Mafia 3: Definitive Edition (2016) [XSX]

“Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather,
One eye is taken for an eye.”

– Creedence Clearwater Revival

If there is one thing the world of video gaming has a lot of, it’s crime sandbox games, starting way, way back in 1997 with DMA Design’s Grand Theft Auto, a game I remember playing to death on a copied disc on my modded PlayStation. Since then, the series has had a raft of sequels and spin-offs and sprouting numerous clones. Saints Row, True Crime and that series one-time reboot-cum-standalone title Sleeping Dogs all spring to mind here. Another game spawned from this great pool was Mafia, created by Illusion Softworks in 2002.

Mafia was different in that it dropped the light-hearted, deeply parodical tone of its big rival and instead told a grounded, profound tale about an Italian immigrant who rose from a cabbie in the 1930s city of Lost Heaven to the highest ranks of the Sicilian Mob, only to fall victim to his pride and avarice in the end. The game had a tight mission structure, with very little scope to roam the map and not much in the way of side questing.

Fast forward to 2010 when we received a sequel set in the 1940s and ‘50s, in the city of Empire Bay. This one stars one-time paratrooper-turned-gangster Vito Scaletta and his idiot best friend Joe and tells a rather bleak tale of their attempt to make the big-time in the ranks of three very treacherous crime families. It followed the same structure as Mafia but also benefitted from a lot of modern improvements and some excellent driving and gunplay.

I enjoyed both of these games, to the point where I have completed both numerous times. I loved the tight mission structure and deep immersion that these stories offered, as well as the early-to-mid 20th Century setting. So when we hit 2016 and Hangar 13 released an open-world, 1960s Mafia game that stars a non-Italian gangster protagonist, one cannot blame this gamer for being a little wary. The market was full of open-world games, the old cars with funny-sounding horns were gone and early reviews were not good.

Full of denial, I bought it nevertheless and, after playing it for just a couple of hours, I burned out on Mafia 3. Uninstalled, traded in, heartbroken. Until 2020, that is. Covid was raging, we were all locked indoors for our own good and Mafia 3 popped up on PS Plus as one of its free games for the month. I was bored enough to reinstall it, pick my game up where I left off and get back to work kicking gangster ass, and the strangest thing happened as a result – I played it to completion!

But why? What changed? And most importantly – what was my final opinion of this maligned third entry in a well-respected series of games?

Let’s find out…

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 10/10

Mafia 3 takes place in the fictional city of New Bordeaux which, as I am sure you have already guessed, is heavily based on the jewel of Louisiana, New Orleans. Even if you have never visited the city on the bayous you will surely get this just from driving around the map for a bit. I’m sure just about every living soul on earth has seen New Orleans’ famous French Quarter in a movie or TV series and Mafia 3’s version of this iconic locale, the French Ward, is pretty much a carbon copy of it visually. Other examples of super familiar landmarks are the labyrinthine graveyards (as seen in Hard Target, one of the greatest movies ever made) and the bayous themselves, teeming with alligators and scary rednecks.

So we have the place nailed down visually, but what is any open-world city without its inhabitants? Well, the citizens of New Bordeaux are a diverse bunch of people, all dressed and styled appropriately for 1968 and, in a move not always seen in these games, living their lives in suitable parts of town. Delray Hollow is a mostly black community, for example, while opulent Frisco Fields is teeming with fancily dressed, well-off white people. Industrial areas are full of tradesmen and the French Ward is just full of everyone having a good time, no matter who they are or where they’re from.

Mixed in among the populace of the Big Easy(‘s clone) is Mafia 3’s cast of characters and, again, they’re all well animated and detailed visually. Leading man Lincoln Clay is very nicely motion captured, looks menacing as hell in his Army jacket and commands every scene he’s in. His underbosses Cassandra, Burke and Mafia 2 protagonist Vito also have memorable appearances and are very well motion captured.

Some lovely views about in New Bordeaux…

Mafia 3 also boasts a large selection of cars, from tiny Beetle-looking things to massive muscle cars with monster V8s poking out of the hood, Mad Max style.  As if having a decent range of distinctive vehicles wasn’t enough to look at, each model doesn’t only have various colours, but also various states of decay. Again, this is district related. Industrial and poorer districts are full of rusted bangers, while those fancy parts of town are full of shiny sportscars and station wagons. It’s a small touch that adds a nice extra shot of immersion to the game.

