In 2002, Illusion Softworks were able to craft a digitized love letter to video gamers who just so happened to be enamored with the organized crime world known as the “Mafia” by producing a game simply titled “Mafia”. Thanks to innovative gameplay and a story unmatched at the time, “Mafia” was a smash hit across PC and consoles that created a grand fan base waiting for the potential next installment. It would take eight years before “Mafia II” was released, but the wait was well worth it as everything, from the gameplay, to the story, to the mission structure was greatly improved upon. Though not as revolutionary or successful as its predecessor, “Mafia II” still produced enough success critically and financially to warrant a successor as well. The original creators didn’t have the opportunity to follow up on the their creations as “Mafia III” was handed to a new studio in Hangar 13. It became obvious quickly that Hangar 13 wanted to make a different type of “Mafia” game no one expected by turning the player’s perspective from one side of the criminal world to another. I, being a fan of both “Mafia” games, and having been enthused by what I saw during pre-release announcements and trailers, came into this experience unusually hyped and prepared to declare this my “Game of the Year”.
Did I Complete “Mafia III”
As mentioned above, “Mafia III” looked to change the player’s focus when it came to how he/she entered this latest journey into the world of organized crime by not having the protagonist be a part of the mob, but fight against a group of racists, low-level criminals, and Italian Mafiosos alike. Oh, and he just so happens to be African American. Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam War veteran with the ability to slam a grown man around like a sack of potatoes, returns to his home of New Bordeaux – Hangar 13’s take on New Orleans that is also a part of Louisiana – in the apparent summer of 1968 to find his adopted family working with known criminal head honcho Sal Marcano. Looking to keep things quiet in a town where his race is just as much of a burden as being connected with organized crime turns out to be an impossibility as Marcano characteristically turns on the Clay family; leaving them for dead … or so he thinks as Lincoln survives a brutal murder attempt.
This is where the player takes complete control of not only the destiny of Lincoln in his quest for revenge, but also the disgusting underbelly of Clay’s hometown as he begins taking apart Sal’s rackets piece by piece through heavy-handed violence (and a little diplomacy). After the twenty-plus-hour mark I embarked on my final journey to confront Sal Marcano following the taking of his property, killing off his lieutenants, and doing every side mission possible in full to witness the first of five potential endings based on how I distributed areas to my underbosses. With a great pre-finale auto save, I – like any other player who has taken the time to make it this far in the game – was able to also make different, last minute choices that provided two more endings. Unfortunately the other two endings and several trophies would require me to almost replay the entire game; making backup saves constantly in the process. Thankfully there’s always Youtube.
Did “Mafia III” Live Up to the Hype?
The “Mafia” series has both benefited and been hindered by the evolution of sandbox/open world gaming. The first game came shortly after the release of “Grand Theft Auto III” and differentiated itself so much from Rockstar’s game that it perfectly worked on a different level. While “Mafia II” improved on the foundation of its predecessor, the genre had grown beyond what “II” was offering. “Mafia III” looked to be the best of both worlds by embracing the current open world norms while presenting a strong narrative through cutscenes and in-game conversations. This becomes incredibly obvious after the first few hours after the not-so-shocking betrayal that is really the catalyst to why this story exists and the player is thrust from a simple drive prior to an intended heist into a firefight with cops, back into a cutscene conversation between Lincoln and his potential partners in crime. In hopes of accomplishing his goal of destroying a criminal empire, the game is built around the premise of Clay going around, busting up Sal’s contraband and countless, unidentifiable goons, taking over a racket by either killing or recruiting a racket boss (that latter happening only if the player wiretaps a nearby junction box) and taking down one of Marcano’s best men (or family members, or hired assassins).
To accomplish this feat, Lincoln must be a stellar killer; and that’s exactly what he is as the mentioning of his name apparently draws fear in the hearts of average men. Clay, having been a part of a special ops unit during the war, is realistically trained in the art of combat both hand-to-hand and with firearms. The believability that Lincoln could sneak his way into a warehouse full of enemies, either slowly taking them down with stealth attacks courtesy of rear naked choke or pistol whippings, or going in guns blazing, and walking away to do it all over again is actually very strong. That’s not to say Lincoln is invincible. Even with body armor and max health, Clay can be put down rather quickly if the player isn’t careful as “adrenaline shots” (the game’s answer to health boosts/restorations) are only effective in battle if the Clay isn’t in the middle of a firefight and opting to recover behind some type of cover.
