Mafia: The Trilogy

[Nico]

Cars do run out of fuel. When they do, they enter some sort of limp mode. Not sure if they can completely die.

[Arrows to Athens]

21 minutes ago, Nico said:

Cars do run out of fuel. When they do, they enter some sort of limp mode. Not sure if they can completely die.

I've never experienced it. How long do you have to drive a car for the fuel to run out?

[Nico]

I'm not sure. The only times I ran out of fuel were in Free Ride. Some cars are more thirsty than others. The best way to quickly run out of fuel (or getting close enough to it) is doing a ten lap race in Free Ride (races got added in the update).

[LittleJesus]

I always ran out of fuel in free ride when looking for collectibles, when I go downhill I like to put the car in neutral to save some gas.

[Bigglo145]

Future playthroughs are going to be hard for me. I wish we had the option of picking our gun before a mission instead of being forced to use a certain gun. I barley used the service revolver in the game, because i dont like picking up and dropping guns because fingerprints(realism lol) tommy should be able to access his long arm from the trunk

[GhettoJesus]

9 hours ago, Arrows to Athens said:

I've never experienced it. How long do you have to drive a car for the fuel to run out?

Those cars are very thirsty I tell you. I was doing ordinary routine and by the time I reached Eugene's shop a good 20% of my fuel was gone. In the original it was almost impossible to run out of fuel unless your tank got punctured.

 

10 hours ago, Arrows to Athens said:

Maybe you already know, but you can switch to Simulation driving, just like in Mafia II and III. I do agree, though, that Mafia II has slightly more realistic driving and more weight to the cars in general. I've also noticed that if you keep pressing R3 (on PS4) to look back when driving a car, the game stutters like crazy, and I'm not sure why that is.

Well I am playing on classic mode so I have to use simulation driving (using a keyboard btw) and the cars handle like sh*t. I get it that the race car is supposed to be lightweight but it shouldn't be this lightweight. It slides all over the place.

Edited October 19, 2020 by GhettoJesus

[Ivan1997GTA]

I just beat the story, and I got one question regarding Sam.

 

Spoiler

Why did Sam call Tom out in the final mission for not killing Michelle even though he clearly told him to spare her in The Saint and the Sinner despite Salieri telling Tom to kill her? Did Salieri find out and Sam changed his mind at the last minute?

 

[_P136_]

Mafia: DE is not a bad game but gives me mixed feelings. Never really played the original (although I bought it on GOG), so I'm not comparing between the two.

 

Graphics is good, very realistic, and performance seems more or less consistent: a step up from Mafia III, even though the engine is the same. I like the camerawork being more dynamic, something that GTA V noticeably lacks. Also of note are the carefully designed interiors. I only found two very minor lighting bugs (these were a plague in Mafia III). Good job here, no complaints.

 

Voice acting is OK (again, I don't have an opinion how it fares compared to the original but nothing wrong with Paulie in the remake to me), dialogs are generally fine too (in Mafia III, many were just cringeworthy; here, they are just occasionally so: dialogs could be better but don't get in the way of the story). However, most of the soundtrack is just forgettable, and the one piece that isn't feels like it's eventually playing in every mission all the time. The bar has been set very high by Mafia II and III, the music could and should have been so much better.

 

Combat gameplay is basically Mafia III without silencers and whistling. Maybe it's for the better: with these things it was just too easy to clear whole swathes of the city without ever being spotted. The AI doesn't seem to have improved in any noticeable way, so it would have probably been the same here. Still, it feels like a downgrade, especially as there isn't anything new added to make up for the removal of these features.

 

Such a large, open world deserves more options to explore it, and there are very few of these. We never get to discover much of the city through the story, only on our own in free roam. Maybe they're saving some of it for the future DLCs but for now there isn't much to do out there in Lost Heaven except answering a couple of calls in phone booths around the city.

