Mafia 3 has insane style with it's aesthetic and storytelling. Love the soundtrack, even the NPC's dialog is well written (caught a pair talking about 'In Cold Blood'). Sadly, I find the actual playing part lets it down. The gameplay is shallow and repetitive, which I hope isn't the case throughout. No big technical issues -aside from the car physics being broken in the best possible way.

@wheresderrick: That's a good point.

Anyone know if you can save cars in garages?

@thesecondagent: sounds like a Mafia game to me

@thesecondagent: so is it basically an open-ass-world videogame? Like here is the main narrative and here are 5 activities you need to do around the map several times?

@captain_insano: While the Mafia games have always focused heavily on story, wasn't Mafia 2 at least packed with more detail? It felt like it did something right. Truth be told, it's been a long time and my memory might just be failing me.

@humanity: Except it's not doing a good job of changing things up or giving the illusion there's more. Take Witcher 3, that could be boiled down to certain activities, but the world felt like stuff was happening around you.

I would compare Mafia 3 more to Assassin Creed 1.

This is how the game plays out:

Mission 1

1. Meet Associate (in that area)

2. Destroy building for associate

3. Kill Enforcer for associate

4. Kill District leader and give control to associate

Small Story Cutscene

Mission 2

1. Meet new associate

2. Destroy building for associate

3. Kill Enforcer for associate

4. Kill District leader and give control to associate

Small Story Cutscene

Mission 3

1. Repeat

2. Repeat

Playing Mafia 3 makes me feel like Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow.

@probablytuna said:

Wondering this myself. Where the hell did Lincoln's original car disappear to?

Played around 4 hours of it so far (on PC). Story and style seem very cool so far. The blend between its very serious tone and its videogame-y elements is kind of strange, but I enjoy it. This mix reminds me of Sleeping Dogs in a way. Freeing prostitutes from sex-slavery and then reading the item description of the molotov-cocktail (something like: "For when you need to burn every motherfucker in sight") is a weird contrast. The presentation of the main-story is great, though - I'm hooked.

Gameplay-wise it takes every open-world element you already know and does it well enough to be entertaining, without re-inventing the genre. Hell, it even takes some aspects of Shadow of Mordor with its brutal takedowns and easy stealth mechanics. Driving and shooting feels alright, too (Xbox One Controller). I feel like the game just started to open up for me, so I'm curious how the gameplay holds up. I have a suspicion that the gameplay-loop becomes repetitive but I can't tell for certain, yet. The whole mechanic of taking over buisnesses (similar to the Godfather game for Wii) and assigning underbosses to them in order to unlock perks and weapons seems to be THE thing that makes Mafia 3 unique. I can't say if that will be any meaningful in the long run, but it's interesting at least. Thinking about it, I actually wish they used the nemesis-system from Shadow of Mordor. I think it would mesh very well with the story of the game. Anyway.. the game seems totally alright so far.

Watching the GBeast playthrough and the presentation of this game is pretty amazing, and for the main character is actually kinda likable so far.

I never played mafia 2, but i do remember the major criticism being there was nothing to do in the main game. I do remember maybe something about dlc adding content but it being too late for most people.

@omgfather: I'm hoping Gorgi took it after the heist and when you take it back after killing him. It'll be a shame if that car just disappears after the opening.

@bluntmcgee: I've been waiting for a crime game to use a similar system to the Nemesis system. Idk why any haven't yet. It's funny to think back how the gang talked about the Nemesis system being the thing games would rip off the most in the proceeding years.

I'm curious if the repetition is a good thing though? I know that sounds dumb, but some open world games just get overwhelming and nonsensical with the amount of side activities. I always appreciate more game in my game, however if the side activities are just their to fill space, I'll take good gameplay and tons of empty space.

Well seeing as how they struggle to get this game to run at 60fps I doubt they have the tech or time to do something as complicated as the nemesis system.

There's actually a small story beat later on that explains what happened to it.

I have been wanting this too since before Mordor came out; the problem though is when you set it in the real world, a human is much more susceptible to guns or explosives than an orc is to being stabbed, so theoretically they would die 99% of the time so you wouldn't have any real nemesis.

I think to do a nemesis system right with a mobster like game would be to have it set either as a sci fi game like the original Prey 2 design, or make it part fantasy, 1930's era mobsters mixed with vampires and werewolves.