From a control perspective, “Mafia III” plays incredibly well and is another upgrade compared to its predecessors. Gunplay is a perfect mixture of tight and loose that allows for relatively easy headshots with pistols, but understandably unyielding when using something like a shotgun. Melee combat features Lincoln chaining together punches to set up takedowns (both simple and brutal with the latter featuring sick executions courtesy of firearms). And the previously mentioned stealth system is surprisingly strong, effective and better than what’s been used in almost any open world game on the market without “Metal Gear Solid” on the title. The only real flaw with “III’s” controls is the one-button cover system. Like other games with this problem, hitting the “cover” button can sometimes stick Lincoln against a disadvantageous barrier instead of behind it as intended. This problem is rare, but can be costly in battle.
Driving is also well done in “Mafia III”, though not in the most realistic fashion thanks to an added dash of speed and tighter handling as the addition of a “drift” button has been implemented for those whiplash inducing turns during chases or simply trying to get to the next mission. Tied to the driving mechanic is, hands down, one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. Rather than just make some cover songs, or even rip off some of the time’s biggest hits, 2K invested greatly in making the musical sounds of “Mafia III” authentic as possible with everything from Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”, James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)”,’ “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”, “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard, and, or course, “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones. There are even some songs I never heard before that literally had me stopping the car and just jamming. It would’ve been nice if Hangar 13 just displayed the name of each song that came on so one wouldn’t have to sample random songs to find those once-unknown gems. But no matter how good the driving is the amount of it will leave you wishing for some type of fast travel system (how something like a taxi system couldn’t be implemented a la “Grand Theft Auto 4” or “GTA V” is odd) as you’ll travel across the city’s sizeable map to complete almost everything while showing off just how shockingly bland New Bordeaux truly is beyond the minor out-of-mission moments of unabashed racism.
But continuous driving is only a small part of the game’s larger problem: repetition. While the genre (and essentially video games as a whole) is built on the act of doing the same thing over and over again, games like “GTA” and even the previous “Mafia” entries understood that creativity can overcome the feeling of “been there, seen that, killed it”. “Mafia III” doesn’t go out of its way to avoid that aforementioned feeling by focusing a majority of its gameplay around a simple mechanic of takeover by way of destruction. The player is forced to talk to a specific person to begin the racket takeover that usually goes in the same manner – interrogate an informant of that particular racket boss, kill off the boss’ enforcers, and destroy boxes of items with fire or Lincoln’s gun-totting hand before confronting the racket boss and opting to either kill or attain his services as you take over the racket, that is, in turn, distributed to one of three underbosses (voodoo priestess Cassandra, Irish boozehound and father of a wonderful, foul-mouthed family Burke, and the lead of “Mafia II” and an individual also on Sal’s crap list in Vito Scaletta) so Lincoln can keep the dirty money flowing through the city and Clay’s pockets.
With each district overtaken allows for two things: Lincoln potentially gaining more trust from his underboss while unlocking a variety of special weapons and perks like exploding remote controlled voodoo dolls or a pack of men to backup Clay in battle; and drawing out Marcano’s lieutenants that have to be killed to progress the story. Usually the lieutenant “boss” missions are the most impressive story missions of the game consisting of everything from a firefight in a Downtown office building to a fiery escape from a riverboat in the middle of the Bayou. Sadly, these impressive missions happen few and far between unlike its predecessors that had to have memorable missions. Side missions are no better as they have the player either going to some random point on the map to steal guns, a boat full of weed, a semi or kill someone on Vito’s hit list – even though doing these side missions play a big role in how Lincoln’s sub-bosses see the game’s protagonist and how much money they “kickback” to Clay. Essentially, Hangar 13 came up with a formula and decided to not waver to the detriment of its gameplay as a whole. If you’re not a fan of doing the same thing repeatedly like liberating outposts in “Far Cry 4”, the job of taking over rackets that, while different in name, are no different than the one before or after it, then the fun of “Mafia III” will wane quickly as New Bordeaux becomes drenched in blood.