 

Now for the bad parts:

 

There is very little character development, and that includes the main protagonist Tommy himself: the only thing we know of him is that he rage-quit his taxi gig after getting 3 annoying customers in a row. We don't know why we're supposed to care about Paulie: there's no socializing and friendship development like between Vito and Joe in Mafia II. We don't get to understand Sam's character traits even though the later plot is predicated upon them. And are we really supposed to believe that Tommy, as a mob insider, would only learn the basic facts about the Salieri/Morello rivalry years later from a cop? The closest we get to know anyone as a person is with Sarah but even with her the most profound "conversation" in the whole game is, bizarrely, about universal suffrage of all things.

 

In the world of organized crime, where illegal and risky things are being done for the money, not for the "lulz," little Tommy doesn't even have a wallet or pocket money of his own, and after the bank job we don't even get to know what the take was. Being a gangster in the Land of Opportunity feels too much like being a monk in Soviet Czechoslovenia: it's a lonely gig, and there just isn't too much fun in it. Kind of like in Mafia II but even more so.

 

Individual bits of the story as they relate to the missions are workable but unfortunately the way everything is pieced together is a huge missed opportunity, which is a shame considering how much better it could have been with similar budget, just more thought put into it. It's like we have to be reminded in a moralizing tone that "crime doesn't pay" (like in Mafia II), or maybe it's about the technical limitations when the original game was first released long time ago: however, a remake should reconsider these constraints too, beyond just improving upon the visuals (and adding a couple of exploding containers here and there, which I read were not in the original game).

 

The whole story is linear, and told as a retrospective: everything has already happened, so in the end nothing we do or try to can make any difference, and we are told this right from the start: this fatalistic and quixotic framework is just the wrong choice both for the story, and for the medium: computer games are fundamentally about controlling the fate of the protagonist, not being deprived of any control and watching passively as events unfold. So, if we can choose whether to sneak in to a location or take a scorched-earth approach, why can't the player decide anything else more important as well? Even in Mafia III the player could make choices as to how the situation develops and how it ends, and the story is definitely not the high point of that game either.

 

A minor thing but the game difficulty is very uneven. Some things are much easier than they should be: for example, having just assassinated a major political figure I was able to walk out of the scene without any shots fired as all the police out there to catch me decided to walk inside the building through another door for some reason, I then took one of many abandoned police vehicles and drove two blocks away only to hear on the police radio: "pursuit called off, never mind, we'll get him next time." On the other hand, in many situations it's really easy to die instantly (maybe I play too offensively for my skills but still), and some of the timed missions are quite hard to complete in time without resorting to special tricks.

 

For Mafia: DDE, I'd suggest the developers to:

• Do away with the separate free roam mode (and any other modes), and just put everything in the same world and timeframe.
• Don't start missions automatically one after another, let the player start them on his own or explore the world in between.
• Don't tell the whole story in retrospect: it kills most of the suspense.
• Add money to the game, it is after all the main reason why gangsters do what they do.
• Give the major characters a bit of depth, at least by including side missions featuring them.
• Don't make me have to go back to the bar to grab a car and run up and down the stairs to switch weapons and clothes.
• Actually, come to think of it, make it possible to run inside Salieri's and not just walk slowly: it takes forever to move around there.
• But most importantly, let the player make big decisions. Namely:

Spoiler

• Kill or spare the prostitute who knew too much?
• Kill or spare Frank?
• Say it out loud or keep the information to yourself about what the smuggled cargo really is?
• Hold up a bank with Paulie or not?
• Stay loyal to Salieri, rat him out to the cops or get rid of him to take over as a Don? These should be the 3 endings to be chosen by the player, possibly depending on how he acted upon the earlier questions.

 

[GhettoJesus]

2 hours ago, _P136_ said:

There is very little character development, and that includes the main protagonist Tommy himself: the only thing we know of him is that he rage-quit his taxi gig after getting 3 annoying customers in a row.

That's not really true. He is happy to have his job in such an economic situation however he is slowly burning out a bit as it's a bit mundane. If he goes back to being a cabby he exposes himself to danger as more thugs will try to track him down. He doesn't really have a choice. (Plus in the original he mentions that he figured that Salieri's guys are well off so that sort of influenced his decision. Shame they left out this detail. Shame they left out quite a few monologues in general.)

