Mafia III

Definitely a bit of a disappointment compared to the first two but still a great game. Great story, amazing soundtrack, really fun gameplay. It lacks diversity in mission structure but you can make it really fun for yourself by trying different approaches to each mission. There are a bunch of different weapons and you can choose between a stealthy approach or a loud and violent one. Both really fun. I suggest you give it a try and don't give up on it too early.

I don't get people who say this game is repetitive.

I do have minor annoyances with some of the decisions they made, like weirdly unintuitive controls (skipped so many cutscenes cause X apparently means skip, all the doors open with a square, except for when you're in a car and the garage opens with the down button on the D pad, you beat people with a circle and you jump with the triangle... why...?) Also I hate when games decide to have customizable characters AND prerendered cutscenes. Just do one or the other, 2K, don't pander to youtubers who are constantly complaining about things nobody cares about. In that sense Mafia III is a downgrade from Mafia II.

But the story is incredible, the gameplay is pretty nice and I think a lot of the decisions for this game came from the backlash from Mafia II being "boring".

This was perfectly predictable. Mafia II comes out "boring, nice story, too linear, not enough to do in open world". Mafia III comes out, you have side missions, better gameplay and more collectibles and people are like "too long, too much stuff to do and they're all the same, Mafia II was way better".

I blame video game reviewers. It shouldn't be a thing. They definitely don't improve the medium with their constant drivel but for some reason some developers actually pay attention to that feedback.

And I really don't get it. I prefer playing a game that does one or two things right, than to just play any random Ubisoft, EA or you-name-it franchise that tries to cram everything good from other games into one mess of a game just cause they need the money. And yeah sure... for some this game may be boring, but playing through it, apart from the minor annoyances all I get out of it is the impression that they put a lot of effort into it.

I also love this game as a stealth fan, so yeah... You have the areas. You get the objectives. You have the means and they give you a pretty good scope on the layout of each area. You can do whatever you like for each mission. You have plenty of approaches and a good arsenal for each mission.

If you're bored playing this game - you're probably playing it in a boring way...

As always, I will review this game from the story and cinematography point of view. But first let's talk about the gameplay. It's extremely repetitive but a lot of games are. Hell, all games are repetitive. you just do the same thing over and over until it's over. But the variety of tasks is bigger and you don't feel it.

In this game, there are only 2 things to do: driving and shooting and all missions are a combination of these 2 things. That can be a problem as there aren't a lot of combinations you can make from only 2 things. The shooting is great and the driving the best in open world games but I guess only 2 really good things without any context can create a repetitive experience.

The first few hours before you are let on your own to do the same things over and over again create a really good context for the story. Lincoln Clay returned from Vietnam gets involved with the mob in New Bordeaux and well, if you don't know, don't look for more, just play the opening hours, these are really, really good.

But after that, the story becomes so simplistic that could have been told in only one mission and that is the disappointing part of the game. There's not enough to justify just wondering through the city for the next 20 hours (I took my time because of the driving)

All in all, I enjoyed the story (beginning and ending, as there's nothing in the middle) but I didn't find it as offensive as the developer said. Instead of being repulsed of how the NPC react to my character (it was not easy to be a black man in the 60s), I was pleasantly surprised to hear a lot of characters being nice to me and greet me on the streets. A change of tone from the normal open world game where everyone swears at you and makes you an idiot for driving on the wrong side of the road.

The story and the pace of the game was amazing. The way the story was told was amazing. The setting is incredible too as the city based of New Orleans sets a great playground for the character who is also well build. I must say it was an amazing story full of twists and interesting moments, especially when showed with them great music setting the vibe of the late 60s. The huge disappointment of the game wasn't so much the gameplay, which was alright with a bit of downgrade on the driving from the last Mafia game, but the missions were so repetitive. To progress in the game the protagonist Lincoln Clay has to take up territories/neighbourhoods one by one from the main boss - Marciano. To take a neighbourhood or at least to get to meet the underboss who owns this territory, you have to make 2 or 3 missions which exact copy paste in each of district you have to overtake. The missions for taking down the underbosses of the districts are diverse and pretty good but the path to get there is repetitive as you have to go trough it over and over again. The characters in the game are great and fun to explore, the world is beautiful and stays as a cool background as it looks alive but in the same time there is not much to do if you want to free roam since it's an open world. The story is 10/10 but the repetitiveness of the missions really make the game to be a disappointment. If you are able to sit trough those repetitive missions and ignore them, I ensure you it's worth it, just so You can experience this amazing storyline.

Mafia III is a game that is a great in some departments, good in most departments but also bad in other departments.

First the positives, 'Mafia III' has to me the greatest soundtrack of any video game I've ever played, and this is epitomised in the radio, I often found myself enjoying playing the game the most just driving and listening to the radio. The game has a good story and a great story telling technique (doing it through a documentary), the gameplay was also good and I found all the characters tolerable and some I genuinely liked (Lincoln and John Donovan).

Now for the negatives, 'Mafia III' biggest problem is it's repetitive nature, often when playing the game you have to figure out ways to keep yourself engaged in the story, and towards the end almost force yourself to take over the last couple territories. However I feel another problem I have with this game is the ending, I don't like the choice aspect of the ending as I think a lack of a definitive ending diminishes the story.

In conclusion, 'Mafia III' is a fun game at times, with a good story, decent characters and amazing music, and in its best moments is a genuine great game but at its worst moments it becomes a bit of a chore.

Rating [7/10]