The Salieri Crime Family has Never Looked Better.
The Mafia franchise has been around for the last few gaming generations, starting back in 2002 with the original game, 2010 for the sequel, and 2016 for third. For me personally I had only ever played Mafia 2. I absolutely loved in back when it first came out, so when I knew a third game was coming out, I was super excited. Sadly, the game didn’t hook me. Trying to make the more open world was definitely where they went wrong with it in my eyes, but perhaps enough time has passed that I should probably give it another go. This post isn’t about Mafia 3 though, it’s about the newly remastered version of the original Mafia game, and how that story was able to stand the test of time and really blew me away.
Mafia Definitive Edition is a full on remaster of the original game released on September 25th, 2020, and was developed by Hangar 13, the same devs from Mafia 3. When the screenshots for this game first released, people were blown away, myself included. Comparing it to the original game, it just looked incredibly. It genuinely looks like a modern game release.
After playing the game, I can still say that Hangar 13 did an exceptional job at remastering this game. I really had zero issues in the game. At most I would see cars in front of me disappear while driving. Outside of this, no game breaking glitches or anything that made me want to quit the game. Other than that racing level.
The infamous race level is back and it’s still not very easy. Driving in this game is not very fun, but forcing you to race other drivers and you have to take first was kind of a pain in the ass. I had to do the race 3 times, so ultimately I think I was pretty lucky. Seeing on social media people were having a pretty tough time with it, bringing back flashbacks from the original game. I understand why the cars don’t control great. It’s just how these type of cars were in the past, I would assume. If you want to make a game fun though, maybe not everything needs to be 100% authentic.
I think Mafia’s controls weren’t entirely the best. It took me a little bit to really get a hold of it, but it honestly felt pretty akin to Grand Theft Auto’s controls, which is widely called out for just being antiquated. Tommy almost feeling like he’s on ice if you turn him to quickly, or just the sprinting never felt great.
The world of Mafia is technically an open world game. You can drive wherever you want, walk the streets of Lost Heaven, and I suppose go GTA style and shoot people or whatever. Even though you can do these things, Mafia really, truly, is a third person linear action game. It’s actually something I really love about it. Having that feeling of an open world, where people are actually living in this city, but not having to run around looking for hundreds of collectibles is perfect for me. I think this is where Mafia 3, went wrong, but that’s for a whole other post.
The story is really what shines for Mafia. You play as Tommy Angelo, making his way from a poor taxi driver in the 1930’s, and moving his way up into the Salieri crime family. The twists and turns in this story is just fascinating. I really fell for every single character in this game, and really felt for them. It really, truly is a story that would translate well for a movie or even a tv series.
Mafia Definitive Edition does still have some antiquated controls, and the driving isn’t amazing, but the gun fights, the characters, and the overall story is something that I will think about for a long time. This game quickly jumped to my GOTY contender list for 2020 and I really think if you haven’t played the original, or even if you have, you should come back to it and experience an amazing remaster from Hangar 13.
The Tired Obsidian 
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