Mafia (PC)
By Susie Vee

With The Sopranos back in full swing, and Grand Theft Auto III still one of the most popular games around, you might think combining the two genres would be a largely by-the-numbers affair. But sometimes, we here at Gamegal World Headquarters learn (again) that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and we send our previous expectation to sleep with the fishes.

At first glance, this game from Czech developers Illusion Softworks, looked to be a cheap cash-in. Very little pre-release buzz, no big ad campaign, weird Eastern-European pedigree -- we were worried. But believe it or not, Mafia is in the running for our favorite game of the year.

Instead of setting its mob tale in modern-day New Jersey or a similar GTA3-style urban center, Mafia is set in the fictional 1930’s town of Lost Heaven. The city looks and feels like something out of the Godfather Part II (the DeNiro flashback scenes, ‘natch). Cars, buildings, signs and people all have a highly authentic ‘30s air.

The character design is great – at least for the main characters, with some of the best facial textures we’ve ever seen. The voice acting is also reasonably professional -- nothing you couldn’t hear on a direct-to-cable action movie. The soundtrack is a nice bonus. It leaves the thumping sound of most game soundtracks behind, opting instead for Django Reinhardt jazz cuts.

The gameplay is a lot like GTA3, where you can hop into almost any car, and drive freely around a large city environment and its outskirts. This time, however, there’s much more emphasis on what you do while outside of your vehicle. And, unlike GTA3, combat on foot is fun and engaging, not torturous and buggy. It’s very similar to Max Payne, without the slow-motion effects.

That doesn’t mean Mafia is problem free. One of our main complaints is that the 1930’s cars in the game drive like, well, 1930’s cars. They’re slow and a bit on the hard-to-handle side. And the cops are always ready to pull you over in a heartbeat for speeding, so leave the lead foot at home.

In fact, the driving portions are among the least interesting. There’s less random stuff to do in Lost Heaven than in Liberty City, so driving is largely a matter of going straight from one location to another, often far away. The scenery’s nice, but once you’ve driven a route a few times, there’s not much new to see. At the same time, some of the cooler aspects of the city, like a working streetcar system, aren’t played up nearly enough.

And while most of the graphics are great, there are a few odd problems that pop up. Crossing over one of the city’s bridges shows off some dramatic draw-in issues and the sky is oddly flat and unrealistic.

The plot is fairly interesting, but also on the linear side. You’ll sit through some long cut scenes, and then have a set task to complete, usually with very little room for improvisation.

Female characters are few and far between, usually gangster’s moles or bystanders. But, if you’re interested in a little role reversal, your character does get down and dirty with some PG-13 rated bedroom action. There’s nothing goofier than watching an in-game engine sex scene. You’ve been warned.

Despite its limitations, Mafia is one of the most fun games we’ve played in a long time. We’ve certainly learned our lesson – good games may show up out fo nowhere when you least expect it.

SCORE: 9.5