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Mafia 3 |OT| "Family isn't who you're born with, it's who you die for"

Mr. Tibbs

Member
Giantbomb's review is up!

Ultimately, technical gaffes and issues of design repetition weren't enough to stop me from appreciating Mafia III. The writers and voice actors turn in the strongest work, crafting and performing a story that manages to rise above the conventional open-world structure it's working within. When Mafia III does falter, it's where it most willingly gives in to those open-world conventions, resting back on the kinds of activities and mechanics we've seen done time and time again in games just like this. It's not unfair to want Mafia III to be better than it is, but I think it's still worth admiring for what it manages to pull off.
 

Grimsen

Member
Wow I loved the ending(the mid credits scene). What awesome payoff. Give me that game premise and sequel.

I echo many others in saying this games biggest problem is there's too much of it. The front half of the game should've been shortened. The main missions and story are fantastic.


Just finished the game, and the ending is super satisfying.

I've been uncertain about selling this game upon completing it, but I'm going to keep it to hack at the dlc and the trophies down the line.

Or if I just want to cruise around listening to great music.
 
Finally finished the game.

Yep, I loved every second of it.

And that mid credit scene better be the lead Mafia 4

Or else!

Now bring on the DLC!
 

Horns

Member
I finished it as well. I really enjoyed this game. It has a bunch of flaws, but they didn't detract from my enjoyment.

I both liked and disliked the way the game ends.
I liked that after finishing it, you can continue and complete the other alternative endings. I disliked that after completing there's not much you can do. I wish there was more after killing Sal.
 

Akai__

Member
Finally finished the game.

Yep, I loved every second of it.

And that mid credit scene better be the lead Mafia 4

Or else!

Now bring on the DLC!

I can't seem to continue this game Elzar. I love the story, characters and the atmosphere, but these missions and the world couldn't be any more boring.

Expected something else from a Mafia game and I'm a bit disappointed.
 

peakish

Member
The game is now crashing on me every ten to twenty minutes. Absolutely insane. I keep trudging through it because I'm willing to forgive a lot to see the things I like in a game but this is testing my patience so hard.

To whine a bit less, I'll say that the main story missions in the later parts of the game are really damn good. Lots of encounters in cool, varied locales like the quarry, which looks absolutely beautiful to me. The whole setup with the
boxing club
was great, too. I'm loving those missions, it's a shame that the pacing is wack.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
The mission to kill
Uncle Lou
was fucking crazy, not sure if it's crazy in a good way.

Lincoln literally killed like 100 innocent people to get to him, not sure how I feel about that. I mean, he's hardly the compass of morality but this was a stretch even for him.


Hearing/seeing those people jump overboard and get eaten by aligators was just.. what the fuck. Jesus, Donnovan. What kind of plan is this? Couldn't I just shank him in his sleep or something?
 

Grimsen

Member
Hearing/seeing those people jump overboard and get eaten by aligators was just.. what the fuck. Jesus, Donnovan. What kind of plan is this? Couldn't I just shank him in his sleep or something?

I love Donovan so much.

Him and Lincoln are the best new characters of 2016.
 

Adnor

Banned
The mission to kill
Uncle Lou
was fucking crazy, not sure if it's crazy in a good way.

Lincoln literally killed like 100 innocent people to get to him, not sure how I feel about that. I mean, he's hardly the compass of morality but this was a stretch even for him.


Hearing/seeing those people jump overboard and get eaten by aligators was just.. what the fuck. Jesus, Donnovan. What kind of plan is this? Couldn't I just shank him in his sleep or something?

Well, the FBI guy from the documentary said that Lincoln was worse than all the floodings and wars the town survived.
 

peakish

Member
The Southern Pride storyline was god damn disgusting but felt really good to finish.

The mission to kill
Uncle Lou
was fucking crazy, not sure if it's crazy in a good way.

Lincoln literally killed like 100 innocent people to get to him, not sure how I feel about that. I mean, he's hardly the compass of morality but this was a stretch even for him.


Hearing/seeing those people jump overboard and get eaten by aligators was just.. what the fuck. Jesus, Donnovan. What kind of plan is this? Couldn't I just shank him in his sleep or something?
Neither of them are good guys, that's made even more certain the further you get into stuff like this in the game. Donovan's fun but pretty much a psychopath. Lincoln is not much better. I like it.

