Mafia is one of my very favorite games of all time. It has a tremendous story, great and exhilarating gameplay and atmosphere like nothing else I can think of. Yet, despite these great qualities I find Mafia to be one of the scariest games ever made. Mafia was never meant to be a scary game, it contains no monsters, no enemies which jump out from dark corners, and no terribly macabre elements. Yet, due to errors and easter eggs this game can be scary in a way that few other fear based games can imagine.

The main reason for this fear is how incredibly alienating the "free ride" portion of the game can be. It is essentially an objectiveless mode in which the player can access the entire city and earn money doing tasks such as killing mobsters or driving a cab. The only thing money can buy you in this mode is weapons and health, putting the player in an endless circle of violence with no payoff but increased violence. In this mode, the player experiences no human contact. The only human voices one encounters are angered people telling you to get out of their way if you try to speak to them on the street. It feels like being an outcast, or worse, a ghost. Nary a person cares about you until you begin shooting, at which point they will either run away with their hands over their heads in a crab-like fashion, or shoot back.

One experiences no normal human contact during the course of one of these games.  There are dog headed men which appear very infrequently in the game, which are just enough to push the player over the edge of fear when placed in such a strange world as that of the free ride. Death can come swiftly and seemingly without reason in this mode. Hitting a gangster's car will result in a never ending chase until either the player, or the gangsters are dead. Water in this game may as well be lava, because touching it results in instant death. Once one has played this mode to exhaustion, mods can be added in to keep things lively, and strange. Mike Mouse's mod introduces a drink which allows the player to run at a tremendous speed, but at the cost of a drunken camera which weaves and bobs. It also introduces the very scariest element of the game- roving gang cars which will attack the player on sight. These cars hide in unseen spots and strike at the player from incredibly powerful and bullet proof cars. The gang members carry thompsons which will kill in just one or two shots. All gang members are invulnerable, unless struck by an overwhelming force. The gang will never stop following the player, unless he can manage to draw them out of their vehicle, and strike them from up close with a shotgun. Thus one is stuck in a city full of people without personality and without concern for you. One is hunted like a rabbit, and death can come quickly and without good cause. Mafia succeeds where so many fear games fail, it isolates the player, it terrifies the player, and it shocks the player with strange occurrences.

Lulz. That was entertaining, but for the sake of my eyes, try using paragraphs next time. ;)

Right you are. I was just going stream of consciousness. I'll put some paragraphs in.

Have you played Resident evil  4 late or SC chaos theory multiplayer as a merc or dead space coming soon?
Im too lazy to read right now so i didnt read your post

"Have you played Resident evil  4 late or SC chaos theory multiplayer as a merc or dead space coming soon?
Im too lazy to read right now so i didnt read your post"

Clock Tower.

I never completed freeride, good for me :)