 

I am right now at Trip to the Country. i swear to god driving the race cars are hell. They are not supposed to drift this much. Either ways the race itself is easier than driving to Lucas and back. It took about 15 tries in total to get to him and about 10 to win the race. I missed the scene where you visit Lucas after the race who teaches you how to steal a car. Sarah was a nice mission with lots of details, I like how they gave her some personality.

 

 

Fun fact: This Edmond's Tools sign is taken from the original game.

 

Better Get Used to it was okay, I guess. Not much to say about it. The Saint and the Sinner on the other hand, I had to explore the hotel a bit to get accustomed to the new layout. After that it was pretty straightforward, clown guy made me chuckle. As for the cutscene with Michelle, I prefer the original version. There Tommy had a dilemma because he had some personal connections with her and he feels sorry for her. Here he just spares her because Sam asked him to. The cutscene with the priest, I dunno. This one was okay but I expected the priest to accept the dirty money in the original. Well I guess he makes good use of it anyways in this version as well. Either ways I appreciate the dialogues a lot, they are pretty good.

 

So far I had a few stutters but the game still plays nice. The lighting in the church was fantastic. But it's nice in general.

Edited October 19, 2020 by GhettoJesus

[D9fred95]

4 hours ago, _P136_ said:

For Mafia: DDE, I'd suggest the developers to:

• Do away with the separate free roam mode (and any other modes), and just put everything in the same world and timeframe.
• Don't start missions automatically one after another, let the player start them on his own or explore the world in between.
• Don't tell the whole story in retrospect: it kills most of the suspense.
• Add money to the game, it is after all the main reason why gangsters do what they do.
• Give the major characters a bit of depth, at least by including side missions featuring them.
• Don't make me have to go back to the bar to grab a car and run up and down the stairs to switch weapons and clothes.
• Actually, come to think of it, make it possible to run inside Salieri's and not just walk slowly: it takes forever to move around there.
• But most importantly, let the player make big decisions. Namely:

  Hide contents

• Kill or spare the prostitute who knew too much?
• Kill or spare Frank?
• Say it out loud or keep the information to yourself about what the smuggled cargo really is?
• Hold up a bank with Paulie or not?
• Stay loyal to Salieri, rat him out to the cops or get rid of him to take over as a Don? These should be the 3 endings to be chosen by the player, possibly depending on how he acted upon the earlier questions.

 

 

The stuff you're asking for would change the game's plot fundamentally, good for a whole new game but this is supposed to be a remake where things play out roughly the same way as the original did. The story you know and love but with modern polish on everything. Things like these would make this game even less of a remake and more of an "in-name only" kind of deal. 

 

The ending is already set in stone due to Mafia 2, Joe even says *why* they're doing the job on the way there so there's no room for interpretation. Multiple endings, while cool, would be fluff pieces at best.

Edited October 19, 2020 by D9fred95

[Creed Bratton]

4 hours ago, _P136_ said:

And are we really supposed to believe that Tommy, as a mob insider, would only learn the basic facts about the Salieri/Morello rivalry years later from a cop?

I didn't have a problem with this. If anything, it's consistent with the fact that Salieri never talked about Frank after his "funeral". So it's probably a safe bet that he never talked about his friendship with Morello either. Same goes for other mobsters. No need to talk about your boss behind his back.

Edited October 19, 2020 by Yokelsson

[Dryspace]

I was very surprised to notice that in ~5 months this thread has nearly caught up to the Cyberpunk 2077 thread that was started almost 8 years ago.

 

I got the idea that maybe threads don't usually really pick up until after a game releases, but apparently this thread was at ~40 pages before Mafia: DE released. So I guess Mafia is just that popular and respected.

 

I plan on picking up Mafia on GOG, but I believe it is missing the original soundtrack. Hopefully it's not too difficult to rectify, as I find missing/swapped out audio in a game just as unacceptable as missing/swapped out gameplay mechanics or vehicles.

[kobeni]

14 hours ago, Ivan1997GTA said:

Did Salieri find out and Sam changed his mind at the last minute?

That and because Sam wanted to pin it on Tommy to curry favor the Don, which is a lot more believable to him since he let Frank go.

