A mod that adds the RMS Titanic to the PC version of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is now available. After 15 years of development, one modder has fully recreated one of the most detailed and accurate representations of the doomed RMS Titanic. Although incomplete, part one of the newly released mod allows players to explore the entire ship in free roam mode, while future plans for the mod will include a series of missions that involve the doomed ship and the Salieri's gang that will encompass a total of four parts.
Mafia was developed by Illusion Softworks and released on sixth-generation consoles almost two decades ago. Released exactly a year after Grand Theft Auto 3, it was an open-world sandbox title set in the fictional city of Lost Heaven in the 1930s that involved a taxi-driver turned mobster within a crime family. Having gained praise for its realism and story, Mafia received two sequels which were remastered, and a full remake that was announced and released in 2020. However, receiving a remake didn't stop the continued support from the modding community for the original title.
Lead developer of the RMS Titanic Mod, Robin Bongaarts, who is also a maritime engineer from the Netherlands, told Eurogamer that he began development for the project in September 2006 and spent 15 years working on the mod because had a "nerd-like interest" in the Titanic and other ocean liners of the time such as the Titanic's Sister Ship, the RMS Olympic. After hearing about how easy the original Mafia game was to mod, he decided to add the ship to the game which he believed would take only three months. Sadly, it took him 4 years to actually learn the skills to properly render the ship with the level of detail he originally wanted. With the help of a small team, however, Bongaarts has finally released the first part of the mod which also includes features that were not found in the original base game, according to Kotaku, such as fully climbable ladders and swimming.
Planned in four parts, the mod will also include fully-voiced acted missions that provide a reason for the main protagonist Thomas Angelo to get on the ship and make sure an expensive vehicle doesn't get stolen by the rival mob boss. Over time, these new parts of the mod will release and include more parts of the ship to explore with missions leading up to the famous sinking of the RMS Titanic. Though the Mafia: Definitive Edition came out last year, the Titanic mod is only for the original open-world Mafia title and doesn't support other mods such as the popular widescreen fix, which could be a problem for some players.
Although not the first attempt to bring the Titanic to games, the Titanic Mod for Mafia is definitely one of the most impressive ever seen, even if after 15 years it looks like there's a long way before it is completely finished. Despite that, it is a remarkable accomplishment in modding and is worth checking out for both Mafia and Titanic fans alike.
Source: Eurogamer, Kotaku, ModDB, Robville Virtual Realisations/YouTube