Mafia 3 Review

Illusion Softworks, better known as 2K Czech was only involved into the development of the new Mafia 3 game. The most creative work was done by Hangar 13. Let’s take a look in this test to see what the in california based studio has done and if they still can transport the first great impressions we had at the beginning through the hole game.

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Movie developers have already shown us the Mafia Theme from different point of view. We felt in love into the great story and atmosphere of the two previous games. We can confirm, that the presentation in the latest game of the Mafia series is as good as in the games before. We love the the great made cutscenes with the mafia3_cinematic__lincolnawesome designed facial expressions that showing us even the smallest changes of the characters emotions. Because of this the characters are very believable.

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In addition to that we have to say that the story includes some typical stereotypes. It’s 1968. Lincoln Clay comes home to New Bordeaux after he was in Vietnam for a few years. This fictitious city in the south that remembers us on New Orleans and shows us very good what was going on in the past. You can find racism and the hate against communist everywhere and in addition to that a few crime organizations that are fighting against each other to dominate the city. Lincoln finds himeslf in mafiaiii_frenchwardthe middle of it. The complete situation escalates at the time Lincoln’s whole family get killed by the Mafia. Now it is time for a bloody revenge.

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The base of the main story is not very imaginative, but we love how Hangar 13 tells us this one. And that is the reason we do not want to tell you more about. We do not want to spoiler anything. We believe that everybody should enjoy the story by themself. We can say that Hangar 13 using great mediums like flashbacks and also fantastic cutscenes which are made like a documentation. In addition to that they also show us authentic film mafia3_sitdowndocuments of the time combinate with clever added scenes about the protagonists. Like we said above, we do not want to spoiler anything, but we can confirm that the story keep us playing until the end of the game.

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We love how believable the characters are and we can say that they have some surprises in their bags for the players. Unfortunately, we have to say that we do not like the cutscenes that you get see if you are standing in a mission briefing. In this scenes we see our character and the person we get the mission from in a static Third-Person-View. The dialogs are as same important and great designed as the dialogs from the main missions, 2k_mafia3_e3_bayou_drivebut they are very useless because of the unspectacular presentation.

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At the beginning of Mafia 3 we had a lot of fun to enjoy not only the story, but also the great designed gameplay. We love it how great the game took us by the hand into a tutorial to show us the surprising huge content while we are playing different missions and get a look into all mechanical features. You also get to know how you drive with cars in this game. Players can also switch in the main menu the simulation feature on. Unfortunately, this does not work as it should. Players will notice the weight of the cars a little bit more, but that is everything. You also get into some battles and get to know how you sneak into areas in the first missions. Players will notice that both option will work very well later in the game. Unfortunately, we have to say that this is not enough. The mechanics working very well and are only building solid features. In addition to that we can confirm that the shootings and the cover system working very well, too. We also love the huge number of different weapons we can use.

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We can not say anything bad about the shooter mechanics combined with the cover system. You can smoothly walk around corners to not get seen by the enemy. It is also possible to lure the enemies with a whistle to kill them when they are very close. We love it that you can choose in each mission if you want to kill everybody quietly or to fight your way through like Rambo. And Rambo is a good example. Both characters 2k_mafia3_e3_kill_lou_stalkinghave served in Vietnam and both are specialists in close combat and have knowledge in psychological warfare.

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The goal of the game is the revenge on Sal Marcano. To get close to him you have to cut his flow of money. For this you have to destroy or to take over his illegal business. These are distributed over the whole city. Players get a high number of informations that shows you how to do this. You will get the details about the missions via different informations. This is the way the open world get filled up. Hangar 13 did a great job until now. They mafiaiii_cisternshootout_02also included Vito Scaletta. Because of this they made a bridge to the previous game.

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Unfortunately, we have to say that players have much more varied missions to do in games like GTA or Saints Row. It could happen that New Bordeaux will get quickly boring for players. It does not matter if you have to fight against smugglers, or if you have to stop the dealing of drugs or even to free hostages. Most of the missions are built the same way. You get to the point to get the details about the mission, then you have to get to some spots where you have for example to kill some people until a certain monetary value is reached. After that the boss shows up and you have to kill him the same way.

