Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Encyclopedia
Mafia is a third-person shooter
video game initially made for Microsoft Windows
in (and later ported
to the PlayStation 2
and the Xbox
in ). It was developed
by Czech
company Illusion Softworks
and published
by Gathering of Developers
. The game allows the player to take on the role of a mafioso who has to accomplish various missions in order to advance in the game. It received strong critical reaction and continued to maintain a loyal cult following. As of March 12, 2008, Mafia has sold 2 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive
.
On August 21, 2007, Take-Two Interactive announced Mafia II
at the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, developed by Illusion Softworks, now renamed 2K Czech.
As of September 7, 2010, the game is available via Steam.
consists of driving, mainly easy city cruise between different locations, as well as chases and races; the rest of the game is based on third-person on-foot navigation and shooting - all inter-connected with cutscenes. In addition to the photo-realistic city and a huge countryside, detailed interiors like the city's airport, a museum, a church, a hotel, an abandoned prison, restaurants and Don Salieri's bar are included. Weather changes and day/night cycles are also in use.
51 classic American cars around the city can be driven in Mafia, plus 19 bonus cars (of which 5 are racing models) unlockable after the main mode and the opening of a new game mode. Cars are introduced periodically - in the beginning of the game, early 1920s models drive on the streets of the city, while models from 1930 begin appearing in later game stages.
Police book players for minor offenses such as speeding or running a red light, and car accidents cause physical harm to the driving player. While other forms of transport are available, such as tram
s and elevated rail
s, they are only ridable and not drivable by the player.
Mafia is also noted for having comprehensive damage physics on nearly all vehicles. While substantially more robust than their real counterparts, smaller and weaker vehicles stand less abuse before breaking down and finally exploding, than large armoured vehicles. More realism is added here compared to other games in the same genre, such as the ability to puncture the fuel tank, overheat the engine, and the ability to break transmission gears. Many exterior components (such as windows, tires, headlights, and bumpers) can be removed from most vehicles with physical means such as crash-driving, hitting with blunt weapons (fists, baseball bat) as well as firing weapons at them.
Certain criminal acts most people would expect to warrant a response from the police do not, such as driving on the sidewalk or on the wrong side of the road. In the early stages of game development, ignoring "yield" and "do not enter" signs were to be considered as offenses, but this was later changed. The police AI
do not recognize computer AI violations. In freeride, the police will ignore violent actions against the player.
, which ended in 1933. The game is set in the fictional American city of Lost Heaven (loosely based on New York City
and Chicago
of the same time period).
The player takes the role of taxi driver Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, who, while trying to make a living on the streets of Lost Heaven, unexpectedly and unwillingly becomes involved in organized crime as a driver for the Salieri crime family, led by Don Ennio Salieri.
Through the events of the game's story, Tommy begins to rise through the ranks of the Salieri 'family', which is currently battling the competing Morello family, led by the sharply-dressed Don Morello. Eventually becoming disillusioned by his life of crime and violence, Tommy arranges to meet a detective (Detective Norman) in order to tell him his story, to be given witness-protection, and to aid the detective in the destruction of the Salieri crime family. The 'Intermezzo' chapters of the game depict Tommy sitting in a cafe with the detective, relating his life story and giving out important pieces of information at the same time.
After a not-so-casual encounter with two of Don Ennio Salieri's henchmen, Sam and Paulie (who escaped from Morello's men and while trying to get away, had a car accident), Tommy is paid with an envelope concealing a hunk of cash for getting Sam and Paulie to safety. Through Sam as his proxy, Salieri says he is impressed with Tommy's grace under fire and that he is indebted to Tommy for doing so; at some future time Tommy may come back to Salieri for help. Since Salieri also tries to help men of Italian blood in the onslaught of the Great Depression, he offers Tommy the 'chance' to work for the Salieri organization. Tommy refuses politely, preferring to remain poor but legitimate, and his thoughts are reinforced when he sees his pay package contains more money than he has ever seen before, and the very next day he is back to work as a taxi driver. However, in between scouting for fares he is attacked by two hoods who are members of Salieri's arch-enemy (later revealed to once have been his companion), the Morello crime family, as revenge for him helping Paulie and Sam escape them. Tommy is saved by Salieri's men, who, when Tommy escapes into their bar and the Morello men follow him, murder the attackers. However, the cab company learns that their taxi was vandalized by gangsters and Tommy's employment is terminated. Hard up for employment prospects in the Depression years and grateful to Salieri for saving his life, Tommy accepts the offer to work for the Salieri family, mostly working as a getaway driver.