(Somewhat late game spoiler)
The mission where you kill Frank Pagani is great like that. Doesn't seem that bad, begs for his life, Lincoln doesn't give a shit. Terrifying.
 

peakish

Member
Finished it. Holy hell was that a good ending.
I made Lincoln leave and Cassandra took charge.
What followed was almost disturbing. The previous games were mostly focused on the personal consequences of joining the mafia but this took it on for real as a torrent of damage spilling into civilian life. Damn.

Glad the framing device paid off, too. Just astonishing work all around from the writing team. And as I've said, the mission design in these story missions is mostly top notch. It would have made for a stellar 12 hour game, or 20 keeping the better side quests. For me it was almost twice that which bogged it down heavily. While bugs will go away with some patches that part of the game will not.

I'd finally like to say that the graphics are uneven as hell but I really liked how it looked sometimes. How the sunrises casts everything in a lovely golden shimmer, how the river looks covered in a coating of oil, how it often feels like a thousand lights are in view as you drive towards the city at night. Basically whenever the game draws the attention away from repeating textures and simple geometry.

mafia32016-10-1515-18ensfe.png

mafia32016-10-1513-22qfscc.png

mafia32016-10-1513-54s0sbr.png

In the end, while I think the game does not work well with the open mission structure which heavily bogs it down, I think it does so well in other areas that I don't regret buying or playing it. I kind of hated Mafia 2 and this is hella better to me. It's just a shame that it could have been even more.
 
Wow, this game man, jeez, I like the time period but other then that I just dont think I want to play anymore, I just did a main mission where a side mission took place and I swear the dudes were in the same exact spots as the side mission.
 

Muffdraul

Member
Wow, this game man, jeez, I like the time period but other then that I just dont think I want to play anymore, I just did a main mission where a side mission took place and I swear the dudes were in the same exact spots as the side mission.

This is the first game in many years that I just stopped playing halfway through out of sheer boredom. Even with Assassins Creed 1, I thought "Oh fucking come on people, it's not THAT repetitive. It's still fun." and played through it more than once. After about 15 hours of Mafia I started taking breaks to replay Watch Dogs because I'm hyped for WD2. After a couple days I just stopped going back to Mafia at all.
 
A simple fast travel system would have done wonders for the game, especially out to the bayou. Fuck driving out to that shitty area for the 20th time just to drive a truck back.

Mafia 3 I think will be held up as the perfect example of a game that would have gone from mediocre to amazing with 6-8 months more work of polish. All the pieces for a good game are here, but it just needs that 2nd, 3d, 4th, and 5th pass of tweaking to get all the polish just perfect. A real shame.
 

vypek

Member
A simple fast travel system would have done wonders for the game, especially out to the bayou. Fuck driving out to that shitty area for the 20th time just to drive a truck back.

Mafia 3 I think will be held up as the perfect example of a game that would have gone from mediocre to amazing with 6-8 months more work of polish. All the pieces for a good game are here, but it just needs that 2nd, 3d, 4th, and 5th pass of tweaking to get all the polish just perfect. A real shame.

Yeah. Fast travel would have been a real blessing. This is a game that needed a delay for polish
 
A simple fast travel system would have done wonders for the game, especially out to the bayou. Fuck driving out to that shitty area for the 20th time just to drive a truck back.

Mafia 3 I think will be held up as the perfect example of a game that would have gone from mediocre to amazing with 6-8 months more work of polish. All the pieces for a good game are here, but it just needs that 2nd, 3d, 4th, and 5th pass of tweaking to get all the polish just perfect. A real shame.

Nah this isn't a matter getting another polish pass. This game has structural and design choices that hold it back from real greatness. The fact that so much can still shine through is a testament to the core mechanics, city design, and writing/performances. The mission progression and design would have to be rebuilt to really take advantage of the city, the writing, and the kind of style we see in the big missions to provide more variety and propulsion.

I think the DLC story expansions are a great testing ground for getting away from the district takeover structure, and letting the game flow to different scenarios in an interesting way. I hope they take advantage of it.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
This is the first game in many years that I just stopped playing halfway through out of sheer boredom. Even with Assassins Creed 1, I thought "Oh fucking come on people, it's not THAT repetitive. It's still fun." and played through it more than once. After about 15 hours of Mafia I started taking breaks to replay Watch Dogs because I'm hyped for WD2. After a couple days I just stopped going back to Mafia at all.

