Grand theft auto is a storied franchise, which makes it a prime target for people to make clones of. That's exactly what mafia did. Mafia took the Grand theft auto storyline, game mechanics, fan base, and copied it. They changed a little bit here and there, but didn't do much else. Right? Wrong. From a naked eye, Mafia seems to be a direct rip off of Grand theft auto, similar game mechanics, what seems to be a compared storyline, and similar thought processes (aka driving to a location, killing someone, getting away). I'm here to explain the similarities and differences between the two games. DISCLAIMER- The article is very opinion based, however very factual at that. I will be mostly comparing Mafia II and Grand theft auto IV, the games claimed to be most similar.

To say a brief bit on history, these were the years each game in the series came out- (GTA III was the first with similar game mechanics to any Mafia or future Grand theft auto game).
Mafia I- 2002
Mafia II- 2010
Mafia III- 2016
GTA III- 2001
GTA IV- 2008
GTA V- 2013

To start, I'll go through all of the main similarities that can be pointed out.

1. You're a foreign immigrant who has moved to the US for whatever reason. In Mafia your parents have moved a generation ago, in Grand theft auto, there was instability, and you can come live with your cousin. While this may seem very similar, I'd like to give the doubt that many games have this same opening storyline, not just grand theft auto and mafia. While they are oddly similar, Mafia starts out with your character, Vito, fighting in the war. This adds a new dimension to opening of a game, giving a set for what has been happening more than that of GTA.

2. You like cars? We've got cars. In both games, large worlds with similar maps, basically a standard city format, not exactly Copied from any one game, are used for you to drive around your many types of off-brand but real-world looking cars. You could say the games are very similar here, but when you get down to mechanics, it's not even close. Mafia is a game that has simple, easy driver mechanics, with cars that aren't Always going max speed. In GTA, you can do pretty much any godly thing you want with your car. And oh, to point out, you'll get pulled over for speeding in Mafia. How about that?

3. To elaborate on the world's, they're very different. In GTA, your world is the same. You have many places of crime, but a big section of the city is the same. Big buildings, dark alleyways, all pretty much somewhere you wouldn't want to go. Mafia adds a little bit more to this by adding stretches of road with 'fields' of grasses, which makes driving off-road more fun. The added blank space adds a more open world feel, which primarily can change the driving experience. Also in Mafia, the seasons change, and even a time shift of 7 years occurs, and the life in the city changes as well.

4. Story line, a similarity, and a difference. The story in both games is based off of killing people-from, a family? This is a section about similarities, so I'll focus on those. You get a mission, starting from someone you know, and going to someone who you don't know, and back through people you do know. You drive to a check point, and normally kill someone. This is just how it goes. It's the same in both games.

This leads to the very many differences:

1. The war. Ever come back from a war, which you ACTUALLY get to fight in? You sure did in Mafia. Sadly, can't say the same about my dear friend GTA. Mafia has a wonderful explanation of what happened before, but what's different from GTA is that you actually get to live it. You play in the war, you see what he sees. In GTA, you arrive on a boat, and you're just...there. Good luck putting together everything he says, a visual isn't there.



2. The radio. You like the stupid radio that happens in GTA? You get that in Mafia, but not as much. Mafia has less radio stations, and no station where you can add your own music, plus 1 for GTA. Mafia, however, is about the music and the news. The music is from the time-and on every channel. After you complete missions in Mafia and are driving around, flip to the news radio station, and they'll actually tell you the
news-normally who you just killed.

3. Shooting people is golden. You're playing a game in which the point is to -normally- commit crimes, normally murder. You always want to play a game in which the fire fights are realistic and aren't always shoot tons of rounds and win easily. In Mafia, ammo is limited, and you are supposed to save as much of your ammo as possible in order to kill all of your enemies. Sure there is enough, but nothing compared to GTA. In GTA, you can have thousands of bullets and unleash them in seconds, which Mafia has 'older' weapons, which aren't as easy to unload, or find more ammo for. You are forced to think critically about who is worth killing, and who you can let get away.

4. Police, police everywhere. Ever felt like you were getting chased in GTA and couldn't get away? Don't play Mafia. If, and I mean IF, you get caught speeding, its hard to get away. Police are EVERYWHERE when you are on a normal stroll around the block. Know that you can't get away with anything. You can shoot people in GTA and not a soul with notice. Tap a car in Mafia, you've got police out for blood.



5. If you want smooth sailing, forget about it. Mafia is like driving on Ice, cause you actually ARE. The biomasses and seasons affect your driving. In Grand theft auto, you can go speeding anywhere (as long as you aren't slipping through grass) and you're fine. In Mafia, snow means ice. Driving over snow with most likely make you fly all over the place and wreak. The faster you go, the more likely you'll wreak your only (yes, only) car, and have to repair it.



6. Mafia and money don't go together. Money is tight in mafia, it's hard to come by. Rarely do you have over $1000, so fixing your only car and buying weapons doesn't happen. Storied events make it difficult to get crazy ahead in the game, and you can't pile on the cash and buy whatever your heart desires. In Grand theft auto, go out, kill some people, take their money, buy a gun, kill more people and so on. There is just so much money in the GTA world, none of which is shared with the poor characters in Mafia that could need their hand on another gun sometimes.

7. Like crashing? Mafia will make you pay. You get one car of your own. You steal this car at the beginning and get it personalized. This car is yours, and you'll feel a connection (which is why I always stole a car to go on a mission). Yes, you can steal other cars and make them your own, but it isn't the same as that first car you ever get and have to take car of. You don't want to wreak that car, ever. In GTA, go crazy, wreak as much as your heart desires and no one will have a say about it at all. (In the deluxe version of the game (which I have), you get about 8 specialty cars at the beginning of the game in your garage, but they are DLC and not included in this article).


8. Don't get too connected. This is opinion, but it's every one's opinion. It's scientific law basically. You'll get connected to the characters in Mafia II. You will, trust me. These characters aren't forgettable, they have their own styles, and their personalities all have huge impacts on the game. This differs strongly from GTA IV in which the characters, lets be honest, don't have much feel for them at all. the characters are just empty beings that you don't really connect with, and while this isn't a review, that's a big downgrade.

9. Story story story. Mafia copied the story from GTA. Yeah it did-if you never played Mafia. Mafia has a completely different story. There are virtually no similarities in the story at all. Just because game play can be similar, doesn't mean story is. Vito and Nico have 'similar' back stories, sure, but that's pretty much as far as it goes. There are too many differences to even begin to explain them. If you want an explanation, play the game. You'll be very pleasantly surprised.

I could go on forever, but as I said, these are only the MAIN similarities and differences. As you can see, differences outnumber the similarities by over 2:1, which SHOULD tell you something. Hopefully you weren't too big on the idea that Mafia copied Grand theft auto, but if you were, hopefully I cleared that up.

never knew about clones with those 2 games, i do however have grand theft auto 4 on xbox 360, pc and ps3 but the file size was insanely huge

I wouldn't really much call it a "clone" because the Mafia series is created by 2K games which it's parent company is Take-Two Interactive, and the other sub-company of Take-Two Interactive is also RockStar Games which is responsible for the Grand Theft Auto series.


So basically if you go around full circle, these two games were actually created by the same Parent Company (Take-Two Interactive), but both games are in the separate sub-companies (with Mafia being created by 2K Games and Grand Theft Auto being created by RockStar Games).


So, in reality, Mafia didn't really ripped off the GTA series, especially if both games are created by the same parent company.