Are the mafia games self contained? Or do you need to play them in order?

[potionjunkie]

Title.

[Dregora]

They're pretty self contained, yeah. A main character of an older game might make a cameo in a newer game or vice versa or have a small role, but nothing substantial. It's more fanservice than anything else.

Every game has it's own protagonist with it's own set of problems he has to deal with. They're all pretty self contained in the sense that all their issues aren't relevant to the others. They all somewhat deal with different families too.

[potionjunkie]

Thanks for the info! :)

[Dregora]

Originally posted by potionjunkie:

Thanks for the info! :)

No worries! I'm not sure if you plan to play through all three, but if you weren't planning on it, I can highly recommend the first two. Not that three is bad on it's own, but it's just different.

All three are good games, though. But 3 is just a little less ''Mafia'' in the sense that it feels more like gangs.

[potionjunkie]

Yep i'm planing on playing all three. If theres a bit of fan service i'll play them in order. I gotta wait till the first one drops its price. /r/patientgamer

[dorkenstein]

this one isn't really a mafia game, it's just piggy backing on the series name to bait extra sales.

[Dregora]

Originally posted by potionjunkie:

Yep i'm planing on playing all three. If theres a bit of fan service i'll play them in order. I gotta wait till the first one drops its price. /r/patientgamer

You're better off buying the definitive package. Has all three for the price of one AAA title. It's what I did. Or if you know where to buy, yknow.. elsewhere, you can get it for like 40 euros (I assume dollars would be in the same price range)

[potionjunkie]

@Dregora thanks for the tip. I'll def snag it a year from now when it's like 20 bucks. Nahh i don't do grey market. I can see the appeal though.

[Lil Ghork]

The only thing you could say is that, Mafia 1 and 2 have the closest link, where Mafia 1 (or definitive edition, the clearly superior one) takes place between 1930-1939, Mafia 2 takes place abouts 1945-1960. It's just more of what you'll like: italian crime drama. At least thematically.
While the first two focus almost ENTIRELY on what appears to be a blend of Chicago and New York going under various pseudonyms and vastly different iterations, the third one takes place in New Orleans (which is nice, to see perhaps the first fully open world iteration of New Orleans in a game).
So if you are more of a Goodfellas, classic gangster movie from-the-bottom-to-the-top kind of guy then Mafia: Definitive Edition and Mafia 2 (although honestly, a little less so imo and with much less substance).

If you prefer something much more clearly in the style of GTA ig? And the general idea of managing organized crime, as in properly, then Mafia 3 seems like the way to go. I generally preferred Mafia 3 to 1 and 2, not because it had significantly more depth but because the gameplay wasn't ridiculously outdated, but with Definitive Edition for 1 I can see myself enjoying both equally.

Hangar 13 is quite good in the third person shooter market.

[ZanyScum]

Mafia 2 should be played at Christmas! Driving through the snow and playing Christmas songs is fun!