Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven

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Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Developer(s)	Illusion Softworks
Publisher(s)	Gathering of Developers
Engine	LS3D engine
Latest version	1.3 (August 8, 2005)
Release date(s)	August 29, 2002
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (17+)
Platform(s)	Windows, PS2, Xbox
Media	CD (3), DVD (1)

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is a computer and video game initially made for Microsoft Windows and released in 2002. It was later ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox in 2004. It was developed by Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers. It has an ESRB rating of "Mature" for graphic violence.

[edit] Plot

Mafia is set in the 1930s, between autumn of 1930 to 1938, through the Prohibition era, in the fictitious American city of Lost Heaven (based on New York City and Chicago in the same era). The player is set in the role of cabbie Thomas Angelo, who unexpectedly begins his career in organized crime as a driver for the crime syndicate of Don Salieri. He continues to rise in the ranks of the mob, battling the competing family of Don Morello. Eventually, he becomes disillusioned with the life of crime he has chosen and meets a detective to aid him in shattering Salieri's organization.

After a casual encounter with Don Salieri's two henchmen, Sam and Paulie, Tommy is given the chance to work for the Famiglia, an offer he is forced to accept after Don Morello's mobsters, the ones he helped Sam and Paulie escape from, try to exact their revenge. Throughout a series of assignments given to him by Salieri himself, the young Tommy quickly delves deeper into the Family's business, although a series of events (climaxing in his refusal to assassinate one of his future wife's friends and the Famiglia's traitorous lawyer, Frank) bring about his rejection of certain aspects of his new lifestyle.

Later on, he gets married to Sarah, the daughter of Salieri's bartender Luigi, who gives birth to a girl a year later. In the meanwhile, Tommy partakes in Paulie's suspicions that Salieri is hiding part of his earnings from them, which are later confirmed once a stolen batch of Cuban cigars turns out to be a considerable amount of well-hidden diamonds. Following this theft, Tommy and Paulie decide to rob a bank in order to "make up for their missed earnings". The hit is successful, but the day after. Tommy finds his friend lying in a pool of blood at his (Paulie) house, bullets driven through his back; panicking, he is tricked by Sam to meet him at the city art gallery, where it is revealed that Salieri, upon discovery of their bravado, has ordered their deaths.

After a climatic battle on the museum's top floor, resulting in Sam's spectacular death, the flashback finally ends and the detective agrees to put Tommy and his family under police's protection, given he testifies against Don Salieri. From a protected house, Tommy does so, and therefore Salieri is arrested and imprisoned, supposedly dying during his detention.

Circa 1957-1960, two hitmen pull up to a big two-story house in a red tudor car resembling a 1957 Ford Thunderbird and then approach a much older Thomas Angelo by addressing him by his real name (which was changed beforehand by the FBI), and after one of the game's strongest lines ("Mr. Angelo? Mr. Salieri likes to send his regards..."), hit him at point-blank range with a lupara (typical sawed-off shotgun used by the Sicilian Mafia in assassination, as explained during the game). The game ends with Tommy's thoughts, while he is left dying on the bloodied grass of his front garden.

The game's plot has been inspired by movies such as Goodfellas, The Godfather, and Mobsters. The game is rich in graphic violence and blood. In a mission involving the hijacking of a harbour transport lorry, the player is required to harm the driver, at least emotionally. The player is also required, or at least urged to in self defence, to kill several harbour workers, who attack the player, apparently as vigilantes. In the "moonlighting" mission, involving a bank robbery, the player is required to shoot several guards, and an innocent woman is killed by an NPC allied with the player, due to her screaming.)

[edit] Gameplay

Walking on New Ark street in Lost Heaven, PC version. In addition to cars, Mafia allows players to ride trams and elevated trains around the city.

The bulk of Mafia's storyline gameplay consists of driving for standard travel, car chases and races; the remaining portions of the game consist of on-foot third-person exploration and shooting. In addition to the entire city of Lost Heaven and countryside, several detailed interior levels were also included for much 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 off 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.

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 offences such as speeding or running a red light, and car accidents caused physical harm to the driver (indeed, so much 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 more forms of transport available (such as trams and elevated rail), in addition to an expansive countryside.

[edit] 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. Offences can be minor or serious offences. Minor offences will end up with the player being fined (-$1,000 in Freeride mode, no monetary value in campaign mode) , and serious offences can lead to the player being arrested for the first offence, or a shootout with the police until you or they are dead. A series of four successive minor offences will lead to the players arrest.

Minor Offences

Serious Offences

Certain criminal acts you would expect to warrant a response from the police do not occur, these include; driving on the pavement, driving on the wrong side of the road, and ignoring yield, and do not enter signs, although, in the early stages of the game, these were supposed to be considered as an offence (see the text file for subtitles).