Yeah I'm struggling with it myself. I'm just plowing through it right now because I want to get it over with.

Two districts to go...
 

psychotron

Member
I have a question about the side missions. Basically I've been tasked with causing a specific dollar amount of damage to a racket to draw out the boss, but you can reach that amount without doing all the side missions. It seems like it is giving me a choice how I want to cause this damage, because the others go away when I reach the limit. Or am I doing something wrong here?

Also, I like being able to grab the bad guys and recruit them, but it seems I can only do that on some missions. For instance, when it says to take out enforcers, I think I can only kill them. Yet on others, I'm able to injure them or sneak up on them and choose to kill or recruit them. Is that how it's set up, so that certain missions the main bad guy will not die from a gun shot, only after you grab them? I only ask because I'm spending a lot of time on missions trying to get to the main guy without shooting him, because if I can recruit him I don't want to accidentally kill him.
 

vypek

Member
I have a question about the side missions. Basically I've been tasked with causing a specific dollar amount of damage to a racket to draw out the boss, but you can reach that amount without doing all the side missions. It seems like it is giving me a choice how I want to cause this damage, because the others go away when I reach the limit. Or am I doing something wrong here?

Also, I like being able to grab the bad guys and recruit them, but it seems I can only do that on some missions. For instance, when it says to take out enforcers, I think I can only kill them. Yet on others, I'm able to injure them or sneak up on them and choose to kill or recruit them. Is that how it's set up, so that certain missions the main bad guy will not die from a gun shot, only after you grab them? I only ask because I'm spending a lot of time on missions trying to get to the main guy without shooting him, because if I can recruit him I don't want to accidentally kill him.

Only racket bosses and informants have an option to be killed or recruited. Everyone else dies. Oh, and there are a couple of informants and bosses that have to be killed no matter what. Make sure you have the area wiretapped if you want to recruit a racket boss
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
Read bottom to top:
vo8YMxj.png

Matthias is such a badass. He's already spent half his life as a professional game designer (SiN, Dead Space 2, 1313).

Washington Post's Mafia 3 review: A cultural milestone
“Mafia 3” is an imperfect game that’s more interesting than any number of conventionally polished creations. It’s the rare AAA title that seems to have funneled more resources into its characters than its gameplay. Having caught wind of some of the tepid reviews it received earlier this month, I’d braced myself for a letdown. I definitely didn’t expect to play what amounts to a cultural milestone in the history of the form. Never has a mainstream video game focused on the awful side of America’s racial legacy with such frank insistence. And never has a video game had such an interesting cast of black characters.
 
Read bottom to top:
vo8YMxj.png

Matthias is such a badass. He's already spent half his life as a professional game designer (SiN, Dead Space 2, 1313).

I hope he(and whoever pays his checks) ultimately realizes that most people's complaints aren't with the gameplay itself. I think most would agree that taken separately, any one section of open world or mission is fine. I think the problem comes when you're just given too much of it to do. The shooting is good, the driving is good, but nothing breaks apart the sameness of these missions. There's really too much of it. Even if they were to add more side quests with varied objectives, the complaints would then switch to the game being bloated in a another direction.

If they had made the first six districts have half as many objectives and never make you go through the same area twice, the game's pacing would have improved immensely.
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
I hope he(and whoever pays his checks) ultimately realizes that most people's complaints aren't with the gameplay itself. I think most would agree that taken separately, any one section of open world or mission is fine. I think the problem comes when you're just given too much of it to do. The shooting is good, the driving is good, but nothing breaks apart the sameness of these missions. There's really too much of it. Even if they were to add more side quests with varied objectives, the complaints would then switch to the game being bloated in a another direction.

If they had made the first six districts have half as many objectives and never make you go through the same area twice, the game's pacing would have improved immensely.

I agree that having to tackle two rackets for every district is too much. If they made only one of them compulsory and left the other as optional content for additional upgrades (with some kind of risk reward), the pacing would be dramatically improved. That said, I still loved my time with the game, a five bagger for sure!
 

psychotron

Member
Only racket bosses and informants have an option to be killed or recruited. Everyone else dies. Oh, and there are a couple of informants and bosses that have to be killed no matter what. Make sure you have the area wiretapped if you want to recruit a racket boss

Thank you. So far I've been wiretapping the entire area before making a run at the boss. Really enjoying the game.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Thank you. So far I've been wiretapping the entire area before making a run at the boss. Really enjoying the game.

