Mafia the game

[ildu]

Mafia (PC) is one of the best games I've ever played. What made it stand out was of course the realistic city, good graphics, free-roaming, but most of all the story. They even had a real film director to direct the cutscenes. Apparently the console version (that came a lot later) was a lot crappier. The PC version was great, though. And the soundtrack for the game is probably one of the best soundtracks ever for a game.

Coincidentally, when Godfather came out (2006), a lot of comparisons were made, and what surprised many was that the graphics in Mafia (2002) are actually quite a lot better than those of Godfather:

Mafia:


Godfather:


That's 4 years of progress for you. But what made the difference wasn't even the graphics. Mafia had class, atmosphere and an actual story, and a good one at that. You could walk down the streets and actually feel like you're in 1930's Chicago. Godfather has nothing on that with it's repetitive and simplified story, premise and gameplay.

So to sum up, Mafia good, Godfather bad. On-topic: Yes, I remember Mafia and I loved it back in the day.

[Gamer_V]

I was rather surprised reading all the nagative stories here. Hoewever checking gamerankings:
Mafia Xbox                68.2%
Mafia PC                   89.8%
Mafia PlayStation 2    67.4%
you people played probably played the wrong version. Driving may have been slow, but it had a more realistic feel to it. Most people probably just didn't have the patience for that. In my eyes, it's indeed the more serious equivalent to GTA. Shooting may have been done pretty badly, I'll admit, but I loved the storyline and it had a great ending.

Mafia is quite average game with nice story and great atmosphere. Well, and horrible gameplay. Then again, GTA:SA PC controls weren't much easier. And difficulty neither (flying school, eeek!)

I seriously can't say similar for Godfather (for PC), which actually is the worst GTA clone ever.
Man I hated this game! I usually hate most of direct console ports, but this is best worst example of how NOT to port a game. Aren't games made on PC first anyway? Cars without transparent windshields... in 2006 game... omfg.

The godfather wasn't that good, I wouldn't even call it free roaming, since it's walls built around roads (The driver complex) instead of roads built around actual buildings. However, if I look at city interaction it is a step ahead of gta, there wasn't a street which didn't have a business to take over. Though unlike gta it didn't invite you to just drive/fly around for fun, it was a lot of fun taking businesses over. And that didn't get repitive too quickly. It was quite clear they took a lot of inspiration from Mafia, though atmosphere was way better in Mafia. (Whilst typing this I see Ildu's new post and agrree mostly btw. I type too slow)

And GTA pc controls were hard, but the flying school was easy. We'll talk again when you try to get all gold in the driving school. (I did play the playstation 2 version and used a gamepad on my pc, but it could be controlled with 2 hands on the keyboard)

[Dave Gilbert]

Godfather?  Bleh.  I bought it, because I enjoyed Mafia and heard it was along the same lines.  Technically, I suppose it was better, but it got pretty boring very fast.  The major problem I had with it was that all the missions looked the same, and the driving was a chore.  The cars might have been slow in Mafia, but at least you could drive off the roads.   The driving in Godfather was limited to very rigid paths, and you often had to go waayyy out of your way in order to reach your destination.  I suppose it's because they based it on real NYC geography, which is not very fun to drive in.

The one cool thing about Godfather was that I got to drive up to my address and go "Hey!  That's my building!"

[radiowaves]

Godfather probably has nothing that Mafia doesn't have, and there are many years between... Doesn't that say that Godfather is just a ripoff with no progress at all? Yes it does, case solved.

[InCreator]

WRONG. Godfather doesn't have:

* Superior sountrack (the music in Godfather was much duller and didn't create that good atmosphere). Plus, Mafia features some very brave attempts at stepping on game music standards, like chinatown track for example? Find me a game with similar music! But with also as catchy one!
* Acceptable graphics. Scroll up to two screenshots and see yourself. Godfather looks like C64 game screencaptured to low quality JPG images and then ported to NES. Sure, Mafia geometry had less polygons. But just play and see how well they are used!
* Original solutions. Not neccessarily the best ones, but original. Damage handling on cars in Mafia? It's so cool! I can wreck cars with bare hands, and like in real life, this could take a furious half-hour. One mission, I remember, got alot easier when you shot a tire off from enemy car. <shao kahn voice> "Originality!"
* Pace control. In Mafia, tiresome driving around city offered sometimes nice break from furious shooting action. In other times, it was even more dangerous, because player attempted to drive faster and in case of a police chase, whole mission could be blown.
* Variety! Conquering things in Godfather took hell of a lot of time, retries, bullets, and body bags. IMO, too much. But that's a matter of taste.
* Ability to skip intros and cutscenes, plus this horrid intro/mainmenu music tune that went really old after 150th time!

Conclusion? Godfather is horrible attempt to reap cash from exploiting Mafia, GTA-like games' popularity and the movie(s) of same name. And its actually worse than any of named.

[LimpingFish]

The major problem I had with it was that all the missions looked the same, and the driving was a chore.  The cars might have been slow in Mafia, but at least you could drive off the roads.   The driving in Godfather was limited to very rigid paths, and you often had to go waayyy out of your way in order to reach your destination.  I suppose it's because they based it on real NYC geography, which is not very fun to drive in.

They removed the driving sections from the PSP version. In fact, they removed the whole walking the streets vibe completely.

You simply went from mission to mission, in little squared-off areas of the city.

Brings new meaning to the word "Dull".

[Mr Jake]

I'll say it again, Godfather on the Wii is an excellent game that deals with all of the critiques you guys have mentioned. Its well worth a play imo.