These great cutscenes with Italian-American accents delivering Scorcese-like scenes. I remember the story of Mafia being so movie-like. The problem is, in 2020, progressing is a lot more hard work. Liberally borrowing from every Mafia-led movie you've seen, its best feature was always that its narrative took a downward trajectory, that Tommy's life gets worse and more meaningless the further you progress. It covers a decade of his life as he descends into the murderous antics of a mobster lifestyle, while the Salieri family for which he works loses its grip on power in the city. This was the tale of Tommy Angelo, a congenial cab driver who gets mixed up in a Mafioso group of apparently about seven people total. And now, for me at least, that magic appears to have fizzled out. It's just, all these not that great bits put together once seemed to find a special magic. And the cutscenes are a mixed bag of some nice moments intermixed with some really hackneyed drivel.

The gunplay is atrocious, the enemies hilarious bullet sponges, and deaths often random. The on-foot sections are a gibbering mess, never worse than when you're supposed to be 'jumping' to escape over rooftops. The driving is dull and monotonous, not least with the necessity to obey traffic laws to actually get where you're going, in deliberately clumsy cars. The key thing is, no particular aspect of Mafia is actually very good. But as a game to play today, it's such a chore. I adore that it jumps through time, that the city's cars constantly develop as you progress, and I still completely love the ending. I still love the narrative arc, as hackneyed as it may be. Its idiosyncrasies, its jankiness, its abysmal checkpointing - I ran out of patience with it. But this time, probably my fifth or sixth time playing the game through, I just couldn't find it. I still loved it in 2011 when I last returned to Lost Haven. But might eighteen years since its release mean maybe it's already too late? I've been back to the original to see.Įrk. This long-loved, but very long-in-the-tooth 2002 mob-me-do, seems like such a fascinating prospect to see given an overhaul.

With the second and third already out, but neither game worth playing at all, it is the first that creates intrigue.

It was with raised eyebrows that I met the news of 2K's plans to re-release all three Mafia games. Past Perfect is a retrospective column in which we look back into gaming history to see whether old favourites are still worth playing today.

Mafia game 2002