Mafia III (2016)

About halfway through playing this game, while driving from one mission to another, it struck me that, without a doubt, this game was headed for a 3 star review. And that's not an insult. I love video games. A lot. Which means I like the average experience a lot too. A 3 star game is still very much worth playing in my book.

But everything leading up to this game made me believe it was a 1 or 2 star game. From most Mafia fans I've talked to: Mafia 1 & 2 are great! 3? Eh, maybe don't even bother.

And I disagree wholeheartedly. This is a very solid game.

The Good

-This game is absolutely gorgeous. Even 6 years later, it looks like something that came out last year. I don't know what it is about the cars in particular, but they are stunning. The animations are also super fluid. I can tell that's something they spent a ton of time on. The player character Lincoln Clay runs with a lot of weight and enemies react with very realistic looking animations and will react differently depending on where they are shot. Overall the presentation, from graphics to movement and animations were top notch.

-That goes for the setting too. New Bordeaux (New Orleans) really comes alive and might be the strongest setting in the series. I think that's also because Lost Heaven (Chicago - Mafia) and Empire Bay (New York City - Mafia 2) have been featured so heavily in other mob/mafia movies and games. And that's probably this game's strongest point. It's unique to the franchise: It's unique in setting, tone, theme, soundtrack, and how the story is even presented.

-The story: While the first 2 games were narrated by the protagonist looking back on his life, this game was presented documentary style, with several of the characters (now aged) looking back at the events of the game. While I was skeptical at first, this style really won me over. I think they really pulled it off. The story itself isn't revolutionary. It's a pretty standard revenge/take over the criminal underworld tale with a lot of racial commentary touched upon as well, but it was pretty well executed (the racial commentary is hit or miss, but I touch upon this below). It's also the first Mafia game to have multiple endings, with 5 total endings. I looked up the endings I didn't get, and I will say endings 1,2, and 3 are very different from each other, but each pretty good. None of them felt contrived & they each felt satisfying in their own way. Endings 4 & 5 are just slight variations on ending 3.

-I loved that Vito (the protagonist from Mafia 2) was featured as a side character in this game and thought he was used very well. The mafia games are 3 completely standalone stories set in the same universe, with only slight nods to each other. And while featuring the protagonist from the previous game as a significant side character was the biggest "nod" yet, you really did not have to play the previous game to understand his role in this story. Completing his side missions did give a little bit of narrative closure to a plot thread from Mafia 2 that was kind of intentionally left unresolved, but what happened was pretty heavily implied. The closure given here confirms what was implied, but reveals it didn't QUITE go according to plan, even if the end result was the same.

The Bad

-Bugs, bugs, bugs. Even 6 years later, this game has a lot of bugs. 95% of them are just annoying and don't really affect the game too much. Super slow load times, the game freezing for a second or two (happened like once or twice an hour), etc. The most annoying of these small bugs happened during cutscenes. Parts of people's faces would just get blurry for a few seconds. Not the whole face. It's just that someone's eyebrows would get blurry for a few moments. Or maybe their lips. Or eyes. This happened virtually every cutscene. Incredibly annoying. The worst bug I encountered was the game not saving an entire play session's worth of progress. This game autosaves and you can't save manually. I played for 3 hours, made a ton of progress, only to boot up the game the next time to find that NOPE. I was right back to where I was before that 3 hour play session. Obviously, this was infuriating. It's even worse for me because I have a 1 month old son and even getting 3 uninterrupted hours to play was a complete miracle! It took me 4 or 5 shorter play sessions just to get back to where I was. Not gonna lie, I was angry enough to want to stop playing. But once I start a game, I have to finish it (unless it's complete garbage).

-The reticle: Seriously, I've never seen a game screw up the aiming reticle this badly. It was a light circle that was almost completely transparent. 75% of the time it was completely invisible against whatever I was aiming at. Often I had to aim, squint for a few seconds while taking damage, just to find the reticle so I could make an accurate long distance shot. I definitely wasted WAY more ammo throughout this game than I needed to because I sprayed shots the vast majority of the time.

