"Mafia III" Review, See?

Mafia III is a game about the mafia. However, at no point is there any mention of:

-somebody being a "wise guy"

-givin' someone da business, or

-woykin' someone ovah. 

0/10. 

...

...

What? You need more than that. 

*sigh*

Fine. 

I've never played a Mafia game before, so I went into this knowing nothing...well, that isn't entirely true, actually. I knew two things: 1) the n-word is dropped quite often and 2) PC users were crying about a 30 fps lock in a way much resembling a spoiled kid whining about getting a black iphone instead of a white one. I'll be talking about both of these things later on, but for now, let us dive in to the meat. 

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Mafia III takes place in 1968 in the fictional city of New Bordeaux (essentially New Orleans). You play as Lincoln Clay, an African American man returning home from the Vietnam war to find that his father figure is deeply in debt to Sal Marcano, the local mob don. Nature takes its course as it is bound to do when anyone is in debt to the mob, and Lincoln is left for dead. Naturally, Lincoln recovers from his injuries and seeks revenge against the mob.

It is a fairly run of the mill idea, to be sure, but at least at the start Hangar 13 really tries to make the game stand out. A lot of Mafia III's story takes place in a documentary style. There are interviews with the surviving characters years after the events of the game where they'll talk about how a heist went down or lament about a choice you made. There are also interviews with an investigator who has been following Lincoln's case, and he presents the events in a historical light. These investigator interviews were less interesting than the character ones, but they still helped Mafia III to stand out a bit more with its standard revenge tale. Even the incredibly boring senate hearing videos that make up the last part of the documentary storytelling help the story to stand out a bit. The problem is that after the first hour the subject of each documentary clip seems to be random. There was one point where I had a major story event spoiled for me right before I went into the mission to do it, and it really took away from the power of this moment. Regardless, the first hour or so of Mafia III is quite good, and I found myself thinking that it could easily be a game of the year contender. This first hour is filled with world building, character development, and storytelling, and when the game focuses on these aspects, it truly shines. 

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The first of these aspects that I'd like to discuss is the world building. If you are like me, you may have heard that there was some controversy surrounding this game because of its use of the n-word. This decision gathered such controversy, in fact, that the developers placed a giant disclaimer about it at the very beginning of the game. This disclaimer stated that the developers wanted to portray 1960's Louisiana in a historically accurate light, and they felt that they could not do this without portraying racism honestly and to an honest degree. I guarantee you that there are certain news outlets (you know, the kinds that would support the claim that science is racist) that will brand this game and the developers as racist because such outlets are incapable of mentally separating depictions of racism from racism itself, but some folks just will not let little things like facts get in the way of their anger, so ignore them. As it stands, I and just about every other reviewer who has gotten their hands on this game believe that the depiction of racism in this game does wonders for its world building. Let me set the stage here: You play as a black man in the 60's, of course, so what would be the best way to put you in the shoes of such a character? Well, for me, the moment of truth came when I stepped into a restaurant downtown. I had entered the restaurant to get my hands on a health syringe, when all of a sudden the manager of the restaurant came up to me and started breathing down my neck. "N****rs aren't welcome here," the man said. At this point in the game, I'd heard that word dropped a few times, but never in such direct reference to me. It admittedly took me aback. I went about my business and got my health syringe, but that manager was following me every step of the way and threatening to call the police. There was another time where I was running to an objective and I happened to run past a police officer. This cop then called it in as a crime and started firing on me. Other times, certain NPCs would clutch their purses as I passed. It wasn't every white NPC who did this and it only happened once in a while, but it was often enough to get the point across, and Hangar 13 needs to be commended for that. It isn't often that racism can be portrayed this honestly. 

Now, it isn't 100% honest, unfortunately. There are times when the racism comes off as very heavy-handed, and there are definitely times where it feels as if the developers prioritized making statements about the modern world over portraying the time period accurately. This is especially true in a certain radio program that exists within the world. I don't care, though. 

