Mafia- a narrative driven crime series that actually remembers why we love telling stories about this to ourselves. Not just to revel in the what-if excesses of a life free from the constraints of law and morality, of the unattainable wrestled from the hands of ever-so romantic life-or-death drama- but to remind ourselves of the grip of karmic retribution. To hear that ever present ticking of the universal doomsday clock clicking ever closer to midnight. These games were seeped deeply in their cinematic influences, to a near fault, whilst keeping up with their audiences as decently entertaining and immersive tours through the iconography of post-war America stretching from the thirties up to the late sixties. Having recent played through the series as it exists on modern storefronts I am struck both by how solid these games were and the lack of comparables that exist on the market today. Truly the field is wide open for 'The Old Country' whenever that title rolls around.
Now the first Mafia game dates back to 2002 by Illusion Softworks, and as good as I'm sure it's fans will tell you it is- I was very happy to have a modern remake by Hangar 13 to play instead through 'Mafia Definitive Edition'. Mafia Definitive Edition is a very good looking game- at 1080p- (4k really doesn't seem to agree with it.) and those visuals go to bring to life a vision of Great Depression LA that feels oddly distinct from the dozens of other LA video games we get. Maybe it's the time period, maybe it's the strange omission of Hollywood altogether, either way this old-school gangster aesthetic is preciously rare in gaming. Doubly so in open-world's like Mafia's. Of course, Mafia 'open worlds' are more window dressings- they exist to be pretty to look at, not to really engage with in a meaningful fashion.
There's a retro-istic charm to the way that Definitive Edition presents itself, even with the totally remade scenes and dialogue. I can almost feel the GTA 3 era set-up of 'get given a mission in a smokey room with the loud mouth boss' aesthetic that both feels reductive to high level storytelling whilst nostalgic in a sweet way. That being said- despite the 'GTA mission structure' layout of the story there is something of an authenticity to the core character Tommy and how we explore who he is. Not a good man, but a human who tries to make something of himself in a not-so-upstanding way. There's a muted charm to him and his performance that crosses the basic threshold of connection, even if I won't exactly tie him in as one of the great protagonists in gaming. I wish his supporting cast made more of a role beyond fairly basic archetypes they slide into- there's a recognisable kind of charm in the familiar I suppose but it's hardly a good sign when I couldn't remember which name belonged to which face throughout the entire game. Even now I'm unsure as to who was who outside of the literal Don himself.
Also- I have no idea what Hangar 13 did to make this game but did the gunplay need to feel that bad? I was getting seriously worried about playing through Mafia 3, (Which was to be my first time) knowing this game was made after 3 and yet played like an early 2000's 3rd person action title from hell. AI felt messy and preferred to rush then stick to any strategy, all the guns felt cock-eyed and sounded weak and the 'driving mission' needed to die. Why no-one at Hangar 13 saw the driving mission from the original and went "Yeah, this really needs a 'skip' option in the remake" is totally beyond me. What idealised version of the world do they live in and how can I move there permanently?
Mafia Definitive Edition is a fine game that seems dragged down by the severely dated skeleton it is attempting to emulate, alongside bewilderingly poor gunplay. But with high quality cinematics, solid performances and keen script rewrites Hangar 13 managed to cobble together something that ascends above it's foundations and becomes sparingly worthwhile. I use 'sparingly', because any allusion to experience this adventure once more for the memories vanishes when I recall the sheer agony of that relic-of-a-mission at the race track. Born from a time where 'variety' meant "chuck in a random level of another genre we barely comprehend", I can scarcely believe that total roadblock shipped in the game back in 2002, let alone again in the 2020 remake! Overall, a C+ game but not one which scores my recommendation, I'm afraid.
Mafia 2 was the one that really got my attention. A definitive remake of the game that I played religiously as a kid? I wonder what they would change, what the would keep the same, would the game still hit as hard as it did- carry the same narrative weight- endear me to the same characters... oh, it's just a remaster. Yeah, they didn't change a thing for the 'definitive' version of Mafia 2 beyond upscaling the visuals a little bit and cleaning up some background faces and I have to be honest- they didn't really need to- Mafia 2 remains the peak of the franchise. Building off everything that Mafia Definitive Edition tried to do, Mafia 2 even has a more comprehensive open world to explore in New York analogy 'Empire Bay'! (Although only slightly more comprehensive. This ain't gonna be beating out any GTA games for go-to-sandbox anytime soon.)
Set across multiple years in a very tactile manner, Mafia 2 is the only game in the franchise to give us an interactable spectrum and really pan out our protagonist's life in a changing world. We get to experience Vito's story from the days after his discharge during World War 2, scrambling to make a life for himself in the ration-driven icy American streets, to experiencing the birth of the rebellious age during the early 50's, and see that bear out in the music we hear and the cars that drive along the street- it works fantastically as the backdrop for a much more engaging protagonist and his likable best friend Joe Barbaro. Their friendship really is the beating heart of this game with Vito as the lightly sarcastic straight man and Joe as the boisterous deviant who often drags his friend into trouble right alongside him.
There are definitely beats reminiscent of Goodfellas stretched along Mafia 1 and 2, although it's the sequel that brings more the feeling of that movie to me. The sensation of this unearned sense of respect wrangled out of an unjust world, only stretched over the more typically heroic lens of a video game protagonist rather the more garishly awful lens of that movie's protagonist. The faces you meet and the various sides of the underworld you cross all stand out with distinction which makes their stories intertwining with the core narrative feel significant. Playing it again I was seriously surprised how many storybeats I remembered wholesale from over a decade ago because of the memorable situations, the funny character interactions, the explosive set pieces- the whole nine yards. And again, narrative is the key driving principal of this game, even above 'enjoyment per hour' in the gameplay. The story isn't afraid to get boring for a few minutes in order to settle you into a scene, make you feel as fed up as Vito or drive the tension of a building heelturn.