-The repetitiveness: The mission structure of this game is insanely repetitive and this was the complaint I heard the most going in. Very Assassin's Creed 1 like. You take over the city district by district. In each district you do the same exact missions over and over again and there were only 3 types of missions. Kill this guy. Interrogate this guy (same as killing him but he doesn't die when you shoot him, he just falls to his knees and you have to go up to him and hold a button), or destroy some stuff. Do enough of those in a district and then you unlock-and I kid you not-another "Kill this guy" mission, except this time the guy is surrounded by more enemies. It's only after you secure a district this way (about an hour to an hour and a half's worth of gameplay) that you unlock a cinematic story mission to finish off that district. And these missions are where you finally get some gameplay variety and actually progress the plot.

-The side missions were okay, but also repetitive. Narratively, I liked the side missions for each of the 3 underbosses. That made me play them. But the gameplay was exactly the same. For example, for one underboss they'd just assign you to find cars, steal them and bring them back. You'd do this mission over and over again. Each time you completed one, your character and the underboss would have a short conversation to progress that character's side story, and then you'd do it all over again until that character's side story was concluded. You could also increase each underbosses "earn" (how much money they generate for you) by doing different repetitive side missions. For example, I could increase one underbosses earn by delivering weed. It was literally the same mission over and over again. Pick up the package from the exact same spot and deliver it via the same exact route over and over again. I didn't do all of these. These were just too painful, they didn't offer any narrative incentive, and I didn't need the extra money they provided.

The I dunno, you'll have to decide for yourself

-This game is set in Louisiana in 1968. Racism is a significant part of the backdrop. I'm not sure how to feel about this part. I don't think they handled this topic poorly, but I also don't think they nailed it either. This game uses the N-word. A LOT. 100x more than any video game I've ever played. It's very much used in the same way a serious, hard-R rated film about race relations would. This game very much sees itself as the video game version of that type of film. I just don't think it completely succeeds in being that. At the beginning of the game, a warning about the use of the word and the topics depicted in the game is given, stating the team "felt it was necessary to tell Lincoln Clay's story" as if Lincoln's story was this deeply profound tale that just HAD to be told. In reality, it's a pretty standard revenge tale. Just don't think it quite hits the high mark it was shooting for in terms of narrative depth and social commentary, but this game honestly is well-intentioned.

This game starts with a disclaimer for the massive ampounts of rascism in the game. And yeah, there is a lot of n-words beeing thrown around, and the police in the game are clearly more concerned about catching you if you make trouble in the white neightborhoods than in the black neighboorhiids, but the story itself isn't that rascist... The bad guys are are rascists, the "heroes" are not. As it should be.

Storywise, it's an engaging revenge story, about a vietnam-vet, Lincoln Clay, coming home to the US after the war, and quickly beeing betrayed by the higher ups in the crime syndicate his family works for. With a little help from an old army-buddy, he starts to murder his way through the entire crime-organization in the city. It's a classic tale of revenge, and it is told very nicely and engaging, with documentary-style "forward-flashes" of sidecharacters telling someone how or why something happened, which are very interesting.

Gameplay wise... It is just a GTA-like... Not a very interesting GTA-like... Steal cars, drive to a missiongiver, drive to where the mission is, shoot some people, drive away from the cops... Repeat, repear, repeat... There are a bunch of collectibles all over the city for players who like to collect stuff, but its not all that interesting. Almost every mission is about weakening some of the mafias rackets, piece by piece before you do the actual mission to take over the the racket... Weakening the rackets are mostly about killing certain people, destroying or stealing certain objects and things like that. And the actual missions are mostly about shooting your way into some place, finding a racket boss, and killing said rack-boss.

Overall, a decent GTA-like and a cool revengestory, but not a "must-play"game by any means

Главная и чуть ли не единственная проблема этой игры - дрочево. Все плюсы игры разбиваются о невероятно скучное дрочево.