The final mention in this section goes to Mafia 3’s guns, explosions and fire effects, all of which look really good overall. Weapon models are distinctive looking and, whenever Lincoln hits some mooks with a grenade or fire bomb, the ensuing fallout is appropriately meaty and satisfying. Overall Mafia 3 is a really good-looking game, continuing the series tradition.

Audio: 10/10

New Bordeaux is a fine-looking town, but how does it sound? Well, the city’s ambience is overall very good. A wander down the street will be met with the sounds of traffic, nearby civilians conversing and music emanating from nearby bars and clubs. On some of the more affluent roads, poor Lincoln will even get abuse hurled at him by passers-by, unhappy with the presence of a black guy from Delray Hollow on their fancy streets. While these remarks are despicable, it is a very interesting addition to the game’s ambience and creates a certain imposing mood. My only tiny gripe, and it is tiny, is that captured rackets are full of friendly NPCs that all parrot the exact same lines. The amount of time I heard one of Burke’s Irish crew say the same damned thing about “whisky, whisky and not a drop to drink” almost drove me insane.

Solid voice work carries across to the main players too, with a fantastic range of dialects being thrown around. Thomas Burke’s Belfast drawl, Cassandra’s Haitian twang and Vito’s Italian-American accent are all very well voiced and instantly recognisable, as are the voices of the game’s main antagonists, the Marcano family (you’ll find yourself mouthing along to Uncle Lou Marcano’s radio ad every time you hear it, “Come down to the French Waaaaard!”). Special props go to Alex Hernandez though, who voices Lincoln Clay himself. Hernandez’s growling rage is absolutely believable, and his range when Lincoln has the occasional softer moment or cracks a joke with his old CIA buddy Donovan is fantastic and really sells the character.

While guns, explosions and the crunch of metal-on-metal in car collisions all sound fantastic, it is Mafia 3’s soundtrack that I’m going to give the most attention to. Open world games live or die by what comes out of the car radio, and Mafia 3 has an absolutely stellar soundtrack for fans of classic rock or Vietnam movie buffs. New Bordeaux has three radio stations serving it. And all of them are brilliant. I never once got tired of driving around listening to Bad Moon Rising, Fortunate Son, White Rabbit or Elvis crooning out A Little Less Conversation, and classic tracks of the era are also used away from the radio too, during scenes that are important to the plot. For example, in one scene Lincoln attempts to escape a quarry, only to be hemmed into a warehouse by an army of Marcano’s goons. The ensuing firefight is scored by Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues and it works really well to set the scene and get you in the mood to fight your way to freedom.

There is, of course, an original score for the game between all those classic rock bangers too, which is pretty solid. Expect lots of moody strings, wailing guitars and jazzy ensembles that, like all modern game soundtracks, fit the current situation. While these kinds of soundtracks can often be forgettable, this one does do a good job of creating the intended mood.

The way Mafia 3 also uses the car radios to tell an ongoing story is also very clever. At least one major antagonist has its own ad spot (see my early comment about Uncle Lou, he “might just buy you a whisky!)  and these ads are quickly pulled off the air once they meet their terrible yet justified fates. There is also an ongoing radio show, Native Son, in which a well-respected host talks about current affairs in America from a supposedly on-the-fence position. As Marcano’s empire begins to crumble and the host’s friends begin to die, however, the host’s real thoughts and attitudes start to come out and we soon learn that he isn’t the bastion of purity we thought he was. 

Mafia 3 has fantastic voice acting, despite some repetitive lines from some NPCs, strong ambient sound and one of the most solid soundtracks I’ve ever enjoyed in a video game. It’s even got Long Tall Sally by Little Richard!

Narrative: 10/10

Okay, so it’s disclaimer time folks. Mafia 3  tells a very mature tale set in the American south in the waning years of the 1960s. The Vietnam war is still ongoing, tensions are hot and racism is still rife across this part of the country. This is bad news for our hero Lincoln Clay, an African American ‘Nam vet from a poor part of the city. This game pulls absolutely zero punches here. Racist language is heavy and often shocking, and some scenes are absolutely brutal in their violence. 