[edit] 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 ignores players who drive in the wrong lane of the road and sidewalk, or co-drivers and hostile cars who carry weapons openly.

In fights, 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.

Another notable problem faced by players is the infamous racing level, which was almost impossible 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 complete the race fast and easily). These problems were fixed in versions 1.2 and 1.3, making the racing mission far more enjoyable.

[edit] Console version differences

The PC version was noted to have a very "alive" city. Unlike Grand Theft Auto III or Vice City where there would be fewer cars or pedestrians on screen, short view distances and "disappearing" cars, and very short-term street damage, Mafia featured many cars and pedestrians on screen at once, along with collateral damage lasting the length of a mission.

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the game features Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club de France, The Mills Brothers, Louis Prima, Lonnie Johnson, and one track by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. The main theme to Mafia was composed by Vladimir Šimůnek, 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. Ironically, the last verse of the song borrows the musical arrangement of the theme song for the Godfather movies.

[edit] Weapon list

Pursuing a fleeing target in a car, with two passengers aiding by shooting the car with Thompson 1928 submachine guns.

The following is a list of weapons found in Mafia. Five small weapons and one large weapon can be concealed at any given time, not including any weapon the player may be holding.

• Baseball bat
• Knife
• Knuckle-Dusters
• Crowbar
• Steel Bar
• Wooden Plank
• Bucket
• Molotov Cocktail
• Hand Grenade
• Colt Detective Special
• S&W Model 10 M&P
• Colt 1911
• S&W Model 27 Magnum
• Thompson 1928
• Pump-Action Shotgun
• Sawed-Off Shotgun
• US Rifle M1903 Springfield
• Mosin-Nagant 1891/30

[edit] Game modding

Since the release of Mafia, several fan-made mods have been created to alter visual and game play experiences of the game. Major mods that have been released for Mafia include:

• The City of Lost Dreams Mod (CoLD) is an unofficial sequel to the original scenario. It was well received by fans, including popular magazine PC Gamer, who featured the mod on an accompanying demo disc. A new version is currently in production by the CoLD team, led by The Gray Erazor and entirely written by PauliesGrandson of PGCreations.

• CityBars, a recently released mod that changes the entire city with buildings from the missions and even some new buildings added to Free Ride mode. The team is led by Russian modder Golod55.

• The Modern mod, giving Lost Heaven a touch of modernisation, changing textures and models for more modern equivalents.

• The Mafia: Beyond the End mod, providing additional mission within the Free Ride mode, designated for experienced Mafia gamers. A new version of this mod is currently in production, also by PauliesGrandson.

• The Mafia 70s Mod, with cars and textures replaced. One of the first mods in development.

• The Alive Mod, by MikeMouse, adds many new objectives and options to all the standard Freeride missions/levels.

• PredatoR MoD 1 and 2, a script based modification adds five new missions, new bars (created by Golod55), a casino (Model by Neutral, Scripts by SomebodY), and an until now alone standing feature called the "hunger meter" - that modifies the player's weight and form depending from the food he eats. The first part of the mod was released on a bonus disc by the Gamer magazine PC Guru(Hungary). The mod was created by 'SomebodY' (Mod leader, Scripter), Pinkshit (Scripter), Neutral (Modeler), Golod55 (City Modifier).

• Mafia Car Value Editor and Mafia Weapon Value Editor can be used to fully modify the stats of every vehicle and weapon in the game.

[edit] Trivia

• A sequel to this game was planned a few years ago but it appears to have been canceled. [1] [2]
• The end roster after completing the race lists the names of the opponent drivers. Fans of heavy music may note that the names are taken from notable metal musicians, such as Mark "Barney" Greenway of Napalm Death, Chris Barnes of Cannibal Corpse, Page Hamilton of Helmet, or Kirk Windstein of Crowbar.
• In the mission "Ordinary Routine", Tommy jokingly takes a leak in the restroom at Clark's Motel.
• 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.
• Despite the game's obvious setting in North America, the models of railway locomotives and rolling-stock encountered at, among other places, the docks are all of European origin.
• 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.
• Some of the characters have idiosyncratic speaking habits. Such as Bobby at the race track, who finishes every sentence saying 'buddy', and Ralph who stutters.
• 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.
• At the beginning of the mission "Fairplay" there is a scaled down model of Frank's daughter in a box next to Ralph's fire.

[edit] External links

[edit] General resources

• Official Mafia website
• Mafia at IMDB
• Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven at MobyGames

[edit] Community websites

• MafiaMods; a modification website, including downloads and a forum.
• MafiaScene; a fansite with guides and a forum community.
• Bar Mafieuso; French fansite.
• Mafia Hungary HQ; Hungarian fansite.