Developer: Hangar 13
Publisher: 2K
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Tested on: Xbox One
Mafia 3 – Review
The Mafia franchise has always been the best to bring us historical games about Mafioso and their wrongdoings. While the first game was set in the early 1930’s and the second game in the 1940’s – early 1950’s era, 2K kept the tradition of slowly progressing on a timeline and has set this title in the late 1960’s just after the Vietnam War. 2K has chosen to be as historically correct as possible, showing that tolerance was not a basic human right for everyone.
Story
Mafia 3 starts off with an interview about mafioso Lincoln Clay and his past. Various characters tell his life story and give a firm background of how he became the man he is today. They eulogize Lincoln but don’t glorify his actions, instead our interviewees are telling the true tale. These scenes are all brought such as a documentary on television; they show Lincoln’s background as an orphan that was adopted by the black mob and as Vietnam veteran that served in the Special Forces. They talk about how his life turned around when he came back from the war. Soon after his arrival: Lincoln reunites with his friends in New Bordeaux and returns to the black mafia. Because of an ongoing turf war between the gang and a rival group, they are put in debt with the Italian mobsters. Lincoln meets with their leader Sal Marcano, which convinces Sal that the black mafia needs a new leader, namely Lincoln. Sal hopes the boy will accept his offer, but he refuses. This refusal puts the debt even deeper with Marcano. To pay back the debt Lincoln sets out for a huge heist together with his comrades. After the successful heist, Sal betrays the bunch, killing Lincoln’s friends and shooting him in the head: leaving him for dead. Lincoln is saved by his close friend Father James, and is nursed back to health. After all this his path for revenge starts. The introduction is played in different time zones overlapping each other, in the form of flashbacks.
When the player completed the few flashbacks, the game will start in the ‘now’, the 1960’s. The story picks up when Lincoln is back in good health, and is ready to set out on his bloody quest. As the game progresses the story is still being presented in the interview format, making it feel like your watching a documentary on a famous mafioso’s life, rather than a simple videogame. The pace of the story is determined on how much the player wishes to complete and explore before heading towards the next objective.
Graphics
An interesting fact about Mafia 3 is that everything is brought with in-game graphics. The cut-scenes are presented in such astonishing beauty that in a quick glance these look filmed in live action. What saddens us that even though the game’s graphics are phenomenal, the effects created by the ‘sun’ shed an unflattering light on buildings and cars, making them look rather cheap and unfinished; undoing all of the beautiful work there is put into the details of the game. If you compare the visuals at night, you’ll feel like it are two separate games, graphics wise.
For some things the devil is in the details: bullet holes and wounds are realistic, each car has multiple versions as in rusted, dirty or convertible. Glass breaks in shards just how it should be, when you break the lights of your vehicle the lights will still work when the light bulbs remain intact. Clothing becomes wet when in water or rain. Roads are affected by weather and many more.
Sound
The sound is magnificent and effects are on par with their real life counterparts. Every car has a distinct sound; tires give a nice classic squeal, engines roar at the top of their lungs. People talk in their own dialects and accents. Some radio stations have a distinct crackle in some areas, this to simulate a damaged antenna or bad reception for the channel. Songs are all from the 60’s area and are easy to sing along to since it was a popular era used by commercial makers around the world, which means that this game’s soundtrack consists mainly out of Pop music, Rock-‘n-roll and Blues.
Gameplay
Mafia 3 is a free roam third person sandbox action adventure game. While showing and letting the player take control of Lincoln to follow his story trough his eyes and his footsteps.Our main quest in the story is to get revenge on the Italian mob, how to better do this then to take all their source of income. To start said quest you will need to recruit lieutenants, these lieutenants are all trusted friends or associates from Lincolns past. Each lieutenant has their own special abilities and favors you can call in, like a weapons dealer on the go and a person that comes to collect your cash. These abilities sure come in handy because they take away the hassle of always driving to the needed locations. Stashing your cash is very important because in case of death you will lose a sum of cash. Either stash this in your safe or let an associate pick it up, your choice. When you finally get the lieutenants on your side it’s time to take down the enemies extortion rackets, this is done specific of mission. Doing so will lure out the boss of that region. Killing the area leader will grant an instant cash bonus while letting them work for you creates more revenue. Assign a new territory to your selected lieutenant for increased bonuses. Selecting the right lieutenant is important because with the more revenues that they own, the more powerful they will become and the more upgrades you’ll be able to purchase, as well as call in more favors. However, if you fail to keep them happy, they will turn on you and sell you out. So keep in mind to give them all a fair share of the action. After enough progress is made, the Italian mob will send high ranking officers to go after you. This is your cue to take them down, one by one until you get to their leader.
Combat is quite extensive and well executed since you can take enemies out in close combat with fighting, takedowns or shoot them with a widespread of firearms: from pistols to snipers and rocket launchers. A new drive-by mechanic is installed as well, allowing the player to shoot from the vehicle at any given moment. This adds more versatile ways to get rid of your enemy. All of the items mentioned above are upgradeable as well, from weapon to vehicle and character upgrades, all available for the right price. Aiding you in combat is a nifty feature called “intel view”. Intel view allows you to track enemies who you already discovered trough bad viewing conditions (as in behind walls, darkness, fire etc), this feature is deactivated the second you step into combat: balancing the skill so it’s not too overpowered. This allows you to plan carefully, granting you the chance to aim for stealthy approach or barge in guns blazing.
Stealth can be a big deal in missions since weapons do more damage and health is scarce. To distract an enemy you can whistle to lure them towards you, and then take him down with a stealthy takedown. Silent takedowns are a brutal and nice way to end someone’s life, adding in the fact that Lincoln is an ex army special forces he does know his way around close combat and weapons. After the takedown make sure to dispose of the corpse. It would have been cool if you would have been able to stash them into containers or the trunk of a car, but that feature isn’t available. However in some areas it is possible to feed people to the alligators. The stealth mechanic in Mafia 3 is one very thought through offering the same quality as those found in pure made stealth games.
When talking about play area: the city of New Bordeaux isn’t a small community either. The map is spacious and well filled with various collectables to acquire. The map itself is claimed to be larger than Mafia 1 and Mafia 2 combined, and it also feels that way: giving us more places to discover. The mini-map in the bottom corner shows many details such as combat and witnesses’ details, health and armor, waypoints, point of interests and collectables. When you place a wiretap on a connector box, every hidden item in the area will become visible; this makes hunting for all the collectibles much more pleasant without the direct need for a guide. A new GPS system ensures that you get at your destination without having to crash into things; the new feature gives a HUD like display that tells when to turn and where to go. A sighing release for all those drivers who have crashed their car because they kept looking at the mini-map for directions.
Conclusion
Mafia 3 is an awesome sandbox game with a story that tells the tale of Lincoln Clay inthe 1960’s city of New Bordeaux. While being historically correct about discrimination in those times, the difference in the many communities is easily felt and relived through the eyes of a the member minority group. Follow the rules or shoot everything in sight, it’s all up to you. Mafia 3 is the ideal time waster of 2016, giving us a huge playground and content to last us hours upon hours of gameplay. Thanks to the new mechanics driving is a blast and combat is as you would expect from an ex Special Forces.
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