Through a series of assignments given to him by Don Salieri, Tommy quickly becomes deeply involved in the activities of the Salieri business, concerning extortion
, collecting protection money, bootlegging
, assassination
, arson
jobs and a lot of unexpected gunfights, often with the opposing Don Morello, whose power Tommy describes as "built on violence". One turning point occurs when he gets a request from Salieri's bartender Luigi, who likes Tommy and asks him to walk his daughter Sarah home from work on account of reports of hoodlums. While escorting Sarah street punks attack, to which Tommy defends her. Enraged at the mugging, Salieri orders Tommy and Paulie to hunt the gang and cripple them, which then leads up to the Salieri family being targets of the city government as Tommy murdered one gang member who was the son of an alderman. Tommy is later made to carry out jobs to avoid Salieri having to face prosecution, culminating in an assassination mission involving the bombing of a hotel. Although he carries out the bombing, he discovers that one of the assassination targets is his girlfriend's best friend Michelle, an informant to Morello. Unable to bring himself to kill her, he instead orders her to flee the city and never return. This begins the process of his eventual rejection of his new vocation. Another watershed moment is when Tommy is escaping the bombing, he stumbles into a cathedral where it is the funeral
of the alderman's son he murdered, where Tommy is identified as the killer and Morello gang members attempt to shoot him in revenge. After eliminating them all, the priest leading the eulogy tells Tommy he has committed a grave sin and fears his soul is at risk, which Tommy rationalizes at first that he killed all bad men, but seriously takes the priest's warning to heart.
Tommy eventually marries Sarah, who gives birth to a girl a year later. However, a fatal shootout at a farm where the Morello mob and police surprise them when they are trying to buy Canadian whisky
nearly kills Sam. On the same day, Frank Colletti, Don Salieri's Consigliere
, hands over Salieri's account books to the police. Though being a friend of Frank for more than 20 years, Salieri orders his death. Tommy finds Frank at the Lost Heaven International Airport, attempting to flee to Europe. Tommy learns from Frank's wife that the police blackmailed Frank and gives him ways to recover the books for Salieri, and Tommy gets her and her daughter reunited with Frank. In one of the game's more emotional moments, Tommy lets Frank go and he flees to Europe with his family. Since Frank has fleed to England, Salieri accepts that Frank is dead and his funeral is given. Tommy later saves his boss from being assassinated while dining at a luxurious restaurant. Salieri has his bodyguard-turned-traitor, Carlo, killed along with Morello's ally, the councilor (who is shot while giving a speech at his birthday). Morello's brother, Sergio Morello, is also killed on Salieri's orders. These actions shatter the Morello crime family and Salieri finally orders the death of his rival. After having succeeded, the game pauses to present times, while Tommy shows Detective Norman a photo of a young Salieri standing next to another young man revealed to be Morello. He tells Norman that this photo proved to him that "This life is poisonous", and is one of the main reasons why Tommy wants to betray the local mafia.
After the death of Morello, the Salieri family runs the town. Following the assassination of another politician not co-operating with the family, Tommy, along with Sam, is presented with a plan to rob a bank by Paulie. Both men refuse, Tom mentioning the danger involved if Salieri were to discover such a plot and Sam citing his loyalty to the family. The three then steal what is ostensibly a batch of Cuban
cigars on Salieri's orders, but Tommy and Paulie discover that the cigar boxes contain a considerable amount of well-hidden diamonds. Convincing Paulie not to steal any of them, Tommy acts as though he is unaware of the diamonds and surreptitiously probes Salieri for information about the matter. Deciding that Salieri was well-aware of the diamonds and intended to cheat him out of his fair share, Tommy joins Paulie in his bank robbery
plan, risking their lives if Salieri would find out. The robbery is successful, but the following day Tommy arrives at Paulie's apartment to find him murdered and the money all gone. Tommy panics, and is tricked by the ever-loyal Sam, to meet him at Lost Heaven's art gallery
. In the midst of a gun-battle it is revealed that Salieri, having discovered Tommy and Paulie's unauthorised bank-robbery, has ordered their deaths. Sam also tells Tommy that Salieri has mistrusted Tommy for some time after discovering that he hadn't killed either Michelle or Frank, both of whom were eventually found and murdered by the mafia.