[Bloodytears1666]

It was interesting to read it now, because original was at high standards back in the day, and now it looks incomplete.

[_P136_]

6 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

That's not really true. He is happy to have his job in such an economic situation however he is slowly burning out a bit as it's a bit mundane. If he goes back to being a cabby he exposes himself to danger as more thugs will try to track him down. He doesn't really have a choice.

 

He finds the money appealing once he's in, that's for sure. But it's not really as if one day you're an average Joe on the street and next, before you know it, turns out you're joining the mob because you had no other options. All else aside, it's a choice for life: you can never get out, and it carries significant risks. You have to be more than a bit desperate to even consider it.

 

This part is presented much better in Mafia II, where Vito is a trained soldier who already has the requisite skills but otherwise is a NINJA (has no income, no job or assets), has to provide for his family, repay the debts of his deceased father, and can only land an absolute bottom-of-the-barrel job loading warehouse crates. He already got to know mafia in Italy, felt its allure back then, and now has a friend who ushers him in.

 

Tommy on the other hand could reasonably have other options: his vehicle is badly damaged but he is compensated enough to buy a new one. As a taxi driver, he could keep running errands for the mob and still supplement his income without risking his life as a full-fledged mafia soldier. He is also too young to have fought in the Great War. I recall now his initial motivation was to exact revenge. Anyway, it's mostly the other characters that should have more depth to them within the story: as Tommy is the main protagonist, we already identify with him: not knowing more about him is not necessarily a big omission, more like a missed opportunity.

 

It does relate to another, more general problem with the story though: the mafia in Mafia seems to exist in a vacuum. How come in such a large city there are just two criminal families, each of which fits completely in their respective two-story bar? Is that really it, nothing else? In Lost Heaven, the Italians even seem to run Chinatown. Where are the triads, in quarantine?

 

In reality, all kinds of ethnic gangs emerged initially as a response to discrimination of fresh-off-the-board immigrants by nativist or more established locals. There were Irish, Jewish, and Chinese mobs at least, and probably others too, each exercising power mainly within its own ethnic ghetto. As a taxi driver, Tommy would likely have had some run-ins with them, and possibly would already be paying for protection. This would be a good reason why Tommy could want to be on the collecting side for a change. All in all it's a minor thing but the story would have been better if it included some references to other criminal organizations, even if we don't get to interact with them.

 

6 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

I am right now at Trip to the Country. i swear to god driving the race cars are hell. They are not supposed to drift this much. Either ways the race itself is easier than driving to Lucas and back. It took about 15 tries in total to get to him and about 10 to win the race.

If you think this is bad, try the Electric Trick Track side mission (the Mutagen unlock) on a rainy night.

 

4 hours ago, D9fred95 said:

The ending is already set in stone due to Mafia 2, Joe even says *why* they're doing the job on the way there so there's no room for interpretation. Multiple endings, while cool, would be fluff pieces at best.

I don't think it'd be a problem at all. One ending (the current one) would be canonical, the others not. Or you could even have this particular mission in Mafia II either show up or not, depending on which ending you had in Mafia I. I know The Witcher franchise did it like that: the state of the world in The Witcher 3 depends on the choices you made in the previous installment. When you start a new game, you can load your saved game from The Witcher 2 and if you don't, a certain character you meet will ask you a couple of questions as to what happened in the past, to the same effect.

 

2 hours ago, Dryspace said:

I plan on picking up Mafia on GOG, but I believe it is missing the original soundtrack. Hopefully it's not too difficult to rectify, as I find missing/swapped out audio in a game just as unacceptable as missing/swapped out gameplay mechanics or vehicles.

See https://www.gog.com/forum/mafia/tutorial_how_to_restore_the_original_music/page1 (it's the official GOG message board, so hopefully the link is OK here, if not please let me know).

 

[Bigglo145]

11 hours ago, _P136_ said:

 

It does relate to another, more general problem with the story though: the mafia in Mafia seems to exist in a vacuum. How come in such a large city there are just two criminal families, each of which fits completely in their respective two-story bar? Is that really it, nothing else? In Lost Heaven, the Italians even seem to run Chinatown. Where are the triads, in quarantine?

