Relive the 30's
Who else can deny that sandbox games are fun and entertaining? In the beginning, these games were in 2D, being played from a bird's eye perspective, which was fun in my humble opinion. But when the 2000s hit the scene, the sandbox genre went from 2D to 3D, and boy have we been introduced to some bad-ass 3D sandbox games. The very first 3D sandbox game that I have ever played was Mafia when I was at a friend's house. I had to wait almost a year to buy a new PC in order to play the game(I still had a PC that ran only on DOS or Windows 3.1) and was it worth the wait? Hell yeah! Mafia did not disappoint. It was the game that not only introduced me to the 3D sandbox genre, but taught me a lot about the '30s and how the mafia works. It's an extraordinary game and I'm still eager to play this game whenever I have the chance. The gameplay is similar like in other 3D sandbox games such as Grand Theft Auto 3: you can roam around a city, steal cars, ride them, having some good car chases with the cops and so on. There are a few things that Mafia does better than GTA III and doesn't do so good in general. The good things: unlike in GTA, you can aim even from a first person perspective, giving you a much better view. Another thing is that Mafia is a bit more realistic, meaning that excessive speeding or crossing red lights or even just running around with a weapons catches the attention of the police. There are other good things, but I'd rather keep it short. And now onto the bad things: the first is the inventory screen. It's not a big problem, but having to switch weapons via an inventory screen is most likely a waste of time. GTA III has done it right by just using the mouse scroll to browse your weapons. Another thing that I did not like is how you pick up weapons or ammo. You pick them up RPG style. Again, GTA III has done it better, getting weapons and ammo is much easier by just walking over them. And let's not forget that GTA III came out first. The graphics and sound are amazing of for it's time, they look way better than in GTA III. So what are my final thoughts? Well, I may be a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series, I still think that Mafia is game that could compete with other sandbox series, because you do not get to see many game with the 1930s mafia and that's disappointing. Every now and then, a game with the 30's or 40's is made, but won't have the same charm and impression that Mafia has given not only for me but for other gamers as well.
