Is it worth playing?
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Following a very extensive and somewhat controversial advertising campaign, Mafia City mobile game came up on the radar for many gamers. However, it was immediately followed through by somewhat underwhelming feedback, where players were unhappy about any number of things. We decided to take a look at this title which is out there for some years now but is still relevant despite the negative feedback. Let’s see if there is any merit to it and what the game has to offer in its essence. After review, we will also compile guides and tips, with all frequently asked questions about the game answered.
The game distinguishes itself from other strategy mobile games in more ways than one. Primarily, there’s been an outburst of funny videos from gameplay footage in form of memes, which also includes other pop culture references, and some of the videos even reached a few hundred thousand views in less than a week. If you want to check them out, just Google it: ‘Mafia City meme’.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Development
The rating is high while the user reviews and comments are overwhelmingly negative…
Mafia City is developed and published by Yotta Games, which is a company founded in 2012. They are behind the title Chief Almighty: First Thunder BC and have several other ongoing projects, but MCis their priority creation and star hitter. Mafia city was released in 2017, with a very controversial and extensive advertising campaign, as mentioned. For months at that time, YouTube videos, other mobile gaming apps, and many other sources were overrun with short gameplay clips of some funny criminal activities, like robbing people, banks, and stuff, with the title Mafia City following after.
The game was released for both Android and iOS. On Google Play, MC Android has a 3.9-star score out of over 700k votes and currently shows over 50 million downloads. The game is titled a bit differently on the iTunes App Store, MC: War of Underworld iOS is #7 in strategy genre there and has a 4.8-star score out of over 110k ratings, which many would argue is unrealistic. The rating was also higher on Google Play, while the user reviews and comments were overwhelmingly negative.
There were even ironic reviews, which is a thing that was started with the games that usually have a large marketing campaign but end up not reaching the set expectations. One of the ironic reviews said: “I instantly went on and simply hired some crooks to become a level 100 mafia boss. I shot at some people, dated 1 girl, and instantly got to speak to god, where he only had 1 thing 2 say 4 words 4 you, ‘That’s How Mafia Works.” I am now a god at this game and I only have played 5 minutes. It’s so good I’m uninstalling it” – signed: Harry Polley
While the irony and sarcasm are obvious, all of the positive statements are meant precisely backward naturally. There were many positive reviews also which people suspect were boted as they were poorly written and generic, like: “Is a great game is very addictive good game”.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Atmosphere
The game does deliver what was promised by the ads, which is a mafia-themed game…
This is a game that attempts to immerse the player with all of the trademarks and stereotypical mafia stuff. Things like mansions, drugs, guns, hot women, gang wars, and such. The player assumes the position of a mob boss, builds up his turf i.e. empire, and he does so through the usual mob channels and methods, seen in numerous movies and documentaries. In this regard, the game does deliver what was promised by the ads, which is a mafia-themed game.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
GAMEplay
This is a strategy game, plain and simple…
However, gameplay does not in any way contain any of the things and gameplay scenes are shown in the ads for the game, which is the primary reason for so much negative feedback. This is a strategy game, plain and simple, like so many other Clan Wars, Vikings, Game of War, etc… It is just mafia-themed, which is an interesting concept honestly.
The player is the boss of the mafia, and he controls his empire, which is a dwelling you need to evolve. You have your army, subordinates, and secretaries, which all play their role. Secretaries, i.e. Babes are by far the most interesting ones, for there are some really hot models representing the ladies you employ. They work for you, but also flirt with you and offer you various perks, depending on which of them you choose to further your relationship with. New babes appear from time to time in the swimming pool area for you to recruit.
Combat is done in a real-time strategy manner, while units are comprised of various criminal archetypes, like bikers, brawlers, and such. The dwelling evolution revolves traditionally with this genre, where you level your main building to get access to upgrading other buildings, powerful evolutions, and better stuff. These, in turn, enable you to upgrade the main building further, and around it goes.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Graphics
The game is visually very good in fact…
Mafia City is visually very good in fact. Starting with Babes, i.e. your secretaries, they are some hot models of women, with a hint of anime-style animation, but mostly very attractive. Everything else is also polished, and this certainly looks like a top-class mobile video game. However, everything is in 2D.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Tech Compatibility
With all the visuals in 2D, this is not a demanding game…
With all the visuals in 2D, Mafia City is not a demanding game, despite its polished and detailed look. The graphics are well and character models are, as mentioned, pretty impressive. This game does not have any problems with its appearance or the way it works on even low-end devices. It doesn’t burn the battery, plays out smoothly all the time, and works on most Android and iOS devices without any trouble.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Free-to-play Friendly
This game is free-to-play, or better said free to download and play…
Mafia Wars is free-to-play, or better said free to download and play. MC offers ads and in-game purchases for real money as a way to get to its other highly-sought-after resources. However, while the beginning and mid-game stages go through without any problems and won’t require any spending, players who played it to the late-game stages report that you do reach a somewhat hard paywall, where you simply cannot advance any more, or you advance very slowly, and you get either to pay real-money or quit the game altogether. Things get even worse if you want to play it competitively, where it will require extensive spending.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Verdict
It also looks good, but the gameplay was a bit underwhelming, especially after watching the ads for the game…
The exaggerated marketing campaign with unrealistic and unrepresentative ads is what caused Mafia Wars to be washed away by a wave of negative comments. With everything said, MC is also advertised to be a social experience, which it is, but you can only play with people who are close to your level of progression, reportedly. It is a good attempt and a good idea to bring the stereotypical Mobster stuff into a strategy game, and it is an interesting concept. It also looks good, but the gameplay was a bit underwhelming, especially after watching the ads for Mafia City. Many people from the mobile gaming community took this as insulting, naturally, and shunned the game harshly.
