This game is not a masterpiece and here's why

[LastNightdriveNinja]

I am very irritated about all the praise this game gets from many players. A masterpiece, they say. A remarkable remake, they say. I feel that people are overrating it just because it is better than "Mafia III". For me it doesn't fully redeem Hangar 13, since they had a strong base and didn't have to build up something from scratch. As a standalone game it surely is a good game, but as a remake it's far from being a masterpiece. I absolutely loved the original, finished it 15 times over the last 18 years, so i have a lot of thoughts about it. Go get yourself a drink or something to eat, this will take a while. ;) I will only focus on the bad things here, not because it's a terrible game or hasn't many strengths, but because it isn't as great as people think it is. It's decent enough but lacks in many ways and here's why:

The soundtrack is subpar and generic in comparison. Instead of using the assets they had and modify the old, great orchestral score, they went for a bland hollywood-esque soundtrack instead. In their advertisement stuff they stated, that they would re-record the soundtrack, not that they would replace it completely. Big nono.The few licensed songs on the radio that they reused are sparse. In 10 hours i only heard one song from the original. The soundtrack is a big part of the identity of a game or a movie. Completely replacing it with a new soundtrack takes away a big part of what "Mafia" was all about. Melodies like "Fate" or "Calm" are timeless and could've worked in the DE easily. It's nice that they at least kept the theme song, but it has a completely different character than the rest of the score, so it feels disconnected from the game itself. They could've composed new orchestral melodies while still staying true to the original and vary the iconic melodies. They didn't. They failed at this aspect. There are reasons for it. The licensing stuff for the songs i get, but they could've at least maintain the spirit of the original score in the orchestral parts.

The gunplay is mediocre, missions are shortened, content was cut, trams and trains can't be used, ai is just acceptable and has the same flaws like in "Mafia III". Some missions were stripped and are pretty barebone like "Omerta". You can finish the part on the airport in like 2 minutes now and there is no freedom for the player anymore. The airport is now one narrow path, where everything is blocked off. It took you around 10 to 20 minutes in the original and you had to use different strategies to kill the opponents. You could even take a car to mow down the enemies and there were snipers that were a real threat. Plus: you had to fight the FBI and Police afterwards, if the guy in the phone booth called the police. You cannot even drive the car to the bank after the airport scene in the DE. They deleted a lot of driving sequences in the game where you would drive to Salieris after a mission, so the feeling that the restaurant is your home base is pretty much diminished. Some briefings aren't happening at the briefing room anymore, but outside of Salieris bar. Because of the deleted driving sequences the game is shorter now. And they included an option to skip all the other driving sequences for people, that don't like the playing aspect of a video game... Hope they will release a new version of the game where the player can just watch the game play itself...

Lucas Bertone doesn't have any missions with cutscenes or dialogue anymore, you can only pick up his postcards to look for some cars. Missions in general are dumbed down a lot. Like in the hotel, where you can find 3 or 4 business cards with Michelles room number on it, because developers think that modern gamers are stupid monkeys that need dozens of hints to get to their objective. There is even another note that says what her room number is, laying around at the reception. And why didn't Tommy asked Sam for the room number in the car in the first place? Sam and Paulie can't be shot and can't die in certain missions anymore and have no health bar, so no real feel of danger exists anymore. The game holds your hand at almost any given time.

Graphics are amazing, the city looks absolutely stunning and jawdropping, but it feels emptier than ever, because there is even less to do than in the original. That's ironic, since the world is so much more populated and seems alive. Cigarette cards (backstory) and comics (nice artworks) are fine though, but these mystery foxes are a joke. They don't belong in this game and seem out of place, especially with the weird paintings on the walls. I would rather be able to go to a diner, buy clothes, wash cars and get real free roam between missions than to have all this collectable stuff. Critical consense before the DE about "Mafia" was, that it was indeed a classic, but that there wasn't much to do in the open world. Judging by todays standards that's a valid point, so removing content wasn't a good decision at all and to not add anything new gameplay wise is almost criminal. "Mafia 2" also was criticised for the lack of side stuff, but in comparison to the world in this remake it has a lot more to make it feel alive.

And let's not forget about all of the bugs. The race started with activated cruise control in my game, sometimes Tommy doesn't walk if you press the forward button. Ironically this happened several times in the "Running Man" mission, so i had to retry it a couple of times. Controls are clunky in shootouts, the crosshair is a total joke and the molotov animation is hilarious. He is no trained soldier, but they recycled the animations of Lincoln Clay for him. In Central Island there is a bus station that has a sign for a tram station instead, even if there are no tram tracks. The mission "Happy Birthday" takes place in 1935, yet the invitation says May 2nd, 1933. How couldn't they notice that? The game has the same problems as "Mafia III". Mirrors were terribly bugged back then. Instead of fixing them they didn't even put one mirror into the whole game. A very cheap way of handling bugs. This game needed more time. Another example of publishers that don't care for the quality of the product. The developers are hardly to blame. I almost feel bad for Hangar 13, since there were people investing so much time into creating trains and stuff like that and in the end it doesn't even work as it should

