Hangar 13 brings us the next installment of the Mafia franchise with Mafia 3: does this third installment become the Don, or does it get buried with the fishes?
Mafia 3 takes place in 1968 in the southern United States city of New Bordeaux, a re-creation of New Orleans. You play as Lincoln Clay, a bi-racial Vietnam veteran and orphan who never felt like he belonged anywhere. Returning from the war you fall back in with the only family you’ve ever known (the black mob), and find out that your family is in debt to the Italian mob and it has to be repaid. When you pull off a job with the Italians to repay the debt they betray you and leave you for dead. Clay sets out on a revenge mission to take down Sal Marcano, his family, and his empire.
Mafia 3 is an open world third-person shooter that does some things well and others not so much. In Mafia 3 you will recruit three different capos: Cassandra, the leader of the Haitian gang, Vito Scaletta, an exiled member of the Italian Mafia from empire bay, and Burke, leader of the Irish mob who also lost his son because of the Marcanos.
There are a total of ten districts to control and each district has a certain crime syndicate that you must take over; you can destroy their supplies, interrogate the informants, or kill the leaders and enforcers. By the 5th district it becomes a bit tedious as you do the same thing over and over again, and going the extra mile more than you need to just to get more money. Taking over rackets allows you to assign one of your capos to run the racket and will allow a bigger kickback to you. Once an entire district is taken over and the boss is killed, you then have a sit down with your capos and assign one of them to the district which will unlock a new perk for you.
The driving in this game feels smooth, with the muscle cars pulling tight corners with a nice drift. Unfortunately, the cars in the game are not licensed.
Mafia 3 is good, but does not keep you interested for more than 20 hours. The soundtrack is fantastic, filled with classic rock and roll, jazz and country from the 50’s and 60’s. The unfortunate thing about the game is that it becomes very repetitive with each district, the collectibles are a bit tedious, and the world that was so alive during the time of the 60’s seems a bit dull. However, you can’t help but continue to see how the story unfolds as you attempt to collect as much money as possible.
Pros: story, time period, character development, writing, soundtrack
Cons: glitches, mechanics, repetitive, lifeless environment and collectibles.
Mafia 3: 8/10
Reviewed by ICE at Gamers of the Round Table
To rent or purchase Mafia 3 go to Gameaccess.ca Canadas number one video game rental service