Mafia city guides and TIPS
How to improve your gaming experience and gameplay…
There are positive sides to this game, as well. People are mainly praising the game’s clever remarks to the mobster lifestyle and how it all fits together nicely in a game. Secondly, it is all packed in a familiar competitive strategy environment, letting the players loose on one another. While the initial feedback was very negative, some players stuck with the game, and a community was created eventually, causing this game to stay around since 2017. Thus, we’ve comprised and gathered guides for some of the frequently asked questions about gameplay, and those are:
Use links below to jump to the guide sections.
FAST LINKS:
- How to get checks(cheques)?
- How to get/sell bonds?
- How to send an oath gift?
- How to delete an account?
- How to get gold?
- How to leave a clan?
- How to get roses?
- How to increase crime ops size?
- How to increase crew capacity?
How to get checks or cheques?
In Mafia City, checks are used in the pawnshop primarily, but for many other things that also cost other in-game currencies, like gems when you purchase guns, clothes, and other stuff. They can also be used for increasing stats, which is actually what they are mostly used in late-game. You can also purchase energy refills with checks. Checks or cheques are one of the primary currencies in the game and are earned from various sources, like winning in combat, completing missions, robbing, from rewards, and other stuff.
Robbing for resources is pretty straight forward. However, if you want to advance quickly and have an abundance of resources you will need farm accounts. Creating a farm account is easy, just like starting a new game, but your farm account needs to be bound to the same Facebook or Google Play account as your main account. Also, teleport it to the same city your main mafia headquarters is. It is best to invest in Cash, Arms, and Cargo skills on these farming accounts. Get 1000 favor with Grace, your farm babe, and increase Troop Load, Cash Box, and Resource Robbing speed.
How to get/sell bonds?
Bonds are spent on upgrading the main hall and they are the rare in-game currency. You get bonds very rarely from some events. You can purchase them with gold, but this is not recommended. Bonds are farmed by attacking levels 12 to 15 FBI street crews. In Mafia City, Bonds are sold in the scrap collector, where you get recycled coins.
How to send an oath gift?
The game allows you to send Coded Oath Gifts in Clan or City chat, enabling players to get gold after they enter the code you provide. You can also send a Friendly Oath Gift for any player in your city. This will also yield a random gold amount. Lastly, this works great if you have farming accounts that are a bit leveled up and progressed up to mid-game at least, as you can do this in-between your accounts.
How to delete an account?
Deleting an account is fairly simple:
- Tap on the Game profile
- Tap the Profile tab and Profile Info
- Tap the Account section
- Tap Edit
- Tap Delete Account
How to get gold?
Most of the online sources offer various cheats for “unlimited free gold”. Do not use any cheats, hacks, or add-ons! Most hacks on the web will give you a corrupted web address that you need to visit via your Google Play account which will either trick you into an unwilling payment or worse. Also, using cheats defeats the purpose of Mafia City and ruins your gaming pleasure. Gold is the basic currency in Mafia Wars and is obtained easily from all things you do in-game, missions, robbing, questing, progression, battles, etc…
How to leave a clan?
- Tap Clan Info panel
- Tap the ‘i’ icon in the top left corner
- Tap the information tab
- Tap the broken shield icon
How to get roses?
Roses are used to upgrading Babes. Increasing the favor is initially done by playing the cup game, but after you max it out you need to get them gifts to gain stars. With each star, you get a new Babe skill. You get 9 Roses daily with the standard play, but if you want more you should always check the Yacht. Whenever it is in your bay you should click and check its offer. Paying 40 Gold for one Rose is a good deal, while 3 for 160 Gold is also profitable. Also, always get the resource production buff for 2-3 roses, when available.
How to increase crime ops size?
Increasing crime ops capacity can be done in various ways. Upgrading the Diner is the primary way, as the elite 5 Diner yields 125600 ops capacity. You can also invest in Leadership I, II, and III, which provides a total of 30000 ops capacity. You can also get 28000 ops capacity by investing in Hitman services. If you spend on the Hitman III services, it can yield up to 28000 ops capacity. Upgrading Babes is also a good way, where you can get a total of 64,300 ops capacity if you max out all of your babes. Vigilantes can increase your ops capacity, as well as Mobilizing Limit skill from the battle tree, Godfather’s Watch, and many other sources.
How to increase crew capacity?
You increase Max Crime Ops Crews by investing in it at the Invest Center.
- Tap the Invest Center
- Tap Invest
- Tap Crew Capability
- Tap Crime Ops Crew
You can increase 3 Crime Ops Crews at the most, while further bonuses are, of course, available if you have VIP 8,1 or above activated. Crew Load directly determines the number of resources your Crime Ops Crews can hold, when you send them on a robbing mission or when you attack. Crew Load Capacity can be checked each time you engage in the gather or attack mode.
Crew Load Capacity can also be increased by leveling up Vigilantes. The game gets a new Vigilante approximately every month, but they are generally classified into two categories, according to their skills, and those are: Upgradable and non-Upgradable. Upgradable can be upgradable with Vigilante fragments. Also, there are active and passive vigilante skills. It is best to first activate all passive skills that improve battle stats and also upgrade one vigilante with active skills to 5 stars quickly, so you can use him as your main. Besides doing battles, you can purchase packs if you are in the mood to spend money on Mafia City.