This is the same thing i said a few pages back. Its chicago, the mafia was known for beefing with the irish gangs. We dont even get to see other gangsters in their neighborhoods, even if they arent related to the story, why arent there gangsters roaming about? Is tommy the only gangster in free roam? Those guys that got killed in that garage mission looked cool too, too bad they arent anywhere to be found in the city. They have my favorite models in the gang. Adding in a minor storyline with the black mob, triads and irish gang wouldve been good. Its chicago after all

[GhettoJesus]

3 hours ago, Bigglo145 said:

Its chicago after all

Just on a side note I have such a hard time believing its based on Chicago. I thought Chicago is on plains yet you have hills near the city and an ocean.  Well I guess you have to place it somewhere in the universe.

[D9fred95]

17 hours ago, _P136_ said:

I don't think it'd be a problem at all. One ending (the current one) would be canonical, the others not. Or you could even have this particular mission in Mafia II either show up or not, depending on which ending you had in Mafia I. I know The Witcher franchise did it like that: the state of the world in The Witcher 3 depends on the choices you made in the previous installment. When you start a new game, you can load your saved game from The Witcher 2 and if you don't, a certain character you meet will ask you a couple of questions as to what happened in the past, to the same effect.

 

 

The problem with the Witcher example though is the fact that things from the Witcher 2 would change stuff in the Witcher 3. Mafia DE may take place before Mafia 2 but Mafia 2 was created way before this rendition of the game. To do what you're suggesting would involve the developers going back to Mafia 2 to change it, a game that's already a decade old. Updating a decade old game to change two decades of lore (since the original Mafia ended the same way) just to add variety to the new installment. It would make the game way less of a faithful remake and more like taking someone else's hard work and using it as a "roadmap" for your own story.

 

Maybe I got bias since I played Mafia back on the PS2, played it to death when I wasn't playing GTA 3 or Vice City. Your ideas are good ideas for a new Mafia game from the ground up, but considering how many people wanted a remake of the original for the longest time I don't think such heavy changes to the story would be appropriate.

[_P136_]

2 hours ago, D9fred95 said:

Mafia 2 was created way before this rendition of the game. To do what you're suggesting would involve the developers going back to Mafia 2 to change it, a game that's already a decade old. Updating a decade old game to change two decades of lore (since the original Mafia ended the same way) just to add variety to the new installment. It would make the game way less of a faithful remake and more like taking someone else's hard work and using it as a "roadmap" for your own story.

 

I think each of us is looking at the same game in quite a different way: I never played the original Mafia I, so for me it's all new. I've just completed Mafia I: DE now, and liked it, but it feels like it ended before it really began. There could just be much more depth to it. What wasn't possible then because of technological limitations and financial constraints should be possible now, and could be part of the remake as far as I see it.

 

I can understand though why someone who is already familiar with the game considers the story closed at this point and doesn't want it tampered with. Especially as no-one could guarantee the result would end up improving upon the original. Changes are not necessarily for the better and it's good to be reminded of that. After all, there's a long list of films where the remakes were nothing but disappointing, and people who don't know the original sometimes don't even realize it.

 

However, since we're already talking about it, I must also say I don't really get this whole consistency argument though. Mafia II has little to do with Mafia I anyway. Tommy's subplot in Mafia II is brief and incidental to the story at large. Also, since we're on GTA Forums, let's not forget there is no consistency between GTA V and GTA Online too, yet nobody seems to care much: and this is all within the same game. As far as I'm concerned, Mafia II could have just stayed the way it was, while Mafia I's story could have been extended with some non-canonical stuff; or it could have been reconciled in a number of ways, as I was saying; but I'm not sure it would be necessary at all: to me each game is a completely separate entity anyway.

 

What's more, Mafia II: DE was also just released back in May as the first of the three games, and at the time there was already the plan to do the same with the other two. For a game that is notorious for having so much of its original content cut, there was certainly the opportunity like no other to think about adding to the story there as well, and in all three games at the same time. I understand whoever was calling the shots decided to play it safe but I hope we can agree it was not impossible to take a more courageous decision.

