Mafia 3 - More RICO antics

My enthusiasm is cooling a bit now that I’m out of the more linear, narrative-driven beginning and the game has become more of a standard open world game. I’m still having fun, even if it’s looking like it’ll be my least favorite in the series.

I am diggin it. Although I prefer the open world low level gang war stuff to the scripted story big moment missions.

Also the character faces look really nice on my machine.

Uh - is the review on RPS valid? If so, this is very disappointing; the way he describes the game, it is an unfinished, unpolished, malfunctioning, boring POS.

It is valid. At least I cannot refute any of the bugs / issues he brings up. They are there for sure. But I am still enjoying it a lot. I like the vibe of the game, I like the difficulty and the gunplay, I really like the extra gang layers that open up, I am hoping there is even more.

Fair warning on my opinion though, I still enjoy playing NMS, so clearly I am a bit contrarian with this years releases.

I suppose it’s valid expression of Walker’s perspective, but then he refers to Mafia 2 as “deeply unpleasant, woefully dull,” a claim that I don’t agree with at all. He’s also using Saints Row 3 as an example of bad game design. It’s completely unsurprising to me that someone who hated the previous game hates this one, too. M3 uses a lot of the same mix of storytelling, world-traversal, and set piece gunplay that M2 used (and which I enjoyed).

I thought some of his claims are not fully justified. He states that the “ridiculous magic whistle” (a device used in AC4 as well, and missed in Unity) will only draw one NPC to investigate, and that was not my experience at all. It’s entirely possible to be sloppy and bite off more than you can chew. He gripes about the car handling, but doesn’t state whether he tried the alternate driving model, which I found worked better for me, fixing the sliding on turns that I was having.

Car chases are not ended by “one tap of another car,” the crash model rarely brings the car to a full stop or ends the chase. I also don’t agree with Walker’s “absolutely guarantee that every run will be affected at least once by an AI driver making an absolutely absurd decision, randomly swerving in front of you, suddenly adopted a serpentine driving pattern, or pulling out of a junction into busy traffic.” It’s been no different from other games in my experience (and better than M2 was), and perhaps a little easier to avoid collisions than in GTA 4 or 5.

The combat is cover-oriented, and the non-cop enemies will try to flush you out with molotovs (there’s an achievement for shooting guys about to throw them and getting them to kill themselves with fire), contrary to Walker’s claim that “shoot-outs are far, far easier to pull off, for no consequence” and that molotovs are useless (try drawing a crowd with the voodoo noisemaker and throwing from an elevated position – DAMN effective). You can and will pay quickly for bad judgment, or trying to stand still and shoot it out.

Walker claims there are no “neat tricks in the world to get away” from police chases, but I found them very persistent unless I did something bold like driving off an overpass to strand them on the highway, or ditching the car in a canal and swimming to a tunnel. I absolutely don’t agree that it’s “usually as easy as doing a U-turn and speeding off.”

He also complains about restaurants and stores being buildings that can be entered but not places where the character can buy things. However, these are frequently used for encounters and places where the player can pick up a health pack or body armor (I’ve raided one particular thrift shop several times for a quick armor-up). Walker can clearly think of stuff he would have liked to have been included, but what does it have to do with the game as designed? They made a choice to make weapon purchases, health packs, and upgrades go a certain way in the game, and it works fine.

As far as bugginess, yeah there is some. I’m playing on XB1 and have had 3 game-freezing crashes so far. But M3 is far from the first game that has crashed on XB1, including Doom, AC Unity, and others. Given the complexity of the world and the systems in modern, open-world games, I figure glitches are inevitable.

From reading the interim review, it seems to me that Walker set out to hate the game and talk about himself a bunch, and absolutely nailed it. The article says much more about Walker than it does about M3 and where it falls in the open-world genre.

From Austin Walker’s Vice podcast: Conversation starts at the 24:30 mark. The world building is something else.

