Mafia 3 Review

When a publisher refuses to provide review copies before the release date of a game it means one of two things. Either it’s an exceptional title that doesn’t need the pre-release hype or it’s not going to hold up to scrutiny very well and thus affect sales – the latter is true with Mafia III. Nevertheless I’ve always been a fan of the series and Mafia 2 was one of my favourite games from the last generation. Naturally it was with great anticipation that I sat down to play the much-hyped third instalment.

Historically accurate depiction is good

Mafia 3 takes place in the world of New Bordeaux, a fictionalised world modelled on New Orleans in post-Vietnam War America. The year is 1968 and Lincoln Clay, our main protagonist, has just returned from the war during quite a significant time in the history of the United States (especially in the South). Before the story begins you’re met with an in-game content warning about the depiction of racism in the game. Hangar13 hasn’t held back in this regard and for very good reason. Part of the warning explains that to exclude the racism that was prevalent during that time in America’s history would be ‘offensive to the millions who faced – and still face – bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, and racism in all its forms’. Beginning the game like this really sets the tone of what you can expect and it tries to create an experience that is as historically accurate to the time period whilst telling a meaty, fictional story. Mafia 3’s story truly is its strongest suit and the opening sequence of documentary-style cutscenes is some of the best storytelling of any game from this generation. Told decades later from people who knew him, we start to get a feel for Lincoln and how he rose to prominence after returning from Vietnam. Without giving too much away, Lincoln is a one man army with a vendetta against the Mafia and we follow his journey from first interaction with the mob to all consequent confrontations.

Unfortunately, that’s about where the issues start to creep in. Like Mafia 2, the third iteration features an open world and they have tried to improve upon the largely criticised open world of the previous game. New Bordeaux is a large map broken down into smaller neighbourhoods and it’s your job to take them over one by one. Once you have taken over that neighbourhood by taking out the previous leader, you can assign it to one of your lieutenants. The system they have implemented here is really quite cool in that each time you take a neighbourhood you can choose which underboss will control the area. Each of these underbosses have a tiered perk system that grant you more effects the more neighbourhoods that particular underboss controls. Neglect an underboss for too long and they will eventually turn on you and you will be forced to take them out. It’s a real struggle to balance their loyalty while also achieving the perks you want to use and it gives you a sense of control over how the game plays out. I only had the desire to play through once however so I’m unsure how much difference it makes in the long run.

This is what happens when you drive over the tracks…apparently. 

Early doors map

Getting eaten by an alligator will bag you a trophy

I’m outside the circle, I’m free!!

As you run and gun your way through the districts, either following the storyline or doing side-missions for the glory of your underbosses you start to get the feeling you’re repeating the same old stuff time and again. The map is quite a large one and missions are scattered throughout but there’s no fast travel option. The majority of your time will be spent doing a mission, driving to the next one and doing basically the same mission in a different location. It’s boring and tiresome and really ruined the great feeling I had from the first few hours of playing. The saving grace here is that within your weapons menu you will have available certain perks from your underbosses. Some of these are free and others will cost you. The free ones include: Consigliere – a woman named Betty who will come and take your excess cash for storage, Vehicle Delivery – wherever you are your car will be delivered to you, and Arms Dealer – a van with every gun available. The perks that will cost you include: Operator – the phones will be cut for 90 seconds meaning bystanders can’t phone the police, Police Dispatcher – police will turn a blind eye for 30 seconds, and Hit Squad – a gang of lunatics will show up at your location to have your back. The more districts an underboss controls the better these perks become.

The driving itself is passable and the removal of the fuel gauge from Mafia 2 is a welcome choice. The cars aren’t indestructible which makes not crashing far more important but it’s hard to achieve because the cars themselves handle like armoured trucks. In the event you destroy a car it’s easy enough to steal another, but if you are to do this expect a bystander to call the police. Now the policing system is another area that could have serious improvements made because at the moment it’s too easy to escape them and having the police show up didn’t ever bother me in the slightest. If you steal a car the police will come out to your location and two blue circles will appear. If you’re inside those circles and the police see you a chase will happen but if you’re even a meter outside the bigger circle and the police go right by you they don’t register you at all. The combat mechanics are adequate but I found myself using the same strategy over and over. Hide behind cover, whistle and stealth take-down an opponent. Rinse and repeat.

Technically Mafia 3 feels like something that was designed for the PS3. The graphics aren’t terrible but they’re not exactly good either. Whenever a character cries it looks like they have blood on their face, the liquid in drinks is an absolute mess and when you go too fast on the water the framerate drops and glitches out. The lip-syncing was pretty consistently half of a second out and all of the cutscenes were lacking polish. The menus are an absolute mess and started to make me feel dizzy as I switched between them, but different missions for different underbosses are colour coded so that was a saving grace for the menu. My game crashed on three occasions and I encountered a glitch where the radio wouldn’t stop if I exited a car before coming to a complete stop. It was rather annoying trying to listen to people talk with the radio at full blast. In saying that, the soundtrack for this game is incredible. Easily one of the best soundtracks you will get in any game.

Final thoughts

Mafia 3 feels like a poor man’s Grand Theft Auto. With the exception of the story, every single thing that Mafia does well, or even not so well, GTA does better. Hangar13 was able to create an excellent world to frame this story in and the historical accuracy is commendable, but they destroyed all their hard work with tedious grind and unpolished visuals. Crashes and glitches combined with boring, repetitious missions truly sour what could have been an incredible game. Mafia 3 could have benefited from at least another year in development and it’s a shame because the potential for greatness was alive and well.