Сюжет стандартный, а катсцены нарисованы просто охуенно. Но чтобы добраться до полноценной катсцены после вступления с сюжетной завязкой нужно столько надрачивать! При этом езда в игре нормальная. Не гениальная, как в первых двух частях, но нормальная. Стрельба - достаточно сочная по ощущениям. Стелс примитивнейший, как в Ассасинах, например. Но добивания в ближнем бою - охуенные.

И все эти приятные вещи вусмерть тебя заёбывают, потому что в игре есть только 2 типа заданий: отвезти что-нибудь и зачистить лагерь. И проходить по часику в день - бессмысленно, потому что история, та что в катсценах, скрытых за дрочевом, немного заигрывает с нелинейной подачей. Персонажи как бы рассказывют нам историю на суде, а потому периодически выдают фразы, которые спойлерят чуть вперед. И это нихера не помогает. Чтобы добраться до кусочка истории нужно столько надрочить, что я и без всяких повествовательных изъёбств забываю, о чем там шла речь.

И получается парадокс - хорошая игра, ну правда, в ней нет откровенно провальных элементов, в которую невыносимо скучно играть.

Effective environmental storytelling (via set/map design, NPC VO reactions, soundtrack, and radio broadcasts) lends this game an authentic sense of period and place. Well written story with nuanced characterization is delivered with great voice and mocap acting. Thematically, the narrative has some echoes of Spec Ops: The Line. All 3 DLCs are worth playing, especially the last 2. They should ideally be played as part of the main game, as opposed to after the ending. Be sure to spend some time listening to the car radio after the final boss fight and to watch the credits.

PS: ReShade does wonders, and knives are more fun than guns.

I bought this game in early 2018, meaning that all the patches and updates have been applied. The game in its up-to-date state is extremely entertaining and full of detail. I have experienced a few minor glitches during my playthrough; such as cut scenes not loading and vehicles clashing with the environment in odd ways, but considering I bought this game for £9, I really can't complain.

Reasons why I loved the game:

• The attention to detail is quite remarkable. The map is not insanely large which allows for detail and character to be built into every part of the environment.

• Enemies wriggle on the floor after you've shot them and animation deaths are varied. You can either walk up to them and finish them off with a final shot to stop them moving

• The radio goes fuzzy when you're on a boat and go underneath the city

• Police only come after you if a citizen calls for them - when a citizen does call, it takes a while for them to arrive and they will only search the area where you were spotted, you can drive right past a policeman outside of the area and they will not come after you

• Shops are investigated and locked up if you rob them

• Police are always cautious of you because of your race

• Some shops do not allow 'coloured people' to enter and will call the police

• A huge number of buildings have doors which are accessable

• The guns feel different and very weighty

• Each car feels and reacts differently

• Enemies react to being shot depending on where you shoot them

• Insane amount of magazines, posters, and album art are available for you to collect and not only that, you can inspect each collectable in full screen and flick through pages of magazines

• The characters are believable - I have only played the second mafia game prior to this but like LA.Noire, you start to believe the characters were real during the time, thanks to the amazing voice capture and motion capture

• The music adds a lot of character to some of the slightly boring tasks such as driving around the city, and tailing enemies. In addition to this the music is really nice to listen to if you're into the late 60's era music.

• The envionment is unique and nice to look at with day and night cycles, along with weather effects

• The cut scenes are beautiful

Things I didn't like:

• Some of the side mission dialogue pieces were not done as cut scenes and instead looked very awkward as the camera didn't move whilst each character talked

• some missions are rinse and repeat, but luckily the change in location and enemies and sheer fun factor of completing the missions cancles this out mostly

• Only mafia cars are customizable

• The modifications are a noticeable after thought as they do not reflect certain light whilst driving and when you slide over the bonnet, you slide right through some of the modifications (muscle engine poking above the bonnet for example)