[QUOTE]"I’m probably 15 or so hours into Mafia 3, maybe a little more than that, but I think they’re hitting it. I think there are some problems with that game. It’s probably bulkier than it should be. It could probably have half the missions and be a better game. The problem is that a lot of those are necessary things to do to advance the plot, and the plot bits are all really good so far. The characterization so far is fantastic. I think the character designs are all really good, and there’s a really cool mix of characters across a racial spectrum and across a sexuality spectrum. There’s a character dealing with who is clearly dealing with issues of sexuality but doesn’t feel comfortable talking about it yet.

In terms of the issues of blackness, it’s… I’ve never played a game that tries to tackle the notion of visibility of being black in America. Specifically, you know how in stealth games there’s a meter that’s all “hey, you’re being watched right now,” it’s around the periphery of your character and it fills in. It has that for police. And not like you’re going to get arrested if it fills, just you’re being watched right now. Heads up, the things you normally do, like if you have an accident they’ll come and arrest you. In the game, you turn the corner and the meter appears on screen, and you’re being watched are there, my body tenses up in a way that’s very similar to when I see real police.

It’s definitely a game of steps. I’m not saying they’ve revolutionized this, but hearing them talk openly about blackness and about race in general and identity in general in ways that are actually lifted from real life, and not through the filter of dwarfs or cyborgs is really refreshing.

There’s a b-plot in which a white World War II vet kills two black Korean war vets who came to his house to ask for help because their car broke down, which is like a very clear reference to things which have happened in recent memory. It quickly becomes his defence. It all plays out over radio interviews and news updates. There’s interviews with lawyers and civil rights leaders about his case, and his lawyer constructs the defence that because there is this guy, this black dude, running around New Bordeaux killing people all the time, he was afraid for his life. Your specific actions helped create the environment of violence. They also give a voice to the community who are like, “yeah, of course we’re running around… do you see what the conditions are now? We’ve tried non-violent protest.” The message is not like, don’t be violent, it’s we’ve a boiling point, and there’s conversation around this thing. Using the radio to deliver something more than comedy bits or traditional story stuff."[/QUOTE]

I’m about 14 hours in, and I’ve got the team together. I love New Bordeaux and Lincoln. They make quite the pair. The main missions have been fantastic, and the combat and story is great. The A.I.'s been fine for me. I’m really enjoying the game, but it feels like it could’ve used a bit more time in the oven. Hopefully 2k and Hangar 13 stay committed to adding features, because the main pillars are already great (so far, best setting and story of the series), it could just use more polish.

Unfortunately, I’ve encountered some pretty nasty bugs. The lighting especially seems to be borked. It looks great during night, but the day-time is really inconsistent. There was one cutscene before you take Burke on an aggressive car ride, where the characters looked like Silver Surfer in a white Kubrick set.

When taking over Pointe Verdun I ended up attacking the meat processing plant back-to-back with essentially the same objectives which lessened its impact. I, personally, think 10-15 hours for an open-world game would be fine. More people would like the game if one Racket in each Hideout group was more difficult but had all the “Damage” you needed to move to the next stage. Players that wanted to enjoy more of the District can do the smaller ones.

So it’d be something like…

** Dossier District unlock

** Contact for 1st Hideout racket
** go do 1 big racket or lots of little rackets
** Attack 1st Hideout Boss

** Contact for 2nd Hideout racket
** go do 1 big racket or lots of little rackets
** Attack 2nd Hideout Boss

** Attack District Boss – STORY MISSION

For the smaller quests, it would probably work better if: you meet-face-to-face the first time, then they contact you on the radio from there on out. When you’ve done enough to meet the base-level damage, you either radio in to activate the bigger or mission, or continue to take down the remaining objectives.

I think not using the speed cap/traffic laws is a missed opportunity, as it could really reinforce the games themes. Police could be negligent or indifferent to how you drive in the poorer parts of town, but on your ass in the rich areas, pulling you over for minor traffic violations. It could complicate the tailing missions and bootlegging runs in a really fun emergent way. The tailing missions already show that the game can tell when you’re running a red light or attracting honking. Some radio chatter from the lieutenants would be nice, too, like when your driving around.

