It’s the 1930’s in the Illinois city of Lost Haven and the fight between two mafia families leaves the streets “blood red” as seen by one man trying to survive. Reliving the world of the original “Mafia” game through the definitive edition as we go back to review this classical hit as it differs from the original 2002 release.
Lost Heaven for Lost Souls
The stock market has gone belly up in 1930’s Lost Heaven and so has the unemployment rate which means no money from an honest job leaving only one way of making money…that is killing and racketeering around the city.
The entire city of Lost Heaven is mainly controlled by the Salieri and Morello crime syndicates and it is apparent that the entire town is not big enough for 2 crime families which means that one mob boss and one family must die.
Between each of the two mafia families in Lost Heaven relies corrupting politicians and the police for immunity to weeding out the inside rats that tip off the feds and keeping the smaller gangs in line with the mafia to help them understand who really is in charge in a big town…it’s up to who gets all the resources and power.
From Cabbie to Made Man…
Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, and Al Capone were some of the biggest “Mafia” mob bosses of the 1930’s in New York. They were all made men in the mafia world and rose to the top of the pyramid quickly; but, what about the new star on the horizon in Lost Heaven…Tommy Angelo.
Working for peanuts in the city of Lost Heaven, Tommy Angelo doesn’t know about what it takes to be apart of crime family that is until a couple of Salieri’s thugs drop into his lap during a shootout pursuit.
From there on, Tommy’s life is not about making an honest living…it’s all about adding consequences under the thumb of Salieri while becoming the errand boy to carry out assassination plots to helping out with rackets and smuggling “hooch” around town to help organized crime be funneled only through the Salieri family instead of the Morello and . Eventually he becomes another link in the mafia that gets to do his own rackets while giving Salieri his cut of the action.
On the other side, Tommy has to think about life and death situations as it pertains to protecting not only his wife and kid; but, seeking out protection while he’s considered a “marked man” within the Salieri family for going behind the don’s back on a “stickup” job with another mob member without giving a cut or letting the don know of his plans…and what Tommy knows is that the Salieri family being the only crime family around has too much power to handle which indicates being stiffed by Salieri himself on the job.
In Tommy’s life…once starting in with the Salieri family there is no turning back with the ending potentially being planted 6 feet under or going to prison.
Mafia Definitive Edition Gameplay
Much of the gameplay as seen in the 2002 release of Mafia is still the same while graphics has been improved to support HD and UHD (2k and 4k support) compatibility in the Definitive Edition
The same handling cars are brought back in the game…it’s surprising to see how people could handle any of the 75 late 1920’s and 1930’s cars in the game without power steering or barely any brakes whatsoever on the streets but that is what it was like before power-steering and anti-lock brakes became a present thing…not to mention the 5 different race cars to use to easily escape the cops pursuit.
Unlike any of the Grand Theft Auto games where the cops don’t give a crap about what minor traffic laws you break unless you run over someone or pull out your gun and starting shooting, LHPD’s finest in Mafia will come after you for doing petty violations such as speeding or doing a hit-and-run that will warrant a fine to be paid all the way up to pulling out your gun in public which could result in being shot at by the police.
To prevent speeding, the game has a speed limiter feature to ensure that Tommy does not go a single MPH over the speed limit.
The wanted level in Mafia goes up to the 5-star max (unlike the 6-star level in most of the GTA games) where the cops won’t be arresting you anymore, they will shoot on sight with their tommy guns until Tommy is dead…then they’ll ask questions later on why you didn’t stop.
During some of the main campaign in Mafia, there are opportunities to perform drive-by shootings (shooting from a car) in some of the car chases in some missions with the only option of using “auto-aim” to disable an enemy car instead of using the same free-aim on foot.
For refilling health points, there are a number of medical kit box locations found in many of the mission locations as well as at many of the gas stations and the ambulances driving around the city.
Speaking of gas stations, Mafia is unique from GTA since it requires the player to watch the car’s fuel gauge to know when to refill meaning no more driving on “air fuel.”
Since there are no gun shops in the city of Lost Heaven, the only way to refill ammo at the storage locker up at Vincenzo’s office next to the garage at Salieri’s bar.
The Mystery of Herbert Baskerville
The campaign in Mafia Definitive Edition is just the tip of the iceberg as far as storyline is concerned…there is another side campaign that becomes available when the campaign is completed in the game’s free roam game mode.
There are a total of 12 side missions with the start of the first mission being an introduction mission from a mystery man or “character” named Herbert Baskerville as indicated by the first note left behind in Salieri’s bar on the pool table in the back of the restaurant.