During a climactic battle on the top floor of the museum, Tommy gets the upper hand on Sam, but when he runs away, finds that he cannot bring himself to kill his former friend. Ultimately, as Sam is stumbling towards the exit, Tommy watches him from above and fires a bullet into his back. Shivering and astonished, Sam delivers his final words, a warning of Salieri's power, and is then shot to death by Tommy. Here, Tommy's story to the detective (and thus the game) ends, telling that he fled to Europe but decided to return and to testify against Salieri to ensure the safety of Sarah and his (unnamed) daughter. The detective agrees to put Tommy and his family under the protection of the police, and Tommy is free to testify against the Salieri family. Don Salieri is arrested and sentenced to prison for life
, but dying of old age during his first year in jail. 80 gangsters are convicted, some sentenced to electrocution
and the family is destroyed. After the trial, Tommy is relocated to the other side of the country where he starts a whole new life, buys a two-story house there, indicated to be Greenfield, Empire Bay in Mafia II
, with his family, all under new names. Tommy works as a driver "for a respectable company".
The epilogue, set 1951, shows an old Thomas Angelo, grey-haired and moustached, standing outside his house watering the lawn. Two men, revealed in Mafia II to be Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro, pull up to the side of the street in a Smith Thunderbolt (resembling a 1957 Ford Thunderbird
) and approach him. Addressing him by his real name (which was changed beforehand by the FBI), Barbaro pulls out a sawn-off shotgun
. Scaletta tells Tommy that 'Mr. Salieri sends his regards', and both barrels are emptied into Tommy's body. As the two men get back into their car and hurry away, Tommy lies on the grass with a big bullet wound in his chest, blood still running out, the running hose lying next to him. Tommy's last narration as the camera rises from his dead body ends with:
, a drama also about the mafia.
and the Hot Club de France
, The Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong
, Louis Prima
, Lonnie Johnson
, Latcho Drom
and one track by Louis Jordan
and his Tympany Five
. The main theme to Mafia, along with the original score, was composed by Vladimir Šimůnek, and performed by the Czech Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adam Klemens. The ending credits music is a cover of the song "Lake of Fire
", performed by the Lordz of Brooklyn
. The last verse of the song borrows the musical arrangement of the theme song for The Godfather
movies.
gave the game a rating of 9.2/10 while GameSpot
described the PC version as "one of the best games of the year". and rated it at 9.3/10. Game Informer
compared it favorably to Grand Theft Auto III
, and said, "From the living city in which you reside, to the incredibly realistic vehicles, this title has the heart and soul of a blockbuster".
While the original PC game received rave reviews and grew a cult following around the world, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions were critical disappointments.
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
video game initially made for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
in (and later ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
in ). It was developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
by Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
company Illusion Softworks
Illusion Softworks
2K Czech is a game development company located in Brno and Prague, Czech Republic. The company focuses mostly on first-person and third-person shooter games. Since the foundation in 1997, till the sale to Kush Games ten years later, its owners and key managers were founders Petr Vochozka and Jan...
and published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by Gathering of Developers
Gathering of Developers
Gathering of Developers was a Texas-based PC and video games publishing company, founded in January 1998 with the mission to bridge the gap between publishers and independent game developers, allowing independent developers creative control over their projects, ownership of their IP, and...
. The game allows the player to take on the role of a mafioso who has to accomplish various missions in order to advance in the game. It received strong critical reaction and continued to maintain a loyal cult following. As of March 12, 2008, Mafia has sold 2 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a major American publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns 2K Games and Rockstar Games. The company's headquarters are in New York City, with international headquarters in Windsor, United Kingdom...
.
