The hype was real, had everything gone to plan, this game would have definitely been a contender for game of the year, but sadly, someone, somewhere messed up really bad. I am of course talking about Mafia 3. The third installment in the hugely popular open world game was one of the most anticipated games of the year. The game does have places where it manages to captivate the player and capture their imaginations, just like Mafia 1 did. However, overall the game is bogged down by the standard open world tropes, that makes progressing through the game seem like a real chore.
The aspect that holds Mafia 3 back the most is its gameplay. First and foremost, it is painfully repetitive. One may argue that by their very nature, open world games are repetitive, but Mafia 3 takes it up a notch. You will literally end up doing the same mission almost 19 times in order to progress the story, with the only change being that of the background. You essentially sneak in to a factory, mansion or brothel and either take out the main bad guy or “convince” them to join your crew.
What adds to the feeling of monotonous drudgery is the fact that I have met rocks that are smarter than the AI in Mafia 3. I hardly found myself dying even at the highest difficulty as the AI is easier to fool than a baby falling for peekaboo. It’s not all bad though. If you can bear with the identical and laborious missions, you will be treated to Mafia 3’s strongest feature: the story.
The game itself does a great job of bringing its own version of New Orleans to life in the form of New Bordeaux; a city controlled by organized crime, rampant racism and corruption. Through some of the best written, voice acted and looking cut-scenes, Mafia 3 tells its story with masterful delivery. The story in and of itself was enough for me to plough through the otherwise dull and uninspiring game, which is a shame as I am a huge fan of the franchise and had hoped for a much better finished product than this. If only the open world missions were a bit more varied and took better advantage of that, the game might have been much much better.
At the end of the day, what you get with Mafia 3 is a fantastic story wrapped in shabby, shallow, repetitive and dull gameplay. To cap it all off, the game even looks dated on the PC, especially the sky boxes. While I appreciate the developers trying to incorporate dynamic weather effects, when it comes to execution it falls way short of the mark. Heck, GTA V on the Xbox 360 and PS3 had better in-game visuals, and those titles launched way back in 2013! If you are a fan of the franchise and like me, must have the game, be prepared for a long slog if you want to experience the truly fantastic story.
