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Mafia Definitive Edition: Shuddupa yo mouth! LTTP

Jumped in on the PSNow promo for a month and started playing this game on a whim. I have some knowledge of the Mafia games but almost no first hand experience, so I cannot comment on things that were altered or updated from the original. I would imagine if you are an original fan you probably already played this version and know what those changes are.

Its pretty good for the most part with some big caveats.

First, the bad:
Gunplay is really sloppy. Aiming is very loose (which is probably intentional) and a lot of the guns dont have that much ooompf to them. Enemies can take a considerable amount of tommy gun fire before they drop short of a headshot.

Gameplay in general just isnt that much to write home about. Its not terrible, but you will basically be shooting or driving or some combination of the two throughout much of the game (havent finished it yet but I'm probably about 10+ hours in and I dont expect many curveballs on the gameplay front). Cars are interesting to drive and hard to come to terms with. Traction is low and cars are heavy. You WILL run into shit and you WILL fail some chase missions because you crashed and the cars take forever to get back up to speed. Cops will actually pull you over for traffic violations like speeding as well so it does feel a bit more realistic than your GTAs but they still dont bat an eye when you run stop signs or anything like that.

WTF is with the character models eyelashes!?

Now the good:

The story is pretty great. If you want your mobster video game, this scratches all the itches: Rivalries, assassinations, booze running, Italian restaurants, tommy guns, tough guys, beating the shit outta mooks. It doesnt reinvent the wheels but it's probably the closest video game mash up of Godfather/Goodfellas/Casino that I've seen.

The voice acting is almost universally fantastic. Again, it leans heavily on prohibition mobster movie tropes but it nails the time and place and all of your favorite stereotypes are here.

The city is fantastic as far as establishing it as a real place. Really impressive stuff here. The city really feels like a city instead of just a place where gameplay happens. It feels much more lived in and real than most open worlds that I've played.

Despite the gameplay not being very deep or varied, the missions keep things surprisingly fresh by taking you to new locations and having interesting setups. One mission will have you sneaking around and breaking into a rich prosecutors house with a safe cracker to steal some sensitive documents while another has you navigating through a dilapidated old prison that is being squatted in by a group of homeless people. Not all the set ups are winners but points for mixing it up as much as possible.

The devs really gave a shit about this game (unlike some other recent remasters) The graphics borderline on fantastic a lot of the time and you really get the sense that this was a labor of love. This is how remakes should be done.



Should you play it?

That depends on what you want: If gameplay is front and center for you and you prefer to skip all the cutscenes (which you can do in this game) I would say 'no' then. The gameplay is just too old school to keep you locked in from the beginning to the end.

If good story with excellent voice acting can drive you through some of the jank and old game design then this is absolutely a 'yes'.
 
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R6Rider

Gold Member
Having not played the original, really enjoying 2, and skipping 3.... I really liked it. Got it at launch and would recommend especially at cheaper prices. Finding the hidden cars and secrets was really fun.
 
Having not played the original, really enjoying 2, and skipping 3.... I really liked it. Got it at launch and would recommend especially at cheaper prices. Finding the hidden cars and secrets was really fun.

Im a bit confused on how the rest of the trilogy stacks up. Isnt 2 just an HD remaster? Or did it get the entire "Definitive Edition" remake treatment like the original?
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Im a bit confused on how the rest of the trilogy stacks up. Isnt 2 just an HD remaster? Or did it get the entire "Definitive Edition" remake treatment like the original?
It's the former. I haven't played 2's Definitive Edition myself, but know for sure it's not a huge difference compared to the first.
 

Aesius

Member
I'm playing this now. LOVED the original and Mafia 2.

Not a huge fan of the changes they made to Tommy's character. He fits the mobster lifestyle way too well IMO. In the original, his character was more "bumbling" and reluctant to get involved. Here, it's like he's more of a mobster than Sam and Paulie right off the bat.

The graphics are insane on PC, though. It's seriously one of the best looking games to date.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Devs gave a shit about this game, because it's sort of national treasure for us Czech's. Sadly this game ate the resources enough so Mafia 2 was pretty subpar "remaster" (ie config change). I really liked that, but it wasn't like when I was in basic school (6-15 yo) and having just purchased my first game and playing it for like a half a year.
 
Not a huge fan of the changes they made to Tommy's character. He fits the mobster lifestyle way too well IMO. In the original, his character was more "bumbling" and reluctant to get involved. Here, it's like he's more of a mobster than Sam and Paulie right off the bat.

I never played the original and I noticed this too. He goes very quickly from cabbie who want to beat some guys up for messing up his car to being a straight up cold blooded enforcer in no time flat and the game doesn't really address this.
 

stn

Member
It was quite solid but also very shallow. For example, it features an open world but there is absolutely no reason to ever explore between missions. I enjoyed it overall because the gameplay was solid enough and the story was good. Overall I'd score it a 7/10.
 

Aesius

Member
It was quite solid but also very shallow. For example, it features an open world but there is absolutely no reason to ever explore between missions. I enjoyed it overall because the gameplay was solid enough and the story was good. Overall I'd score it a 7/10.
It seems like such a waste to craft a beautiful city and then only use it for driving to and from missions and occasionally running from police/baddies.
 
It was quite solid but also very shallow. For example, it features an open world but there is absolutely no reason to ever explore between missions. I enjoyed it overall because the gameplay was solid enough and the story was good. Overall I'd score it a 7/10.

I agree but I also respect that they didnt do the Ubisoft thing and just scatter a shit ton of meaningless garbage in the city as well. On one hand, you have to have the actual city to tell a story like this, but yeah, it plays much more like a linear game.
 

Aesius

Member
I agree but I also respect that they didnt do the Ubisoft thing and just scatter a shit ton of meaningless garbage in the city as well. On one hand, you have to have the actual city to tell a story like this, but yeah, it plays much more like a linear game.
It's a tough balance. I like RDR2's take where there are only a few side missions available at any given time and some occasional random events you can trigger. It makes the world feel more alive without making you feel like you're doing chores when you play the game.
 
I too downloaded from psnow, was a fun game , never played the original. I did feel like something was missing with he open world as there isn't anything other than the main missions.
 

Certinty

Member
I think they missed the trick not adding to the open world, some side missions and content here and there to make it worth exploring would have been a very nice inclusion.

Besides the gunplay the rest of the game was better than I expected though. Mind you, I think the story could have been reworked and expanded a lot more.
 

amigastar

Member
Having not played the original, really enjoying 2, and skipping 3.... I really liked it. Got it at launch and would recommend especially at cheaper prices. Finding the hidden cars and secrets was really fun.
3 would have been so good if it had proper missíons like GTA but instead it was repetitive as hell. Other than that it had potential.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Kinda liked the game back in it's day. Gameplay had a lot of jank but I liked how grounded the gunplay felt to me compared with other shooters. Can't wait to try out this remake.
 

BigLee74

Member
25 quid Xbox voucher from my boy for Xmas, so bought the Mafia Trilogy Definitive.

The 30fps sucks, but the first game looks great for a remaster. Enjoying the story and missions so far, but disappointing that it just takes you from one mission straight to the next.

So far so good.
 

T-Cake

Member
Get in! I just did the race level. And this is with streaming on PS Now I might add, which is incredibly janky for this game. It feels like wading through treacle with everything you do.
 
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