 

It took a lot of work (and significant budget) to create the whole in-game worlds of Lost Haven, Empire Bay, and New Bordeaux with all these great, detailed interiors; as well as all the vehicles for each era. Yet we only get to spend 15-20h in each of them and that's it. I'm glad we have what we have but I'd be happy to have more. Comparing this to how R* has been able to keep us going back to Los Santos for years now, it feels like a missed opportunity on Hangar 13's part to capitalize on the foundations they did very well.

[GhettoJesus]

Okay this Happy Birthday mission is some bullsh*t. In the original you just had to escape once you shot the guy but here you have to fight through enemies. You don't see sh*t through the smoke, they do, they are also bullet sponges but you are dead within 5 hits. Oh and they don't run out of bullets, ever. What kind of classic experience is this?

Edited October 21, 2020 by GhettoJesus

[kobeni]

After a while i think sam sounds a bit like one of the anchovies from spongebob

[_P136_]

6 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

Okay this Happy Birthday mission is some bullsh*t. In the original you just had to escape once you shot the guy but here you have to fight through enemies. You don't see sh*t through the smoke, they do, they are also bullet sponges but you are dead within 5 hits. Oh and they don't run out of bullets, ever. What kind of classic experience is this?

I think it's best to run through the top deck as soon as you can, wait by the door, and take out enemies as soon as they climb upstairs. Otherwise there's also the risk of running out of ammo, and not being able to pick up more. I only played it at the regular difficulty though.

 

[Creed Bratton]

10 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

Okay this Happy Birthday mission is some bullsh*t. In the original you just had to escape once you shot the guy but here you have to fight through enemies. You don't see sh*t through the smoke, they do, they are also bullet sponges but you are dead within 5 hits. Oh and they don't run out of bullets, ever. What kind of classic experience is this?

All of the missions have received the Hollywood action movie treatment. It's a sh*t remake.

[GhettoJesus]

Well I just finished the game. Let me say a tl;dr summary. Keep in mind that I played the game on classic difficulty.

 

The good:

• The immersion. This was really nice. The radio reports, music, dialogues, newspapers. They are top notch. Long gone are the silent driving from the original, finally you got something to talk with your buddies
• The radio and the soundtrack. This wasn't as widespread in the 30s but hey, neither were molotov cocktails, at least the name. The radio stations (all 2 of them) were executed perfectly. They got good music and occasional news reports as well as some other programes like baseball commentary and presidential inauguration speeches. Well done. The remastered version of the intro soundtrack is amazing and the game generally has a good OST. Although, didn't they reuse some music from Mafia 2? Not that it's a bad thing but kinda cheap.
• Graphics. What this game produces on minimum is mind boggling. Yes, sometimes I saw weird hair or smooth faces but most of the time I was in awe it was so gorgeous. The ray tracing is some of the best I have ever seen.

The neutral:

• Gunfights. Now on classic difficulty these are quite the experience. Popping your head, shooting bullets, you all gotta figure these out because you don't have a lot of health and you don't have a lot of bullets. It's all good fun. But the enemies are bullet sponges and they never run out of bullets. Sometimes they take half a Thompson clip before they go down. Hell I had a guy survive two molotov cocktails. And speaking of molotov cocktails, why does everyone and their mother carry them? It just gets cheap eventually. Now for a difficulty that promises me the classic experience these enemies don't live up to it. The classic experience would have them with limited ammunition and they wouldn't be so sturdy. Although, at least they have headshots, which the original game rarely had. In summary, the main problem with this is the fact that the enemies are way too resistant.
• The police. I have been ticketed once. Well almost. I stopped the car, I got out, started walking towards the officers who told me to stop so I did that. We stared at each other for a few seconds and suddenly they wanted to arrest me. And generally in the original this is handled way better. If you kill a cop who is after you things just get worse. In the original this was a potential way to stop being wanted, but at the very least it didn't really bring heat onto you. Supposedly they are alerted even if there are no witnesses. Can't confirm this, just seen it on video. Although a tiny positive thing about the police, civilians actually call the police, cool detail. Supposedly you are also put on their wanted list if a cop sees you driving a police car. Makes sense, nice addition.
• Characters. Some changed for the better, some had changes that were unnecessary. The scale tips towards neutral. The most positive for me have been Sam and Salieri. I think they really improved them although I will take the old Salieri any day as well. But his change of character really shows in this one. Sam on the other hand was in dire need of some personality because he was really unused in the original game.