If you read my review of Bioshock: Infinite back in the day, you may recall that I was scratching my head over the racism in that game. It tried so hard to convince the player that Columbia was an absolute racist hellhole, but it failed miraculously. This was due to a few reasons: 1) The portrayals were just so over-the-top and cartoony, 2) there were all sorts of plotholes in regards to it, and 3) we never really got to see racism in action in Infinite. There was the racist theme park that people praised, but it was too over the top to have any sort of impact. The common ideal amongst the residents of Columbia was that slavery should be legal...but slavery still wasn't legal. This ultranationalistic flying city that declared that it wasn't bound by the laws of the "Sodom below" still had abolished slavery despite literally everybody including the founder thinking the slavery was a good thing. Let me ask you a question: When did you ever see anything bad happen to anyone because of their race in Infinite? The Chinese guy that the "crow" people killed? If it was a race-based killing, why wasn't the victim a member of the race this group specifically dedicated itself to hating? Chen Lin, the weapon smith who was captured and killed by the police? They only took him in because he was found to be supplying the Vox Populi with weapons. Until that point he had been a successful businessman in town, a minority making weapons, no less. The part at the beginning where they ask you to throw a baseball at an interracial couple? Thats the key: they ask you, but no matter what you chose, it never happens. Here's perhaps an easier question: when did you see a white person so much as be mean to a person of any other race? 

Never. 

I never bought the portrayal of racism in Bioshock: Infinite because it simply wasn't handled well. It was all off-screen, and literally the only reason we had to believe that the people of Columbia were racist was Ken Levine's word. For all we know, the people of Columbia could have been putting on an elaborate prank. They could have hung racist posters, labelled restrooms as colored and white for a day, put together a racist exhibit at the local theme park and had a laugh at the horrified newcomer, and it would be completely indistinguishable from what we actually experienced. I suppose that is the gist of why I never bought it: it all seemed so fake, so opportunistically used in hopes of eliciting a shocked response. 

This is not the case in Mafia III. No, the racism here is very real, very dirty, and most of the time there is no attention called to it. The racism is intertwined with the world in a convincing way: we see black citizens being beaten up on the side of the road while cops look on and do nothing, we pass by an NPC who whispers about you being a "c**n" under his breath so softly that you might not even hear it. Hell, they actually do a racist theme park segment in Mafia III as well, but it works so much better. Were it handled in the same way as in Infinite, there would be giant cardboard cutouts of black-faced people wearing bones for armor and living in mud huts or something equally awful, and then the theme park guy narrating the whole ordeal would talk about the triumph of the white man over the savages. However, as it stands, the theme park guy simply tells a local folk legend about a haunted bog, and this narration just so happens to include talk of the local slaves seeking out voodoo magic. The racist undertones of this narration are delivered in the same breath as local history, and that is what makes it so effective here. 

So, no, Mafia III doesn't handle racism perfectly, but it is the best darned example of how to do it right we have ever gotten. Hangar 13 needs to be given the credit they deserve for this, as it is undoubtedly a difficult feat to accomplish. 

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Beyond the racism, the world building in Mafia III continues to be strong. This game simply radiates the 60's vibe, and this is due to the accurate car designs, clothing styles, architecture, and most of all, the music and collectibles. 

Music plays from houses and on your car radio throughout the game. You'll be treated to such classic artists as Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane/Starship, The Rolling Stones, and many others. One small thing that really added to the experience was the fact that there wasn't just one song by each artist as there might be in other open world games with real music selections. In my time with Mafia III, I heard three songs by CCR, for example. Few other examples come to mind because I didn't know all of the artists and because there is just a lot of music in this game. It does wonders to make the 60's aesthetic work. 

The collectibles in Mafia III don't really have any use. If that is going to bother you, then you might not want to spend the time to track them all down. On the other hand, if you're like me and compelling collectibles can entertain you without having an in-game effect, then Mafia III's collectibles will be an absolute joy for you. The purpose of these collectibles is to solidify the 1960's atmosphere: there are 60's album covers, pinup paintings, "Hot Rod" magazines, communist propaganda that you set out to destroy, "Repent" magazines, and vintage "Playboy" magazines. When collectibles are compelling, I tend to make it to 100%. With that in mind, I collected every last item in the game (Yes, including the playboys. Yes, just for completion's sake. No, I'm not lying). In terms of the actual act of collecting these the game is considerably less strong, but I'll get to that later. As it stands though, these collectibles add to the world building considerably.