On August 21, 2007, Take-Two Interactive announced Mafia II
Mafia II
Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games...
at the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, developed by Illusion Softworks, now renamed 2K Czech.
As of September 7, 2010, the game is available via Steam.
Gameplay
Mafias storyline gameplayGameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
consists of driving, mainly easy city cruise between different locations, as well as chases and races; the rest of the game is based on third-person on-foot navigation and shooting - all inter-connected with cutscenes. In addition to the photo-realistic city and a huge countryside, detailed interiors like the city's airport, a museum, a church, a hotel, an abandoned prison, restaurants and Don Salieri's bar are included. Weather changes and day/night cycles are also in use.
51 classic American cars around the city can be driven in Mafia, plus 19 bonus cars (of which 5 are racing models) unlockable after the main mode and the opening of a new game mode. Cars are introduced periodically - in the beginning of the game, early 1920s models drive on the streets of the city, while models from 1930 begin appearing in later game stages.
Police book players for minor offenses such as speeding or running a red light, and car accidents cause physical harm to the driving player. While other forms of transport are available, such as tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s and elevated rail
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
s, they are only ridable and not drivable by the player.
Mafia is also noted for having comprehensive damage physics on nearly all vehicles. While substantially more robust than their real counterparts, smaller and weaker vehicles stand less abuse before breaking down and finally exploding, than large armoured vehicles. More realism is added here compared to other games in the same genre, such as the ability to puncture the fuel tank, overheat the engine, and the ability to break transmission gears. Many exterior components (such as windows, tires, headlights, and bumpers) can be removed from most vehicles with physical means such as crash-driving, hitting with blunt weapons (fists, baseball bat) as well as firing weapons at them.
Law and order
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 by booking the player with offenses that can be "minor" or "serious". Minor offenses (such as speeding in a vehicle or running a red light) will end up with the player being fined (-$1,000 in Freeride mode, no monetary value in campaign mode), and serious offenses (such as physical assault, or visible display of a weapon) can lead to the player being arrested for the first offense, or a shootout with the police until the player or they are dead. A series of four successive minor offenses qualify as a "serious" offense. Police force increases with the severity of the player's disregard of the law to a point where now well armed police form blockades with tire spike strips in attempt to defeat the player while firing from behind their cars.Certain criminal acts most people would expect to warrant a response from the police do not, such as driving on the sidewalk or on the wrong side of the road. In the early stages of game development, ignoring "yield" and "do not enter" signs were to be considered as offenses, but this was later changed. The police AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
do not recognize computer AI violations. In freeride, the police will ignore violent actions against the player.
Plot
Mafia is set in the 1930s, between the fall of 1930 through to the end of 1938, during the later part of ProhibitionProhibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, which ended in 1933. The game is set in the fictional American city of Lost Heaven (loosely based on New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
of the same time period).
The player takes the role of taxi driver Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, who, while trying to make a living on the streets of Lost Heaven, unexpectedly and unwillingly becomes involved in organized crime as a driver for the Salieri crime family, led by Don Ennio Salieri.
Through the events of the game's story, Tommy begins to rise through the ranks of the Salieri 'family', which is currently battling the competing Morello family, led by the sharply-dressed Don Morello. Eventually becoming disillusioned by his life of crime and violence, Tommy arranges to meet a detective (Detective Norman) in order to tell him his story, to be given witness-protection, and to aid the detective in the destruction of the Salieri crime family. The 'Intermezzo' chapters of the game depict Tommy sitting in a cafe with the detective, relating his life story and giving out important pieces of information at the same time.