I also wish there were universal rules for say door openings and climbing, or especially when I’m swimming, I wish I could just climb up the bank instead of finding a ladder. I tried to move a truck so I could sneak over a high fence, but Lincoln would climb on the roof of the cab, and I keep forgetting that you can only kick open locked doors, so I frequently end up ineffectively swiping at the door at times. I also wish I could cancel actions, like when I enter a car, but a pedestrian starts running towards a phone booth, it would feel so much better if I could cancel the animation.

One thing that would be nice would be to customize the UI and disable the tutorial pop-ups. I kind of don’t understand the rear-view mirror - I thought it was going to highlight cool things behind you, but it kind of just functions as a low-poly version of my shift key. The road signs are a really clever detail. Love them! It would be cool to be able to cycle through your available missions without having to enter the menu.

I also wish with the Nicki and the others contraband missions, I wish they weren’t placed at the top of the stairs of their various hide outs. The first time is fine because you’re rewarded with a terrific cutscene, but afterwards it feels a little out of the way to reach them.

Maybe it’s because they could be caught in a dynamic firefight? That happened to me last night, and it was awesome. I was returning a flatbed truck to Vito’s and a hit crew jumped me just as I was about to enter the hide out. All the friendly AI immediately came to my defense which was awesome.

Here’s a weird bit of info.

I just played through Mafia II. While I was playing through that game, I was collecting the Playboy magazines for, uh, historical research, hur hur. Anyway, there were a few that piqued my interest (no, not like that) because they looked like they were completely not from the right time period. The centerfold’s hair, or what little clothing they had, or the backgrounds just didn’t look right for the 1950’s. But hey, what do I know, right? Cheesecake is cheesecake.

I’m playing through Mafia III now, and I’ve hit a couple of Playboy collectibles that I thought I recognized as the same ones that were in the previous game. WTF? So now, my nerd side is activated. I compared screenshots. Yup. They’re the same centerfolds. Yeah, they’re all from the 1960’s.

Assuming the dates on the covers in Mafia III are accurate, why were these even in Mafia II? Why didn’t they use ones from the earliest days of the magazine in 1953?

For that matter, why not use Jet magazine in Mafia III?

I realised what was bothering me. The world beyond a fairly close radius of the player is static. If you look in the distance, for example across the river from Vito’s (sorry, Benny’s) restaurant, there’s no movement or traffic of any kind, which is unusual for a game like this. Most GTA-alikes will render some distant traffic to give the illusion of life to the city.

Oh, I noticed the anachronisms in M2’s centerfolds right away. But then, M2 was set in the 40’s and early 50’s when Playboy didn’t exist until December '53. Still, nice to have a reminder that class and nudity can co-exist. Unlike the crass and silicone-heavy '90s on forward.

Lincoln Clay bears a strong enough resemblance to Russell Wilson that I half expect him to end his lines with “Go Hawks.”

Lol they’re still doing that centrefold thing? Games for the lads.

Just beat it. While I love Mafia 1 despite its reliance on tired tropes and mob story cliches, I have to give Mafia 3 the edge as my favorite in the series. The antagonists were fantastic, as were the supporting characters and protagonist, and I really appreciated the novel narrative presentation framing device. The only thing I miss were the quieter moments from Mafia 1, like when you walk your future wife home, and the build up to how you’re drawn into a life of crime.

It’s a shame it shipped with more technical issues than most open-world games, and it’s a pity that you can’t customize the experience (eg: disable the UI or stop tutorial pop-ups). Hopefully these issues will be addressed in the near future. The worst part of the game is having to repeat missions to progress the story which can at times disrupt the momentum. Playing through a brewery or luxury bath house map loses its impact the second time round, especially when the objectives remain nearly identical. The side missions are often uninspired (ala Mafia 2 - a drive truck from this side of the map to the other), and player communication could be better: there are confusing objective markers that remain active even when it’s not possible for the player to complete them.

