Mafia on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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It’s 1930. After an inadvertent brush with the mafia, cabdriver Tommy Angelo is reluctantly thrust into the world of organized crime. Initially, he is uneasy about falling in with the Salieri family, but soon the rewards become too big to ignore.
Mafia is a action, story rich and crime game
developed by Illusion Softworks
and published by 2K.
Released on August 28th 2002 is available only on Windows
in 8 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Polish and Russian.
It has received 15,257 reviews of which 13,346 were positive and 1,911 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Mafia into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
- Processor: 1.4 GHz or faster
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 3D Graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 3 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
One of my absolute farvorite games of all time. I have to say, that didn't aged too well in some aspects and I had problems running it on my system, but I still really love it. (The Remake is also pretty solid, for me it missed some of the charme, but for new players, it's probably more enjoyable than the original...) For it's time Mafia had a very authentic and mature story, great voice acting, a pretty empty but still very atmospheric open world and a lot of memorable characters. This was at a time, were most shooter games were still pretty simple in it's story and mechanics. Games like Deus Ex, Max Payne and Mafia changed that for me. Absolut classic, that has some problems on modern systems, but I still love it... 9/10
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Mafia probably had the misfortune of being released after Grand Theft Auto III, which meant that the game was inevitably compared to the cult sandbox game. But there is actually something else fundamental behind Mafia. it is more of a linear, story driven experience that trades chaotic sandbox freedom for narrative structure, atmosphere and immersion. The story is arguably the centerpiece of the game. It spans several years and is told through a series of flashbacks as the main character, Tommy Angelo, recounts his life in the mafia family to a detective. This framing device helps the game cover a long stretch of time in a believable and paced way, with time jumps and changes in the city supporting the feeling of progression. Tommy is a more believable character: he's not a criminal by nature, but a regular taxi driver who is pulled into the world of organized crime by circumstance. The early missions highlight this, showing his everyday life and how it gradually falls apart, leaving him little choice but to join the Salieri family. It's a grounded and effective approach that makes the character feel more human and his decisions more understandable. Despite having a large map, Mafia doesn't offer much in terms of free exploration or sandbox style content. Missions are tightly structured and follow a clear path from one point to the next, with little reason to stray off the beaten track. This becomes noticeable after a while: where in GTA III I could recall the layout of the city from memory because of all the time spent roaming around, Lost Heaven remained a vague collection of roads and landmarks. I mostly followed the mission markers, rarely wandering off. And yet, the city still feels like a real place. Lost Heaven is carefully designed to reflect a 1930s American metropolis, complete with appropriate architecture, music, and everyday life. People go about their routines. Sometimes you see people park their cars and go for a walk. The city has also less forgiving rules: speed limits are enforced, cars need fuel, and the police will intervene if you break traffic laws or cause trouble. The presence of a larger countryside area, including places like a dam that you never actually visit in any mission, reinforces the idea that you're just one part of a bigger world. These details ground the experience in a way few games of its time attempted. One of the most interesting aspects of the setting is how it evolves. Since the story takes place over several years, the city changes too. Construction sites you drive past in early missions may be completed later on. The cars in traffic are gradually replaced by newer models. These small details subtly reinforce the passage of time and give a sense of life beyond the immediate plot. That being said, driving in Mafia is often not very exciting. The vehicles handle slowly and awkwardly, likely a result of trying to accurately depict the clunky cars of the era. This realism may not appeal to everyone, but it does serve the immersion. You're not expected to speed around corners or escape the police with ease. In fact, reckless driving will almost certainly get you arrested or worse. Where driving in a GTA title is part of the fun, here it's more of a controlled and cautious activity. It may not be thrilling, but it fits the tone of the game. Gunfights in Mafia are similarly grounded. A few bullets can take you down, forcing you to approach shootouts carefully and tactically. The game lacks a formal cover system, but you can crouch and hide behind objects. Enemy AI isn't smart, but they tend to have good aim, which makes blind rushing a bad idea. You're limited in the number of weapons you can carry, with one larger firearm and a couple of pistols, which again contributes to the realism. The selection of weapons is decent, and though grenades and molotovs exist, they're rarely used and mostly forgettable. Overall, combat is serviceable but often frustrating, especially when paired with trial and error. It feels like the weakest part of the game and stands in contrast to the careful immersion established elsewhere. Still, it manages to offer some variety in scenarios and doesn't completely fall apart. Where Mafia really shines is in its attention to small details. You can shoot out car tires and windows, and bullet holes remain visible on vehicles. Fuel leaks cause your gas to run out faster. Civilians may sometimes pick up guns from fallen enemies and fight back. There is a freeride mode, but without missions or real objectives, it quickly feels empty. The city is visually detailed, but outside of the main story, there's little to engage with. The "Freeride Extreme" mode offers absurd challenges and unlocks fantasy style cars, some of which have enhanced performance. But even these can feel odd, as the game's driving mechanics were never built to support high speed vehicles. When it was released, Mafia didn't get universal praise. It was often dismissed as just another GTA clone, judged by its surface similarities rather than its actual goals. But in reality, it shares more with simulation games. The slow driving, the deadly shootouts, the limited freedom all of it is part of a deliberate illusion. Mafia isn't trying about playground of chaos but about a immersive and realistic story. It's not perfect, so don't expect an open world with lots of content or entertaining activities. The gameplay also sucks at some points. But the narrative and story are great.