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Now, all the world building in the world (hehe) wouldn't mean anything if the characters present weren't as well developed, and I'm happy to report that, for the most part, Hangar 13 understands this. It would have been very easy for Lincoln to be a lame character, and, well, he isn't a great character, but he is at least fleshed out. Really, the side characters are what bring this game to life. From Father James (the preacher who falls deeper and deeper into depressed resignation as Lincoln, a boy he had a hand in raising, commits to a path of extreme violence) to Vito Scaletta, nearly every side character is fleshed out and legitimately interesting. The same can be said for nearly every one of the major villains. The smaller villains who you don't know about until it is time to take them down, not so much, but the members of the Marcano family are fantastic. This is due in large part to the fact that the voice acting in this game is possibly the best of any game to date. It is stellar across the board to the point where even random enemy NPCs are convincing. 

Unfortunately, there is one major character that is less than stellar. I just can't understand how Hangar 13 was able to create so many convincing, well-developed characters of color...and then turn around and make the one woman of color so doggoned lame. Those who have already played know that I'm speaking of Cassandra, one of the three underbosses that you acquire throughout the course of the game. She is introduced as a really promising character, but after a fantastic introduction she falls by the wayside and just...exists. She literally stops having a personality after you liberate the district she operates in. Here's the thing: All three of your underbosses sort of drop off the earth after you liberate their particular district. However, the other two continue to have personalities in their brief exchanges with you after that point. The other characters are strong enough to balance out any possible point deductions from Cassandra, but I did think it was worth noting that there is one major character who is not up to par with the rest of the cast of characters.

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Aside from the excellent world-building (which is present at all times), the first hour of the game is filled with all of the positives that I've mentioned thus far; and as I said, it was seeming like a true GOTY contender because of it. Unfortunately, these things are only present in the first hour and at the very end. I'd say that amounts to about 5% of the total playtime, maybe 15% if you don't bother looking for collectibles. What, you may be wondering, makes up the rest of the game? Imagine any post-Far Cry 3 sandbox game, and you have a pretty decent idea of what to expect. 

Now, I won't go so far as to say that Mafia III is completely unoriginal in this regard. On the contrary, I would say that they go to great lengths to try and stand out in the post-FC3 sandbox formula...but therein lies the problem. This was a game that desperately needed to commit: either to the Far Cry 3 formula, thereby providing a tried and true rendition of the modern sandbox experience at the risk of appearing unoriginal, or to a more linear story-based formula at the risk of...well, just that: being linear. As it stands, Mafia III tries to do a bit of both and we end up with is a Frankenstein's Monster of the best parts put together all wrong. 

The best part of Far Cry 3, in my opinion, was the "district liberation" idea. It was a completely optional thing, but you could unlock more rewards, lessen the enemy presence in an area, and get the satisfaction of watching as you slowly take back control of the island bit by bit as a result of doing it. It was a winning idea, and one that the game industry has been trying to reproduce unsuccessfully ever since. Mafia III is pretty much the culmination of these failed attempts at reproduction. You see, the district liberation idea worked in tandem with Far Cry 3's story to give you hours upon hours of extra play time if you chose to accept it. The story stood fine on its own and the game was a decent length, but the idea of district liberation was there just the same as a bonus to get you better acquainted with the island and to give you solid objectives if you just wanted to go off and do something else. In Mafia III, by contrast, district liberation is the story. It is entirely mandatory, and you will be doing it for nearly every second of the game. One thing that I will say in its defense is that the way in which you go about liberating the districts is something completely new. Whereas your average Far Cry 3 copycat would have you conquering a single enemy stronghold to take control of a district, Mafia III has you go to a district and talk to an acquaintance. This acquaintance tells you about the various rackets that the mob has set up in this district (i.e. prostitution rings, drug dens, blackmail production, etc.). You then go around sabotaging operations in various ways and depleting the money that these rackets make, thus forcing the lieutenants in charge of the district to come out and try to get their operations going again themselves. Admittedly it is an interesting idea to actually have to take down an organization like the mob by hurting their business. Once you do enough damage, you seek out whoever controls that particular racket and either kill him or recruit him. Most of the time, however, these showdowns take place in an area that you've already been to. I can think of maybe one time where this was not the case. The problem is that the activities that do the most damage to the racket tend to be located at the racket headquarters, and once you damage the racket enough, you end up having to go to the racket headquarters once again. Compound this with the fact that the activities you do to sabotage rackets are always the same (interrogations, executions, and property destruction every time) and the fact that you go through this whole process twice for every district, and it is easy to see how the sense of repetition can set in very early on. 

