This weekend I had the absolute joy to playthrough and review Mafia Definitive Edition. The remaster of a flawed but beloved title originally released back in 2002.
However I’m going to approach the majority of this review from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the original.
The game sees you take the role of Tommy Angelo, an ordinary cab driver in the city of Lost Heaven, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (or right place at the right time?) and got thrown together with two mafia enforcers, Paulie and Sam.
The storyline is equal helpings of Goodfellas and The Godfather, while retaining it’s own originality and integrity.
The tale is told from the perspective of an older Tommy (in 1938) telling his tale to a police detective over coffee in a diner; we swap between timelines from 1930 to his present, as events, plot and character relationships develop and deepen.
It really is a masterclass in storytelling and probably one the best implementations of this structure I have seen in a game. To delve any deeper into the plot, other than the introduction, would be doing you a disservice and reveal potential spoilers, suffice to say it’s a dynamic, compelling and extremely well written storyline.
The whole storytelling process is helped along by some incredible voice acting and facial motion capture. Some of the cast in the game, verge on caricatures of mainstream gangster tropes “Why I oughta…!” but never cross the line into the farcical and remain plausible and even likable as character relations develop throughout the game.
Graphically the game is fantastic, the city itself is so well designed and breathtaking to look at, especially at night or when its pouring down with rain. The only comparison I could make would be to Saint Denis in RDR2. As well as the visual appeal of the game, worthy mention has to go to the audio, which you can tell has been painstakingly created to compliment the game every step of the way. The rumbling bass of the train crossing a bridge above you, or the crying baby in the apartment upstairs, the city really comes to life when you play with headphones on.
The attention to detail is just so impressive, so many times during my playthrough I found myself standing next to background NPCs just listening to them gossip. Watching drivers and police react to your driving through the city and the overall way in which the environment subtly reacts to you as you move through it. These background elements really tie everything together to make the whole game both an incredibly realistic and cinematic experience.
That, for me, was the key to the whole enjoyment of this game. It felt like I was an integral and pivotal part of a movie. Not in the passive sense of a visual novel or more recent releases like Detroit Become Human. Mafia is an incredibly active game with so many facets, (driving, shooting, racing, stealth) but the way the story develops and transitions is so seamless it really pulls you into the gameworld and creates such a powerful sense of immersion.
There are a few sections where that immersion gets a little spoiled however, that takes me neatly on the gameplay mechanics.
There are times when you can tell you are playing a game with its roots in 2002, the gunfighting can seem a little clunky until you get the hang of it. Driving around the city can also feel a little awkward, partly because they’re simulating the handling or vehicles from the 1930’s and party because its just a bit janky.
The original game had a couple of notoriously difficult sections, you’ll be pleased/dismayed to know they made it into the remaster.
The race day event where you participate in a 3 lap race and you must place first, or you have to start it all over again.
A chase scene, in which you must shoot out a particular part of a vehicle at a particular time, with little to no margin of error.
On “classic” difficulty these are both still silly difficult, you can change to easy mode, where they are still challenging, but less frustratingly so.
The game does have a few “speed bumps” from back in the day before all games had a “story mode”, but these sections don’t ever gate off the rest of the game. At worst you’ll have a to make a few attempts and learn a pattern to get through.
Mafia The definitive Edition is available now for $39.99 and worth every penny (or cent). It is a game that has obviously been remastered with love, attention to detail and seemingly no time constraints. It’s not something that has been rushed out, it’s something that developers, Hangar 13, have painstakingly crafted and polished to perfection.
The result is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in a while and a lesson in how games should be brought to market.
In the 13 hours it took me to play through the main story I didn’t notice a single bug or glitch. This is a definite recommendation to anyone, regardless of if you have played the original or not.
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