Mafia LIVE! – Review

Our rating:

By: Mafia LIVE!

Version #: 2.1

Date Released: 2009-01-13

Developer: Aftershock Innovations LLC

Price: 2.99

User Rating:

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My family code is 258160042. For those who play this game, or wondering what this is about, well, get used to it because this is what you will seek for when you install this game onto your iPhone. This is my mafia family code. Adding this code will yield you strength and prestige. I will give you an offer that you can’t refuse.

Here we are, at the turn of the century (not really, but I have always wanted to say that), online gaming was eventually going to happen on the iPhone. Yes, there have been games that allowed you to store your scores or compare them with others but seriously, Mafia Live and the likes of others such as iMob is coming out strong in the online iPhone gaming scene.

Addicting? Tremendously! Fun? Absolutely!

Focusing on Mafia Live!, this game has been getting so much hype that everyone is going crazy as if the New Kids on the Block is in town. 

A quick synopsis of the game…

You are a rookie on the streets trying to become a Don of your Mafia family. You will need to buy guns and cars to battle other Mafia Families (other real players in the world). In order to attain guns and cars, you will be required to build up your street credit, experience, and earn cash by buying properties and performing “jobs” such as, robbing a bank, trashing a car, etc. Doing all these things will allow you to hone your skills and gain respect.

As you grow to become powerful, more options become available to you. You can join forces with your friends and add to each other’s strength and even persuade other Families in the game to join you, whom are all real players.

For those who are just starting out in games such as this, this game will require your constant attention. It’s not a game that you can come back to, save and play at your own will. You literally nurture your character and form it to whatever you like.

Based on the game play, there is “lag” time based on your stats of when you can perform the next job, or perform a purchase of properties or attack another player, etc. Essentially, this game is forcing you to come back after the predetermined time to perform all the things above again, till you meet your stats restriction. Of course, each time you come back, you become stronger and wiser!

So let’s take a look at this deeper and see what we can uncover.

Look and Feel
I must admit, trying out the free version (not from the same company), iMob has a better design and overall has a more pleasing look. With Mafia Live!, it’s essentially all text based with some graphics here and there.

Overall, it’s not that bad, it works and if everything is working the way it should, looks should not really matter much. However, eye candy is always a good thing. Just makes the overall experience far more entertaining.

Nevertheless, although it may not be the most graphical game out there (or in comparison to similar games), it gets the job done.
 

Functionalities
For what Mafia Live! Lacks in the design perspective, they make it up from the stability and playability perspective. One of the mistakes that iMob made was the simple fact that it had no stability, although it looked pretty, underneath it all, it was more trouble than it was worth.

Mafia Live!, on the other hand, built a strong backbone instead of a pretty interface. This attracted tremendous following, even at a cost of a premium. The extra cost was not an issue as long as it was stable right from the start.

I would hate to fail to mention that although iMob may no longer have stability issues, the fact of the matter is, there are more following with Mafia Live! than there are with iMob.  Don’t get me wrong, both are actually great to play, and obviously are similar concepts.

Enough of the comparison and let’s dive into the actual gameplay.

For starters, you are automatically created an account with a Family ID, once you install the Mafia Live! application. From here, it will run you through a brief tutorial to show you what exactly you need to do with this game. How everything flows throughout the game. It will take probably 10 minutes before you get the idea of it, if this is your first time to something like this. It’s not rocket scientist but yes, you do need to use some common sense in deciding certain things within the game.

At some point in the game, you get to choose classes such as Capitalist, Psychopath or Executioner, all of who are specialized in different essentials of the game. If you are a money person, then a Capitalist may be the path you are seeking, if you like to get your fist and knuckles dirty, then perhaps an Executioner is your calling. You get my drift.

Depending on the path you take, this will be your life. Once you have decided this, it’s now time to do things WITH your life. You start off doing jobs, buying small properties and even fight with other mafia players (real players). Based on your stats, this will determine the success of your outcome.

Soon, you’ll start adding “other” real players to your Mafia Family and start to build your numbers so that you can essentially protect each other from other rival families.

Interesting huh, so far so good? Now, as you do these jobs, buy properties, fight, and so forth, there will be a limit of how big a property you can buy, how many fights you can handle or how many jobs you can perform. This is all limited to your stats. Obviously, this is why you keep coming back to it because the more you do all these things, the more fights you can get into, the bigger the jobs you can perform  and overall, the more money you can make.

How does this all work together?

Well, basically, at the bottom of your screen, you will see four options.

•    My Hood
•    Jobs
•    Fight
•    Recruit

This is your main navigation where you can access other sub navigations within it. Simply put, “My Hood” consists of all the sub-navigation dealing with your character. “Jobs” has all the jobs that you can perform which also lists all the criteria’s to perform a job and “Fight” well, do I really need to explain this? I will emphasize that when you do initiate a fight, you are fighting against another REAL person which is pitting your stats against his. Without stating the obvious, the better the stats the winner will arise. Winning will yield money and experience points that you take from your opponents. So this is not for the faint of heart.

 Last but not least, Recruit, this section is where you can invite players to join your family from your address book. Of course, to add the actual Family Code, such as 258160042, you will need to do that in the Consigliore within the “My Hood” navigation.

What are these stats you are talking about?

Well, this is your bread and butter so to speak (I don’t think that is the right analogy) but anyway, you are presented with the following:

•    Cash
•    Health
•    Energy
•    Stamina
•    Exp
•    Level

Without going into too much depth with each of these, essentially, your cash is what you need to purchase properties and weapons. Your health is needed when you initiate a fight or get attacked. Your energy determines how many jobs you can do (jobs have certain energy requirements). Your stamina determines how many times you can initiate an attack. Your Exp shows much more you need to go before you level to the level (Level 1, Level 2, etc.). The higher you go the more options you unlock and the stronger you get.

Once you meet expend your stamina, cash, energy or stamina, a timer will be presented underneath each stat of when you will regain a point of that stat. For instance, If you have 5 stamina and you fought 5 times, you now have 0. In order to get a point of stamina back, you will have to wait 5 minutes. If you want to wait for all 5, then you have to wait 25 minutes.

Are you getting the idea of how this game can lure you over and over again?

If you bundle all these things together and wrap a nice red bow around it, you have Mafia Live!

Final Word
If I had one final word, it would be “Addicting.” I must admit, I like all the “mob” games out there such as this and I think there are 3 main ones at the moment (iMob, iMafia and Mafia Live!). At least these are the ones that stood out and fortunately for Mafia Live!, the first to do it right. So, the following is currently with Mafia Live! but I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give the others a try but they stumbled upon a few hurdles which crippled them.

At the time of writing this, iMob and iMafia I know that they were addressing the issues (hurdles) that they encountered, hopefully, it is not too late.

But with Mafia Live!, you can rest assure, it won’t disappoint! They can make you an offer that you can’t refuse.

Feel free to leave your family code in the comment section!

Quick Take:
Value: High
Would I Buy Again: Definitely
Learning Curve: Medium
Who is it for: Online Gamers
What I like: Playability
What I Don’t: Better design would be nice but I rather have a working application than an application that crashes and looks pretty.