Mafia III: Definitive Edition

Pros: - The atmosphere of the city and the American South - Soundtrack - Well voiced and mostly interesting characters - Interesting documentary style narrative Negatives: - Game structure is more suited to Ubisoft games like AC or Far Cry (conquering territory through mini missions, unlocking local bosses...) - The story of previous Mafia games was largely about the characters' lives and what it's like to be part of the mafia, but here it's just pure revenge. We learn more about the world from secondary sources (character recollections, radio commentary...) than from Lincoln. - stereotype of side missions, but it's not that bad DLC: Faster, Baby! - is the weakest. The civil rights theme is just a cover for the mayham missions and is woefully underused. In the finale, the most interesting part of the DLC is managing the marijuana greenhouse. Stones Unturned - Solid and unlike the previous one, it doesn't play on anything and offers a straightforward action line with the pursuit of a rogue spy. Sign of the Times - the best of the bunch. Dark atmosphere, investigation and a new type of enemy fit perfectly for a story about a cult. The bar renovation is a nice bonus. A weak Mafia game but a solid open-world game so if anyone hasn't played the previous games, feel free to add half a star.

Great story, great car-driving, great punching passerbys in the face. Everything you need for a fun time!

Mafia 3 by far isn't a bad game. It has great voice actors and solid cutscenes. Where it probably takes a beating is going to be the visual art style and some questionable gameplay choices. Story and Voice Acting The story follows your classic - coming home soldier not fitting in and going to a life of crime, gets betrayed now seeks revenge. The story experience was pretty decent, the story atmosphere felt like you were back in the 70s - and it will make some players feel uncomfortable with all the prejudice. Voice acting is top-notch and keeps up to mafia standards. ( 7 / 10 ) Environment and Art This is probably where the most apparent issue with Mafia 3. They made some extremely questionable choices when it comes to road textures and lighting. For some reason, the game has some sort of "fader" effect which increases the grey scale. There are mods that remove it, so they purposefully remove the vibrancy of the colors. The problem with this is some roads now become excessively white and stick out compared to the rest of the color choices. It feels like this lighting change might never have been properly tested or they just didn't want to bother fixing it in the definitive edition. Again mods can fix this - and highly recommend getting them. Besides some questionable lighting and textures though the game does feel like it was taken straight out of New Orleans with its old buildings, its bayous and swamp lands. Next problem is probably the NPCs which just stand around clueless. They really could have added more depth to the animations to make the world feel alive. It isn't Rockstar Quality - but a very strong 6 / 10. ( Standard being Red Dead 2 would be 10 / 10 ) Gameplay Gameplay for the most part is reactive, you can kill enemies behind walls and it will drag the body behind the wall to conceal it. You can whistle enemies to pull them away. You have these signal hacks to be able to see enemies. So you get quite a bit of variety in how you want to approach missions. The problem really is the missions themselves. They are somewhat all samey - in design. They could have taken a little bit extra effort to throw some monkey wrenches at players. Batman Arkham City is a good example of finding creative ways to hinder progress, in Mafia it is all pretty straightforward with almost no roadblocks. ( 8 / 10 ) Conclusion: Not as great as Mafia 2 - but still a very respectable part of the franchise with some top-quality talent. If you are a...

Decent open world game that will keep your attention for a long while, but not as polished as GTA.

I liked the story very much, however the missions do get quite repetetive. 6/10 for me

Have not played yet, but I expect it to be good

Ah, this was a nostalgia purchase for me, I had remembered playing this at a friends and the gunplay and missions were as i remembered them. Apparently in a prior patch to steam though half the textures just become smooth or plastic. It is disturbing talking to a playdo man for a mission. It otherwise was not unplayable, but any game that breaks my immersion that bad will have to get docked two stars.