Similar to the flawed execution of mission variety is the district distribution to Lincoln’s underbosses. As mentioned earlier, taken districts are given to Lincoln’s underbosses so they can control and produce money for Clay. The big twist is if the player doesn’t distribute fairly, one or more underbosses will turn on his/her leader and look to take him down – leading to a pair of extra missions per underboss. Unfortunately, the idea only works in theory thanks to the fact there are only nine districts to split among three characters; making it incredibly difficult to anger Vito, Cassandra or Burke without actually trying – thus taking away the feeling of caution when planning Lincoln’s next move in terms of how to handle his support. The AI is also disappointing and plain stupid – walking into easy stealth kills while completely ignoring the dead bodies of allies just inches in front of them. Weapons are lackluster in terms of differences. Once I got an AK47 and a silenced pistol halfway through the game I found no reason to switch as the ammo dropped by fallen enemies was plentiful for each.
But the “Mafia” series hasn’t been praised for its gameplay, but it’s narrative. The first few hours made it seem like “III” would not only produce a memorable story, but also the best in the series. Unfortunately when the world opens up, the story falls off. It becomes painfully obvious that Lincoln’s tale isn’t bulky enough to survive without the mission padding and racket shakedowns as the majority of plot progression centers on multiple conversations featuring characters planning their next attack or voicing their anger when things don’t work out, a court hearing, and documentary style interviews that are usually non-chronological. Without the repetition and solely relying on genuine story missions, it’s hard to believe this revenge tale would last more than ten hours (which isn’t bad for an action-adventure game, not an open world experience). Though the story is riddled with clichés and the darkest of imagery & sounds based on racial tension (not only between whites and blacks, but also African Americans and Haitians), the voice acting and motion capture makes one forget about the plot’s shortcomings. Alex Hernandez (Lincoln), Lane Compton (the eccentric CIA agent and the person responsible for helping Clay get his ducks in a row for taking down Sal in John Donovan), Gordon Greene (the conflicted priest Father James), Jay Acovone (Sal) are just a few of the great voices heard throughout and captured to produce some of, if not the best lip synching in video game history. Every performance, be it major or minor such as the people Lincoln has to talk with to start the racket missions, are absolutely fabulous. If this were an actual film, there would be some nominations for “Actor of the Year”.
“Mafia III” is also technically flawed – a game that could’ve benefited from several more weeks of fine tuning to fix the random graphical glitches, and lighting issues that can cause whiteout effects even during cutscenes. Enemies can turn invincible randomly and small bushes, for some reason, have the stopping power of a brick wall. When it comes to game crashes I was luckier than most as I only had one major crash during my entire time – a crash that actually caused a side mission to partially complete itself and push me forward in the mini-story. I, thankfully, had no problems with freezing or getting stuck in the world, though enemies, at times, had a tendency to fall through the world. There are collectibles, but other than looking at breasts, there’s nothing to keep one searching out these open-world trademarks. “Mafia III” had all the potential of being another memorable entry in the franchise, but fell incredibly short to the standards set over the course of two games in a variety of ways while still producing a game that has some glowing moments of greatness that can’t be denied.
Should You Play “Mafia III”?
This is the type of game someone like myself who thoroughly enjoys doing things such as taking over almost countless rackets, outposts and the like will appreciate more than people who are looking for an experience similar to “Grand Theft Auto” or, more appropriately, “Mafia II”. The story starts off strong, but shows its lack of depth when it becomes obvious racket takeovers is just padding to add more gameplay time. The voice acting and soundtrack are awesome, but those are only aesthetic qualities. All in all, “Mafia III” is the type of game you’d either rent and play for the first five or so hours to get an idea of whether or not you’d like doing “this” over and over again, or wait until it’s on sale for about half the price – it’s an offer you may want to refuse.
