Mafia III

Greetings from Lithuania.

I picked up "Mafia" III (2016) for free as a PS plus free give away. After playing trough the half of the story i eventually quit it. That happens for me ultra rare. Why? Because "Mafia" III is one of the most disappointing game i have ever played - at the end of day.

"Mafia" III has to be the most repetitive game ever. First i enjoyed it. Shooting mechanics in this game are great. The sound when bullets hits your target, head shots - it done great. Other and the last good thing about this game is driving mechanics, i really enjoyed it. Other then that, there is nothing in this game that would make you to come back to it. Every single mission (literally, well except one where you have to box someone inside of the ring) is a copy/paste of previous one. All of the side missions are copy/paste. Literally. Outside of the main story which is kinda OK and side quests which are as boring as hell, there is absolutely nothing to do in this open world. It feels dead and empty, and it is dead and empty. There are glitches as well.

Overall, even for free i couldn't finish Mafia III. Its the most repetitive and boring game i have probably ever played.

As always, I will review this game from the story and cinematography point of view. But first let's talk about the gameplay. It's extremely repetitive but a lot of games are. Hell, all games are repetitive. you just do the same thing over and over until it's over. But the variety of tasks is bigger and you don't feel it.

In this game, there are only 2 things to do: driving and shooting and all missions are a combination of these 2 things. That can be a problem as there aren't a lot of combinations you can make from only 2 things. The shooting is great and the driving the best in open world games but I guess only 2 really good things without any context can create a repetitive experience.

The first few hours before you are let on your own to do the same things over and over again create a really good context for the story. Lincoln Clay returned from Vietnam gets involved with the mob in New Bordeaux and well, if you don't know, don't look for more, just play the opening hours, these are really, really good.

But after that, the story becomes so simplistic that could have been told in only one mission and that is the disappointing part of the game. There's not enough to justify just wondering through the city for the next 20 hours (I took my time because of the driving)

All in all, I enjoyed the story (beginning and ending, as there's nothing in the middle) but I didn't find it as offensive as the developer said. Instead of being repulsed of how the NPC react to my character (it was not easy to be a black man in the 60s), I was pleasantly surprised to hear a lot of characters being nice to me and greet me on the streets. A change of tone from the normal open world game where everyone swears at you and makes you an idiot for driving on the wrong side of the road.

Mafia III is a game that is a great in some departments, good in most departments but also bad in other departments.

First the positives, 'Mafia III' has to me the greatest soundtrack of any video game I've ever played, and this is epitomised in the radio, I often found myself enjoying playing the game the most just driving and listening to the radio. The game has a good story and a great story telling technique (doing it through a documentary), the gameplay was also good and I found all the characters tolerable and some I genuinely liked (Lincoln and John Donovan).

Now for the negatives, 'Mafia III' biggest problem is it's repetitive nature, often when playing the game you have to figure out ways to keep yourself engaged in the story, and towards the end almost force yourself to take over the last couple territories. However I feel another problem I have with this game is the ending, I don't like the choice aspect of the ending as I think a lack of a definitive ending diminishes the story.

In conclusion, 'Mafia III' is a fun game at times, with a good story, decent characters and amazing music, and in its best moments is a genuine great game but at its worst moments it becomes a bit of a chore.

Rating [7/10]

Definitely a bit of a disappointment compared to the first two but still a great game. Great story, amazing soundtrack, really fun gameplay. It lacks diversity in mission structure but you can make it really fun for yourself by trying different approaches to each mission. There are a bunch of different weapons and you can choose between a stealthy approach or a loud and violent one. Both really fun. I suggest you give it a try and don't give up on it too early.

Well, If you are here then you definitely like open world games. So simply just go and buy it, it really worths the price. Yes it has some issues, yes propably all the yapping about it being a not finished game with glitches is true but there is more to it than that. As far as I am concerned it is not as good as mafia 2 concerning the script, feeling and how close you get to the characters BUT it is a whole other story so let's just get over with the nagging. I definitely enjoyed playing the game. Did all the main & side missions along with getting all the city wire tapped and finding all the collectibles. I gave it an easy 8 out of 10. I hope we ll see another mafia game soon..