In this post I am talking about Mafia – mainly the third part. There is a lot that I have already discussed and evaluated in the streams, but I would like to summarize it again here. What is it about this game that makes me so mad and happy at the same time?

There is not much to say about the first two parts. The first was a revelation when it was released in 2002 – a game as detailed as I had not seen before. The story was thrilling, and despite some very unfair passages (we all remember the race), it’s still one of the best games ever for me to this day. The Definitive Edition improved a lot for me, didn’t reinvent anything unnecessarily and was therefore worth buying.

Mafia 2 was a good game, too. There were a few things I didn’t find necessary (didn’t like the open world too much) but overall again very good. Diverse missions, appropriate humor in all the right places and improved graphics – not as immersive as the first part, but all around okay.

But now the third part is coming and it’s killing me. Because it only knows extremes: either really good or absolutely terrible. There was nothing that lied in between.

It’s starting out very promising. I don’t want to go into too much detail about the story itself, just this much: we’re a black man in late ’60s America – definitely lots of explosive potential. Our “family” was murdered and we seek revenge. In the course of our campaign against our enemy, many social and political issues of the time are addressed; the reality is presented to be very brutal, but always appropriately. The game doesn’t hold back (especially not with the use of the N-word), but doesn’t exaggerate either and, in my opinion, doesn’t ridicule it.

The story itself is mostly told in cinematic sequences, some of which are presented in retrospect in documentary style – people are questioned about what happened in the past. For my taste, these sequences are a bit too numerous, especially at the beginning, but they are very well done. Both the content and the graphics are very well done and keep the suspense up. One sees little really coming in advance.

What you definitely see coming are the missions. There are a lot of exciting story missions that are really fun and use different mechanics – and then there are the missions that you do way too often. The basic idea is that you have to take the individual areas away from the current boss of the mafia by disrupting his business – so far, so understandable.

Unfortunately, it boils down to doing the exact same thing about 20 times: talk to an informant, kill a few people, smash a few crates. It’s still quite funny the first time, at the latest by the fourth time you don’t feel like it anymore. But it is necessary for story progress. Definitely one of the worst gameplay choices I’ve seen.

The other big, very annoying point is the game’s technical intricacies. In the course of our streams, it sometimes crashed several times a day. The driving mechanics are a disaster, as is the damage model, both on vehicles and people. In many places it’s worth just dying because oddly placed checkpoints make progress – more than playing it itself.

You often have to reload because people can’t keep up or get stuck somewhere. The AI of the other drivers can be described as “erratic” at best, the route guidance in the navigation for others and oneself sometimes does not see walls or rivers as an obstacle.

Then there are the classics: the sound doesn’t work or only partially, the graphics stutter from time to time, NPCs that simply no longer fulfill their tasks and thus block a path or do not trigger an action.

The police also deserve a special mention: they are completely useless in most cases. You can commit crimes right in sight and still a witness has to call the cops first. Then the current area is defined as a search area – by then you’ve been gone for a long time. Evil tongues might say that reflects the police force in the US quite well.

I’ve already talked myself into a rage several times while playing because I just don’t understand something like that. We’re playing the “Definitive Edition” – the one that could (and should) have learned from the mistakes of the original. Even this is now two years old, but the bugs are probably too deep in the game to break anything here – a shame.

All in all I can’t really say how I like this game. The story is very complex, in some places it maybe even goes into too much detail – but I never found this disturbing, I love such precision in places where it isn’t really necessary. But on the other hand, it was a pain to follow the story when the mechanics completely failed.

If a movie is ever made out of this game – I would watch it. But I’m definitely not going to do a second run to see the other alternate endings. That’s pretty unfortunate.

That was my little rant on this game. do you agree with me Do you see it completely differently? Let me know through the usual channels!