That said, let’s talk story. When Lincoln Clay comes back to New Bordeaux after his tour of duty in Vietnam, he finds his family in a bit of a pickle. His adoptive father, Sammy Robinson, is the top dog of the Black Mafia, a gang based in the poor district of Delray Hollow, and his territory is in a spot of bother. The neighbouring Haitian gangs have been causing trouble on Sammy’s turf and, after a fraught shootout in a soup kitchen at which Lincoln is helping, things turn nasty. Lincoln is tasked with tracking the Haitians down to their base in the bayou and knocking off their leader Baku, which he manages with little trouble using his experience and knowledge from ‘Nam.

All seems well until Sammy reveals that the city’s big crime boss, Sal Marcano, has requested the Black Mafia to pull off a daring heist on the Federal Reserve, with Marcano offering to clear Delray Hollow’s debts to him in return. The opening of the game is set around the events mentioned so far and culminates in the heist itself, led by Marcano’s son Giorgi and backed up by Lincoln’s adoptive brother and his Irish-American friend Danny. Everything goes well and, by the end of the night, six million dollars are sat on Sammy’s bar as the crew drinks to their success.

Needless to say, Giorgi is off the Christmas card list…

And then Marcano arrives and, with the help of his son and the head of the bayou’s ‘Dixie Mafia’, murders Sammy and the rest of the heist crew in cold blood, with Giorgi delivering a bullet to Lincoln’s head during the massacre. The bar is burned down and all lie dead as the Marcanos beat a retreat with six million dollars in hand. All looks good for Sal Marcano to set his next plans into motion – except Lincoln is still living, the bullet failing to put him in the ground. Swearing revenge, Clay sets his plans into motion, plotting to dismantle Marcano’s rackets piece by piece, murdering his way up the chain until, finally, he can sink his knife into Sal himself.

In order to facilitate his plan, Clay will need the help of his old ‘Nam buddy and CIA operative, John Donovan, who is only too happy to offer his services in bringing down the Marcano crime family. Donovan’s motives are unknown (and can easily stay that way if you miss a secret “post-credits” scene). He comes across as a wisecracking clown most of the time but has some very sadistic undercurrents to his character that bring out the worst in Lincoln as they sit in his motel room/headquarters planning each job. 

Opposing Donovan’s nihilistic approach is Father James, a preacher from the Hollow who has known Lincoln since he was a child and pulled him from the burning bar on the night of Marcano’s betrayal. Father James tries to talk Lincoln out of his quest occasionally but is met by his friend’s bull-headedness and the corrupting presence of Donovan. 

Once Lincoln has recaptured the Hollow from Marcano’s allies, the Dixie Mafia, he hands it over to his former enemy, the Haitians. Their leader, Cassandra, agrees to work with Lincoln, locking down territories for him and keeping our protagonist in guns and bullets in return. But Cassandra alone will not be enough, so Donovan does his research and comes up with two additional gangs that may be interested in helping the cause. One is the Irish presence in the city, led by Thomas Burke, perpetually drunk and sorry for himself after the death of his son (and Lincoln’s friend) at Marcano’s hands during the bar massacre.

The other is a rebellious faction of the Italian mob itself, led by none other than Mafia 2’s main character Vito Scaletta. Vito’s in a spot of bother when Lincoln sets out to find him, but after a daring rescue, all three underbosses will be working with our main character to bring down the big cheese. Depending on the choices you make in the game these underbosses will unanimously benefit from your hard work turn on each other, or all die. And maybe you’d be happy with bringing those last two options about, but I found building their loyalty rather rewarding, their journey from three bickering psychopaths to three friendly psychopaths is quite fulfilling to behold.

Always nice to see Vito knocking around!

Mafia 3 tells an incredibly intense story set in a very well-realised 1960s Louisiana, against a backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and the unpopular war in Vietnam. Hangar 13 pulled no punches in writing this story, it is often uncomfortable in its violence, hatred and bigotry, counterbalanced by more lighthearted banter between the characters and the pure schadenfreude of seeing Lincoln carry out his revenge against a rogue’s gallery of truly evil, self-serving people. This one stayed with me for a long time.