The bad:

• Some features and details. From what I know we still can't ride public transportation. This isn't that important but come on. An 18 year old game could do that but a cutting edge remake cannot? Then you can damage the engine by shooting anywhere. Now I ain't no car expert, but to me it sounds more believable that cars don't get a damaged engine if you shoot the frame. From what I have seen, not in this game. Just shoot the roof a couple of times and the engine should start smoking. To make it go boom you just have to shoot the tank.
• The driving. Now this is an interesting one. When turning most cars definitely don't feel like a simulation but when heading straight they are alright. The race cars on the other hand... But the most important issue is the amount of driving. In the original you drove everywhere. And I mean everywhere, no skips, no driving during cutscenes, everyday you went from the bar, to the job, back to the bar no matter the distance. Now I can understand that this doesn't appeal to people. But we finally got radio, a mildly rethought city and a whole lot of life in this town so it doesn't really make sense to tone down the driving to this level.
• Finally, the changes in some mission design or story elements. There are some good ones, but I dislike most of them.

Spoiler

• My first issue is, what is up with Lucas Bertone? He is seen in Fairplay and never again. In the original you could visit him after most jobs who would teach you how to steal luxurious or unique cars. Now in the definitive edition Tommy can steal any car right from the get-go. Kinda feels bad how neglected he is.
• A Trip to the Country. In this mission that armored van is just stupid. The whole chase thing was overdone.
• Visiting Rich People and forced action scenes in general. Why does the alarm have to go off in that mission? Just for the sake of another shootout? In the original you could do that mission with perfect stealth, not here. This wouldn't even bother me if action scenes weren't forced upon us again and again. A forced shootout in Happy Birthday, a forced car chase in Just for Relaxation.
• Happy Birthday. I said what I said. That shootout is not only really hard on classic difficulty because of all the smoke but it's also totally unnecessary.
• You Lucky Bastard.Kind of a shame they left out the elaborate train scheme. Didn't really impact me though.
• Creme de la Creme. Now how did Morello get all those guys there? Did the police somehow radioed HQ who gave a phone call to the bar and sent Morello's goons out?
• Election Campaign. I actually liked this change. It didn't make sense for those hobos to carry those guns around in the original. Pretty detailed hobo camp too. Nice job.
• Just for Relaxation. Totally twisted around, now you are breaking into the customs office instead of the port. Although the dope angle makes for a better reason to betray the don than some diamonds in the original. Good on them for making this change.
• Moonlighting. They left out all those steps. No getting a getaway car, no going to Yellow Pete. Straight into the action. Shame.
• Death of Art. Why does Tommy suggest the Art Gallery? And how does Sam gather so many people there that fast? Sam suggesting the location instead of Tommy makes a lot more sense. And the ending. I don't really know, I think the original was better. But that could be just bias
• The ending. I really enjoyed it. The wedding, Tommy's monologue. Perfect. It is such a nice addition. As well as the fact that Tommy realized that his time is up. Now if only they incorporated the original monologue. But forget that, even without that they did a fantastic job with the ending. Oh and seeing Ralphie getting arrested, really felt sorry for him considering how much he was bullied throughout the game.

 

Overall I have a hard time assessing the game. I am inclined to give it a 5/10, with the best intentions a 6/10 but nothing more than that. I think the 40€ price tag is steep, even if you don't dive in with expectations. But hey, I am biased, make up your own mind about the game. It was an experience to play it, I could have lived without it but I am also glad that I got to play the game because I have been waiting for some love directed at the game, and after all they did get some things right.