Even with these flaws, it’s a much better game than Mafia 2, a sequel which benefited from an 8 year development cycle and having Rockstar coming in and rescuing their game. The driving mechanics, the setting and world building, story, soundtrack (both original and licensed) and the gunplay are far and away the best in the series. Even with the filler content I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. It has the two best scripted missions in the series (one that really makes me want to see Hangar 13 tackle a Bioshock game). For me, it plays like a 3rd person Far Cry 2, which is a great thing. :)

Finished. Glad I played it. Nine crashes, a number of bugs. Maybe it should have had a few more months for polishing.

What they did right:

  • The storytelling. From beginning to end, an excellent crime story with vivid and entertaining characters that provoked all kinds of emotional reactions. Great voice acting, impressive character rendering. I don’t recall ever seeing that much attention paid to characters’ complexion.
  • The atmosphere. A genuine sense of place and time.
  • The soundtrack. Well chosen, gave me chills a couple of times. Give me a choice and I’d pick Stones over Beatles as well.
  • The action. Good weapons, solid gunplay, good cover system. A high number of memorable setpiece fights.

What they did poorly:

  • Seriously dumb AI
  • Too much repetition and grinding to get to the setpiece fights. Shortening the game by 5-10 hours would not have bothered me in the least. Repeating the same missions for all rackets depending on who controlled them didn’t make much sense. How exactly does pot help you in construction?
  • The bosses below your underbosses had some interesting interactions with Lincoln that ended abruptly, would have liked to have seen more about them.
  • The graphics engine did some weird filtering thing with mid-distance light, made it look glitchy.
  • Unlcear when the optional missions were unlocked, when they would be unlocked, or became useless. Unclear what benefit resulted from the racket-building missions (max it out and do their quest chain to make your underbosses loyal).
  • Requiring more than 1 playthrough to get all of the achievements. Once through was plenty.

Looking forward to the DLC.

Still havent finished it but I am close (final area). I am still really enjoying it. Agree with all your points except I LOVE the size of this game, its packed to the gills with content and so far none of it has dragged (although some of the sequences make me wince due to content).

I am now in that final cruise down to the end of the game and am deliberately slowing down to savour all the activities. So much fun.

I love how utterly repellent most of the characters (incuding your allies) are in the game. Somehow the fact they are scumbags makes the storyline flow.

Also the priest has some damn fine and very culturally relevant lines I have to say.

Great stuff.

Steve Gaynor also drew a parallel to Far Cry 2, seeing similarities in Mafia 3’s mechanics and mission structure. Neat! As someone who is indifferent to the Far Cry series outside of Clint Hocking’s game, I’m happy to see another team continue that legacy.

Seems to be selling pretty well in the UK, and on Steam, which is pretty impressive considering the botched launch.

I’ve put 45 hours into the game so far, according to Steam. It’s extremely repetitive, like an Assassin’s Creed game, but the combat and driving is so much fun, I will certainly finish it. Just when I get comfortable with combat and think I’m a bad-ass, the AI will flank me or an enemy will drop down a ladder and come up behind me, and I’m dead within seconds. I like that the game keeps me on my toes.

And, yeah, I definitely get a Far Cry 2 vibe from this game.

Bought a new video card that included this as a “free game” (Would rather have BF:1 I think…)

So it redirects me to a Redeem page at ASUS that asks for a lot of information, including full personal details as well as requiring an upload of the invoice from the store I purchased the game at. Talk about jumping through hoops?

What happened to just emailing a steam key from the vendor?

Edit: Got the steam key now. Anyone know if this game uses Denuvo?

Steve Gaynor’s 140ish characters just sold me on the game more than any other piece of writing or video.

Just curious, how would one know if the game is using Denuvo, and why does that matter?