It would be great if you kept hitting all the clubs Fat Tony is in, and when he finally catches up to you he's this scarred burnt up man who transforms into this disfigured werewolf to fight you.

@thesecondagent: that seems a lot more formulaic than I expected.

The open world complain was always really weird to me in Mafia 2 because it wasn't trying to be that game. They put you in that open world to build atmosphere and bring forth the illusion of being a guy in that era. It was never about doing boring side activities in an open world. You were supposed to just drink it in and look at the fun detail and well crafted world design. The actual game played out mission to mission and they all took place in that wonderful world. There was never a need for side activities. I'm not sure how adding side stuff would have benefited that specific game in the slightest when it was all about progressing the main narrative.

A real complaint to be had is that the main narrative wasn't all that good.

I think the way you'd have to do it is keep the "bosses" out of sight and focus in on their territories and operations. Sort of similar to a star rating system in GTA, early on you could wander into an area and maybe just catch a side eye from the corner boys, but over time you're basically not allowed in that area and the boss is sending guys out to put a hit on you when you least expect it like when you come out of a safe house. Then some kind of Civ mechanic where you can take territories from your rivals and decide whether to torch them or build them back up in your image.

I'm of the opinion that the coolest thing about the Nemesis system was the contextual dialogue from enemies, and I think that'd actually be the most work intensive part, especially if I'm right that the 'simplest' way to implement the system would be through henchmen. That's a lot of NPCs to generate procedural dialogue for.

It does seem like a more complicated problem than perhaps the concept sounds at face value, but I think there are some clear ways around it that would just have to be logic'd out on a white board.

60 fps is being patched it... and the nemesis system will be included with that patch!

Just kidding! Weird comparison though. Some of the most complicated games in the world (simulation, strategy) don't run at 60 fps. One has nothing to do with the other so far as I know.

@bluntmcgee: agree with you; personally would love to hear from the original team if the Nemesis system is harder to put together than it seems. I think it was fair to assume, like the gb gang did, that it would take off but clearly it never did. I guess I still feel it will come back one day.. Has the SoM team made a game since then?

@humanity: Well all the GTA games and clones are like that, the way the add side content is to add side stories usually that don't have much to do with the main narrative. Again i never played mafia 2, but it would probably benefit it(or detract from it) in the same way it does the rest of those types of games. I always feel open world detracts from the main story in games honestly, if it's linear just make it linear IMO.

@geraltitude Frame rate optimization would encompass everything, including even logic based processor intensive stuff like a nemesis system. Strategy games and the like probably don't focus as much hardware power on the graphics etc like these type of games do, and the focus for non action games would be less on framerate since there isn't much fast movement. My point is not really a comparison but the fact they probably don't have the time, money, technical expertise and/or willingness to put in the effort for that level of programing at least for this type of game. Maybe more games will stop focusing so much on graphics other effects and put the effort into the AI one day.

And needing a patch for 60fps is crazy honestly, so many things can be tied to framerate depending on how they did the programing for example dark souls and arkham knight on pc. Unlocking the frame rate on either caused glitches, arkham was eventually patched but it took about 6 to 8 months. It could be just a simple issue they can hotfix, but judging from past games it could probably cause even more issues

The setting and aesthetic of this game is fantastic! They definitely nailed that aspect of the game, and the shotgun in this game *really* has some omph to it. Fucks people up for sure O.o also the soundtrack is also really great! Driving away from the cops while born on the bayou blasts on the radio is pretty cool ^_^ also it has 4 sam cooke songs! :D

@humanity: Maybe they should've added a couple of good side-quests to give the world that feel. Having re-played that game a couple of weeks ago, the worst part is easily driving a couple of minutes through that lifeless world to reach missions. Besides it's not like that game doesn't have it's share of pointless open-world side-activities.

@nodima:Yeah, integrating the Nemesis system surely isn't easy. Just all the different (situational) voice acting alone is not to be underestimated. It's just that while playing Mafia 3 there are a couple of mechanics that already remind me so much of Shadow of Mordor: You sneak into enemy hideouts, you interrogate sentries to find out about their boss (then you kill them or let them live) and eventually you'll fill the ranks with your own underbosses. Even little things like enemies running to a payphone to call reinforcements when they spot you sneaking into their territory is SoM- or Assassins Creed-like.