Edited October 22, 2020 by GhettoJesus

[Craigsters]

Mafia II: Definitive Edition is 50% off at steam, and  is $14.99 CAD right now, if you haven't bought it yet, I'd get it

 

Mafia III: Definitive Edition is  only 35% off at steam and 4 bucks more then Mafia II: Definitive Edition

Edited October 28, 2020 by Craigsters

[Mister Pink]

Before I get berated for critcizing Mafia II, I do like the game. I like it because I like storytelling and I like games and films which depicts the mafia. But it's not without it's corny writing either. Steve. I don't know what to make of him. Is he a parody or satire on mob goons? Because if they were serious with that guy, it's just awful. He kind of speaks in cheesy catchphrases; "now you either help us or stay out of our way."  And then the next part in the same chapter when they get to the Foundry. 

 

"Hey, how'd you get here?"

Steve: "Follow the f*cking yellow brick road."

 

In the game's defence, Steve could have been deliberately been written to be some kind of funny badass type that talks like he is follower of Steven Seagal's Speech School of Badassery, And I can forgive the writing for that but then there's his actually voice that seems very contrived. I don't know the actor but it sounds like a comedian doing an impression of a wiseguy down the mic. I could be be wrong. And I know he's supposed to be an enforcer but he looks even a bit old to be enforcing. Those guys usually get whacked pretty quickly or locked up. 

 

I can forgive Steve for being corny if that's what they were going for but then there's this scene all in the same chapter.. the "Joe, watch out!"  "thanks, kid." is like it's from some low-budget 90's action flick. It's cheesy stuff. 

 

 

Then Steve limps in by re-entering the conversation in the most unimpressive and like *sigh*  "oh sh*t, they got guns." - Not only is it unsurprising but I think it should be painfully obvious that a gang of greasers that are confronting Mafia men for dealing cigarettes on their turf would have guns back at their base but that one of them 5 seconds before just showed a gun before the kid dropped him. 

 

Don't get me wrong. I loved the the shootout in this mission. But lets not ignore the fact that the dialogue and writing can be pretty poor at times. Overall, it's OK and certainly OK for a videogame back in 2010. But in a post Boardwalk Empire, post The Sopranos and post The Wire age, convincing dialogue shouldn't be too hard to write. 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Mister Pink

[Craigsters]

this is mafia definitive edition I'm talking about

 

 

the graphics are awesome and the driving ok, but the audio is crap,, makes me feel like I'm going deaf, my logitech speakers are at full blast too, my speakers have a subwoofer, and my other games and netflix films all have  fine audio, I even have to turn down my pc audio during some netflix movies

Edited November 30, 2020 by Craigsters

[D9fred95]

So I've begun to play Mafia after wanting to for quite a bit. I may not agree with some of the changes to the story but I can tell this game was a labor of love. I decided I would play on Classic mode since I already have experience with the game on PS2.

 

Holy crap, the race on Classic difficulty though. I spent a good hour on it or so.

[FanEu7]

I never played Mafia 1 before so I'm glad they made this remake. It was overall a lot of fun. But after all the hype about how much better Mafia 1's story is I did expect more. It seemed a bit rushed and short compared to Mafia 2 and I felt more invested in Vito and Joe's story and their relationship than Tommy & Sam and Paulie.

 

I was also hoping for some side activities, you can't even buy clothes or rob stores. The cop chases are not as fun as in Mafia 2 either.

 

Its still better than Mafia 3 and not repetitive and boring at least but Mafia 2 is easily the best part of this franchise

[GhettoJesus]

9 hours ago, FanEu7 said:

I never played Mafia 1 before so I'm glad they made this remake. It was overall a lot of fun. But after all the hype about how much better Mafia 1's story is I did expect more. It seemed a bit rushed and short compared to Mafia 2 and I felt more invested in Vito and Joe's story and their relationship than Tommy & Sam and Paulie.

That's because in my opinion they altered it too much to fit in more character development. I agree that the original game's story has it's own flaws as well but I still prefer the original's over the remaster's. I'd say the basic concept is the same though (basic concept as in: seek police protection from furious don) so if you are not satisfied with the overall frame then it's not getting any better.

Edited December 23, 2020 by GhettoJesus