Mafia III…where to begin…

Let’s begin with Mafia and Mafia II…both great games.

Mafia was a masterpiece of storytelling and world creation…atmosphere and player involvement. It was different. It was Mafia!

Mafia II was pretty darned good…hard to follow such a striking first game but did pretty well IMO; equally good story telling, characters and setting. Thoroughly enjoyable and immersive! Who can forget driving a drunken Joe and Eddie home from burying a corpse with Dean singing Return to Me on the radio and everyone singing along!

If I had a complaint with Mafia II it was that such a great world was pretty sterile off the beaten track…could have done with more to do…more interaction…more hidden missions if you entered a shop or abandoned building…just a bit more imagination in creating a bit more non linear entertainment. Lots of people commented this.

So!... easy peasy lemon squeezy right? Mafia 3… you set it in Vegas in the 60s or something like that…continue the great Mafia theme… the guns, the fast cars, the loose women, the story driven immersive gameplay and add a bit more non-linear content a bit more exploration. You maintain the car customization, the choice of clothes…the music… you add….you add a bit more…you make a classic…

Well, no…you hand the franchise off and say “kill it!”

The devs cut all the customization…all the clothes…any hope of exploration. You create a huge sterile world and fill it with…dun dun dun! A quest for fuses! You cut the Mafia down to supporting actor…you make the star… racism!…yeah! Political correctness front and bloody centre…YAWN! If I see one more review praising this dirge for “tackling issues” I’m gonna puke. It doesn’t even work at doing this by the way. The eponymous hero of our PC tale is only half AA and runs around being handled by a white guy and ends up well entrenched in just the sort of stereotypical lifestyle that you’d have aspirations to avoid coming from a minority background.

The point is you don’t make a Mafia game about something other than the Mafia! It’s not big…it’s not clever it’s not surprising…it’s just pants!

No real story telling here either…Cut scenes are not story telling! Cut scenes are not a substitute for gameplay! If it needs narration then it has failed to tell the story...this is true of all cinema and all gameplay. In Mafia and Mafia II…you were the story…you were the evolution…you lived it you played it. Here you watch the story as it’s handed out to you and then you play the gaps…terrible!

OMG! The repetition! I have finished the game and I can honestly say it’s 50 hours of rinse and repeat the same couple of missions over and over and over and over and…

Even the Playboy collection is repeated in good part from Mafia II…the same girls!! Did they think we wouldn’t notice?!!

Graphics are hardly better than Mafia II!…textures are from ages past. I’m a firm believer in story first and graphics later. I could forgive the view in the rear view mirror if I was living the Mafia life…but it just appals when you aren’t…

I won’t even go near the 30fps cap at launch…I can’t… I choke up and want to eviscerate my console buying friends…

Couple of patches later and things have improved somewhat…but even a Titan X (Maxwell) clocked at 1400MHz just runs 60fps at 1440p max settings….could this be the new Crysis…just without the visuals or story?

In summary…this would have been a good 20 hour game if it was called “bored on the bayou”.

Good points?...I guess the music is still good and some of the gunplay reminds you of Mafia.

Who does this to a game? How does this happen? It’s so obvious how this should have moved forward it’s hard not to wonder at the mental acuity of Hangar 13 or the lack of s**ts given at 2K over the legacy of the first two chapters of this series…

*Sigh*

Buy on sale when it’s seriously fallen in price…

Mafia III…where to begin… Let’s begin with Mafia and Mafia II…both great games. Mafia was a masterpiece of storytelling and world creation…atmosphere and player involvement. It was different. It was Mafia! Mafia II was pretty darned good…hard to follow such a striking first game but did pretty well IMO; equally good story telling, characters and setting. Thoroughly enjoyable and immersive! Who can forget driving a drunken Joe and Eddie home from burying a corpse with Dean singing Return to Me on the radio and everyone singing along! If I had a complaint with Mafia II it was that such a great world was pretty sterile off the beaten track…could have done with more to do…more interaction…more hidden missions if you entered a shop or abandoned building…just a bit more imagination in creating a bit more non linear entertainment. Lots of people commented this. So!... easy peasy lemon squeezy right? Mafia 3… you set it in Vegas in the 60s or something like that…continue the great Mafia theme… the guns, the fast cars, the loose women, the story driven immersive gameplay and add a bit more non-linear content a bit more exploration. You maintain the car customization, the choice of clothes…the music… you add….you add a bit more…you make a classic… Well, no…you hand the franchise off and say “kill it!” The devs cut all the customization…all the clothes…any hope of exploration. You create a huge sterile world and fill it with…dun dun dun! A quest for fuses! You cut the Mafia down to supporting actor…you make the star… racism!…yeah! Political correctness front and bloody centre…YAWN! If I see one more review praising this dirge for “tackling issues” I’m gonna puke. It doesn’t even work at doing this by the way. The eponymous hero of our PC tale is only half AA and runs around being handled by a white guy and ends up well entrenched in just the sort of stereotypical lifestyle that you’d have aspirations to avoid coming from a minority background. The point is you don’t make a Mafia game about something other than the Mafia! It’s not big…it’s not clever it’s not surprising…it’s just pants! No real story telling here either…Cut scenes are not story telling! Cut scenes are not a substitute for gameplay! If it needs narration then it has failed to tell the story...this is true of all cinema and all gameplay. In Mafia and Mafia II…you were the story…you were the evolution…you lived it you played it. Here you watch the story as it’s handed out to you and then you play the gaps…terrible! OMG! The repetition! I have finished the game and I can honestly say it’s 50 hours of rinse and repeat the same couple of missions over and over and over and over and… Even the Playboy collection is repeated in good part from Mafia II…the same girls!! Did they think we wouldn’t notice?!! Graphics are hardly better than Mafia II!…textures are from ages past. I’m a firm believer in story first and graphics later. I could forgive the view in the rear view mirror if I was living the Mafia life…but it just appals when you aren’t… I won’t even go near the 30fps cap at launch…I can’t… I choke up and want to eviscerate my console buying friends… Couple of patches later and things have improved somewhat…but even a Titan X (Maxwell) clocked at 1400MHz just runs 60fps at 1440p max settings….could this be the new Crysis…just without the visuals or story? In summary…this would have been a good 20 hour game if it was called “bored on the bayou”. Good points?...I guess the music is still good and some of the gunplay reminds you of Mafia. Who does this to a game? How does this happen? It’s so obvious how this should have moved forward it’s hard not to wonder at the mental acuity of Hangar 13 or the lack of s**ts given at 2K over the legacy of the first two chapters of this series… *Sigh* Buy on sale when it’s seriously fallen in price…