• The customizable clothes do not carry over into any cut scenes

• You can't interact with the many pubs, and restaurants that are fully open for you to walk around - all you can do is...rob them

• The driving takes some getting used to and has a very 'muddy' feel. Something which grows on you over time

Overall, I would recommend this game if you like open worlds, the story is note worthy but for me its main use was to open up opportunities for me to explore the city and take part in activities that I wished to take part in. It's a game to relax with but also a game that can get you excited if you're on a steak out or just shooting some thugs up. You will be sure to lose yourself and soak up the world if you pick this game up. For me it's the perfect mixture of fun, story telling, and the ability to interact with the open world at your leisure.

The story is the best part of Mafia 3, but progressing through it is locked behind repetitive infiltrate quests. Sure sometimes you infiltrate to kill a dude, sometimes to interrogate, or sometimes to break stuff, but it comes away feeling like padding to make the story last longer. I would have much preferred classic intro cutscene - mission - outro cutscene and the ability to just go from story mission to story mission. Even if that meant a 6 hour core experience.

The most egregious bit is that you are always given an optional quest at the same location as the big battle for one of the area capture missions. By the end of the game I caught on to this and would avoid those as much as possible so that I cut down on the amount of infiltrating the exact same location as possible.

I hope in the future they move some ideas forward, but separate out the tasky content from the meaty missions so that completionists can do all of it, but some of us that don't want filler can still play through the story without grinding.

Mafia 3 is a good game which unfortunately do some big mistakes an open world game shouldn´t do in 2016. The map is awesome. New Orleans which is surrounded by slums and great nature is alive. It feels amazing to rush through the city, down the highways or to cross some wooden bridges. And still there isn´t anything to do besides doing the story. No racing, no poker, no strangers, no collecting cars. Rockstar Games showed everyone the ease of creating open world elements. I still remember how much I liked to collect the cars in GTA: Vice City. They just added four lists of cars I had to find on the map. That´s it. It probably took them five minutes and gave me hours of fun. I don´t understand why Mafia 3 plays in such a beautiful place and there is nothing to do. Kinda sad. But it would be unfair just to yell about this game because it has its very good sides also. Like I already mentioned it looks really amazing. I like Lincoln Clay. I even more like Donovan. And generally I like how the characters are created and the film scenes are really exciting. The story is not bad at all. And so where the showdowns. They really put effort much to creative ideas what to do with your nasty enemies. Unfortunately there is always exactly the same things to do between those amazing showdowns. The first two times I didn´t care since shooting is really funny in this game and the big choice of weapons make sure not to get bored too easy. After some time it became boring, though. It became boring to kill a guy in the same way the 10th time. If Mafia 3 would have put more effort to some little open world elements like poker or racing or maybe some head hunting and if they would have done a bit more story instead of repeating everything five times this might be on of the best games for PS4.

In conclusion Mafia 3 is a good game, though. It´s not a masterpiece but still it has its really good elements and a very good controlling. If you´re interested in the topic I´d definetely advise you to buy Mafia 3. There are some points of criticism but still I had much fun playing it.

... about 80/100.

I will start by saying this is my first game in the Mafia series. I got most of my mobster fix from the Godfather series of games. This one intrigued me because of the location, story, and the history.

The mission design of this game leaves much to be desired. I'd call the gameplay sort of a "structured Just Cause" style. You complete a bunch of side objectives to unlock a story mission. These side missions, or rackets, do get very repetitive. I never felt totally bored by this though. You get into a routine so each new racket you get a chance to improve your method and the individual rackets don't overstay their welcome. Still, it's poor design as the bulk of your missions. For the real story missions, they are more varied and are flanked on both sides by cutscenes. You could be doing anything from racing out of a stone quarry to fighting in an underground boxing match. If there were more traditional missions and less rackets, this game would be great.

