Have you ever wanted to play original Mafia 1 in Mafia 2? M1DE has been released but playing it felt different than playing original Mafia 1. Tommy, Paulie and even Sam looked differently. The map was different, especially the countryside. I would dare to say that the official remake looked even a bit darker than the original 2002 game. Original Mafia 1 and M1DE are two different games.
But there is a mod that fills the gap. We get to play Mafia 1 with modern gameplay mechanics and better graphics, but the style of the first Mafia game is kept.
You can take a look at the progress in this video:
It is the biggest mod the Mafia 2 community has ever seen. What I have learnt is that among fans of this mod there are many hardcore fans of Mafia 2. I think this mod is going to be appreciated mainly by fans of Mafia 2 rather than by fans of Mafia 1, which may seem like a paradox. One fan I talked to told me that he appreciates this mod as it brings finally a countryside to the world of Mafia 2. He does not seem to care as much about its connection to the first game installment. He finds it cool as it has a new map to play with. During the development of the mod there was a poll in which people were choosing between two variations – whether or not the city of Lost Heaven of the mod should be connected with Empire Bay. The results were 50/50. Over the years (this mod has been in development since 2018) I have seen even some negative comments from hardcore fans of Mafia 1 who were rather upset, unable to accept the idea of this mod saying: Why on Earth would you need such a mod when Mafia 1 original can never be beaten?
To that I say: Watch the video above, Mafia 1 would never be able to run these high quality models due to its engine limitations. After more than 20 years we still don’t have official gamepad support for Mafia 1 and it lacks on mechanics as simple as the car camera view that rotates around its axis – do you remember how revolutionary it felt rotating car camera in GTA San Andreas after the experience of the fixed car camera in GTA Vice City? For GTA Vice City there are mods that fix it, there is none, however, for Mafia 1. And even if there was, it would not be responsive to the gamepad joystick movement. The more you elobarate it, the more complicated it gets. Mafia 1 is just outdated with its mechanics.