Mafia III - Retrospective Review

It’s been a year and a half since the greatly anticipated third instalment of the Mafia franchise was released. Mafia III was met with mixed reviews when it released on consoles and PC, but of course it had a lot to live up to. Mafia II was undoubtedly one of my favourite games of the previous console generation, bringing together tone, story and gameplay I had no idea I had been missing out on. So perhaps it is unfair to solely compare Mafia III to such a magnum-opus, an unexpected hit which blew so many away. But does Mafia III stand out as a good game today, following patches to improve performance and gameplay.

For starters, the concept of Mafia III is bold and original, something that is often missing in modern games. Mafia III is set in 1968 and stars the black Vietnam veteran, Lincoln Clay. Set in New Bordeaux, a fictional interpretation of New Orleans publishers 2K don’t shy away from tackling the issues of racism faced by many at the time. The game is prefaced that the developers included these attitudes as it would be disrespectful to shy away from the issue, brush it under the rug. I think this is the kind of thing we need to see more of in games media, the world is far from perfect and only by showing injustice can we as a community rise above it.

Messages aside, the game is far from perfect. The game still struggles with frame-rate inconsistencies and glitches even after many patches.

Mafia III brings the player into the mob in a new way for the series. Lincoln is betrayed by the mob and is lured in for revenge, not on the promise of money and power as we’ve seen in the previous games. Without giving spoilers for the plot, Mafia III is a story of brutal revenge and that’s about it, an issue which at times can make the game feel a little disenchanting.

The combat is a standard cover shooter with various stealth and vehicle mechanics thrown in. It can however suffer from being fairly slow paced if the player avoids the all-guns-blazing approach. Driving somehow feels clunky, perhaps due to the long wheel-bases of the American cars of the 60’s but it can make car chases particularly difficult and at times slow.

Graphically the game is quite impressive on the surface. The world is appealing and the colours vibrant. Effects can ruin this however with overly glaring sunlight and dark nights. Character models stand up to the test of time and the burlier design of Lincoln Clay make the hand-to-hand combat seem more reasonable than in other games. I think most gamers understand where I’m coming with this, we’ve seen a lot of fairly wimpy characters beating down towering behemoths. I’m looking at you, Nathan Drake.

After a few hours in the PC version of the game I am happy to say that the framerate isn’t too bad. It is often limited to 60fps with quite frequent drops whilst driving, though this barely detracts from the overall experience. The PC version also offers plenty in ways of system optimisation which is great for mid-range machines such as my own.

Overall, Mafia III is a different experience than the one I expected when I went in. Picked up at a lower price like I did in Humble Monthly, it’s a no brainer and a great game for any steam library. But to answer the self-indulgent question I had when buying it, “will it be as good as Mafia II?”, no not at all. It’s a shame but I suppose the rose-tinted glasses really took it this time.

I rate Mafia III as a 6.5/10 – A good game that tackles some important issues, but there are plenty of things still wrong with it and I think that’s a real shame.