You only have to wiretap the specific area the racket boss is in, you don't have to cover the entire district.

If you press L3 in the map you can toggle the wiretaps so you see which junction box you need to wiretap to cover the location.
 

hollams

Gold Member
Finished the game the other night and sentiments the same, great game that could have been awesome with some better design decisions.

I tried to play GTA V last night and I just kept wishing the characters controlled like Lincoln. They really did nail the character movement, stealth, and combat in Mafia 3.
 
Started playing yesterday morning, not sure how i feel about the gameplay just yet, but, the story telling is amazing! finished the prologue I guess? Didn't see it coming and I feel stupid for not seeing it coming.
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
I mean good on him for being positive but this also comes across as incredibly stubborn and ignorant. Game is incredibly flawed.

He's "incredibly ignorant and stubborn" for recognizing a game he worked on has flaws while appreciating the development experience?
 

Dmax3901

Member
He's "incredibly ignorant and stubborn" for recognizing a game he worked on has flaws while appreciating the development experience?

He says he loves their missions and combat spaces and calls them unprecedented. He also mentions a 'perceived' lukewarm response to gameplay, that response seems pretty universal to me.

Each to their own of course, but I've no idea how you can come away from this game believing any of the above. I honestly don't know how the sheer amount of repetition in the missions got through play testing.

P.S. I noticed I used the word 'incredibly' twice in that post you quoted, sorry about that.
 
If anything the game is the opposite of unprecedented I'd say, it tamely follows the precedents of GTA, Saints Row, Assassin's Creeds, Far Cry, etc in gameplay and design but it is innovative in its story beats.

The two most unfortunate things are how empty / fake the city feels and how monotonous and repetitive the missions become.

Still if someone works on something for 4-5 years they should of course feel proud for finishing and its a game to be proud of, I just wish a different studio had published the game because I am 99% sure with 6-9 more months of polish this game would have been a GOTY contender.
 
Finished the game last night and really enjoyed it. I really loved the setting. Also please give me a John Donovan spinoff. I NEED that. That credits scene was amazing.
 
Interesting note from the article in this other thread about 2K games
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=221975103

The author of the article (a Irrational games ex employee) said Mafia 3 would have to sell 8m copies to break even. That seems unbelievable on one hand, on the other hand if the game was developed in Marin County and Eastern Europe and took 4-5 years and had a team of 150+ as the dev claims, its possible I guess? I still don't see it though, 8m copies is like $250-300m in publisher final cut, what the hell could have cost that.

I just can't understand how they thought this would sell that many copies though.
 
Finished it last night, game was excellent. Really solid story, and I enjoyed the mission structure. I enjoyed planning out the order of how to do financial damage to the rackets. Great characters and the documentary style of the narrative was very interesting. Hope people give this one a shot, was a great game overall.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
It's funny how the developer gives you the ultimate 'fuck you' during the credits and not only doesn't allow to skip them but also keeps the saving icon on (playing on PC) to prevent you from shutting it down. I was okay with letting them play the first time (and the scene in-between them), but not when I was checking the other ending.

As for the game itself, it's around 5-6/10 from me. The setting, parts of the story and the music are great, but the rest is bad or just plain awful.

Interesting note from the article in this other thread about 2K games
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=221975103

The author of the article (a Irrational games ex employee) said Mafia 3 would have to sell 8m copies to break even. That seems unbelievable on one hand, on the other hand if the game was developed in Marin County and Eastern Europe and took 4-5 years and had a team of 150+ as the dev claims, its possible I guess? I still don't see it though, 8m copies is like $250-300m in publisher final cut, what the hell could have cost that.

I just can't understand how they thought this would sell that many copies though.

Maybe they were thinking "if GTA can do it, so can we". Or (more likely) it's bullshit and the budget wasn't that big (well, unless the licenses for all the songs costed a shitload).
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
Interesting note from the article in this other thread about 2K games
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=221975103

The author of the article (a Irrational games ex employee) said Mafia 3 would have to sell 8m copies to break even. That seems unbelievable on one hand, on the other hand if the game was developed in Marin County and Eastern Europe and took 4-5 years and had a team of 150+ as the dev claims, its possible I guess? I still don't see it though, 8m copies is like $250-300m in publisher final cut, what the hell could have cost that.

