Simply put, Mafia Definitive Edition does everything right for a Remake, Visuals, Sound, Storyline, everything just feels great .
Type: Single-player
Genre: Open-World, Action,
Adventure, Crime,
Third-Person, Story rich
Developer: Hangar 13
Publisher: 2K
Release date: 25 Sept, 2020
Intro
Mafia: Definitive Edition is the remake of the legendary Mafia 1 game released back in 2002. Mafia 1 is a third-person open-world game where you are part of the Mafia. Everything takes place in the city of Lost Heaven. The game offers a unique City-Crime experience set in the 1940s. The Remake changes many aspects, obviously visual upgrades and a new engine are a must-have, yet Hangar 13 takes it a step further adding more story content for some characters.
Small-Talk
First of all, the original Mafia game was and still is one of my all-time favorite games, it really left a mark both in storytelling and in gameplay depth obviously. Now the Remake did in my opinion a good job as far as capturing the same atmosphere overall. Visuals are obviously tremendous and Hangar13 was spot on as far as that goes. The gameplay is a world of two sides, some people don’t like it as it is too easy and they do prefer the Mafia 1 & Mafia 2 shooting mechanics and overall slower pace, on the other hand, you have guys that do prefer the much more modern mechanics allowing for a fast-paced yet very smooth experience, personally, I like the fast pace attempt although not perfect it still does the job very well. Now my only complaint is that they removed memorable aspects of the game, for example at the start of the Bank mission where you enter the train with Paulie and suddenly enter the first-person mode creating a unique experience. Other than that, Mafia Definitive Edition is a very good remake.
Gameplay
Movement and shooting mechanics:
Mafia DE is an open-world third-person game that involves a lot of moving around and shooting. As mentioned above the game feels a lot quicker with its modernized gameplay mechanics. The main character doesn’t only walk slowly like in the original game but he can jog and even give a solid sprint until he runs out of stamina. Honestly speaking, having the sprint mechanic is pretty useful especially when running towards cover after you wasted all of your bullets and having the need to reload. Speaking of getting shot on by the rival family, the shooting mechanics were a pretty welcome change for me, yes I loved the shooting mechanics in Mafia 1 & 2 but simply said, they are outdated. Using the Mafia 3 mechanics in a much more sleek manner, as it should be! Yes, the guns don’t have the same kick as the original release but in all honesty, who cares? This isn’t a competitive shooter where I need to learn the recoil of each gun, they basically simplified the recoil in order to please the masses and that was the correct move, both as far as sales and gameplay of course. Lastly, they made a nice addition to the cover system allowing you to blindly fire without peeking, not really efficient but looks cool. Obviously, we have some flaws, for example, the removal of the Train and Public transport but let’s be honest, nobody was really using them to get from A to B.
Driving:
Mafia 1 was amazing due to the advanced driving physics it included, Mafia DE doesn’t disappoint in that aspect either as you get all the manual options you would want, manual gearbox with the cheeky clutch control? They got you covered as far as that goes as well. Cars definitely feel a lot faster compared to the 2002 game but that’s the effect of faster-paced gameplay, what I’m trying to explain with that is that cars feel quicker but it’s not blown out of proportion. Then we get the classic physics and realism, RWD vehicles will tend to lose traction when sudden turns occur, sports cars feel a lot more ‘’glued’’ to the road compared to a simple taxi or a truck. The steering does feel a little quick which just doesn’t represent the boat like steering for the era. Lastly, the Race mission was just as iconic as the original game’s mission.
Other aspects:
One small complaint I had was the fact that stealth kills were pretty weird and boring, as when the animation started you had that weird bug where the sounds get removed completely and you only hear the punching sounds, yeah awkward and lame.
The waypoint marker should only be visible on the map/radar and not on your destination within the literal game, it is pretty disappointing considering they did such a good job making this game feel different yet these HUD elements really aren’t cool.
Freeride doesn’t include all the fancy missions like the original game did and that makes me sad!
Story
You play as Tommy Angelo, a broke cab driver trying to get through the terrible economy at the time. One day as he took a break he heard shootings and 2 armed guys appeared in front of him and commanded him to lose the heat. After evading and dropping them at Salieri’s Bar where they offer you a place to work at first you decline the offer. After having some rough moments and running for your life to Salieri’s you do change your mind and decide to enter the Family.
After that your adventure as a Mafiozo starts and you get to meet great characters like Don Salieri, his consigliere Frank and your buddies and Soldiers Paulie and Sam as well as your future wife after her father hooked both of you up. Sadly things with the rival Family were getting worse as Don Morello was getting between some jobs and so starts the downfall of the great life. It turns out Frank took the books with all the money transfers with him but luckily you find him at the airport and let him alive which will turn out badly for you in the future, you decide to help Sam’s supposed mistress/whore after he asked you to help her and lastly after killing Morello and doing great with the business, you and Paulie decide to rob a bank and leave the family because of Don Salieri’s shady business decisions.
After succeeding in robbing the bank you decide to lay low and let Paulie handle things, next day you find Paulie gunned down and dead in his apartment which makes Tommy panic, out of nowhere Sam calls you offering you a helping hand at the Lost Heaven Art museum. Turns out it was a setup and Sam killed Paulie and Frank with Sam’s mistress/ whore didn’t survive much longer either. After getting rid of Sam you find yourself in the cafe with the Detective just like the beginning of the game where you explain everything in order to save yourself and your family. After all of this, you get to see what happens, how the police arrest Salieri, Vicenzo and Ralph and the rest of the Family, you get to see your children and you get to see yourself become an old man and giving a speech at your daughter’s wedding and as we all know you get to see Vito and Joe assassinate you.
Graphics / Audio:
Mafia DE does an amazing job of capturing the atmosphere of Lost Heaven yet with amazing new visuals. The city of Lost Heaven still gives off the same type of atmosphere just like in the original Mafia game, face capturing is obviously amazing, you can clearly see the reaction of each character, the vehicles do look amazing as well with nice clean and shiny panels, particles are pretty common as well, you will see tire smoke, gun flashes, and even more great particle effects.
Mafia Definitive Edition runs on the modified Mafia 3 graphics engine, thanks to which the quality of the visuals is very high.
Voice acting has gotten so much better, you almost feel as if you’re watching a movie. It has to be one of the best sounding games at this moment. The only small complaint I got is gun sounds and the fact that they don’t really sound dangerous at all. Lastly, the Soundtrack is great as it is with all the Mafia games. Magnificent job.
Performance:
Benchmark:
A 5-minute benchmark going through the city of Lost Heaven using MSI Afterburner:
Average framerate: 116.6 FPS
Minimum framerate: 52.9 FPS
Maximum framerate: 1001.9 FPS
1% low framerate: 54.7 FPS
0.1% low framerate : 52.9 FPS
In-Game:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 X, 32GB Ram, Nvidia RTX 2070 Super:
I was running the game on Maxed out Settings 1080p Resolution and the game was extremely smooth without any hiccups.
Bugs / Glitches / Crashes:
I experienced no glitches or crashes in 13 hours of being a mafiozo.
The only bug was when delivering stealth kills within the animation the sound was bugged.
Verdict
The Remake does a great job of modernizing the game and adding to the depth of some characters, combined with the amazing visuals and optimization. If you can look past some flaws it is an amazing experience.
