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It is the 1930's and you earn a living as a Taxi driver.
The only crime you've ever committed is to accidentally short
change someone. Then out of the blue two men approach you
waving guns. They leap into your taxi and demand you drive
them across town. They are members of the Mafia on the run
from a rival gang. Once they are out of danger they congratulate
you on your driving skills and offer you a job working for
them. But you are not interested in a life of crime... that
is until the guys, who were chasing the Mafia gang members
you helped escape, track you down and smash up your car and
try to do the same to your face. You go back to the Mafia
for help and that's when you realise that you can never go
back to your old life...
Mafia
sees you attempt to rise from the lowly but well-dressed
Footsoldier, to an envied and feared Made Man as you earn
a reputation as a tough enforcer, daring getaway driver, and
deadly hitman in your quest for respect and power within the
Salieri Family.
First
impressions of the game are quite favourable. While the graphics
are not fantastic, the gameplay is interesting. The opening
level sees you plying your trade as a taxi driver, picking
up customers and driving them all over town. This level really
helps you to get a feel for the city, as well as preparing
you for later levels. Good driving is the order of the day
and you must obey the traffic laws if you want to avoid trouble
with the law. This means not breaking the speed limit, running
red lights or causing accidents.
However,
there are a few too many bugs, which really should have been
ironed out before release. Ignoring for a moment, the fact
that it takes an age to load between certain segments, there
was
one sequence were we pulled up to a garage in a yellow car.
As the game switches to the CGI story the car has suddenly
changed colour and is now blue.
Also
the cars all look the same. In the early missions you are
given a different car each time you have a job to do. But
I couldn't tell any real difference between them. In fact,
the only serious difference seemed to be the noise of the
engine and the sound the horn makes - whoopee! Another annoying
thing is that if you parp your horn at cars in front of you,
they swerve out of your way - usually crashing in the process.
Not very realistic.
But
driving is only part of the game. You also have to leave your
car for some of the missions. These include shoot out's with
rival gangs or smashing up cars. But when you are running
around the streets you only see your character from the hips
upwards and it makes him look like a Punch & Judy
puppet. Also the camera angles are a nightmare to control.
And you can end up spending a lot of your time looking at
the floor instead of where you are supposed to be heading.
Another
problem I discovered was that your gun is not always reliable
as it should be. There is a level near the beginning of the
game where you have to sneak into a building to rescue one
of your accomplices. I found that if I was too close to the
bad guys my bullets didn't seem to have any real effect.
The
fact that this game was released on the PC two years ago is
another reason why it looks and feels so dated. Sadly,
what could have been a really interesting game ends up being
just above average.
Nick
Smithson
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£29.99
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£29.99
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