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We can confirm that the game’s AI doing a great job. Enemies using also the cover and try to flank players or to give him no opportunity to fleet. But this happens only if you in the middle of a gun battle. As long as you sneak they take every chance to blame himself. It is possible to kill one enemy after another by staying behind a cover and to lure them by whistling. Strange is also that you have the opportunity to remove the corpse. At the beginning we thought that the enemies would react if they see one, but after we killed more than 12 enemies with the help of whistling, we noticed that they do not care even if 10 corps lying one on another. 2k_mafiaiii_gamescom_screenshots_combat05This unfortunately destroys the credibility of the game’s world. And it is not a surprise that it is possible to kill enemies with the knife even if the staying in the view of other.

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On the one hand we can say that Hangar 13 tried to build a believable world. Civilians react if you are running with a weapon, they try to protect themselves, run away or even announce that they want to call the police. This also happens when you kill somebody or destroy the glass of a car to steal it. If you enter a shop in which black people are not welcome, you immediately get the hint that you have to leave. But if you stay longer and do not touch the cash register, there are no consequences of this. We also do not understand why the games show us that we are in the view of police officer when we are driving with more than 100 miles per hour through the city. This is unnecessary, because they only react if you kill somebody or steal a car but did not mafia3_joyridecare if we are driving too fast. This was different in the previous game and give them all much more dynamic and rises the atmosphere.

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What we like is that they include stuff you can collect. In addition to missions you can get from Playboy or Hot Rod Magazines, you can find cover from records and tons of Pin-Up-Paintings made by Alberto Vargas who worked for more than 20 years for Hugh Hefner’s Playboy-Magazine. All-In-All we can confirm that there is a lot of work to do in New Bordeaux. Unfortunately, you do not have any advantages because of this. We found out that the radio transistors are the only useful thing. With them it is possible to tap the Switchboxes you can find everywhere in the city. After that you can get informations about the gangs in the city. But this is only the idea of it. At the end you hear only a part of recorded conversation. In addition to that you will see on the map the locations of all collectable items and the positions of the enemies in the respective area. This opportunity makes sense especially if you combine it with another feature of the game. Lincoln has the ability that works like a X-ray vision. Because of this he can look through walls to spot enemies. It is only possible to let a boss work for us if you have tap enough Switchboxes.

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We also have to say that we would love it if Hangar 13 would put more work into the design of the game. The cutscenes are looking fantastic. The city is also very well designed and is varied from district to district. We also can give this game a point more for the great made architectures. But in the most times we are not very impressed about the graphics. There are not great simulated civilists, Pop-Ups, Fade-Ins. Because of that we unfortunately have to confirm that game’s engine need a little bit more optimizations. The most disturbing is the rising sun. It happened that the dawning sun is so blinding that our escapes failed a few times. The good news are that there have been some updates released in the time of our test. The most of them corrected graphical issues. Great is also that you can rise the FPS from 30 up to 60 because of the patch. All-In-All we can say that the game looks fantastic. What we love about the game is the soundtrack which includes more 2k_mafiaiii_gamescom_screenshots_downtown01than 100 licensed tracks from the 60s. We noticed that it was very important for the developers that this game includes a great soundtrack and realistic sound effects. We can say that they did a great job with it.

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All-In-All we can confirm that the developer Hangar 13 worked very hard on this game. Yes, there are a few things that could be made better but we can confirm that the great story and the well made cutscenes are fantastic. They could put more work into the game’s gameplay mechanics. That means we wished the missions would be more varied. The game begins so great but can not keep the atmosphere and our enthusiasm to the end. We love it that it is our decision to fight or to sneak in each mission. What we also can say is that if you would split the game into three pieces, the first and last one are the best. There are a few technical problems, but like we said before Hangar 13 is working on this. We can confirm that the game tied us even with his issues. We wanted to know how the story ends and if there will be something special. We do not want to spoiler anything, so we will not tell you more about. We have unfortunately to say that the game needs a lot more to be as good as a GTA, but has a solid gameplay, fantastic look, great cutscenes and a incredible soundtrack and sound effects. We love it that they tried something new in the Mafia-Universe. We think that fans of open world games will have a lot of fun with it.

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