Play CityVille for instant access to Mafia Wars Brazil - Our first look

If you've been disappointed by the closure of both Mafia Wars Cuba and Moscow, perhaps the new release of Mafia Wars Brazil will cheer you up. If you've fallen out of playing Mafia Wars, or if you've never even begun, you'll be invited to do so the next time you play CityVille via a pop-up like the one above. Apparently, this is one offer we won't want to refuse - yikes!

If you accept, you'll be given instant access to Mafia Wars Brazil, which is apparently only available to certain players as of this writing (like those that take advantage of the CityVille invitation). Once you make your way into Brazil, you'll see that the new expansion comes with all new jobs, properties, items and more, just as you'd expect from any proper Mafia Wars expansion.

We've got a full look at what this expansion contains, so meet us behind the break.

Mafia Wars Brazil is perhaps the most technically impressive of the game's expansions, with a streamlined user-interface. Each of the location's five districts are unlocked to you one at a time, by completing missions in the district before, and as you do jobs, you'll see a lot less clutter crowding the screen. You'll start in Rio de Janeiro: Centro, which contains 11 separate jobs, each of which comes with their own detailed image, rather than there just being an image for every few jobs.

You'll still see how may energy points you'll need to complete each job, and how many experience points and Real (this expansion's currency) you'll receive for completing each job, but that's it in terms of information. If you need to purchase items (weapons, animals, vehicles, etc.) in order to be eligible to complete the job, this will be shown to you once you click on the "Do Job" button, and you'll be able to instantly purchase the needed items and move on, without moving to the store and back again.

In Brazil, your Mafia plays a new and special role in your activities. You'll see a Crew line at the top of your Jobs page, and you'll be able to activate Crew members in one of four categories: Jobs, Fighting, Robbing, and Properties. Depending on which positions you activate (which can only be done once every 18 hours), you'll be able to earn special bonuses while completing the accompanying tasks.

Their are eight different Crew "jobs" that can be activated (that is, roles that your crew can play - not jobs that require energy). Here are their bonuses:

Strategist - Twice the Job Mastery for the next 20 Jobs you do
Lockpick - Twice the loot for the next 20 Jobs you do
Mercenary - No stamina used for your next 50 fights
Marksman - Double attack power for your next 50 fights
Scout - Finds properties that have special collection items for your first three Robbing screens
Arsonist - Guaranteed success of robbing your first three properties on your first three Robbing screens
Taskmaster - Twice the Real earned from your properties
Guardian - Protects your properties from being robbed while in Brazil for a span of 18 hours

Properties have also been changed in Brazil (when compared to some other locations), requiring you to collect building parts to upgrade your businesses/properties to the next star-level, rather than just spending a large sum of money to do so.

Each time you complete the first wave of jobs in a new District in Brazil, you'll receive a special item, and will unlock the next District, but you can of course always stay in your current location and work on maximizing your Mastery on those jobs to the four-star level.

Brazil comes with new properties, new weapons, animals, vehicles, achievements, and one-time use loot items. There's a ton of content here to look at and play through, so make sure to login to CityVille and activate your pass to Brazil, if it isn't available in your game by default.

Have you tried Mafia Wars Brazil? What did you think of this new expansion? Is the streamlined interface working for you, or do you prefer to see more details about your jobs as you complete them?