O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven was really big back in the day. Well, in the PC gaming space. This incredible project was extremely well received, but a lot of people missed it partially due to the PC exclusivity for a long time (and later released console port wasn’t good) and partially due to the expectations set by GTA III released a year earlier. People expected an explosive sandbox, rather than a linear story driven experience in an open world. I remember loving the game back then, but years later, can it still be great?
To my surprise, the game didn’t look or feel as aged as games from that era tend to be. Probably due to the fact that some of the things, that are commonplace now, were innovative back then. And some haven’t even been used in any games since then.
The world and the voice acting feel older in terms of how they were designed, of course, but are still amazing in other ways. For example, while it’s clear that voices were recorded per line and dialogues were cut together later, making lines feel jarring at times, the voice actors themselves did a great job. While the world is extremely plain, simplistic, with very short draw distance, cars and pedestrians appearing out of nowhere and disappearing into the void (and have super simple pathfinding of turning around if they encounter anything in their way)… Yet the driver AI is pretty okay, you can see public transport used in the city (and you can use it yourself), including trams and subway and lots of animations and tiny details still look cool. The smoking in this game also looks absolutely amazing. I dunno why I, a person who never smoked, like “cool” smoking animations in games, but Mafia is one of the best examples of that to this day. And only character I can think of, who lights up his cigarette cooler than Tommy Angelo is Agent York from Deadly Premonition.
It might look weird to give so much spotlight to smoking, but awesome details can make any game look far more “alive” and memorable. And that’s exactly where Mafia still shines. Despite being technically outdated, it’s a joy to behold in action. All cutscenes are well done, storytelling is stellar and the story is exciting to follow.
Yet, apart from looking good, you’d hope for good gameplay. And it’s not all great nowadays. It’s not that outdated, I mean some of its quality of life ideas feel better than some of the modern ones, like the map overlay instead of the more popular minimap and GPS. There are cool details like crouching to increase accuracy and using cover, but without a dedicated cover system it feels a bit archaic. Mission design is still great (the hotel/church mission is unforgettable). Car handling is often annoying and you can’t actually move the camera around when in the car. Yet… Even car simulation has little touches like first starting and then accelerating each time you go in. And first stopping then exiting every time you want out. And the one you can drive while one-handed, second hand busy shooting out of the window, making handling even less fun, yet adding a new element to the car combat. And, of course, tires can be shot too, while the gasoline does run out. Even the disgustingly horrible racing mission can be skipped now, something that was patched after release.
Playing the game in 2010, 8 years after the game release, and shortly after its sequel was out, is surprisingly fun. And the ending… wow, it’s still one of the best endings ever. Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven lacks some of the modern features, but has so many cool details of its own to charm you anyway.