After a not-so-casual encounter with two of Don Ennio Salieri's henchmen, Sam and Paulie (who escaped from Morello's men and while trying to get away, had a car accident), Tommy is paid with an envelope concealing a hunk of cash for getting Sam and Paulie to safety. Through Sam as his proxy, Salieri says he is impressed with Tommy's grace under fire and that he is indebted to Tommy for doing so; at some future time Tommy may come back to Salieri for help. Since Salieri also tries to help men of Italian blood in the onslaught of the Great Depression, he offers Tommy the 'chance' to work for the Salieri organization. Tommy refuses politely, preferring to remain poor but legitimate, and his thoughts are reinforced when he sees his pay package contains more money than he has ever seen before, and the very next day he is back to work as a taxi driver. However, in between scouting for fares he is attacked by two hoods who are members of Salieri's arch-enemy (later revealed to once have been his companion), the Morello crime family, as revenge for him helping Paulie and Sam escape them. Tommy is saved by Salieri's men, who, when Tommy escapes into their bar and the Morello men follow him, murder the attackers. However, the cab company learns that their taxi was vandalized by gangsters and Tommy's employment is terminated. Hard up for employment prospects in the Depression years and grateful to Salieri for saving his life, Tommy accepts the offer to work for the Salieri family, mostly working as a getaway driver.
Through a series of assignments given to him by Don Salieri, Tommy quickly becomes deeply involved in the activities of the Salieri business, concerning extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
, collecting protection money, bootlegging
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
, assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
, arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
jobs and a lot of unexpected gunfights, often with the opposing Don Morello, whose power Tommy describes as "built on violence". One turning point occurs when he gets a request from Salieri's bartender Luigi, who likes Tommy and asks him to walk his daughter Sarah home from work on account of reports of hoodlums. While escorting Sarah street punks attack, to which Tommy defends her. Enraged at the mugging, Salieri orders Tommy and Paulie to hunt the gang and cripple them, which then leads up to the Salieri family being targets of the city government as Tommy murdered one gang member who was the son of an alderman. Tommy is later made to carry out jobs to avoid Salieri having to face prosecution, culminating in an assassination mission involving the bombing of a hotel. Although he carries out the bombing, he discovers that one of the assassination targets is his girlfriend's best friend Michelle, an informant to Morello. Unable to bring himself to kill her, he instead orders her to flee the city and never return. This begins the process of his eventual rejection of his new vocation. Another watershed moment is when Tommy is escaping the bombing, he stumbles into a cathedral where it is the funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
of the alderman's son he murdered, where Tommy is identified as the killer and Morello gang members attempt to shoot him in revenge. After eliminating them all, the priest leading the eulogy tells Tommy he has committed a grave sin and fears his soul is at risk, which Tommy rationalizes at first that he killed all bad men, but seriously takes the priest's warning to heart.
Tommy eventually marries Sarah, who gives birth to a girl a year later. However, a fatal shootout at a farm where the Morello mob and police surprise them when they are trying to buy Canadian whisky
Whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...
nearly kills Sam. On the same day, Frank Colletti, Don Salieri's Consigliere
Consigliere
Consigliere is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather , and its film adaptation...
, hands over Salieri's account books to the police. Though being a friend of Frank for more than 20 years, Salieri orders his death. Tommy finds Frank at the Lost Heaven International Airport, attempting to flee to Europe. Tommy learns from Frank's wife that the police blackmailed Frank and gives him ways to recover the books for Salieri, and Tommy gets her and her daughter reunited with Frank. In one of the game's more emotional moments, Tommy lets Frank go and he flees to Europe with his family. Since Frank has fleed to England, Salieri accepts that Frank is dead and his funeral is given. Tommy later saves his boss from being assassinated while dining at a luxurious restaurant. Salieri has his bodyguard-turned-traitor, Carlo, killed along with Morello's ally, the councilor (who is shot while giving a speech at his birthday). Morello's brother, Sergio Morello, is also killed on Salieri's orders. These actions shatter the Morello crime family and Salieri finally orders the death of his rival. After having succeeded, the game pauses to present times, while Tommy shows Detective Norman a photo of a young Salieri standing next to another young man revealed to be Morello. He tells Norman that this photo proved to him that "This life is poisonous", and is one of the main reasons why Tommy wants to betray the local mafia.