Gameplay: 6/10

And here is the part where Mafia 3’s cracks begin to show, the core gameplay loop. It wasn’t just the critics that were put off by this, 2016 Me was too. As a long-time Mafia fan, I loved the prologue, enjoying that same tight, deliberately paced mission structure as seen in the other games as Lincoln and his friends pull off their heist on the Federal Reserve. Then, after the massacre at Sammy’s Bar, things get a bit… open-worldy.

Once Lincoln is back on his feet the whole of New Bordeaux is open for business. Donovan walks him through the basics of seizing territory in the Hollow at first, including tapping the local telephone network to reveal enemy locations and attacking Marcano’s rackets. This basically involves completing some tasks throughout the area – usually assassinating mooks, interrogating mooks or stealing things from mooks – before moving in on a central location guarded by even more mooks and bringing down the racket’s chief. The chief will only come out of hiding once the racket’s earnings have been depleted and all of these little tasks you have been doing remove a chunk from it each time one is completed.

So once the earnings have reduced to zero dollars and the chief has arrived on location, Lincoln has to go and deal with him – infiltrating their headquarters and either stabbing or shooting his way to them before delivering the finishing blow. Once done, Lincoln can choose which underboss to give the racket to, your allies move in to secure the place and the job is done! This is pretty fun the first time you do it in Delray Hollow, taking back a beloved local club from the evil Dixie Mafia, but this is also Mafia 3’s biggest weakness. 

What do I mean by that? Well, once the Hollow is in the hands of Cassandra’s Haitians, more territories across the city are unlocked, and how do you suppose Mr Clay will be taking these other districts? In the exact same fashion, that’s how. Each of New Bordeaux’s districts has two rackets as described above, and each racket also has the aforementioned scattering of samey missions to work through. By my count, you will need to repeat the racket takedown template 16 times before you can finally go after Sal Marcano himself, that is a big ask!

Poor Lincoln is going to be doing a lot of busy work…

To make matters worse, the enemy AI can be a bit gullible when it comes to Lincoln attacking a location using stealth. The number of times I hid behind a doorframe, whistled to lure a goon in, open him up with my KABAR knife and then immediately whistle again to attract another goon is ridiculous, at a few points Lincoln was literally stacking up bodies next to him as the guards came to investigate one by one. Sometimes the constant disruption would put the remaining guards on edge, but this just made them walk into my blade faster if anything. This is a really unfortunate failing as otherwise, the AI is pretty good.

If Lincoln goes in guns blazing or gets caught while sneaking around then things do get a lot more interesting. You can’t take many hits, even wearing a tactical vest, and the enemy will usually attempt to flank you once they have worked out where you have gone to ground. Letting just one goon get behind you can be catastrophic, especially if they’re rocking a shotgun or an assault rife as they can strip away your health in seconds. To survive a gunfight you must find a position from which the enemy can’t get around you and patiently put down who you can before advancing, using grenades or petrol bombs to flush the occasional group of baddies out into the open. Mafia 3’s combat can be truly exhilarating when things get hectic and you are desperately gunning down enemies on all sides.

Anyway, back to the mission structure. Once Lincoln has conquered the two rackets in each district (sometimes having to clear the same building twice, just to rub it in) he can make a move on the Capo (Lieutenant) in charge. These missions kick off by a meeting with Donovan while he fills Lincoln in on the plan, followed by the hit itself. These missions are a lot more varied and substantial than any other in the game and will see Mr Clay taking part in car chases, assaulting heavily guarded hotels, drugging entire parties with PCP and, in one very memorable sequence, gunning down a huge Klan rally. These are the most memorable missions in the game, it’s just a shame the game demands so much investment from the player to get to them. 

Lincoln’s underbosses also present some diversions throughout the game. Each territory given to them increases their loyalty, unlocking various weapons, upgrades and perks to be enjoyed. For example, Vito can offer health upgrades, Burke a means to keep the police off your back (at a small cost) and Cassandra’s people can cut off the phones in Lincoln’s area for a limited time to allow you to commit crimes without fear of police intervention. Not giving an underboss enough territory will eventually lead to them turning on you, removing all perks from the table and forcing you to put them down. Keeping the territories balanced ensures you get decent perks from all three underbosses, though you may not be able to get the very best stuff from them this way.