Obviously they are still hang-ups with the game. The age shows with the controls and the visuals, and there is certainly a pacing issue as the game progresses. Pretty much the entire final three chapters were an absolute blur in my recollection and now I know why- events spiral out of control but not in a manner that feels uncomfortable and affronting, such as in Goodfellas, but in a manner that seems rushed and a bit confusing. I still don't know who the hell those Police-cosplayers were working for when they jump you- and the fact that everyone else just kind of brushes that entire episode aside kind of makes it feel like a haphazard action scene stuffed where it wasn't really needed. That and the finale has that 'endgame stupidity' in it's writing that a lot of games suffer from, where an entire gauntlet appears out of nowhere despite there being literally no reason for several hundred men to be waiting at the observatory all over it's floors- but to be fair Mafia 1 did that much worse with what was designed to be a simple three man ambush giving way to a literally hidden army out of nowhere. It's not the end of the world but a more immersive and tense finale would have served an otherwise genuine story more faithfully. Still a spectacular game, if not quite a masterpiece, I give Mafia 2 Definite Edition an -A Grade and an absolute recommendation. You have to play this one at least once before you die!
As the developer behind Mafia 2 went their separate ways (some of which going on to create a small studio called 'Warhorse' which put out the incredible "Kingdom Come Deliverance") the newly formed Hangar 13 took over. Built from a few former employees who worked on Mafia 2 and a new branch of fresh faces. I wonder if any of this upheaval is to blame for Mafia 3. But first let me address the marsupial in the pantry- Mafia 3 has a reputation, this is something I very well knew considering the fact I never played it's original release despite being a Mafia 2 superfan. It's known for having totally disregarded the franchise it birthed from. Shirking the unique narrative excellence the franchise had just started to scratch at in order to chase much more accessible and tried-and-true Ubisoft style soulless checklist gameplay. That is all true. But it's not a terrible game.
Despite my fears after playing Mafia Definitive Edition, I can attest that Mafia 3 is the best feeling title in the franchise by far- and I'm not just referring to the fact that the game introduces you to the golden age of muscle cars. Shooting feels great, weapons slap with satisfying feedback, Lincoln Clay feels smooth and responsive, enemy AI trades bullets and attempts flanks like they should- it just feels like a hugely competent third person action game in the vein of an Uncharted title. Which is fitting given that Mafia 3 plays much more like an Uncharted game than any Mafia title before it- both for the better and, more commonly, for the worse.
The core of this story is a revenge tale set up in the first act and like a typical Ubisoft game- that is pretty much all the stakes the narrative has to go on for the rest of the game. Gone are the complete explorations into these characters lives where we see the breadth of their journey into criminality- in it's place is a slightly vapid gamified 'take over the city' metagame with an extremely thin "violence is actually bad" narrative stretched poorly across the runtime. The framing device of 'interviews in a documentary' was a stroke of genius in a way to establish some form of pathos and narrative- but it's still a vast downgrade from the more linear and rich narratives of both games before it.
Luckily Lincoln Clay himself is an incredibly likable protagonist, perhaps the most so out of any Mafia game, which sprinkles a lot of charm and life into what could have easily been a dull-as-dishwater Ubisoft copy-and-paste affair. His interactions with the core cast feel intention-driven and worthy even if the gameplay scenarios feel bland and uninspired. The free-roam friendly 'clear out the criminal operations' objectives quickly blend into a soup of repetitive blandness. When taking out the prostitution rings and the PCP rings both involve going into a back alley and shooting 5 or 6 men do those really count as separate missions? (At least you get directed towards different alleys for each objective. This isn't quite 'Watch_Dogs: Legion' levels of lazy...) Even taking out the heads of these various operations just sends you right back to a location they'll have already had you clear only to do it again.
The only tailor-made missions are taking out the various district heads and those missions range from fine to a couple of 'that was pretty cool' moments. None stand-out as particularly memorable. Even the big finale at the end has to be the least elaborate and intense finale in the franchise, and I don't particularly think the first two games were masterpieces on how to finish your game- they just stuck around in my noodle a bit better. The pivot towards open world objectives gutted the potential of what this game could have been and I have evidence to support that in the form of the DLCs. All of them are much more linear direct mission-to-mission affairs and though none really feel like Mafia- they all are supremely more engaging and interesting than the base game. Stones Unturned in particular just feels like a mini Uncharted game only given a lean late 60's aesthetic that really sings well with the style of this game- I would have preferred if they went action adventure the entire way then the relatively lacklustre direction Hangar 13 lumped Mafia 3 with. It's fun enough to recommend, but not good enough to get any higher than a C+ Grade.
Mafia feels like a franchise always chasing it's 'Masterpiece' moment and never quite getting the hare. Mafia 3 should have been it, building off the momentum of 2, but they fumbled down the hill and got totally lost in Ubisoft checklist land instead. But I just know that with a tightening of storytelling, a return to direct character introspection and another new timely setting to settle into- we'll be right back on track. Which is probably why 'The Old Country' has me so very excited. But should you play Mafia in the modern age? Absolutely, the franchise stands up surprisingly well and, given the decently anthological nature of it, there's no need to suffer the inequities of the middling titles. Just give Mafia 2 your time, and maybe a bit of 3 if you want some mindless fun. 1 is really only for the hardcore franchise lovers.
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