Moving on to other problems: You can't jump anymore, you can't really duck and you can't crouch and shoot at the same time. Gun sound volume is pretty low, a common thing nowadays in games. When you shot the pumpgun in the original it felt powerful, here it sounds like a bb gun. On classic mode enemies are bulletsponges without rhyme or reason. Sometimes a headshot from a revolver is enough, sometimes it takes 4 headshots and they still stand on their feet. The Thompson was severly nerfed. In the original a well placed round was enough for regular enemies (not including "boss battles"), while you have to unload several rounds into normal enemies and they still won't die in classic mode. It wasn't like that in the original, so what is classic about that? Of course the recoil in the original was severe, but if you got the hang of it, enemies died quick and without much bullets.

The DE also misses a lot of details that the original had. Car deformation was decreased, even if it is still noticable and looks okay. Lost Heaven has millions of water puddles but it makes no sound if you walk through them. I hate that in every game. Why was that possible 18 years ago? These are the little details, that pull you into the game world and makes the whole thing believable. In the original enemies could get out of ammunition, so they had to shoot you with pistols or attack you with their fists. Enemies here have unlimited ammo and shrug your bullets off. Meele combat and fist fights are terrible judging by todays standards. You can only carry 2 weapons at a time, which is horrendous. But modern gamers are fine with that, which makes no sense. Why would you like to get the bare minimum? I understand that it's more challenging, but at least they could've given Tommy the option to hide one rifle or shotgun under his coat.

Also there are no gas station employees to fill up your car, your car magically refills itself. The countryside is completely dead without any NPCs. Why is that the case in 2020? There is no record player that you can use in Salieris bar anymore, where you could play different tunes through various missions. Why? Yellow Pete is gone and so is your house that you had in Oakwood. Hoboken is Holbrook, New Ark is North Park and Oak Hill is Beech Hill? Why change iconic location names? What's the purpose? There are no dogs in the game like in the original, but you can hear them everywhere. Interaction with the world is almost non existant. You can close some doors, but others you cannot, you cannot drop your guns, you can't "talk" to the NPCs anymore if you want to by the press of a button. Outside of cutscenes Tommy would not react to anything Ralphie, Vincenzo or the others would say to him, which is totally weird, while he does say something to random NPCs on the street when they greet him. Why? You can't use the bathroom in Clarks Motel anymore. I know, that's a funny criticism, but it was one little detail of many that made the game in 2002 ahead of it's time. Ralphie, while a great character and charming, has no purpose for the game anymore, because you can steal every car anyways by smashing the window in. Salieris bar, an iconic place, was moved to the west a couple of blocks for absolutely no reason. Many players knew in their sleep how to drive to Salieri. Why change that? What's the point of getting a ticket for passing a red light when there are like 3 traffic lights on the whole map? Free ride has no taxi missions anymore, no rival gangsters to shoot and misses a lot of content from Free Ride Extreme back then, but the developers stated, that they would merge FR and FRE? They didn't. They made a barebone version out of the two.

I would rate this game a 7/10 if i would judge it as a standalone title. A good game with a fair share of problems. But as a remake it doesn't even come close to how groundbreaking the original was. This is a state of the art game, but it doesn't bring anything new to the table, except storywise. The original had many, many flaws too, but it has an excuse: It's from 18 loooong years ago made by a small czech company with a limited budget and technical limitations of that time. There is no excuse in the world for all the drawbacks, limitations and problems in the remake. It's ironic that Hangar 13 get's so much praise for a game, that isn't even their original creation. I ignored all the strengths of this game in this comment, which there are plenty, because my point is this: There isn't that much of a difference between rating something 0/10 or 10/10. If you rate it 0/10 you're ignoring the many strenghts, but if you think this is a 10/10 then you're ignoring many problems as well. You know, I think it's important to keep a balance in things. Yeah, balance, that's the right word. Because the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life, might not get anything at all. ;)

[Be kind]

Because of the Spams, again I'm asking:

Автор сообщения: LastNightdriveNinja

except storywise. The original had many, many flaws too,

Dear OP !

Will you enlighten me about "many, many flaws in the story?

[Human Zaddy 44618]

Although I really enjoyed playing a new graphics version of this game, I'm also extremely disappointed in how dumbed down it was.

"Faithfully recreated" was the tagline on steam. This, it was not.

I just want them to take what made Mafia 2 so great, and work FORWARD from there, not back words. I don't want them to make a new Mafia, or remaster one, but just give it the same features as Mafia 2. It's just sad now. Mafia 2, to me, was a huge leap forward from Mafia 1, but then they just kept stepping back and back and back.

[Nhisso]

You found flaws in a game youve played a million times in 18 years. Ok? That will happen. Furthermore, very few people are calling it a 10/10 masterpiece lol. And i havent seen any major reviewers doing that. You came here to rant and rave, yet likely no one who reads your post is calling this game an amazing masterpiece.