I think the strength of the Nemesis system was making the usual "filler" gameplay loop more interesting by assigning names and characteristics (and by that to an extent also lore) to seemingly random NPCs. Mafia 3 feels like the devs had the Nemesis system in mind while making the game, they just chose to focus on the larger story and the bosses instead of the random NPCs. And that's totally understandable and probably for the better. @thesecondagent described the loop I suspected after playing Mafia for 4 hours. If you look at his post and imagine that in step 2 + 3 there was one or two smaller (named) boss(es) with a generic backstory or character traits ("afraid of fire", "bad at fistfights", "perfect aim", "immune to takedowns" for example) it would add so much flavor to a already very stylistic game. Furthermore it would spice up the gameplay loop because you are incentivised to change playstyle to match their weaknesses. Doing that you wouldn't need the full Nemesis system as it was in SoM.

That being said, I'm sure it's not as simple as I imagine. There are tons of factors involed when adding a feature like that, I am sure. I'll keep playing Mafia as I'm still enjoying it quite a bit and I am curious to see the main story to its conclusion.

What? It's not about being 'pc people' so trying to turn that into some pathetic us v them shit is dumb, but yes, low framerate (especially when you're not used to it) can very much give someone a headache. Just like low FOV can make people motion sick (me included).

That's how I felt about Mafia II. The storytelling itself was solid but the plot and characters didn't do much for me. I appreciated the world and gameplay was solid. I enjoyed II but they needed to improve the writing to me.

I'm not turning it into anything, a PC review on steam literally said, 30fps gives him a migraine. It's amazing how 30fps and low FOV only seem to affect people that play on PC....weird. Im sure these people have never watched 24fps movies and TV shows eithier, so maybe their eyes arent used to low frames right?. PS. I play on PC, but im not as overly fanboyish. Thought you should know before you try that reply again.

That the thing that shoudl they have added more? Or, shoudl they have maybe compromised and made it less open world, but made the whole world more denses with just they stuff they wanted to show and have you do?

This is just my opinion: The one thing Triple-A effort studios are making right now is not making tighter, denser, and richer games. Taking all the effort of a Mafia 3 production, but making a much tighter game. A game so rich that it feels very different from the less dense, simpler indie games or the spread out and weak open-world games.

I am not fucking desensitized enough to play this game for considerable lengths. The sheer brutality of it actually gets to me. Something about leaving people bleeding on the side-walk, listening to 'em weep and cry for their loved ones, and stringing 'em up on ferris-wheels and what not, that feel a little bit too close to reality for me to just shrug off. Not a complaint by any length. Game actually managing to elicit a response from me just through it's game-play is impressive in it's own right. That said, game of this size pulling that trick, it'll be a while before I make my way through it.

I'm kinda' loving everything the game is doing up until this point. Open world systems seem different from what I've seen before, and I'm far from any kind of confident as to where it's going to go.

On another note, ya'll estimating the routine the game is going to settle into after doing a few missions, come on. I'm a jaded son of a bitch, but you're really outclassing me on that front.

People on the steam forums think it should be taken off steam like Arkham Knight. It's not really that bad, is it? I saw comparison screenshots to Mafia 2 and I really do not think 2 looks better than 3 but people are using that to say the game is awful.

@alistercat: People are saying that while complaining about there not being any options to unlock frame-rate. Game runs very well, and is all kinds of pretty. There's a patch coming this weekend that'll unlock the frame-rate. Folks on the steam forums are being hyperbolic jackasses, go figure.

There are literally thousands of negative reviews that only complain about that one thing.

Rented it this morning, the first two hours that was shown in the GB stream are very solid, and then you're introduced to what the game actually is... which seems to be very repetitive. Reminds me a lot of Assassin's Creed 1 in some ways.

The first main kill is in an amusement park which has one of those story rides where you're driving along a track with a bunch of art on the walls that's super racist. Just one of those things that you have to roll your eyes on, the game tries its best to beat you over the head with it. The funny part is thinking about all of the cronies that are just patrolling this ride with repeating audio over and over again.

Anyways, the game seems ok but the great first impression doesn't last long.

I like the game. I started out loving it, but I really wish they hadn't listened to people like the Giant Bomb crew and their complaints that Mafia 2 wasn't GTA. The Mafia games were always linear storytelling games, that is what made them good. Yes, you drove between missions, but that was basically it. For me that was just fun, not unnecessary or something that could be replaced by a loading screen. It was part of the series.