Your loyalty to Burke’s Irish crew can get you a tasty M16A1… it can’t make him change out of that frankly awful shirt.

A final point to throw in here is that Mafia 3’s moment-to-moment gameplay is overall excellent. Guns feel weighty and powerful with an appropriate level of accuracy and power (ie, an M16 assault rifle is far more precise than a Tommy Gun and hits twice as hard) and cars are a joy to drive. Smaller cars handle well, trucks have a nice weight to them (good for ram-raiding idiots) and sporty cars have loose back ends and massive power delivery in straight lines, just as you’d expect for vehicles from the 1960s. I spent most of the game driving Lincoln’s Samson Drifter, after a few upgrades it’s a real speed demon and looks cool as heck!

One thing worth mentioning when it comes to driving in Mafia 3 is that there is no fast travel option – Lincoln will have to drive all across the city in his quest for revenge, and those with zero patience for traversing the large map may not hang around. Thank goodness the music on the car radio is so good!

While there are also plenty of collectibles in the game (saucy paintings, records of popular songs from the era and so on) I never really bothered looking for them, the reward is minute and not worth it unless you’re a completionist.

So yes, the gameplay in Mafia 3 can become very repetitive and the stealth knife takedowns are pretty broken, which goes massively against the game. But if you allow yourself to get into a few gunfights and keep aiming for the big story missions then it can still be an enjoyable experience. Resist that stealth urge and make a mess!

Themes: 10/10

As I went over in the narrative section of this review, Mafia 3 has a pretty heavy storyline, and this is built around some equally difficult-to-process themes. Firstly one must understand the time and place in which the game is set. 1968 was a turbulent time for the USA, especially if you happened to be of African American descent living in the south of the country. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing at this time, with black people across the nation fighting to gain equal rights and better living conditions. The story of Mafia 3 takes place not so long after the assassination of Martin Luther King and tensions are high in the streets of New Bordeaux.

At the same time, the world is still dealing with the war in Vietnam. American soldiers are not seen as the heroes their fathers were in the Second World War, with a proliferation of photojournalism and newsreels showing the darker side of war more vividly than ever before. Soldiers coming home were not paraded through the streets, but instead reviled, left destitute and riddled with PTSD. The war in Vietnam was brutal, the land lethal and the enemy able to melt into the shadows at will, a recipe to send anybody over the edge and erode their humanity.

Lincoln Clay sits right in the middle of this Venn diagram – a young black man, raised in poverty and taught to survive on the streets of New Bordeaux who also served in ‘Nam, and has the physical and mental scars to show for it. When he arrives back home Lincoln is met with hope, for the first time in a long time. Yes, things need sorting out in the Hollow, the Haitians need dealing with, Marcano’s debts need settling and Sammy and Lincoln’s adoptive brother Ellis need looking after, but Lincoln takes the challenges in his stride, settling into some twisted version of civilian life.

When Marcano shows up at Sammy’s bar after the heist, has a drink with his friends and then proceeds to execute them all things take a very sudden twist. The fact that this scene plays out to the Rolling Stones’ Paint it Black is no happy accident either, the bleak-as-hell song is a glimpse at Lincoln’s journey to come when he awakens from his coma. The death of his family is too much for him to bear as he becomes overburdened with hatred and rage, a dangerous combination in anybody, let alone a special forces commando who has recently come home from a famously dehumanising war. He shaves his head, dons his Army jacket, picks up a bloody big knife and, once again, goes to war. Except the battlefield is New Bordeaux, and the enemy is Marcano and his associates. It’s all very Apocalypse Now.

Trying to save Lincoln’s soul is Father James, the man who took him from a homeless shelter as a child and delivered him to Sammy. James is a veteran of the Second World War and has seen what happens to those who indulge their hatred and anger, as such he constantly tries to talk Lincoln out of his plan, to make him walk away. James is the angel on Lincoln’s shoulder.

John Donovan, Lincoln’s friend from Vietnam and a CIA agent with few scruples, is very much the devil. Donovan’s motives are murky but he always pushes his friend to the most extreme plans – aiding and abetting Lincoln as he finds, hunts and murders Marcano’s friends and family. He even recommends that Lincoln kill his allies, to tie up any loose ends and allow him to rule the city uncontested in Marcano’s place. The clear tension between these two characters helps to nail this home too.