The enemies being a bullet sponge? Wut? Are we playing the same game? It usually only takes at MOST a few shots to kill an enemy.

I can agree that the lack of a flinch or impact when I shoot someone is annoying and should have been an easy fix for the devs.

I havent run in to enemies not dying via head shot.

Ill concede cut content is horsesh*t. That bothers me a lot.

But Im sorry, most of your complaints are in fact just nit picking from someone who has played a game so many times he is seeing extra stuff to complain about. That will happen with pretty much any game if you play it enough. LOL why would some mafia dude be jumping around like an idiot, btw? This is definitely a game where you dont need a jump button.

I can duck and shoot just fine. Never had the baseball bat/tommy gun issue.

Modern gamers are ok with not having a bunch of weapons on them is nit picking. You're whining about realism on some things and then asking why a person isn't carrying multiple long guns on them? Really? So we are clear: You're upset that puddles dont make the noise you want, someone in a suit having a mafia shoot out would be jumping around like an idiot despite carrying 2 or 3 guns, gas station attendants not filling your car, etc etc etc, but you draw the line of realism at carrying weapons and call it gamers settling for the "bare minimum" if our character can't carry a bunch of long guns at one time? That is a great reason why your rant comes off as nit picky. You can't whine about realism with shooting and driving mechanics and then turn around and complain that you can't unrealistically carry several long guns at one time and then successfully get in to a shoot out there, Rambo.

Honestly, I don't think youve played the original in a long time and are viewing it through rose colored glasses. I do that with games too.

BTW, Only bug ive encountered btw is sound going out every once in a while and sometimes cops chase when i have realistic traffic rules turned OFF, and they DONT chase sometimes when I have it on lol.

The entitlement you seem to be showing is what really makes your rant off putting. You seem to think that if any one disagrees with your complaints it's some kind of personal insult towards you, or that people who think this game is amazing arent as smart as you or something. That's the vibe you're putting off. It's a strawman argument to make it sound like some huge percent of people are calling this a 9 or 10 out of 10 masterpiece that is flawless. No one of relevance is doing that and very few reviews are doing that. And masterpiece is subjective. I think plenty of games are masterpieces. It doesn't mean they are without flaws. On the opposite end, there are plenty of games without many flaws that are not masterpieces. Morrowind, for its time, was an absolute masterpiece. It had MANY flaws as all bethesda RPGs do. Id argue fallout new vegas was a flawed masterpiece too. Or RDR 1 and 2. Both have flaws. Both are masterpieces IMO. DISCLAIMER: I do this same thing lol. Hell, i went off just in my latest review a game (kingdom of amalur). So I get it ;)

Alternatively, I dont enjoy The Last of Us and Borderlands games, and find many flaws in them. But Id call them masterpieces (well not the last couple BL games, but 1 and 3 are). Theyre just not for me. Others *** in their pants for those 2 series' of games, do they not?

Any who, Im guessing someone who didnt play the original would have no idea this game is missing any thing sans maybe the bullet sponge situation. BTW, I find that even games that are supposed to be based on realistic combat still end up bullet spongey. Ghost Recon Breakpoint, most recently. But Mafia 3 does that non sense too.

[Nhisso]

Автор сообщения: Doc, Supreme Daddy.

Although I really enjoyed playing a new graphics version of this game, I'm also extremely disappointed in how dumbed down it was.

"Faithfully recreated" was the tagline on steam. This, it was not.

I just want them to take what made Mafia 2 so great, and work FORWARD from there, not back words. I don't want them to make a new Mafia, or remaster one, but just give it the same features as Mafia 2. It's just sad now. Mafia 2, to me, was a huge leap forward from Mafia 1, but then they just kept stepping back and back and back.

That I can agree with 100 percent. Especially on the last part. Mafia 3 is insulting. It starts off so amazingly with a linear progression and the flashback montages and interviews. The acting was mindblowing... at first. Then they just stopped. Suddenly im playing GTA New Orleans. I mean, that's all good and well, but a massive step back from mafia 2.

[Alabeo]

New patch just invalidated even more of the complaints with tons of new content.

[Oops, I Crapped My Pants]

Автор сообщения: JellySnek

New patch just invalidated even more of the complaints with tons of new content.

Gotta say, the patch is pretty solid. Its nice to see they've listened to feedback about the HUD. Makes me optimistic they will patch in public transport in the future

[Alabeo]

Автор сообщения: Chrk*Brvs Cpt. Sam Hyde

Автор сообщения: JellySnek

New patch just invalidated even more of the complaints with tons of new content.

Gotta say, the patch is pretty solid. Its nice to see they've listened to feedback about the HUD. Makes me optimistic they will patch in public transport in the future

I told you, give them a break, let them work on it. They made a statement at release that they want to keep adding to it and that it's their labor of love.

Your first clue to show that they cared was the fact there was no DLC, no Day 1 patch and game costed 40$.

Be less jaded, enjoy the ride.

It's safe to assume that because they patched in Taxi Missions, they may patch trams and trains in as well.