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Introduction

Mafia is a third-person mobster action game in development by Illusion Softworks, the same company that produced the atmospherically rich WWII combat sim Hidden & Dangerous. Mafia is set in the 1930's during the height of mobster infamy and prohibition-era bootlegging. The classic setting provides a perfect backdrop for Illusion’s development team to create a game full of wild car chases, mobster assassinations, bank robberies, and anything else associated with a gangster crime world of the time. Using an internally developed 3D engine dubbed LS3D, the Illusion team has crafted a huge city that is an enormously detailed mixture of 1930's Chicago and New York. Lost Heaven, as it is known, will be the place where your character rises from an everyday taxi driver, to a gun-slinging mobster with exceptional abilities. Your name is Tommy, and you are assimilated into the mob by accident as you find yourself driving the get-away car–your taxi–for a bunch of gangsters on the run. After it’s found out that you provided assistance to one of the city’s most revered and feared mob families, you lose your taxicab in a dramatic fashion. But the mobsters, being impressed with your expert driving ability, offer you a position that you somewhat reluctantly accept. After all, would you rather have a job, or stand in line at the soup rationing station?

The City of Lost Heaven aspires to have over 12 square miles of simulated streets, complete with simulated traffic and sky-scraping buildings, as well as peaceful, or not so peaceful, countryside settings. The city is divided up into neighborhoods consisting of everything from upscale mansions, to dingy slums in the ghetto. Many of the buildings in the game are based on actual historic photographs, that have been thoroughly researched by Illusion. The design team’s ambition is to fully replicate the environment of a 1930's city, including banks, movie houses, religious buildings, fire stations, and other common structures. There are several ways your character can travel in the game. You can walk the streets on foot, or drive one of over 60 different vehicles specific to the time period. Illusion has even developed a very elaborate physics and damage modeling system for all of the vehicles, so you can be sure that those hair-raising car chases will be as realistic as possible. There is an elevated railway being designed for the game that, if used in the final product, could be applied to create some very innovative gameplay and mission design, as well as being a major form of transportation. Illusion promises that the player will be able to navigate the city by using its many landmark buildings, thus eliminating any need for redundant maze solving as seen in other games.

Mafia has a contiguous story that plays out in a linear fashion, but the missions are designed to offer the player a great deal of variety in gameplay, with each mission taking place in a different part of the city. Adding to the dynamics of the game, you will have to deal not only with rival gang members, but also with the police who may or may not be on your side of the fence. When it comes time to perform a hit for the Don, or defend yourself from a gang attack, there will be several weapons at your disposal. Most notably is the Tommy gun, which was very accurately depicted in Hidden & Dangerous, so there’s a good chance it will be just as fun to shoot in Mafia. Additional weapons include the venerable Colt 1911, a shotgun, and the S&W model 27 MAGNUM. Illusion Softworks has an excellent history of giving the player plenty of toys to play with, and it appears Mafia will carry on that tradition.