Mafia (series)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Mafia video game series has sold more than 34 million copies over its lifetime. Four mainline games sit at its core, joined by a remake, a remaster and two spin-offs for mobile devices.

  Not one of the cities in these games exists on a map. Their names are invented, even though the stories lean hard on real history.

  Why build a crime series around places that never existed? What does a game about gangsters gain by handing the player a speeding ticket? And why did a member of the European Parliament call for one of these games to be banned?

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• 2. Invented Cities

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  Lost Heaven, the fictional city of the first game, belongs to the Great Depression era. Its design blends New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, though some descriptions call it loosely based on Chicago alone. The story there runs from 1930 to 1938.

  Empire Bay, the setting of the second game, covers the years from 1945 to 1951. It is primarily a fictional version of New York. Echoes of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit also appear in its streets.

  New Bordeaux, a fictionalized New Orleans, moves the series to 1968 and the late years of that decade. Like the others, it is a stand-in rather than a copy.

  The fourth mainline game leaves America behind. Mafia: The Old Country spreads its story across several towns in the Sicilian valley during the 1900s. Until then, every city in the series had been modeled on an American one.

  Each of these places comes with everyday rules, and the games enforce them with surprising seriousness.

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• 3. Rules of the Road

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  A driver who speeds or drives recklessly in a Mafia game can expect a citation. Repeated violations bring a harsher reaction, as police work to incapacitate the player. Traffic regulations are enforced stringently and realistically.

  Pedestrians in these cities generally stop for traffic signals, which gives the streets the feel of a working city. Vehicles and an explorable urban setting create a basic simulation of urban life. The same open-ended atmosphere has since appeared in several other games.

  Grand Theft Auto offers the usual point of comparison, and Mafia follows a more linear path than that series. Players complete missions handed out by friends and mafia figures in the city underworld. Those missions carry the overall story forward.

  Most of the games also add a Free Ride mode, where players can trigger missions from within the open world.

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• 4. Four Eras, Four Men

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  Tommy Angelo is the first man the series asks players to become, a taxi driver turned mobster. His rise and fall plays out inside the Salieri crime family. The game that tells his story was known before release as Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven.

  In August 2002, Gathering of Developers published Mafia for Microsoft Windows, with Illusion Softworks as the developer. PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions followed in February 2004 and March 2004.

  Vito Scaletta, a young Sicilian-American criminal and World War II veteran, anchors Mafia II. This standalone sequel arrived in August 2010 from 2K Czech, the studio formerly called Illusion Softworks. 2K Games published it for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and a Mac OS X version came in December 2011.

  Vito wants to repay his late father's debts and secure a better lifestyle. Instead, he is caught in a power struggle among the Mafia families of Empire Bay.

  The villains of the series share a common thread. They are commonly characters who betrayed the protagonist or his organization, or whoever does the most to block his progress.

  Lincoln Clay, a former criminal and Vietnam veteran, leads Mafia III, released in October 2016. Hangar 13 developed it, and 2K Games published it for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A macOS version arrived in May 2017, and a Google Stadia version in October 2021. Hangar 13 has developed the series since this third installment.

  Lincoln is forced back into crime to help his adoptive family settle problems with the local branch of the Mafia. The Mafia then betrays and murders that family. He sets out for revenge while slowly building a criminal empire and seizing power from other organizations in the city.

  For Lincoln, the revenge would stretch beyond the main game into downloadable stories.

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• 5. Stories on the Side

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  On the 26th of May 2010, ahead of Mafia II's release, four content packs were announced as pre-order bonuses in America and Europe. Each one was tied to a different retailer. The Vegas Pack offered two additional cars and suits for Vito. The War Hero Pack offered two military-style vehicles and suits. GameStop and EBGames carried both.

  The Renegade Pack, sold through Amazon, held two sports cars and two jackets. Best Buy customers received the Greaser Pack, with two hot rods and two suits. All four could also be bought as add-ons on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam.

  The Betrayal of Jimmy was the first of three major downloadable packs for Mafia II after launch. It began as a PlayStation 3 exclusive and follows Jimmy, a gun-for-hire who works for various criminal outfits in Empire Bay. Jimmy's Vendetta continued his story in September 2010.

