Mafia 3 - More RICO antics

Well this sucks. Mafia 3 is a very good game. :/

edit:

Wait. They sold over 5 million copies and 2K still cant figure out how to run this business?

I finished the game with all DLCs last year - it’s a really enjoyable open worlder, but they over-egged the collectibles, and the map painting was too much work. Surprised they didn’t do a GOTY re-release at Christmas.

I had my issues with the game, but it’s obvious the devs poured a lot of effort into the game. Shame this happened.

Currently playing it for the first time (without DLC) and having a blast. Bit repetitive but it’s definitely ticking the ‘Mafia’ buttons I remember from previous games. Such a shame but these types of games are so much work that companies demand they be an overwhelming hit.

5 million was shipped number, they afaik never announced actual sales. Could have been lot of those copies being returned. Steamspy has 660K for PC version, lot of that on sales.

Interesting. It did start to see sale pricing pretty quickly after release (not Agents of Mayhem quickly, but still pretty fast.)

It’s a good enough game though. Shame.

OK, after Witcher 3 then Dishonored and Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Kill the outsider or whatever it was called (full disclosure, I didn’t finish that last one, I was away from gaming for about 3 months and when I came back I just couldn’t get into it again, I think I was burned out on Dishonored by then and ready for something new) I purchased Mafia 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn. I decided to start with Mafia 3.

First impressions: love it. New Orleans is a favorite city of ours, so that helps. I love the flashback narratives to tell the story, great mood. Enjoying the characters. I just finished the clear the Haitians mission, don’t know when the full open world piece opens up.

Two concerns at this point. One, I forgot how much I hate not being able to save my game when I want. I’m just learning the game at this point, and I actually enjoy the combat, and having to scavenge in a big battle to find ammo and guns, but I got all the way to the end, when Ellis shows up, and got killed. So it started me ALL the way back to the beginning of the entire battle. Ugh. I finished it this second time, but ugh,

Second: I suck at driving in games like this and GTA. I am terrible at missions where I have to drive fast to escape someone or shoot or drop bombs or do ANYTHING while driving. When I escaped the Haitian compound I thought I was going to have to drop molotovs or something as I got away, based on the tutorial that popped up, but fortunately didn’t (may have been because I missed the road coming out and drove through the woods for a while, LOL!)

Hopefully I won’t have to quit because of some driving based mission.

Also - PS4, should I buy the DLC up front? Do they add to the main game, or are they purely addons you only play after finishing the main game?

IMHO I finished the game without the DLC and honestly am happy enough without. It’s a good game that dragged on long enough without extra DLC content. Plus one of the DLC’s I think is called Drive Faster or something and if you don’t like driving based missions that won’t appeal.

They are integrated into the game as missions, but none are essential.

Here’s my post about them upthread: Mafia 3 - More RICO antics - #282 by RickH

Well, it appears I got the season pass when I bought the game in the PS4 store.

Please tell me there are very few mandatory missions where I have to chase someone driving or escape someone driving or shoot someone while driving?

Oh, and when does the “open world” part of the game open up?

You can resolve the missions in many ways, some involve chasing people in cars but you can take them out beforehand and avoid it. But it might take a bit of replaying missions. A lot of the optional missions to collect dope/weapons/electronics etc. end up being car shooting/avoiding repetitive shite. Avoid those unless you’re a completitionist.

Open world bit opens up after you finish the Vault mission and everything that happens as a result (trying to avoid spoilers). While it’s open world, it still spoon feeds you what to do and is on rails from a progression perspective. The only major decisions are what order you do the districts and who to make responsible for each district.

The DLCs are some of the best stuff in the game though. Mainly precisely because they are the opposite of repetitive nature of the main game and are each unique, taking place in new locations with new stories.

I agree with that. If you were playing the game for the first time, having the DLCs would really help the experience, and offer a nice, structured alternative to the more free-form district sections. Plus, all the DLC packs are focused on things we associate with 1960s (the cold war, cults, etc), so they don’t feel out of place with the base game.

The next time I replay the game, I’m going to follow this story strategy guide, which should help cut down on the feeling of repetition.

Some of the early concepts Hangar 13 planned but had to cut, including having the levees break and flooding downtown, could have provided some really awesome moments.

That story strategy guide is recommended. I’d already loosely followed it by myself before I saw it for the first time. For the DLCs, they are designed to be handled within the main story, as they each end up in post-DLC activities in the main game - bounty hunting, a weed business, and restoring Sammy’s bar (which takes a lot of money, but is very cool). Each also has some post-DLC missions too, they are all quite substantial add-on packs. You’ll get access to them when the game fully opens up, which is later than some other games of this type - you have to recruit all three underbosses to your cause and have a cutscene meeting with them. At that point the game is open and you will be able to access the DLCs.

Also, don’t do what I did and religiously hoover up all the collectibles. It gets very tedious. Except the titty mags - definitely collect those. There are some fascinating articles. cough.

I can tell I’m going to have a love hate with this game.

Love: The story so far (just got to the scene where Donovan shows up by my bed,) the way it’s told, the characters, and oh wow the music. The music they were playing as Lincoln is waking up, they’re showing the looting and RFK’s assassination, etc. was perfect and epic.

Hate: Having to restart from the beginning when I die. When Lincoln was the diversion while the guys got to the getaway car, surrounded by police, there’s no way I could have gotten through that without multiple trial and error runs. Which is no fun, just frustrating.

Yeah, that sequence was the hardest part of the game, I found. It took me a few attempts. It’s a shame because it’s also one of the very few points that they do something special with the gameworld (Mardi Gras in this case).

@JeffL you got the church scene yet? that was so fucking impressive. its rare even for movies to manage such emotional impact.

With the scenes of RFK’s assassination, etc? Yeah, and the music was perfect.

I’m just now past talking to Cassandra and at this point I’m really loving the game, in spite of the checkpoint save method. I still am learning things since there’s no documentation, like what the little green circles with an up triangle mean, but it’s pulled me in.

OK, loving it more. Finished taking over the bordello and giving the biz to Cassandra, things are opening up, and having fun. I like that I was told I needed to sneak in and release the top escorts, but I chose to go in blasting those rednecks and wasn’t punished for doing it my way.

Ok - how do I get the ability to carry more than two guns?