I just can't understand how they thought this would sell that many copies though.

It's bullshit. In 2011, the series, across two games and six platforms, had only sold 5 million copies. Hangar 13's studio space is located at 2K Games headquarters.
 
really loving this game, but damn, i wish they'd patch in fast-travel! unfortunately, all the damn driving seriously hurts the whole experience for me :( ...
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
really loving this game, but damn, i wish they'd patch in fast-travel! unfortunately, all the damn driving seriously hurts the whole experience for me :( ...

If you're on PC there's a mod for that.

They're taking their sweet ass time on a PC patch.

I know. They announced an update would be coming soon but that was over two weeks ago. Whoever's in charge of their community stuff should try to be a little more open and honest about their update roadmap.
 
They're taking their time with all their content updates, which is kinda disappointing.

I wonder if it's even still coming at this point.

this. getting a bad feeling that this game's over. reminds me of mad max from last year in this way, as well: a sleeper, but with no follow-through whatsoever :( ...
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Jesus Christ I finally finished the game. FINALLY.


I don't even know what to feel right now. The highs are very high, but the lows are sooooo fucking low. I'm not gonna write a huge post because let's face it nobody cares, so in a nutshell:

Pros:
- John fucking Donovan
- Amazing cutscenes, voicework, motion capture. Top-notch production values all around
- Stealth gameplay works really, really well and is extremely reliable. No AI jank whatsoever. Expertly done
- Soundtrack
- Simulation driving option, really cool addition
- Gunplay feels super rewarding, especially the enemy hit detections


Cons:
- Soooooo much repetition with all the rackets, absolute disaster
- Graphically very bizarre in many ways
- No fast travel option, especially annoying in the "drive here, talk to this person, drive all the way back" missions
- The entire sub boss system is shallow and meaningless
- No customization whatsoever
- Money is useless
- No unlocks/bonus/anything after finishing the game. No special weapons, no locations, nothing


And what the FUCK was that mid-credits scene? I was hoping for something cool, but dragging
the assassination of JFK
into this was just.. what the fuck.

I feel like I've put 100 hours into this game, and even though in its core there is good gameplay to be found and it's obvious a lot of love and care went into developing it, I never want to play this game again.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
this. getting a bad feeling that this game's over. reminds me of mad max from last year in this way, as well: a sleeper, but with no follow-through whatsoever :( ...

Mad Max was never advertised, announced or even rumored to have any follow up to it after the main game which to me was a good thing. Every damn game adds DLC, expansions, etc. and its like, why not put it in the final retail version of the game? Yeah, I know why they don't as it makes all the publishers millions of dollars but when a game that I loved and enjoyed like I did with Mad Max, I appreciate it more because it doesn't have some average crappy two hour DLC padded on.
 
Mad Max was never advertised, announced or even rumored to have any follow up to it after the main game which to me was a good thing. Every damn game adds DLC, expansions, etc. and its like, why not put it in the final retail version of the game? Yeah, I know why they don't as it makes all the publishers millions of dollars but when a game that I loved and enjoyed like I did with Mad Max, I appreciate it more because it doesn't have some average crappy two hour DLC padded on.

yeah, probably a bad comparison. don't get me wrong, i loved mad max just as it was, too. i guess i'm just genuinely confused by /disappointed with the mafia 3 radio silence :) ...
 

psychotron

Member
yeah, probably a bad comparison. don't get me wrong, i loved mad max just as it was, too. i guess i'm just genuinely confused by /disappointed with the mafia 3 radio silence :) ...

There's not complete radio silence though, as I've seen them respond to tweets and Facebook posts saying that outfits are coming very soon, as well as a lot more content, including free dlc. Obviously this could be bullshit or the quality may be ass, but still. I just had my sitdown a couple hours ago, having done every side mission up until this point, and I'm still really enjoying it. Seems the game hits me with a cutscene or some great dialogue exchange just when I'm starting to feel the repetition set in. People speak about the things you do, and the game world reflects a lot of your actions. I really like the game a lot.
 
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