One of 12 notes found around Salieri’s bar left by Herbert Baskerville.
The side missions themselves are all phone booth missions in conjunction with a “treasure hunt” to finding the correct phone booth by clues in the notes…just listen out for the ringing sound as there is no permanent waypoint set to find the phone.
The other 11 notes are all found in the restaurant in close proximity from the first note in the conference room, upstairs in the briefing room, and in Salieri’s office…none of the notes would appear outside in the main garage or up in Vincenzo’s office besides the garage.
By completing each phone booth mission would unlock rare vehicles to new wardrobe items based on the “weird” enemies Tommy encounters in the side missions…a few hints on some of the unlockable items includes sort of a tribute to “Pennywise” and the identity of Herbert Baskerville (look at the logo on the notes for a hint on what Herbert Baskerville may look like).
Mafia Definitive Edition Collectibles
The open world of Lost Heaven in Mafia Definitive Edition provides an opportunity to pick up a number of collectibles scattered across the map. There is a total of 167 collectibles found through the game available in the campaign and found out in the “free roam” game mode.
Pulp Magazine Collectibles
During the 1920’s and through the aftermath of the “Great Depression,” many people could only find action reading through fictional stories in crime thriller and science fiction magazines in the form of “mad scientist” plots to get their minds off of the real-life world. Even Tommy can come up with ideas to bring to the family by learning from a crime thriller that steps up to levels beyond the old idea of fitting someone with concrete shoes before being dumped in the river.
Representing a majority of the collectibles in Mafia, there are 80 magazines total (20 from each of the 4 magazine titles) that can be found in the game with some only being available in main campaign while others would easily be available in the free-roam game mode.
Gangsters Monthly Comic Collectibles
Speaking of crime thrillers, 10 of the collectibles in the game are Gangster Monthly comic book collectibles that represent some of the chapter titles and the characters in the game that sort of recap previous campaign missions which means you get to see Tommy’s adventure from a whole other animated view.
4 out of the 10 comic books can be found during the campaign missions while the other 6 can only be retrieved in the free roam mode.
Cigarette Card Collectibles
Grab some smokes and collect all Mafia-style baseball cards that come in each marked Big Break cigarette carton…that’s right!
22 cigarette cards representing both the main protagonists and antagonists characters from Mafia, Mafia 2, and Mafia 3 are found in Mafia Definitive Edition to be collected to count towards the 100% completion of the game. Even Tommy is popular made man to have his own collectible card!
17 out of the 22 cards can be retrieved only in the campaign missions in the game.
Mystery Fox Statue Collectibles
Remember the logo at the top of the notes left by Herbert Baskerville in the free-roam mode of Mafia…the logo symbolizes the mystery fox statues that are found through the open world of Lost Heaven.
Each mystery fox statue can be pinpointed by looking for the painted fox head logo found on buildings and structures to know the fox statue is nearby. There are a total of 50 fox statues found in the free-roam game mode in the game.
Post Card Collectibles
Not really considered collectibles, there are 5 postcards that can be picked up at Bertone’s Auto Service location that would reveal key landmark names and their locations in Lost Heaven to give clues on where to find 5 hidden cars/prototype cars exclusive to the game.
Personal Views about Mafia Definitive Edition
Nearly 20 years since the original release, the first Mafia game remains a classical hit video game title that mirrors the GTA series in a way with slight differences in the story to the wanted level system in the game although this game was never meant to be as extreme as any of the GTA games on paper.
In comparison to GTA 3, the original Mafia game is the cornerstone game in all of it’s series providing the challenges to finding each collectible in an open world while providing a simple and straight-forward gameplay in the campaign.
While the graphics improved, the definitive edition of Mafia was not optimized properly for the PC platform before its release date back in September 2020 as the game had some framing and lagging/micro-stuttering issues that took some of the enjoyment out of playing.
On the same subject of downsides, the classical game mode did not have assists such as the navigation system or the mini map showing the streets in the original game to assist the player in getting to the destinations in the game while the definitive edition did provide such assists that did take some of the challenge out this game mode as seen in the original.
Also, as far as the traffic laws that could be broken in the definitive edition…it seems that the only crimes that mattered were speeding, hit-and-run, punching someone…and firing the gun into the public while running a red light that was one of the laws that could put the cops on you is not one of the laws that could be broken in the remastered version.
For me, Mafia’s definitive edition was just a “for-show” remastered video game leaving out some slightly important details and the lack of a challenge to make it a somewhat below average action-adventure game for 2020.
