My thoughts on Mafia 3
Mafia 2 was one of my favorite games of last generation and the trailers of Mafia 3 had hyped me up for the sequel lot when they released. But as someone very skeptical of the modern AAA industry, I decided to hold off playing it at launch as many reviews were criticizing it's shortcomings. Despite that, the hype in me was strong enough that I hoped that everything would turn out fine after a few patches. By the time I got around to it, all DLCs had been released.
After finishing the prologue my first impression was that it was incredible. The documentary like story direction accompanied with excellent cut scenes and voice acting almost felt like playing a movie. The combat was weighty and drove home how skilled and powerful Lincoln was. The choice of licensed music deserves special mention. The brown filter took me a while to get used to but it was an artistic choice that I respected cause it definitely did add to the mood of the time period.
After the prologue however, the game opened up a lot more, and with it the cracks began to show. Taking down rackets felt somewhat like Far Cry like and that didn't seem like a big deal in the beginning. The story flow slowed down but still good enough to carry your interest up to recruiting the 3 under bosses, Vito Scalleta the 2nd game's protagonist among them. It’s only after that you realize how repetitive the design of the game was. Cutscenes were few and far between adding very little back-stories to the people I was killing and to fill up the gap inbetween were exact same few missions repeated over and over.
I saw many people asking for side content to do but I didn’t mind, maybe because some side content and customization was added via DLC before I tried the game. Yes, the map of 3 is large and very well designed and could have been used much
better for side content but for me the city in both Mafia 2 & 3 were like backdrop to
get you into the feel of the time period while riding and listening to
period specific music. The story took precedence in 2 and while it does in 3 too, it does a much poorer job at it.
Overall I think Mafia 3 had an potential to be an excellent game but fell short, like a a mile short in a 2 mile race. I can't deny I had some fun with it and how stellar the cinematics were but I really hope the devs learn from the shortcoming in an upcoming installment of the franchise.
After finishing the prologue my first impression was that it was incredible. The documentary like story direction accompanied with excellent cut scenes and voice acting almost felt like playing a movie. The combat was weighty and drove home how skilled and powerful Lincoln was. The choice of licensed music deserves special mention. The brown filter took me a while to get used to but it was an artistic choice that I respected cause it definitely did add to the mood of the time period.
After the prologue however, the game opened up a lot more, and with it the cracks began to show. Taking down rackets felt somewhat like Far Cry like and that didn't seem like a big deal in the beginning. The story flow slowed down but still good enough to carry your interest up to recruiting the 3 under bosses, Vito Scalleta the 2nd game's protagonist among them. It’s only after that you realize how repetitive the design of the game was. Cutscenes were few and far between adding very little back-stories to the people I was killing and to fill up the gap inbetween were exact same few missions repeated over and over.
Let’s talk about what there is to do in this game. To take
down the Marcano crime family, you have to work way up to the top. By
working your way up, I mean killing everyone, all 6 or 7 of them. Each
family member controls a district, and they have underbosses. In each
district there is 2 underbosses. To defeat these underbosses you need to
take down strongholds by doing 2 types of mission. The problem is both
of these 2 types of mission are exactly the same. Since the maps are
varied, it doesn’t seem like a much of big deal at first but when you’re
doing the exact same fucking mission for the 10th time, it
becomes a chore. The side missions you can do are either
more of the same i.e assassination missions or very boring fetch quests.
I did a few at first cause doing them you get extra dialogue option
with people handling them, but they end after 2-3 missions and it’s all
pretty inconsequential apart from Burke’s daughter’s dialogues.
I realized it wasn't gonna be a classic mafia tale like first 2 but
instead a revenge focused story, while disappointing it didn't put me
off too much. Now I wouldn’t complain if there was a nice story
attached to the repetitive missions, but there isn’t. Not only that, you get a
few very short cutscenes for the Marcano family member you’re supposed
to be killing which barely add anything to story. You’re just clearing
out a hit list with no emotional attachment apart from getting to Sal
Marcano in the end. We went from Mafia 2 where Vito was a relatable everyday man with a dream to Lincon who comes off as an unhinged killing machine.
The drastic change in story pace after the great prologue and not taking the time to flesh out the characters is what kills Mafia 3. If the combat wasn’t so smooth and I didn’t want to see the final confrontation, I would have definitely stopped playing midway. Looking back now at how luck luster even the ending was, I probably should have.
The drastic change in story pace after the great prologue and not taking the time to flesh out the characters is what kills Mafia 3. If the combat wasn’t so smooth and I didn’t want to see the final confrontation, I would have definitely stopped playing midway. Looking back now at how luck luster even the ending was, I probably should have.
Overall I think Mafia 3 had an potential to be an excellent game but fell short, like a a mile short in a 2 mile race. I can't deny I had some fun with it and how stellar the cinematics were but I really hope the devs learn from the shortcoming in an upcoming installment of the franchise.
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