After the death of Morello, the Salieri family runs the town. Following the assassination of another politician not co-operating with the family, Tommy, along with Sam, is presented with a plan to rob a bank by Paulie. Both men refuse, Tom mentioning the danger involved if Salieri were to discover such a plot and Sam citing his loyalty to the family. The three then steal what is ostensibly a batch of Cuban
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
cigars on Salieri's orders, but Tommy and Paulie discover that the cigar boxes contain a considerable amount of well-hidden diamonds. Convincing Paulie not to steal any of them, Tommy acts as though he is unaware of the diamonds and surreptitiously probes Salieri for information about the matter. Deciding that Salieri was well-aware of the diamonds and intended to cheat him out of his fair share, Tommy joins Paulie in his bank robbery
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
plan, risking their lives if Salieri would find out. The robbery is successful, but the following day Tommy arrives at Paulie's apartment to find him murdered and the money all gone. Tommy panics, and is tricked by the ever-loyal Sam, to meet him at Lost Heaven's art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
. In the midst of a gun-battle it is revealed that Salieri, having discovered Tommy and Paulie's unauthorised bank-robbery, has ordered their deaths. Sam also tells Tommy that Salieri has mistrusted Tommy for some time after discovering that he hadn't killed either Michelle or Frank, both of whom were eventually found and murdered by the mafia.
During a climactic battle on the top floor of the museum, Tommy gets the upper hand on Sam, but when he runs away, finds that he cannot bring himself to kill his former friend. Ultimately, as Sam is stumbling towards the exit, Tommy watches him from above and fires a bullet into his back. Shivering and astonished, Sam delivers his final words, a warning of Salieri's power, and is then shot to death by Tommy. Here, Tommy's story to the detective (and thus the game) ends, telling that he fled to Europe but decided to return and to testify against Salieri to ensure the safety of Sarah and his (unnamed) daughter. The detective agrees to put Tommy and his family under the protection of the police, and Tommy is free to testify against the Salieri family. Don Salieri is arrested and sentenced to prison for life
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
, but dying of old age during his first year in jail. 80 gangsters are convicted, some sentenced to electrocution
Electrocution
Electrocution is a type of electric shock that, as determined by a stopped heart, can end life. Electrocution is frequently used to refer to any electric shock received but is technically incorrect; the choice of definition varies from dictionary to dictionary...
and the family is destroyed. After the trial, Tommy is relocated to the other side of the country where he starts a whole new life, buys a two-story house there, indicated to be Greenfield, Empire Bay in Mafia II
Mafia II
Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games...
, with his family, all under new names. Tommy works as a driver "for a respectable company".
The epilogue, set 1951, shows an old Thomas Angelo, grey-haired and moustached, standing outside his house watering the lawn. Two men, revealed in Mafia II to be Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro, pull up to the side of the street in a Smith Thunderbolt (resembling a 1957 Ford Thunderbird
Ford Thunderbird
The Thunderbird , is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005...
) and approach him. Addressing him by his real name (which was changed beforehand by the FBI), Barbaro pulls out a sawn-off shotgun
Lupara
Lupara is an Italian word used to refer to a sawn-off shotgun of the break-open type. It is traditionally associated with Cosa Nostra, the Italian organized crime group dominant in Sicily for their use of it in vendettas, defense—such as its use against Mussolini's army when he decided to break up...
. Scaletta tells Tommy that 'Mr. Salieri sends his regards', and both barrels are emptied into Tommy's body. As the two men get back into their car and hurry away, Tommy lies on the grass with a big bullet wound in his chest, blood still running out, the running hose lying next to him. Tommy's last narration as the camera rises from his dead body ends with:
- "You know, the world isn't run by the laws written on paper. It's run by people. Some according to laws, others not. It depends on each individual how his world will be, how he makes it. And you also need a whole lot of luck, so that somebody else doesn't make your life hell. And it ain't as simple as they tell you in grade school. But it is good to have strong values and to maintain them. In marriage, in crime, in war, always and everywhere. I messed up. So did Paulie and Sam. We wanted a better life, but in the end we were a lot worse off than most other people. You know, I think it's important to keep a balance in things. Yeah, balance, that's the right word. Cause the guy who wants too much, risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life, might not get anything at all."
Actor overlap between Mafia and The Sopranos
A number the characters in the English version of Mafia are voiced by actors who also played characters in the HBO television series The SopranosThe Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, a drama also about the mafia.
- Sam is voiced by Matt ServittoMatt ServittoMatt Servitto is an American actor, probably best known for his role on The Sopranos as FBI agent Dwight Harris. He also appeared on all 3 seasons of the Peabody Award-winning series Brotherhood as Rep. Donatello and had a guest appearance on Sex and the City as Carrie Bradshaw's editor...
