When Mafia II came out back in 2010 it was received fairly well by most critics and gamers. One if its criticisms, however, was that the open-world aspect of the game was basically useless since there weren’t that many side activities to do. Mafia III attempts to change this and is packed with side missions that need to be completed in order to advance the main storyline. Sadly, the developers clearly thought that filling the world with repetitive side missions would be enough to satisfy the critics.
Welcome to New Bordeaux
You play as Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam war veteran who was raised by black mobsters when he was an orphan. Clay returns to New Bordeaux in 1968 and reunites with his friends and father-figure Sammy Robinson. Sammy and his gang are at war with the Haitians, making Clay get himself invested in the whole situation. He deals with the Haitians and at first everything seems to be peaceful, until a certain someone betrays him and leaves him for dead. Clay gets nursed back to health and is now out to get revenge on the person who did this to him. Instead of going after the traitor himself, he decides to take over the mob scene of New Bordeaux and gain allies who can help him get closer to his target.
The strongest part of Mafia III is, without a doubt, its main storyline. The story is partially told like a documentary, switching to different associates of Lincoln Clay who talk about how it was working with him. These segments are set in the present, while scenes with Lincoln himself in them are always set in 1968, the year in which you play the game. The story is well-written and handled with care, making sure you’ll never lose interest when the next cut scene appears. The characters are three-dimensional and feel like they’re real people. Especially Father James, one of Lincoln’s friends, is fantastic to see on-screen. Not because he’s in a lot of action scenes, but because the performance of the actor who plays him is superb.
Another great part of the game is the setting and atmosphere of New Bordeaux. Even though this is a fictional town, it feels like it really existed in 1968. People hanging out on the streets, cars honking, music playing from the local bar make you feel like you’re part of this world. Speaking of music, Mafia III also comes with a great soundtrack. Think of a popular song of the late 60’s and it’s probably in the game. The most recognizable songs are also used during missions, which help make some scenes more memorable. Even the title screen immediately reels you in the moment it plays Jimi Hendrix’s ‘All along the Watchtower’. The developers knew which songs had to be in the game and deserve to be commended for it.
One other thing in Mafia III that deserves praise is the way it portrays racism. While it is set in a fictional American town, the developers still wanted to show how it actually was to be a black American in 1968. Lots of people were worried that they wouldn’t know how to handle such a heavy topic with care, but I can guarantee you they handled it perfectly. Lincoln Clay regularly gets snarky comments about his skin color and the story itself accurately displays the gap between white and black communities. The racism in Mafia III never feels forced or exaggerated, this was simply how things were back in those days.
A whole lot of busy work
The main story starts great and stays focussed for the first hour or so, but the moment it introduces you the side activities is where things start to become dull. The map is divided in several districts, with each of them being controlled by a target. To lure out these targets, you need to cause damage in their districts. You do this by freeing prostitutes from brothels, interrogating goons, stealing money from warehouses, etc. Once you’ve caused enough damage, the target will appear, which you have hunt down and kill. Rinse and repeat this for 15 hours and you have played most of what Mafia III has to offer. These side missions are what make the game incredibly repetitive and boring. You’ll feel like you’re not making progress and will groan when you realize you have to complete yet ANOTHER district. The worst thing about this is that you have to do all these tedious side-missions to be able to progress in the main storyline. This is what makes the game simply not fun to play after a few hours.
Many technical issues
Mafia III is also filled with all kinds of glitches, bugs, errors and whatnot that hurt the experience. Graphical wise, the lighting regularly goes crazy and lights up Lincoln’s face, even though he is standing in a dark room. It’s also possible that one of the houses in the street you’re walking through suddenly starts mixing colours, making it look like it comes straight from the Matrix. The frame rate also has a lot of issues, at least in the Xbox One version of the game. While it’s supposed to run at 30 fps, there were a lot if times where it dropped to sub 20 fps. It never made the game unplayable, but it ruins the immersion and takes you straight out of the game.
There are also some bugs that forces you to restart the game from a previous checkpoint, hoping the issue won’t happen again. There were many times where I couldn’t progress a mission because I hadn’t killed every enemy in the area, even though I had killed everyone. Then, on every occasion, I eventually found the one remaining enemy stuck in a wall or simply not responding to anything. Sometimes, the enemies can’t even see you, even though you’re standing right in front of them.
These examples only sum up a small portion of all the issues I’ve experienced through my playthrough. While bugs and glitches can be fixed with patches, it begs the question of whether this game was QA tested or not.
Conclusion
Mafia III is hard to recommend to anyone. While the story is great and the setting is well-crafted, the side-missions and loads of technical issues make this a disappointing experience. Maybe the bugs and glitches will get patched out eventually, but right now they’re a big problem. It’s probably best to wait for some patches or a price drop.
