Call an Irish hit squad for assistance during a raid, or call your Consigliere to pick up your precious money and stash it in your safe so you don’t lose it when you die. Call up an arms dealer and he’ll turn up in a whacky Mystery Machine so you can buy guns, restock ammo and buy new abilities before assaulting an enemy hideout. Progressing through the game and assigning districts to your underbosses unlocks new abilities. 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. A horror-esque 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. Photograph: Hangar 13Ī 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. Rob rackets, murder targets and destroy shipments. They’re each really interesting personalities, but you don’t see nearly enough of them. Cassandra is the leader of the Haitian mob, Burke is the head of the Irish mob, and Vito – the slick-haired protagonist from Mafia 2 – is a high ranking member of the Italian mob who’s now been put on a hitlist. Your three underbosses are the only real flavour of your moment-to-moment interactions in New Bordeaux. Robbing rackets, murdering targets and destroying shipments of contraband complete enough of these dull tasks and you’ll eventually have to kill leader of each district, overtaking the rackets for yourself and assigning them to one of your underbosses, damaging Marcano’s organisation in the process. Stealth is also a basic but entirely functional option for play, and while the AI is frequently parodically dumb it at least allows you to sneak around cutting throats and stabbing necks without much interruption or frustration. The core gameplay is solid – guns are punchy, headshots bloody and there’s satisfaction in capping goons with Tommy guns and pump-action shotguns – but the simplicity of your core tasks just doesn’t progress anywhere. Guns are punchy, headshots bloody and there’s satisfaction in capping goons with Tommy guns. A strong introduction makes way for hours of cookie cutter objectives that fail to sustain the pace, adrenaline or imagination. Unfortunately, what should be a narrative flashpoint to ignite the action and set in motion a roller coaster revenge ride is instead Mafia III’s stumbling point. In order to do this, he recruits several associates across the city to bring down Marcano’s henchman, his rackets and eventually the man himself. An excellent script, great voice acting and convincing facial animations bring the game’s lavish cutscenes to life, and the faux documentary cuttings create the sense that the game’s events are historical recounts than fictional escapades.Īfter a violent double-crossing that leaves Sammy and his closest associates dead at the hands of Mafia kingpin Sal Marcano, Lincoln sets out to bring down the organisation that spreads across New Bordeaux’s multiple unique districts. These well-paced first hours cement the game’s unflinching depiction of the racism and violence that dominated so much of 20th century America. Sammy, leader of the Black Mob, raised Lincoln as one of his own, while Father James Ballard is Lincoln’s go-to for advice and help whenever he’s in need of moral guidance.Ī strong introduction makes way for hours of cookie cutter objectives. His closest colleagues are similarly personable despite their illegal activities.
He’s the archetypal Henry Hill protagonist a likeable, loyal young guy who you root for despite his penchant for murder, torture and other reprehensible hobbies.
Developer Hangar 13 successfully captures the distorted soul of the 1960s and places us in the rugged boots of Lincoln Clay – a bi-racial orphan and Vietnam veteran recently returned home to the Big Easy inspired city of New Bordeaux. Ultimately, however, it never capitalises on its open world potential, instead succumbing to an almost constant lull of tediously unimaginative repetition that makes for a boring and dated open-world shooter.
It tells its story well, with smart writing and some superb characterisation that elevate its simple revenge plot. This is a remarkable era – one barely seen in video games – and Mafia III makes good use of its cultural backdrop. A merica 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.
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