This game though. They listened. This is an open world god damned video game. It reminds me of Assassin's Creed in a way, with the territory control. It's just not very fun unfortunately. Taking over territory is repetitive and boring and the side quests you get afterwards are all variations of "Go here, steal car/truck/boat, drive to waypoint". Not very engaging and since the game world is HUGE it often takes quite a while. I just wanted more Mafia 2 with a new story and new characters.

Damn man. I am disappointed. I will try to persevere because I really want to see the story develop, but this is not what I wanted from a Mafia game.

That said, I am playing on PC and have had zero technical issues since updating my video drivers. I also don't care about being limited to 30fps in the least, nor the FoV.

The open world in Mafia 1 and (especially) Mafia 2 existed almost exclusively to ground the story and give context. I thought the pros of this approach definitely outweighed the cons in both instances. Games should be able to use an open world setting without being obliged to be sandbox games.

Or you know, it's cause when you play on PC you sit about 50cm away from your monitor, not 3+ metres. It's not some weird conspiracy dude, low fov literally gives people (lots of people) motion sickness. And lol sure you can say you're not overly fanboyish, but you're also completely ignorant of things you don't believe to be an issue. It's not like epilepsy isn't a real thing that affects real people either is it?

Come on now, don't be so completely reductive of things because they don't affect you. Not a good way to view life.

@alistercat: You can find video of the game being a total janky mess on PC for some people.

@monkeyking1969: I agree that there is something to be said for a triple A produced, tightly knit 7-8 hour single player campaign. Something like a Dead Space or Gears of War. Solid action with cinematic set pieces sprinkled throughout. Plenty of modern games are trying to set records for game time by padding out their titles with increasingly watered down side junk. When it's done in favor of unlocking outfits or skills then it's not too bad but when they're just there as a gating device so you don't blow through the main narrative too fast that's not too great.

I like the game. It has some cool characters in it and some neat story bits. I don't find the gameplay to be compelling enough to be a lengthy open-world game though. The repetitive nature of the missions is a real shame. I want to see what happens next, but first I have to drive here, kill goons, drive here and press a button, etc. It would be fine if you didnt have to do it so much...

I was so excited for this game and went in entirely blind. I'm sad to say that I'm feeling very disappointed about seven hours in. The game is gorgeous generally and beautifully animated, but it is also incredibly janky, at least for me. The animations, whilst fantastic, are often buggy. The 30 FPS lock, whilst it is being fixed, is incredibly jarring and has made the experience pretty poor for me thus far. The story starts off incredibly strong, but it quickly hits a deep ravine in which the player spends a good chunk of time doing essentially the same mission over and over.

The lack of customization and rationalization is a killer too. Mafia 2 was amazing because it allowed for so much customization of character and vehicles whilst sticking to the theme. Nothing in Mafia III thusfar feels like your own. I don't have my house to go back to to replenish health and change clothes, I don't have a car that feels like it belongs to me. I've stolen more cars in seven hours with this game than I have in about fifty hours of Mafia II. This may be small fries for some people, but I really enjoyed the clothing and vehicle options that Mafia II offered and I am sorely missing them.

The moment to moment action is pretty decent, but gets a bit stilted after the first few hours. Enemies are not very challenging and it is incredibly easy to sneak and stealth your way through the majority of the early game. I'm feeling very meh at the moment. This is a game with incredible potential, but it feels like something is missing and in my opinion, it was pushed out the door a bit early. I'm not sure if I am going to push through and finish the game. I hope everyone else is enjoying their time with it.

@alexw00d: Wut?

I have six hours in the game so far and I'm really enjoying it. The facial animation and voice acting is incredible, which really brings the characters to life. I think it plays pretty well too. When played carefully, it can feel easy, but in my head canon, Lincoln is just pure bad ass, so of course he would just mow everyone down.

As for the 30 fps thing, it was jarring when I first started the game, but I stopped noticing it after like 10 minutes. Would 60 be better? Yeah, but it's not absolutely necessary, and anyway, the devs said they'll put that in. So that's cool. One look at the Steam forums though, and there's a lot of people that definitely aren't being cool. It's a shame to see this kind of extreme backlash, especially when the game seems pretty great.

I'll get it when the fashion update comes out.

