be faster than speeding, as the latter would more likely result in accidents and injuries. Mafia had a much bigger city to explore than Vice City, with many forms of transport available (such as trams and elevated rail; neither of which are drivable by the player), in addition to an expansive countryside where police are strangely absent.
Flaws and fixes
Some programming flaws and limitations cause unrealistic behavior under special circumstances. For example, while police AI is sophisticated enough to identify certain offenses committed by players, they may continue to pursue a player, even when the player is pursued by an equally speeding hostile car. The police also ignore players who drive in the wrong lane of the road and sidewalk, or co-drivers and hostile cars who carry weapons openly.
During fighting, the enemy AI is far from perfect. Enemies will attempt to attack with fists even when players are still armed or driving a car. They constantly crouch, enter the player's range before reloading their weapons, and then return to their hiding positions to shoot, while the enemy's limited field of view and occasional tendency to rotate themselves meant that players could easily kill an enemy while he predictably turns his back towards players. Pedestrian characters also have glitches which are quite noticeable. For example, they may attempt to jump out of the path of moving vehicles, however, a character which was not in the direct path of a vehicle may suddenly jump in front of the player's car and be killed when they wouldn't have been touched if they had not jumped out.
Another notable problem faced by players is the infamous racing level, which was rather difficult to complete without proper training and controls, and turned a number of players off the game. Many fan websites even offer saved games with this level completed for download. In addition, official game patches have since added the ability to select a difficulty level before starting the race (there is also a cheat feature that allows the player to complete the race quickly and easily). These problems were fixed in versions 1.1 and 1.2, making the racing mission far more enjoyable.
Console Versions
Mafia was ported to Playstation 2 in 2003 and Xbox in 2004.
While similar games such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto III were almost identical to their PC counterpart, many changes appeared in the Mafias console versions. It was reported that because of the grand scale of the original PC game, sacrifices were made in order to accommodate the lesser processing power of consoles, and Illusion was not involved in porting the game. Many of the features of the PC version do not exist in the console port, such as police patrols around the city, realism, graphics, details etc. The gameplay is also very different and most people who played the PC version commented that the ported versions have sluggish control, lumbering movements, and technical issues.
While the original PC game received rave reviews and grew a cult following around the world, Playstation and Xbox were critical and commercial disappointments. This fact and the conflict and disagreements Illusion Softworks had with the head programmer later was said to be the reason why the company delayed plans for the sequel.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the game features Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club de France, The Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Lonnie Johnson, Latcho Drom and one track by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. The main theme to Mafia, along with the original score, was composed by Vladimir Šimunek, and performed by the Bohemia Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Adam Klemens. The ending credits music is a cover of the song Lake of Fire, performed by the Lordz of Brooklyn. The last verse of the song borrows the musical arrangement of the theme song for the Godfather movies.
City:
- "Belleville" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in Central Island
- "Caravan" - The Mills Brothers - Heard in Oakhill
- "Chinatown, My Chinatown" - The Mills Brothers - Heard in Chinatown
- "Cavalerie" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in Little Italy
- "Echoes of France" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in Oakwood
- "Manoir de Mes Reves" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in Hoboken
- "Minor Swing" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in New Ark
- "The Mooche" - Lonnie Johnson - Heard in Works Quarter
- "Vendredi 13" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in Down Town
Countryside:
- "Douce ambiance" - Django Reinhardt - Heard in Countryside
- "Jet Black Blues" - Lonnie Johnson - Heard in Countryside
- "I'm Living in a Great Big Way" - Louis Prima - Heard in Countryside Freeroam and in Running Man
Misc:
- "La Verdine" - Latcho Drom - Heard during mission "Running Man & You Lucky Bastard"
- "Tiger Rag" - The Mills Brothers - Heard during mission "Molotov Party"
- "Out For No Good" - The Mills Brothers - Heard during mission "Election Campaign"
- "Cou-cou" - Django Reinhardt - Heard during mission "Happy Birthday"
- "Lake Of Fire" - Lordz Of Brooklyn - Heard in End credits
- "Moanin' for You" - The Mills Brothers - Heard in Great Deal!
- "You Run Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business" - Louis Jordan - Heard in Great Deal!
- "I´m Not Rough" - Louis Armstrong
Miscellaneous
- A sequel to this game was planned a few years ago but it was announced on a couple of gaming sites to have been cancelled. However, after the news was revealed, a person claiming to be an employee with Illusion Softworks stated that Mafia 2 was not cancelled, but instead expected for 2009. Indeed, Mafia II was announced in August 2007 and five screenshots were released.
- Much of Lost Heaven's art gallery interior, which is featured prominently in the final mission, is based heavily on the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. The gallery's grand stairway, grand cupola and exhibition rooms are recreations of those seen in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The name of the Salieri family is also a pun on the famous Cellini Salt Cellar, called Saliera, which is housed in the museum.
- The British newspaper Daily Mail unsuccessfully called for Mafia to be banned after the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, in which the murderer was allegedly believed to be inspired by the game Manhunt.
- Three of the game's prominent voice actors, Matt Servitto, Dan Grimaldi and William DiMeo, have all appeared in the mob-themed TV series The Sopranos, as FBI Agent Dwight Harris, Patsy Parisi, and Jason Molinaro, respectively. Also Cara Buono who voiced Sarah in the game, is known from the last season of The Sopranos as Kelli Moltisanti.
- "Corleone Hotel", which is a place you have to visit in the mission called "The Whore", refers to the Corleone Family of the book The Godfather written by Mario Puzo, and also the famous film with the same name.
- During the race, many of the opponents' names refer to heavy metal musicians (e.g. Chris Barnes, Barney Greenway), and in fact the names of two of the main characters in the game, namely Tommy and Morello are probably derived from the well-known guitarist Tom Morello.
- The "Morello" Brothers in the game are the rival family of the Salieri's. the family was based on a true crime family dating back to the 1920s. the family is now extinct and does not exsist. The Morello crime family was one of the earliest crime families to be established in the United States and New York City. The Morello crime family was based in Manhattan's East Harlem and would establish dominance over the New York Sicilian mafia families operating in the Italian-American underworld. The crime family eventually gained dominance in the Italian underworld by defeating the rival Neapolitan Camorra of Brooklyn. Many of the organizations members included such criminals as Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Saietta, Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, Francesco "Frankie Yale" Uale, Umberto "Rocco" Valenti, Tomasso "The Ox" Petto and Charles Ubriaco as well as others becoming future leaders of the "Five Families" such as Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Frank "the Prime Minister" Costello, Vito Genovese and Giuseppe "Joe Adonis" Doto. The Morello crime family's successors would gain control of New York city's criminal rackets following the fall of the Irish and Jewish gangsters who dominated New York's underworld in the beginning of the twentieth century.
External links
|
| |
|
|
