MAFIA 3 REVIEW: How can a Super Stylish 1960s shooter be this boring !

Excellent script, great voice acting and convincing animations bring the game to life – but they can’t redeem the terminal repetitiveness of the gameplay.

Mafia 2 was criticised for its approach to an open-world Empire Bay. Instead of filling a map with icons and distractions, it pulled players along a tight story with little room for wider exploration. Mafia 3 attempts to change this with an open-world full of activity markers. The game ditches its predecessor’s, the Gelled-haired Sicilians and the story takes place two decades later in New Bordeaux – a fictional analogue of New Orleans. New Bordeaux is gorgeous, the period’s repugnant racial tension is respectfully replicated, and Mafia 3’s revenge story is told via some of the most convincingly-acted out cut-scenes I’ve seen. It’s just a shame that you’re forced to repeat the same tedious activities to see them. For the first four hours, during its linear prologue, Mafia 3 is superb but, as soon as it embraces its open-world design, it yet again all falls apart.

Storyline

Though the game lacks a thorough capitalization in its open-world potential, the strong and cleverly crafted storyline gives the players a furthermore rush. America in the 1960s: a presidential assassination, landmark rights movements, a nuclear arms race, the birth of modern music, man landing on the moon, the beginning of Star Trek, and a controversial war abroad. This is a remarkable era – one barely seen in video games – and Mafia III makes good use of its cultural backdrop. It tells its story well, with smart writing and some superb characterisation that elevate its simple revenge plot. Seeing things from Lincoln Clay’s (Protagonist) perspective, as a black man in New Orleans during such a turbulent time, is one of the game’s biggest strengths. It’s distressing to hear racially-charged language in a videogame, but you should be taken aback, you should be shocked and you should feel uncomfortable – this was a very real part of our recent history and to pretend it wasn’t like this would be disrespectful to those who lived it. In New Bordeaux, some places don’t allow black people entry at all, while others force them to enter through the establishment’s rear entrance. The racial tension of the story is well-depicted in the various events throughout the gameplay. One the finest depiction of the racial culture was that, if Lincoln steals a car from a rich neighbourhood the cops act too quickly and with full force, but if the same activity is done from a poor neighbourhood the cops’ actions are negligible.

Gameplay

 Mafia 3’s gunplay feels punchy and brutal, with headshots accompanied by a satisfying pop and a crimson spray, soaking the walls and floor around your victim. Each shot causes enemies to clutch a limb or reel from the force – upon death they tumble over boxes or slump over satisfyingly, thanks to a weighty physics model. In between the chunks of plot is the familiar open-world infrastructure that Grand Theft Auto 3 set in place 15 years ago. You drive around New Bordeaux, get missions from various characters, reap your rewards, and occasionally get side-tracked along the way. I really love the big, story-driven missions set in unique, well-designed locations. Making my way through a creepy abandoned amusement park, escaping a bank vault after a heist, and sneaking aboard a sinking riverboat all provided some awesome, memorable action.

That being said, the path to these big encounters isn’t nearly as exciting. Taking over parts of the city involves repeating the same handful of tasks like simple assassinations, destroying some sort of cargo, or stealing something from a well-guarded compound. The first time I did each one of these was great; the literal 20th time, not so much. What’s even worse is that a lot of locations are used as the setting for multiple missions, meaning I had to clear out the exact same bathhouse filled with enemies twice in a row, which is pretty nonsensical.

A couple of great set-piece moments are a welcome break from the monotony, but they’re fleeting glimpses of promise within a 30-hour game. A horrific shoot-out through an abandoned fairground, a scrapyard sniper battle with one of Marcano’s underbosses, and a great car chase with your associate Vito. These standout missions appear every couple of hours, but are locked behind a ton of boring objectives that you have to do in order to get through to the next interesting chunk of story exposition.

Setting

Even the city of New Bordeaux – with its fantastic period details, great soundtrack and some gorgeous, rainy night-time views – can’t offset the fact that Mafia III’s central activities don’t change throughout its lengthy runtime. The aesthetic highs are also contrasted with a surprising level of technical disappointments. Flat textures, weird daytime lighting, muddy sky boxes and some ugly “pop-in” moments make for a really jarring mix of good and bad throughout, while visual glitches are an issue on both PS4 and PC. It’s a real shame that such a unique and fresh setting goes to waste.

Soundtrack

Mafia 3 has a soundtrack to match a story that’s mainly concerned with the escalating war between the black and Italian mob, but also touches on era-appropriate issues: racial tension in the South, the Vietnam War, packed with 100 carefully curated songs from the era, from rock to blues to soul. A bit like Grand Theft Auto then, except with more of a historical perspective and social conscience. And unlike GTA’s radio stations, the music in Mafia 3 is used movie-style, to punctuate dramatic moments.

VERDICT

Mafia 3 is the biggest disappointment of the year. It has all of the surface components to form a great game: the writing and acting are superb, its direction and style are great, but its mechanical underpinnings are obsolete and desperately unimaginative. The first few hours tease the game that could have been if it hadn’t succumbed to the open-world bloat. Mafia 3 has an interesting setting and a great cast of characters, but its lack of focus undermines everything it’s trying to do, and that’s a damn shame.

RATING: 5.5 / 10