Mafia III review

MAFIA III

Mindless repetition, the game.

It’s 1968, and blood runs in the streets of beautiful New Bordeaux. A mysterious man strikes terror into the entire city, as he dismantles the Italian mob and leaves destruction and chaos in his wake. This man is Lincoln Clay, a man just back from fighting in Vietnam, who was betrayed by people he called his friends. It’s your job to guide Lincoln’s rampage through this parody of New Orleans, while keeping Lincoln’s under-bosses happy, or at least too scared to leave. With its beautiful open world and fantastic soundtrack, coupled with simple but fun combat, this game has all the potential to be a classic of gaming and seriously challenge Grand Theft Auto’s throne atop the open world. But in the end, Mafia III is let down by tedious, repetitive missions and a barren world with nothing to do, making this game a chore to even complete.

The World

First things first, the thing that Mafia III does that nobody else does is the setting. It’s 1968 in the deep south, shortly after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and JFK. Racial prejudice is still common and prevalent at this time, and the developers of Mafia III never shies away from talking about this tough subject. Lincoln Clay is a colored man, and even though he is a Vietnam veteran and a hero, he is not shown respect because of his race. White women in the game will give you a wide berth, and even ask you to walk on the other side of the street. There are “white only” bars that will not only refuse to serve you, but will attack you if you refuse to leave. At a point in the game you must even uncover and take down a ring of underground slavers, selling colored people for profit. Racism is a distasteful subject to talk about, but Mafia III puts it at the forefront, giving the game character and feel you won’t get in many other games.

8/10

The Graphics

Simply put, this game is graphically stunning. Compare the graphics of this game to any other you compare to pick, such as Grand Theft Auto V, and this game holds up wonderfully. From the lights of the French Ward during Mardi Gras to the moonlight reflecting off the waters of the bayou, this game is simply a joy to look at most the time. More than just being graphically detailed, the world is colorful and lovingly crafted, each district of the city having a unique feel, from the wide roads and skyscrapers downtown to the run down colored neighborhood of the Borough. There are areas of the game where the game just doesn’t look right however. Particularly at dusk and dawn the game can look just weird, with sunlight not seeming to reflect quite right. Not to mention there’s only so long you can be impressed by graphics in an open world game, as you go through the same areas dozens of times. However, there are simply very few times that this game looks bad, and for the first few hours you’ll have almost as much fun looking at the world than playing the game.

8/10

The Sounds

The developers of Mafia III invested heavily in the soundtrack, and it pays dividends. The soundtrack is easily the best part of the game, as they licensed well known songs from the time. Even hours into the game, you will turn on the radio in your car while cruising along and think to yourself; “Wow, they have THIS song?” On top of the soundtrack, the rest of the game sounds beautiful as well. The guns give a satisfying whump or crack when fired, the tires squeal when you turn, and the voice acting for the characters is some of the best in video games.

9/10

Gameplay

But heartrendingly, the place where Mafia III missteps and neglects too much to ignore is the most important part of the game; how fun it is to play. The gun-play is satisfying, with

cover based shooting being the name of the game. The AI (how smart your enemies behave) is simple, even predictable at times, but coupled with the enemies’ precision and relentlessness, provides a fun challenge most of the time. But this is where the positives end. Almost the entire game consists of taking districts from the Italian mob to work your way up to the boss. To take over a district you must do damage to the illegal businesses the mob runs, forcing the leader of the district to come and confront you. You do damage by assassinating enforcers and destroying goods/operations. It takes twenty missions to get the district leader to come confront you, during which you will be doing the exact same things repeatedly. Assassinate enforcers, attack warehouses, assassinate enforcers, attack sweat shops… There is absolutely no variation. You will do the same thing again and again for every single district. You will do this HUNDREDS of times throughout the course of the game, as these repetitive missions are 90 percent of the actual game. And because you will be doing the same thing for hours on end, the game’s other flaws stand out even more. Mafia III commits the cardinal sin of open world games: gives us a big, beautiful place to explore and puts nothing in it. Unlike competing open world games, there is nothing to do except for the repetitive main missions. Mafia III offers no side quests, no fun minigames, no bars or shops to visit or places to rob. There is simply nothing to do.

3/10

All in all, Mafia III has the potential to be a fantastic open world classic. It has polished graphics, an interesting world and a top-notch soundtrack. Which is why it’s so terribly disappointing that this game flopped so hard in the gameplay department. There are many parts of this lovingly crafted world that you may never see, good characters that you won’t know what happens to, all because the gameplay is so dull and repetitive that it’s likely you’ll quit before you even finish the game. It’s a slightly above average game with a good world at best, and a pure slog to try to get through at its worst.

FINAL SCORE

6/10