  Joe's Adventures arrived in November 2010. It follows Vito's best friend, Joe Barbaro, during Vito's imprisonment in the main story. In December 2011, Feral Interactive released Mafia II: Director's Cut, which bundled the base game with all of these packs.

  Faster, Baby! reached Mafia III in March 2017 and introduced Sinclair Parish, a town on the outskirts of New Bordeaux. There Lincoln tries to expose Walter Beaumont, the town's racist sheriff. Civil rights activist Charles Laveau and his daughter Roxy help him. A free demo of the base game appeared on the 28th of March 2017, the same day as this pack.

  Stones Unturned followed in May 2017. Lincoln teams up with his friend John Donovan to stop Connor Aldridge, a former CIA agent and Donovan's nemesis. Aldridge has stolen a nuclear bomb in hopes of ending the Vietnam War. Sign of the Times, in July 2017, sends Lincoln to investigate a satanic cult called the Ensanglante.

  Cat Daddy Games developed Mafia III: Rivals for Android and iOS as a tie-in with the main game. It is a role-playing game built around turn-based combat.

  Marco Russotto is the hero of a mobile game that Twistbox Games developed to coincide with Mafia II. Oasys Mobile published it, and Connect2Media published the iOS version. Despite the name, it is not a direct adaptation. It is a prequel that bridges the first two games.

  Marco is a soldato in the Salieri crime family and the nephew of the family's gunsmith, Vincenzo. He travels to Empire Bay to find and kill Tommy Angelo as revenge for his betrayal of the family. The game offers two possible endings, and only one is canon, leading into the events of Mafia II.

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• 6. Second Chances

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  In May 2020, Mafia II and all of its downloadable packs returned as Mafia II: Definitive Edition. The studio d3t handled the remaster for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows. Mafia III: Definitive Edition arrived the same month, combining the base game with its three story packs.

  Mafia: Definitive Edition came in September 2020 as a remake of the original game. Hangar 13 developed it, and 2K Games published it for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It builds on gameplay systems introduced in Mafia III. Among its new features are motorcycles, a first for the series.

  The plot of the 2002 original survives largely intact. The remake follows it closely, with alterations mainly to the dialogue and the locations.

  Mafia: Trilogy gathered the Definitive Editions of all three early games into one pack. It was released alongside the remake in September 2020. The next mainline game would not even be announced until August 2022.

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• 7. Return to Sicily

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  The 20th of August 2024 brought the name Mafia: The Old Country. The fourth mainline installment had been announced two years earlier, but this reveal confirmed it as a prequel to the first game. It would explore the origins of the Mafia.

  At the Game Awards on the 12th of December 2024, a full trailer showed more of the setting, narrative and gameplay. It also gave a release date of Summer 2025. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows.

  Unlike its predecessors, The Old Country plays in a more linear way and puts a bigger focus on storytelling. It still keeps the open-world structure.

  Enzo Favara is its hero. He joins the Torrisi crime family to escape his indentured labor in Sicily's sulfur mines. In this game, the road into the Mafia begins in a sulfur mine.

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• 8. Praise and Backlash

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  By November 2020, the Mafia: Trilogy had generated lifetime sales of more than 2 million units.

  Mafia III reviewed significantly worse than the other games, with critics citing a repetitive gameplay structure and technical issues. Its reviews were mixed overall. The first two games drew generally positive reviews instead.

  The first game earned particular praise for the realism of its gameplay. Critics admired the narratives across the series. Mafia II, however, was criticized for its linear open-world design.

  Sonia Alfano, a member of the European Parliament, called for Mafia II to be banned. She was president of Italy's association for the families of Mafia victims, and her own father had been murdered by the Mafia.

  Take-Two Interactive answered that the game's depiction of the American Mafia was no different from organized crime films such as The Godfather. The company also responded to Unico National, which accused the game of racism. That group claimed the game portrayed Italian Americans unfairly and was "indoctrinating" youth into violent stereotypes.

  More than 200 uses of one particular expletive once gave Mafia II the record for the most profanity in a video game. It beat the previous holder, The House of the Dead: Overkill. In 2013, Grand Theft Auto V took the record, with that word spoken or read in excess of 1,000 times.

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