Mafia III

I almost didn't snag this when it came up as free for PS Plus members, because, excepting the lie-to-your-friends social game, all things Mafia-related are vaguely interesting to me, at best. Maybe it's the low expectations here, but I kinda liked this one.

I'm a big story guy when it comes to narrative games like this, and, secondarily, a voice-acting guy. E.g., BioShock is one of my favorite games for these reasons. In those categories, Mafia III excels. If this were a season of HBO or something, I'd binge it. Black Vietnam vet thrust down the dark road of revenge against the entire New Orleans New Bordeaux mafia in the late '60s? The mission where you break up a would-be Klan meeting and burn the would-be grand dragon on a cross? That's some intense shit.

The documentarian motif of the cutscenes is also neat, and very functional for passing time in-game. And in a world where fast-travel doesn't exist in any way, that can really help.

Gameplay-wise, it's pretty basic and repetitive. Imagine a serious-toned, non-satirical Grand Theft Auto game, only 90% of the missions involve finding mafia guys in a back alley or warehouse, and either sneaking up to them and slitting their throats, or engaging in a kinda-harder, kinda-higher-stakes shootout. As in, you can't get shot very many times before you die, and you loose 50% of the money in your pocket if you do. Annoying, maybe. Challenging enough that I don't get bored, kinda.

This game also might be under investigation by the FBI because there are bugs everywhere.

I'm not finished, as of writing, and I'm mostly testing out Glitchwave's review functions, but I see where this game's going and I feel safe writing this review pre-completion.

I'd say check it out if you get the chance to do it for free or cheap.

Bloody revenge story spun under sweet southern heat. And that story is one to follow, at least enough to endure a fairly unrewarding gameplay loop of taking out sub-bosses until you're ready to nab the boss himself. It's hard not to imagine a world where Hangar 18 applied the Nemesis system to this game in order to turn these enemies into living, breathing people instead of villain archetypes. There's definitely a larger problem concerning gameplay design, however. The story and writing and acting and presentation and atmosphere is really all absolute A+ work, but the game loses some of its narrative punch when its shrouded in generic and repetitive mission design. No real peaks and valleys in terms of structure, just flat-lining. My initial take has also deflated after playing earlier entries in the series, where the majority of moments/missions/sequences are constructed totally in service of a grand plot. Whereas most of Mafia III's runtime could be labelled busy work.

With that being said, the south in the 60s is fun to explore, and the catharsis that comes from gunning down racists/KKK members is unparalleled. It's always refreshing to see a game that takes itself this seriously, even if all of its pieces don't fall into place by the end. Because of this, I still look forward to the inevitable Mafia 4. I just ask that it takes place in the 80s.

Mafia III is a game that really tests your patience. The story is good old mafia revenge story, predictable but nonetheless very well voice acted and engaging. Unfortunatly the gameplay missions are extremely repetitive. You will literally be clearing out warehouses from beginning to the end of the game. And unfortunatly, because of the dumb enemy AI and the huge amount of bugs in the games, the actual difficulty of the missions varies wildly. You never know when the game will pull bullshit on you.

It feels like a lot of missed potential really, and that they should have had way more than a couple of years more of development time.

This game is perfection, except for the 'Sign of the Times' DLC.