I'm really really enjoying this game so far. I really enjoy completing tasks to gain control of rackets, it has a nice solid feel of progression that sets its gameplay apart from say, a Ubisoft open world game. Plus, it's by far the front runner for Best Style. The documentary conceit is so much fun and I think the general atmosphere is rad as all hell.

The framerate patch is out, and you access it in game in the display menu. Nothing in the launcher. On a 1070, i7 2600K @4.2Ghz I can only really get between 48 and 55 fps but I'm at 1440p which may have something to do with it. On low I can just about scrape 60.

Although I'm mostly enjoying it, I think it might have been a better choice to ditch the open world. The best parts of the game are the modern day interludes, since those include good writing, good voice acting, and great facial animations. In the first few hours, those really managed to get me invested in the world and the characters, and I thought the pacing was really good. You went on a mission, and then got another cut scene as a "reward."

Since the game opened up, it's been less rewarding. Bumming around a mostly disinteresting and generic open world isn't that fun, and you aren't getting story quickly enough to make up for mostly rote gameplay. I just don't think the open world really adds anything beyond "x number of hours of content." The pacing would be better if you just went straight from mission to mission.

@oursin_360: I didn't mean this game specifically. But I feel like putting something similar to it in a more modern context could be easier. Have the board like SoM, but don't have the gang leaders roaming around capable of running into each other. Have them all at their own turf. Then if you get one to attack the other have it off camera. Or if you want the player character to be a part of it have your limit of characters on screen in mind then assign those characters to the two factions and have whichever is stronger, do to in game circumstances, they get more npcs on screen. I'm sure it's not that easy at all, but I would be interested in seeing it attempted.

Also SoM has a much less dense and detailed environment compared to Mafia 3 so I'm not going to be so stringent in a comparison of the two.

I'm starting to see reports of people getting past the tutorial (the first few hours) and realizing that the structure of the game starts to take a dive, with repetitive side missions required to advance the main story. For people who've hit that point, can you tell me if the game keeps up after the amazing opening?

I'm trying to decide if the start is indicative of the whole game, or if I'm just going to be disappointed and unable to return it once the good shit runs out. I'd rather have a 15 hour narrative like what Vinny and Alex showed off, versus a 30 hours open world game that has a bunch of filler in it.

@mirado: This is the same boat I'm in, and not yet knowing is all that is holding me back. If it does take a dive, I'll just hold out and pick up Rise of the Tomb Raider on Tuesday instead.

At the same time, I also feel like Mafia III is one of those games that will be on sale for $20-$30 come xmas time.

@mirado: The opening is a really tight and concise, basically linear chunk with lots and lots of cutscenes. After the stream that GBEast did, its maybe an hour or two after that the game opens up to the point that it throws like 6-8 (dont remember exact number) of different main 'mission trees' so to speak, and when you start one, it opens up a bunch of side activities; once you complete enough of these side activities (you aren't required to do every single one, just about 3/4 of them, but doing them all will get you a few more items), a takeover mission unlocks. When you complete two of these takeover missions within the same area of the map, an additional mission unlocks that lets you further takeover that section. A cutscene related to the main story will play when you complete any of the takeover missions, but because it can take a while to complete these, the story beats are spread out a lot more than they were in the intro bit.

There's several things about this I'd like to address. Me personally, I haven't found the game too repetitive, at least not to the point it ruined the game for me, but I do understand why others would think so. I find the combat enjoyable for one so when I am asked to go do it hell yeah I want to do it. A second thing is that while side activities do repeat, there is still some variety between them, and I found them more enjoyable than all the side stuff in something like Assassin's Creed or Mad Max. They can be as quick as you run in somewhere and immediately run back out within seconds, or it could escalate into a 10-15 minute long task, it depends on how it all goes.

It should also be noted that while the cutscenes are much more spread out in the main game, they can still get you seriously fucking pumped up when they are on and some of those main missions are fucking great; the game never stops having stylish presentation or great character/story development. These are some really believable characters and it seems like the game is going to lead you into some hard decisions but I can't say for sure yet because I'm not at that point.

The story is a Mafia game story through and through, it does more than try to address the racism/prejudices that Lincoln is facing, you will care about all these characters for many different reasons. Plus, one of the main rival characters sounds exactly like Foghorn Leghorn!

@wheresderrick: Thanks for your impressions! The characters are what made me interested in the whole thing; I was pretty impressed by the voice acting and motion capture during the GBeast stream.