, who played Agent Dwight Harris on The Sopranos. - Frank is voiced by Dan GrimaldiDan GrimaldiDaniel "Dan" Grimaldi is an American actor who is known for his roles as twins Philly and Patsy Parisi on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.-Career:...
, who played Patsy Parisi and his twin brother "Philly Spoons" Parisi on The Sopranos. - Paulie is voiced by William DeMeo, who played Jason Molinaro on The Sopranos.
- Sarah is voiced by Cara BuonoCara BuonoCara Buono is an American actress, screenwriter and director, probably best known for her role as Dr. Faye Miller in the fourth season of the AMC drama series Mad Men.-Early life:...
, who played Kelli Moltisanti on The Sopranos. - Yellow Pete is voiced by Ray DeMattis, who played Gerry Gaultieri on The Sopranos.
- Don Morello is voiced by John DomanJohn DomanJohn Doman is an American actor best known for playing Deputy Police Commissioner William Rawls on HBO series The Wire from 2002 to 2008 and Colonel Edward Galson on Oz in 2001....
, who played a patron of the Bada BingBada BingThe Bada Bing! is a fictional strip club from the HBO drama television series The Sopranos. It was a key location for events in the series, named for catchphrase "bada bing", a phrase popularized by James Caan in The Godfather. The popularization of the fictional club benefited the real-life go-go...
club (billed as "District Attorney") in the episode "Full Leather Jacket" of The Sopranos.
Console versions
Mafia was ported to PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. It was reported that because of the grand scale of the original PC game, sacrifices were made, and Illusion was not involved in porting the game. Many of the features of the PC version do not exist in the console port, such as police patrols around the city, and some aspects of the game's realism and graphics.Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the game features Django ReinhardtDjango Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
and the Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and active in one form or another until 1948....
, The Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Louis Prima
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
, Lonnie Johnson
Lonnie Johnson
Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos...
, Latcho Drom
Latcho Drom
Latcho Drom is a 1993 French documentary film directed and written by Tony Gatlif . The movie is about the Romani people's journey from north-west India to Spain, consisting primarily of music...
and one track by Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
and his Tympany Five
Tympany Five
Tympany Five was a successful rhythm and blues and jazz dance band founded by Louis Jordan in 1938. The group was composed of a horn section of three to five different pieces and also drums, double bass, guitar and piano. After playing in Chicago at the Capitol Lounge in 1941, Jordan and his band...
. The main theme to Mafia, along with the original score, was composed by Vladimir Šimůnek, and performed by the Czech Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adam Klemens. The ending credits music is a cover of the song "Lake of Fire
Lake of Fire (song)
"Lake of Fire" is a song by the American alternative rock band the Meat Puppets. It appears on their 1983 album, Meat Puppets II and consists of three choruses, punctuated by two verses, in the key of G#....
", performed by the Lordz of Brooklyn
Lordz of Brooklyn
Lordz Of Brooklyn now known as The Lordz are an American crossover Hip hop/Rock group composed of brothers and childhood friends of mostly Irish American and Italian American descent from Brooklyn, New York...
. The last verse of the song borrows the musical arrangement of the theme song for The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
movies.
Reception
The game was well received by critics and gamers upon release as a more realistic and serious Grand Theft Auto-styled game. Such was the realism that unless a mission was timed, many found that actually obeying the road rules proved to be preferable to speeding, as the latter would more likely result in accidents and injuries. Mafia contains a much bigger city to explore than most video games of the time, with multiple forms of available transport in addition to an expansive countryside. IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the game a rating of 9.2/10 while GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
described the PC version as "one of the best games of the year". and rated it at 9.3/10. Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
compared it favorably to Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 open world action computer and video game developed by DMA Design in the United Kingdom, and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first 3D title in the Grand Theft Auto series. It was released in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2, May 2002 for Microsoft Windows,...
, and said, "From the living city in which you reside, to the incredibly realistic vehicles, this title has the heart and soul of a blockbuster".
While the original PC game received rave reviews and grew a cult following around the world, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions were critical disappointments.