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Despite the enormous bloodshed, Mafia is ultimately a very charming game. You really feel like a part of the Salieri family, as you work together with your buddies to get things done. Tommy is a relatable character, because he doesn't start out as a criminal. It kinda happened to him, though at the same time it was his own choice. Many times, the story will make you ask the question "Is it worth it?" The developers put in a lot of effort in bringing the game to life. The voice acting is above average for its time, each character has their own gestures and body language. Most interesting subtle detail is, every time you go to Vincenzo he's always doing something else, and walks to his table once you enter. It takes some extra time to get to business, but it gives you this sense that he's a real person doing his own stuff when you're not there. There are also traffic rules. You can get fined if you run the red traffic light, even though it doesn't mean anything since there's not really money in the game. I think this is an interesting mechanic, because it makes the traffic lights real, rather than just props. The 1930's are iconic, cute cars with tiny chassis, gunmen wearing suits and hats, iconic weapons like the Colt 1911 and Thompson submachine gun. I wish public transport was a bigger part of the story, because it was a lot of fun to take the train and see the city from a different perspective, and it was also nice that I didn't have to drive for once. Speaking of driving, Mafia has surprisingly good driving mechanics, though it's a little less surprising once you know that Mafia was originally conceived as a racing game. But there are 2 small problems I have: 1. it switches back to automatic transmission every time you reload a checkpoint. so I have to manually switch it back to manual gearing. at some point I just gave up. 2. there's no cockpit view. most of the time you're using the bird's eye camera, which feels less immersive, and also very slow. It doesn't help that there's a speed limit of 40 mph, and police will chase you if they see you go 41 mph or more. Luckily it's often easy to lose the cops. And police cars show up on the radar so you can adjust speed accordingly. The shooting in this game feels very awkward by modern standards. There is a lot of recoil, that takes a long time to recover. But this is compensated by the awkward AI that very rarely hits you. The typical hitman has an accuracy of 10% or so. They also don't really know how to be aggressive, and you can often just shoot their arm while they can't see you. Even so, I've died a lot of times. There's not many health packs around, so you have to do everything to not get lose HP. The game is a little buggy, but nothing too game-breaking. At one point I had a kneeling cop floating in the air at the airport. Very random. All in all, a very impressive game and story. The boat mission was my favorite. It's cool they have a Chinatown, even though there's not much there. The biggest downside is that you can't look down on the city from Oak Hill. It just looks like an ocean. That's why I can't wait to revisit Mafia in the Definitive Edition.
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Even though playing this game was such a nice nostalgic journey, I must admit I spent a lot of time in the missions just driving from one destination to another (often with the speed limiter).
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That's a masterpiece from the good early days. A lot of people see Mafia series as a contender to GTA. And I can definitely see why, but to be honest, apart from the genre (open world, on foot/in car mechanics etc) they are totally different games. GTA is more about modern-world and funny with own quirks. But Mafia looks like a serious movie-like experience. Animations here to be honest are much more detailed than in Starfield :D Also, there are a lot of details, in each mission there are some things game does not tell you. Sometimes there are several ways it can develop or end, sometimes it's smaller things that can help to draw less cops, make car chase easier and so on. Races. Mafia at first had to be a racing game only, that's why we have an interesting car physics model, a VERY impressive car damage model, speed limits, red light tickets and so on. Of course they could not leave all their ideas aside, so we have got the legendary RACES mission, which at the time of my childhood was almost unbeatable for most of my friends, including me :D Also, at that time we could not skip it. In Steam's version you can choose an option "Skip Race" and move on, so don't be afraid. But I have got first place this time on Normal, so another childhood's demon has been destroyed :D Story is mostly serious, only sometimes you can have some jokes or funny moments. It's a tough story about criminal world. Music. It's awesome, songs are very well selected for time period and help with immersion greatly. But I HATE when in purchased product you get some things removed because some "licence" has expired. I don't care that it expired, I have purchased the product in specific state. Make restrictions for new purchases, for example. But good news: just grab a simple mod that restores original music. Difficulty. There are no settings for that apart from races. I have found that Mafia is pretty easy now for me, except several missions. But the worst part is a final "fight" sequence at the very end, because your enemy is basically cheating. Using Thompson he is 100% accurate if you are out of your cover. Also, after a hit you can't do anything, so if you are being shot at - you are just standing and catching bullets with no way to move or shoot back. And after several seconds it's game over. To be honest, this fight is absolutely stupid in terms of difficulty. I know that it had to be hard, but not in this cheating way. Mostly problem with difficulty is because of: - a clunky controls - a huge recoil from weapons - shotguns can kill you almost instantly I was surprised that Mafia works on Win11 without any problems, no need for any patches or mods, impressive. Overall, I highly recommend to play it if you are OK with older visuals :)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Mafia is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.
Mafia is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 9.99€ on Steam.
Mafia received 13,346 positive votes out of a total of 15,257 achieving a rating of 8.54.
😎
Mafia was developed by Illusion Softworks and published by 2K.
Mafia is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Mafia is not playable on MacOS.
Mafia is not playable on Linux.
Mafia is a single-player game.
Mafia does not currently offer any DLC.
Mafia does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Mafia does not support Steam Remote Play.
Mafia is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Mafia.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 04 September 2025 11:36 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 09 September 2025 19:44 |
| Steam price | 15 September 2025 04:46 |
| Steam reviews | 15 September 2025 06:03 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Mafia, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Mafia
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Mafia concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Mafia compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
47
Developer
Illusion Softworks
Publisher
2K
Release
28 Aug 2002
Platforms