 Being a Goodfella never felt so good. After a series of events, Tommy finds himself deeply involved in a crime family. He has to survive long enough to make a bit of cash and earn the respect that he deserves... NOTE: We highly recommend buying this game from Steam. It will be much more reliable. Trust us.
1. Gameplay
 Blue skies, fedora, and a sawed-off. Stay classy, people. Mafia puts the player in the shoes of a young man named Tommy who, after a series of coincidences, is forced to join a crime family in order to survive the Great Depression. Eventually, after proving himself an adept driver and an even better enforcer, Tommy makes his way into the ranks trusted enough by the Don to do high-profile jobs.  You know that's a bad sign... Most of the jobs are fairly unique and all of the missions have a direct purpose in forwarding the overall storyline. The main character and his interaction with the crime family, his friends, and his own family is also discussed in great deal through the character’s monologue. The player will find that Tommy struggles with the idea of being a good man, a good husband, and a good father but also being a respected member of a crime family that requires him to kill in order to enforce the family’s laws. It’s a very compelling narrative.  Dodge this. However, this game is definitely an older game. It’s definitely worth playing (especially if you decide to try the sequel Mafia II and/or you’re an avid fan of The Godfather movies), but if you’re looking for “the latest and greatest” you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.
The true length of this game comes from the fact that the player will spend time redoing each mission over and over again in an attempt to get it right. This is discussed more in the frustration section, but needless to say the time that I spent on this game would have been significantly reduced if the health system had been improved.
The first was the completely inane health system. The player starts each mission with 100 health that, like many older games, does not revive with time. The only time in a mission that the player will be able to gain health back is if he stumbles upon a small, easily-missed health box on a wall. Usually these boxes are placed in locations that the player could easily skip over in search for the mission objective.  (Bottom Left) I considered myself lucky to have 58 health at this point. I normally have less than 10. In short, the player will frequently find himself in a situation where his health is too low to complete the mission but the previous auto-save was too far back to attempt to redo the previous section and hope for more health. It means that the player will almost always have to complete a mission as close to perfect as possible. I had to complete the final boss battle with 7 health. It was an absolute nightmare. The second is the almost unimaginably poor vehicle driving mechanics. With the early cars, driving mechanics were never really a problem since most of the cars struggle to get to 50 mph. But later cars can easily hit 90+ mph, which isn’t a problem if the player is going straight down a road. The problem occurs when the player attempts to make a turn.  Car, meet this pole. Pole, this is a car. You two will get very familiar soon enough. Turns at anything above 50 will immediately result in the player spinning out and, usually, crashing into a wall, pole, car, pedestrian, or any other object that happens to be around. If the player is unfortunate enough to be driving a convertible car and flip his car, the player will almost always die immediately. Realistic? Yes. Frustrating? Definitely. This frustration with the driving mechanics culminates in one particularly frustrating mission where the player must compete in a 1930’s style grand prix race. The player must navigate the tracks while maintaining an almost perfect record. You can’t spin out, you can’t restart, and you certainly can’t crash your car or else you’ll end up failing the mission. In the older version of the game, the player had to complete this mission to move on. Fortunately, the game was patched (and the Steam version of the game includes this patch) so that the player can make the race easier or even skip it altogether. Still, I managed to complete it a number of times but it was extremely difficult to do.  Don't mess up. Ever. This normally isn’t a problem since the player is encouraged to drive the speed limit (discussed in greater detail in the “Anti-Law” section), but the player will be put into high-speed chase situations that will require some very fast thinking and good use of the brakes. Oh, and a lot of luck. The vast majority of my time playing this game was spent replaying levels simply because I either drove into a wall and killed myself or ended up being killed because I couldn’t find health in between killing a few dozen enemies. It got old very, very fast. 2. Parental Notices
 I am the shadow that walks. With a bat. There were a couple of more obvious examples of violence that stood out to me. In one scene, the leader of the rival mafia family gets rear-ended while driving in his car. He proceeds to get out from his car and bash the offending driver’s face into a car and leave him for dead in front of a small crowd of witnesses including a police officer, all of whom do nothing to stop the violence.  If he's so mad about the dent on his bumper, why is he using the guy's face to dent his hood? A second scene occurs at the end of the game. The player’s character, an old man by this point, is out on his front lawn watering when two “goodfellas” drive up, say something to the effect of “Mr. Salieri sends his regards” and blow the player away with a sawn-off shotgun. The player’s character is left to die in a pool of his own blood.  The Family always wins in the end. The violence doesn’t get much worse than that.
 If this was really the 30's, they'd be sleeping in separate beds. The other scene involves a “job” that the player is assigned to do. The main character busts into a woman’s hotel room in order to kill a prostitute who talks too much about the mafia’s dealings. The prostitute happens to be in the bath at the time. She’s clearly naked, but bubbles cover all of her body except for her shoulders and head. He doesn’t end up killing her.  The lack of facial expression is clearly a side effect of massive botox treatments. There is also a level in which the player must make his way through an art gallery. Many of the paintings feature nude women.  Now, someone explain to me how "the duality of man" applies to this picture.
 Joe Camel never made smoking look this cool. There are some minor references to drugs in the game, but nothing specific. In one mission the Don talks about how a rival mafia gang has access to things such as “pimps and drug lords” and complains that he isn’t getting any of the dough that those “professions” bring in. Other than that, drugs are never referenced.
Other than that, gambling is not a factor. 3. Other Factors
 I'm sorry, but it's really difficult to give you my order. Your censor bars are extremely distracting.
 Me on the left totally about to jump out and say "Surprise!" before shooting everyone. After the shootout, the priest is particularly upset (since the church will have to be repaired and reconsecrated due to the murders). The player’s character offers a bribe that the priest takes. The priest then condemns the player for the blood on the player’s hands. The player’s character replies that the priest knew how evil a person the deceased man was yet still lied at his funeral, subtly admonishing the priest for being imperfect as well.  There's a clip from a pistol stuck on the guy's neck from the shootout. That'll have to be blessed as well. Some of the paintings in the previously mentioned gallery level also involve religious themes.  Not obviously religious except for the angels, priests, and sick people.
 Taking out the trash... That being said, this game is the only open-world sandbox game I have ever played that effectively instills the idea of obedience to the law. The game has a built-in speed limit (40 mph on all roads) that, if the player decides to break, the cops will attempt to give the player a ticket. If the player reaches speeds over 70 mph in front of a cop, the cop will attempt to arrest the player. If the player is seen with a gun in public, the cop will attempt to arrest the player. If the player resists arrest(after speeding), the cop will attempt to arrest the player. If the player fires a shot from a gun for any reason, the cops will attempt to shoot and kill the player. If the player is chased by the cops for long enough, the player will become “wanted” and all cops will immediately begin chasing the player. The only way to escape being wanted is to ditch the car that the player is driving without being seen by the cops and remaining inconspicuous for around three real-time minutes.  I swear, I'm only holding onto the alcohol for a friend! And all of these rules are enforced at all points during the game. Even if the player is getting chased by and shot at by a rival gang, the cops will still attempt to arrest the player for going over 70 mph. It can get a bit annoying, but it’s definitely a refreshing change of pace to the Grand Theft Auto series.
 Sweet, sweet victory.
There are a couple of missions in which the player must save a friendly mafia member from being tortured for information. It’s only briefly mentioned and the torture is never really shown. There is one scene in which the rival mafia gang is torturing a union leader for wanting to go on strike, but this scene is simply a plot device to communicate the evil nature of the rival gang.
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