Pleased to meet you, why don’t you guess… oh that’s right, it’s John Donovan!

Ultimately the themes of Mafia 3 involve indulging one’s hatred and anger while exploring the consequences of doing so. This is furthered with a discussion on how the world around a person can shape who they become, for better or worse. It’s a very deep story and, in this reviewer’s opinion, is handled incredibly well by the story writers.

Challenge: 7/10

Mafia 3 can be a tough game. Lincoln cannot take many hits and it takes time to equip him with additional healing items and decent weapons. As such it takes a while for you to get to the point where you can comfortably take on Marcano’s goons head-on. Stealth is your best friend to begin with, and I have deducted points for how easy this can be with the old whistle-knife-whistle AI exploit. But you are not invisible using this tactic. You can still be spotted pretty easily and, if caught out in the open, can easily be surrounded and ripped to pieces unless you quickly pull back to safe cover.

Enemies flush you out with throwable weapons and flank you once you are spotted, which forces Lincoln to move between cover constantly to avoid a nasty end. You’ll probably also need to scavenge ammunition from dead enemies, adding another tactical wrinkle to proceedings. As your weapons and healing item capacity improve this all becomes easier (just get the AK47 as soon as you can, thank me later), though never easy enough for it to be a cakewalk. Just like a real battle, they who control the battlefield control the battle!

Driving in New Bordeaux also has its challenges. Cars feel heavy and skittish and this can be pretty nightmarish during chase sequences. Tires are also super easy to burst, so you’re going to want to keep away from gunfire as much as possible. These missions can be a little too tough at times (good luck helping Vito to catch Michael Grecco!) and drove me pretty crazy I must admit.

A final point here is that, while useful, the favours your underbosses grant you can become a little too handy. Time and again I waved away police attention by spending $1000 just because I couldn’t be bothered going on a drawn-out chase across the city, a line of cruisers behind me that would put The Blues Brothers to shame. It may be a little overly convenient and it removes some challenge from the game, though as a counterpoint you don’t have to use these perks, it’s merely an option.

Overall Mafia 3 does a decent job of balancing its challenges, even with a couple of exploits here and there and some ornery chase missions.

Replayability: 5/10

The player experience in Mafia 3 can branch at certain points, and this can naturally be a great reason to revisit this title. There are a good few variations on what you can do with your underbosses (i.e., kill some, kill all, spare all) and this can result in a few different endings, as well as some standout gameplay moments that you wouldn’t have seen the first time around. There is also a big decision to make right at the very end of the game, based on whether you decide to heed the advice of Father James or Donovan, though you could literally just complete the last mission and then reload your game and go the other way, should you wish.

Add to this the fact that Mafia 3’a story is fantastic and the DLC packs are also worth experiencing and you should have a recipe for replayability any day – except the cookie cutter racket seizing missions exist. Going through these sometimes mind-numbing stretches of busywork can be really off-putting at times and this goes massively against the desire to replay this game regularly – I could just play any of the other Mafia games for a similar hit and be done in a fraction of the time!

Personal: 9/10

Mafia 3 has its problems, the critics and big gaming sites were right there. There aren’t many features for player convenience, the AI during stealth engagements can be very janky and the length of the game is artificially padded out with cookie-cutter, samey missions. 

But there’s more to this game than these commonly discussed faults. It also boasts solid driving physics, pretty visuals, and one of the best soundtracks I’ve experienced for a long time, with some classic licensed tracks that invoke the 1960s setting. The story is also top drawer and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be gunning for Sal Marcano and his cronies from beginning to end, dealing with his gang in tense gun battles that can easily go one way or the other.

There are a few dud elements, but the overall package is one of my favourite games now, I just had to get past the shock of an open-world, free-roam Mafia title and give the game a chance to shine.

I highly recommend you do too! 

Aggregate Score: 8.4

Some call him Winst0lf, others the Bizzaro Mage, and some people just call him Craig. Whatever you wish to call him, he’s a writer, reviewer and podcaster, all while somehow maintaining a day job. Maybe one day he won’t have to… one day…