Mafia III
For: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
From: 2K games
Rating: (R18) ★★★
Set in 1968 in the fictional New Bordeaux, which is essentially a reimagined New Orleans, you experience everything the open map world of 10 districts has to offer as Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam War veteran, who was adopted by a bunch of mobsters early in life.
When the original Mafia game came out in 2002, I had the pleasure of playing it on the original Xbox and, at the time, I considered it one of the best games I had played.
With 105 varied missions that let players experience life as a 1930s mobster, it was as immersive as it was impressive from a gameplay point of view.
It was followed several years later by Mafia II, which, while set more than a decade later, still stayed true to what made the first game successful: a compelling storyline with appealing characters and satisfying missions.
Back to Mafia III.
It wasn't long before I got the feeling that it felt a little too much like Grand Theft Auto and not much like Mafia.
Sure, the bones are there: gang wars, revenge and a yearning to control the city, but having recently completed Grand Theft Auto V, it felt like I was playing the same game just in a different setting.
Visually, it's quite superb, as is the soundtrack, voice acting and script, but what lets Mafia III down is what made the first two titles great - mission variety.
As you progress through each district, you'll complete the same types of missions over and over, whether it be taking out enforcers or destroying bootlegged booze.
There's more of a stealth element here, which tends to make missions quite tedious and wasn't exactly a hallmark of mobsters in days gone by.
The shoot and cover-style form of combat is still there and with a huge number of different weapons available, it makes combat more enjoyable than its predecessors.
I particularly liked the addition of a van that can drop weapons off to you at will, and the hit squads that you can take with you on missions to give you a little more punch.
Repetitive, open-world action probably isn't to everyone's taste, but what will be is the game's character development, which for me was the standout in an otherwise underwhelming experience.
There's no doubt its close to being a really great game, and with a little more polish and keeping in with what made the franchise a winner to start with, things could have been different.
- by Daniel Birchfield
