"Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves." Romans 15:1
While we live in a time where competitive online multiplayer games are the most celebrated and popular games around, there was a time when gamers bought a game was for the stories that would unfold and the immersion of it. No, of course I'm not talking about super realistic graphical immersion. But how a game would delve into our thoughts and actually make us feel like we're right there inside that game, going through the scenarios with the protagonist.
Maybe most of you have already realized which game I'm talking about. But on the off chance you never heard of it and your mind is still ready to be blown away, I'm talking about Mafia aka Mafia City of Lost Heaven.
Mafia was released for PC in the late 2002 and later on Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2004. The game was published by a Czech video game company called Illusion Softworks; later known as 2K Czech. But since we're talking about the concept of story for this game, Daniel Vávra is the man behind it. You Sir, are amazing.
The story starts off with an ordinary taxi driver, Thomas Angelo aka Tommy barely making ends meet, who picks up two very interesting passengers on a slow night. They were gangsters and one of them were shot and bleeding to death. Their rival gang was still on pursuit and shooting at the taxi, but with his expertise at driving Tommy manages to escape the pursuers and drops off his passengers at a bar. Later on Tommy is welcomed into the ranks of that mafia crime family. Tommy's first thoughts about it were "It's better to be poor and alive than rich and dead". Which later turned into "Better to die young and loaded". It's very interesting how someone would change their view about life so quickly. Throughout the story Tommy is faced with making a lot of hard choices that were going completely against his nature and moral. I don't want to go into too much detail of it as I hope even if one person who still hasn't played this game does play through it after reading my post, it would then serve it's purpose.
So, I'll end with the finishing lines of the game without spoiling anything,
You know, the world isn't run by the laws written on paper. It's run by people. Some according to laws, others not. It depends on each individual how his world would be, how he makes it. And you also need a whole lot of luck so that somebody else doesn't make your life hell. And it ain't as simple as they tell you in grade school. But it is good to have strong values and to maintain them. In marriage, in crime, in war.. always and everywhere. I messed up. So did Paulie and Sam. We wanted a better life, but in the end we were a lot worse off than most other people. You know I think it's important to keep a balance in things. Yeah balance, that's the right word. Because the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course the guy who wants too little from life, might not get anything at all.