Now, at the end of every district, once you've destroyed both rackets in the area and taken down the folks running them, you get a new main quest in which you take down the mob's head honcho in that area. A few of these quests are decent, but most of the time they just feel like a throwaway main mission you might get in GTAV. They do somewhat break up the monotony, but it shows that Hangar 13 kind of missed the point. Main missions are supposed to unlock side activities, not the other way around! Naysayers are going to bring up games like Borderlands and Dragon Age: Inquisition to contest my opinion here, and they will have a point: Games such as Borderlands and Inquisition have a similar kind of idea in that you need to reach a certain level in order to progress in the main story, but I would argue that this is different. In the aforementioned games, the level requirement is just a suggestion. I went through Dragon Age: Inquisition severely under-leveled for every mission in one play through. It was incredibly difficult and not a fun experience, but it was still possible, and the most important part of it was that the main story mission was there waiting for me whenever I saw fit to get started on it. Passport systems like those in Borderlands or Inquisition only serve as a guide to tell you when it might be wise to start the next mission, not as a barrier to prevent you from progressing until a certain point. The system in Mafia III on the other hand is not based on your skill: it is based upon how many of the repetitive side missions you did. Once you've done your prescribed amount of district liberation you can feel free to proceed, and in an open world sandbox game, this is a no-no. It was a problem in Just Cause 3, and it is a problem here. 

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Where Mafia III is truly uninspired, however, is in its actual gameplay. You can go into objectives guns blazing or stealthily. As a stealth game, Mafia III is truly subpar, and that is mostly due to the fact that the AI is incredibly dumb. You can hide behind a door, whistle to each mobster that comes past, and stealth kill the entire outpost without breaking a sweat. It is undoubtedly gratifying to perform stealth takedowns, don't get me wrong, but the experience as a whole is just not up to snuff. As a shooter, Mafia III is certainly competent enough with some impressive attention to detail in the feel of the gunplay, but beyond that it is your standard third person cover based shooter. Guns always feel powerful, and the bullets make a different sound depending on what you hit. It is a small detail that makes the gunplay feel more alive, and it is much appreciated. Likewise, enemies react realistically when they are shot, and while this does render them easily killable as they continuously stagger, it helps with the feeling of power. 

So, if you are going to play Mafia III, I would advise you not to even bother with stealth. The game shines much brighter when the guns come out. 

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There were also a number of really small but nonetheless questionable design choices that irked me thoughout my time playing Mafia III, and one of them is the "junction box" system. You essentially wiretap a junction box to learn where the collectibles are in the current section of the district. There are typically 5-10 sections in each district, each having their own junction box that you wiretap using 3 pieces of scrap electronics...and the question I have is...why? 

I mean, I know why: It is Mafia III's answer to radio towers, but what I'm questioning here is why it needed to be executed this way. Why three scraps? There are far more scraps available than you need to wiretap the entire city, and these scraps aren't used for anything else, so it isn't a resource management thing. Why use scraps at all? Why not just have the junction box in some hard to reach place so that it is a test of your abilities? It just seemed like this was meant to be yet another menial task you have to do. 

Another thing is that Lincoln can't jump except in very specific instances. Really, Hangar 13? It is 2016 for Pete's sake! Not having a jump button is wrong! If you are going to have jumping be contextual, however, at the very least be consistent with it. There were times when Lincoln wouldn't be able to muster the courage to climb a ledge a little bit taller than him, and there were times when Lincoln just couldn't get over a curb. There was zero consistency in the jumping. And while we're on the subject of outdated design choices, I really thought we were past the whole "completely solid bush" thing. I lost count of how many times I wouldn't be able to get through an area because some large bush was actually an invisible wall right smack dab in the middle of the map or I would crash my car because a bush was completely solid. 

Then there was the fact that you lose most of your health if the car has the smallest of collisions with the smallest of things. Crashing into the side of a building has the exact same effect as crashing into a curb, and it just sucked.
Then there is a major case of "recycled dialogue"-itus. NPCs will have the exact same conversations no matter where you are on the map, and they will greet you in exactly the same ways. It is actually quite jarring in Mafia III, given how often you walk by NPCs. If you have ever watched Rick and Morty, you may remember an episode where Rick and Jerry were trapped in an Alien simulation. Jerry's simulation was running at the lowest possible setting because he wasn't the Alien's target, so there were only three people in his simulation, each with one line of dialogue. In Mafia III, I would be walking down the street, hear someone say "Well, look what the cat dragged in!" and my mind would instantly think of a mailman saying "my man!"