The gunplay I'd compare to The Saboteur. Lincoln works much better in stealth than a straight gunfight, Like ol' Sean. For a Vietnam veteran, Lincoln seems to be as hardy as paper. I'm willing to give leeway to operator error on my end, but this goes beyond that. I had a lot of deaths that felt cheap. This is one of those games where shotguns are akin to being smote by God. I'd get into a gunfight just to have some random shotgunner march up around my blind side and kill me in one hit, two if I'm wearing a vest. Or if I peek my head out I get killed in an eye blink by a sub-machine gunner.

The story follows Lincoln Clay on a revenge quest against the 60s Southern mob, much like the revenge/exploitation films of the time. The actual story, cutscenes, voice acting, dialogue are all superb, some of the best I've seen in a long time. I did like the documentary style of storytelling, even though they only "interviewed" the preacher and an FBI director, because whether anyone else survives is dependent on your actions in-game. It'd have been nice to have the FBI director show up during the campaign as his younger self at least once. John Donovan was by far my favorite character, sort of Clay's 2nd in command, and devil on his shoulder. The interactions between Clay and Donovan are some of the best, they help make our protagonist feel like an actual person. I really enjoyed how they handled Sal Marcano as the villain. He is still a ruthless criminal, but you see moments of humanity when concerning his son and reflecting on his long career. He was trying to do right, go clean, but he had to pay for his past sins.

You enact your revenge in the city of New Bordeaux, a fictionalized New Orleans. I love New Orleans, so it was fun to drive around this reimagined version. Hanger 13 did their work here, it feels good to drive around the spooky bayou or walk the streets of the French Ward. One of the first missions takes place during Mardi Gras. There's a great Southern atmosphere from the cheesy advertisements to the local population's chatter and accents. Unfortunately, there isn't much to do in the city as far as taking in a show or playing bar games. It is odd at one point the radio mentioned the city of New Orleans as another real place in this world.

One reason this game excited me was the history. The game is set in the 60s, in the South, and you are a black man. That's a very unique persepective to play from during a very tumultuous time, to say the least. Again, the world building is top notch here with a very 60s aesthetic and there are some businesses you can't enter as they have the infamous, "No Colors Allowed" signs in the window. But this is where the missions disappoint me the most. There is a wealth of historic potential; hippies, race protests, the Vietnam War. I know this game is about the mob and revenge, but they could use all the turmoil of the time to craft missions that put you in the shoes of another person. Sure, I didn't want Lincoln to bump into Rosa Parks Assassin's Creed style, but I was expecting a Nam flashback, or have Lincoln get caught up in a protest where the police turn fire hoses against them. The Civil Rights era is usually avoided by most games and this game stood to do something great with it. Also, why not just call the "Southern Union" the Klan? We know that's who they are. The game mentions the KKK & who cares if you offend them, they're the Klan.

Being set in the 60s, the soundtrack to this game is absolutely banging. Lots of classic rock, blues and a few country songs, including my boy Johnny Cash. Something about 60s music makes it the best for just cruising around the city. This game also does one of my favorite things in games, that is using music to enhance a moment. You shoot your way out of a rock quarry to Folsom Prison and Sal's betrayal is set to Paint It Black. And I had a lot of unexpected cool moments where I'd jump in my car to escape a firefight and catch "Little Less Conversation" on the radio as I fled from a convoy of angry mobsters.

After the lukewarm reception at launch, Hanger 13 did add in a few new features that helped the game feel a bit fuller, such as outfits and car customization. The three paid DLCs are also pretty neat. I would say the DLCs are what the main game should've been. They are contained stories where every mission is a story mission and there's only a little of the busywork style missions. One of them sees you helping Donovan deal with a CIA defector, another focuses on the Civil Rights movement and Jim Crowe laws, and the final one dives into the voodoo occult side of New Orleans.

All in all, this game has so many good parts in it, but they can't stack up against the poor mission design. If you have just a passing interest in this, your best bet is to watch a YouTube "movie" cut of the cutscenes. If you are a history buff like me and don't mind some dull missions, this game is worth experiencing for the unique and well developed world.