Top 6 Mafia games of all time

Our love affair with gangsters and organized crimes is limitless, they are best represented in the movies like The Godfather series, Scarface, Goodfellas, American Gangster and more.The Mafia is a type of organized crime syndicate that primarily ply their trade in protection racketeering, mostly like the use of violent intimidation to manipulate local economic activities, or drug trafficking and fraud.Each group, known as a "family", that claims sovereignty over an area, usually a neighbourhood of a larger city, operates in rackets. The Omerta is a cultural expression and code of honor among the Mafia families, that places legitimate importance on a family sense of a "code of silence." Many video games have been released based on the mafia or gangsters theme. Some gangster games are even set in recent times with settings as modern as the 80s and the 90s. These games give us a more realistic experience of the underworld happenings that were prevalent in mid-nineteenth century America, the weapons, cars and even scenarios that the player is presented with. Also, these games focus on letting the player become part of the Mafia or similar crime organisations by progressing through missions, which enlists them from a Ground Soldier to become the Don of a family. These crime-filled underground universes forces you to make good choices even as you play as the bad guys. The important thing in these games is that how beautifully they have managed to capture the entire nexus of organized crime and all the aspects surrounding it.The list here consists of six best mafia video games, in which the player starts the game as a foot soldier and slowly climbs through the hierarchy and becomes the Don of the family.

#1 Scarface - The World is Yours

Every movie loving fan will surely not forget Al Pacino’s Scarface. This movie tells the story of a Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Al Pacino) who arrives in 1980s Miami with nothing, and rises up to become a powerful drug kingpin. In the final scene of the movie, Montana is assassinated by Alejandro Sosa.

Unlike the movie, this Scarface video game, begins from the film’s final scene, where Tony Montana’s mansion is attacked by assassins sent by Alejandro Sosa. Here, instead, Montana kills all the assassins and hides in his safehouse outside Miami.

After three months, Tony returns to Miami and comes to know that his massive drug empire has been reduced to nothing. He starts from scratch and builds his own empire by taking revenge and finally after all the competitions are eliminated, the Montana Cartel becomes the most powerful drug cartel in Miami.

#2 The Godfather - The Game

This list of mafia games would be incomplete without the inclusion of The Godfather: The Game. This game was based upon the 1972 film of the same name, where Marlon Brando portrays the role of Vito Corleone and is the Godfather and Don of Corleone family.

The players take control of Aldo Trapani, whose father Johnny Trapani, member of Corleone family gets murdered by the orders of Don Barzini. The game was praised for its storyline which borders with the original movie.

The game features some of the major events from the movie, where the player, witnesses Luca Brasi's murder, kills Luca's assassin, plants the gun for Michael Corleone to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, helps Rocco Lampone put the horse's head in Jack Woltz's bed, guards Don Corleone at the hospital, witnesses the death of Sonny Corleone, kills Sonny's assassins, appears at the meeting of the Five Families and kills the Dons of the four other families during the baptism scene.

There are five mafia families in the game: The Corleones, The Barzinis, The Tattaglias, The Cuenos and The Stracci.

#3 The Godfather II

Third on our list is Electronic Arts The Godfather II. This game is an excellent blend of strategy and third-person action gameplay. It is based on the 1974 hit The Godfather II movie.

The players take the role of Dominic, the Underboss of Aldo Trapani, who is is killed by a sniper upon reaching the airport in Cuba. Michael Corleone appoints Dominic as the new Don of New York to keep the city under the Corleone Family's control.

The game takes place in three different places, New York, Florida and Cuba. There are four mafia families in the game : The Corleones, The Manganos, The Almeidas and The Granados. Dominic, as Don of his own family, recruits various players with their respective skills to be his soldiers and with their help takes back the rackets in different cities.

#4 Mafia II

One of the best games in this list is Mafia II, which is the direct sequel to 2002's hit game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. Mafia II is set in the 1940s - early 1950s era of Empire Bay, a fictional city based on New York City,Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit. The story follows a gangster and his efforts to climb through the ranks of the Mafia families.

The players take control of Vito Scaletta, a war veteran who becomes caught up with the Mafia when trying to pay back his father's debts. Mafia II received positive reviews from critics everywhere, with praise directed at the story, the characters and the graphics.

The cutscenes in the game are created by the game engine in real-time. For instance, if the player is riding in a car and a cut scene starts, the player will be driving the same car with the same condition and will be wearing the same clothes.

The game features three different in-game radio stations (Empire Central Radio, Empire Classic Radio and Delta Radio) with licensed music, news, and commercials. Also, there are nearly 30 to 40 vehicles in the game as well as licensed music from the early 40’s and 50’s era.

#5 Grand Theft Auto - Vice City

Rockstar Game’s 2002 big hit – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City gave gamers one of the best mafia games of this generation. This game follows the story of a mafia hitman known as Tommy Vercetti, who eventually goes on to snatch power from the hands of other criminal organizations in Vice City to establish his own crime empire.

The game is set in 1986 within the fictional city of Vice City, which is heavily based on Miami.

GTA:Vice City became the best-selling video game of 2002, and has sold over 20 million copies as of 2011.

#6 Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven

Topping our list is Mafia – The City of Lost Heaven is the prequel of 2K Sports Mafia II. The game’s realistic depiction of the mob business during the 1930s was well praised among the fans. The game allows the player to take on the role of a mafioso who has to accomplish various missions in order to advance in the game.

The game is set in the 1930s, between the fall of 1930 through to the end of 1938 in the fictional American city of Lost Heaven.

Thomas Angelo, a former taxi driver, becomes a soldato in Don Salieri’s family and begins to rise through the ranks of the Salieri 'family'. The game starts with Tommy sitting in a cafe with a detective, relating his life story and giving out important pieces of information at the same time about the families.

Tommy asks the detective to be given witness-protection, and to aid the detective in the destruction of the Salieri crime family.