But by far the most infuriating small design flaw was the mini map's handling of walls and obstructions. Half the challenge in finding collectibles or reaching objectives in this game was finding out how exactly to navigate your way there. The minimap would show a clear path, then you would round the corner to find a large fence you can't climb. This happens nearly every time the minimap wants you to think you've found your path. Most of my play time consisted of running around compounds like an idiot trying to find somewhere I could exit or somewhere where the stupid contextual jump button would let Lincoln scale the wall. 

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There is one last thing to discuss here, and that is the visuals. Those of us who play on consoles and prefer the feeling of pulling a trigger to attack instead of lightly clicking with a mouse are used to our games running at 30 frames per second. That is a shame, because the 60 frames per second that PC users are used to is superior. That isn't up for debate; we console users are in fact used to a much lesser gaming experience in terms of the visuals, and if I had my way every game made from now on would run at a full 60. However, 30 is entirely competent and people who claim to get physically sick looking at it are way too sensitive. I just don't see why its worth complaining about when there are plenty of actually horrible aspects of the visuals to talk about. 

I mean, geez louise! I have never in all my years seen such a gargantuan degree of graphical inconsistency in a game! One moment I'll be looking at an orange sunset through the trees as cars go rushing by and I'll think, "wow, this game is beautiful." Then I'll go down to the bayou at night and think I'm in a bad Unity Engine horror game. That is actually not an exaggeration. If you play this game on PS4, go to the bayou at night and tell me I'm wrong. Then it will rain and every object in the game will suddenly look way too bright. 

And that is only the beginning, only the graphical glitches that occur with the game at large. There are many smaller ones as well. You name the graphical glitch, and chances are it will occur at some point during your play through. There was one constant technical glitch where the borders of certain items would flash the minute I entered a room, making me think that perhaps they were important. At one point I was in a gambling room and saw a bunch of poker games dealt out on tables that simply weren't there. Other times enemies would die and stay frozen in midair. Then at one point, Lincoln's torso got caught on something, so I was walking around the city with this ungodly stretched torso still stuck on something miles and miles away. It was fitting that his last name is Clay, because that is what the man looked like with that mile-long torso jutting out of a normal sized body. 

Then there are the crashes (of the game variety, not the car variety, though those are annoying as all hell too). I had two crashes in my week or so of playing this game, and from what I hear I had one of the better experiences. Other folks have been reporting as many as 6-10 crashes, and that is just plain unacceptable.

General opinions of Mafia III at launch were basically that it was pushed out without really being ready...and the fact that a 60 frames-per-second patch for the pc was released a mere day or two after it came out doesn't really help to disprove that theory. Whether this is Hangar 13's doing or somebody further up the corporate ladder, I don't know, but it is obvious that more time was needed to polish the experience. The fact that they couldn't hold the release back for a day or two to put out a working, existing patch proves that point. 

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Mafia III is a game that I would really have liked to recommend, but as it stands, I don't know if I can. I think it all comes down to what you're looking for in a game. If you are looking for some of the strongest world building, character development, and voice acting of this generation, and if you don't mind extremely repetitive gameplay, then you should definitely drop the necessary $60 on Mafia III. If you love all these positives but need great gameplay as well, then I would say to wait until the price is lower, but definitely check it out at some point. If gameplay is all that matters to you, don't even bother. I hate it when I agree with every other critic out there, but I really do agree with them on this. There is a great game inside of Mafia III. We see as much in the promising first hour and in the ending. It is screaming, begging to be let out as it watches all of its promise being destroyed by mandatory padding, repetition, bugs, and lackluster story missions. Maybe that great game is being forced to sabotage the existing game's rackets and still isn't done. 

Let us review:

Overwhelming repetition - 1

Bland story missions - 1
Uninspired combat - 0.4

Various technical problems - 0.5

Various bad design choices - 0.8

So, the final score for Mafia III is

6.3/10 - Slightly Above Average

Better luck next time, Hangar 13, better luck next time.