Mafia: The Trilogy

[Nico]

Johnny's recovery time between "Better Get Used To It" and "The Saint and the Sinner" is indeed awkward. He's shot in the neck and apparently that isn't enough to kill him, and just a week later he's crying while giving a speech at Billy's funeral with a bruised arm. In the original he seemed to be intact when giving his speech, although it's unknown how much time passed between the missions. I suppose not long either, how long can someone like the councilor wait to hold a funeral for their son, even if he didn't love him according to Frank.

 

The molotov cocktail is a big issue of the remake, I agree. I like to see it as a challenge factor, but it's extremely forced and brought from Mafia 3 with no major concerns. NPCs using them in confined spaces is just poor. I've seen them in the church, the prosecutor's villa, and a few more I can't remember. Hangar 13 should have disabled this mechanic in enclosed spaces.

 

The added shooting parts, I personally don't find them annoying, but I admit there was some fun in being able to escape the steamboat party nearly unharmed (and maybe even drunk if you knew the trick). In the prison they exchanged shooting bums (how they got their guns is a mystery to me) with fighting the police on the way out. Although recently I found out you can escape from the prison unnoticed if you follow certain steps, in the original you could do it if you hid the body of that worker lurking around the sewer entrance. But even if you didn't do that you only had a few cops on your tail that could be evaded easily, in the new game you have the whole police department in your tail as some officer tells you.

 

Moonlighting is indeed poorer in the new game, no discussion there. I miss Yellow Pete, and taking the train to go places. I guess they did this to cater to the more impatient gamers with less attention span. Kinda odd considering GTA V and Payday made heists so popular, they could have capitalized on that by enhancing the planning phase instead of outright cutting it. Tommy and Paulie wearing scarfs was an improvement though, even if that didn't stop Salieri from knowing what they have done (snitch Sam is at stake here I guess).

[kobeni]

4 hours ago, Nico said:

The molotov cocktail is a big issue of the remake, I agree. I like to see it as a challenge factor, but it's extremely forced and brought from Mafia 3 with no major concerns. NPCs using them in confined spaces is just poor. I've seen them in the church, the prosecutor's villa, and a few more I can't remember. Hangar 13 should have disabled this mechanic in enclosed spaces.

Yeah, so were the scripted enemy types and red barrels. They kind of took me out of the experience, more so in Mafia 3, making them feel more like typical arcade-style action games rather than an actual period piece like in Mafia 2.

[Creed Bratton]

7 hours ago, Nico said:

Johnny's recovery time between "Better Get Used To It" and "The Saint and the Sinner" is indeed awkward. He's shot in the neck and apparently that isn't enough to kill him, and just a week later he's crying while giving a speech at Billy's funeral with a bruised arm. In the original he seemed to be intact when giving his speech, although it's unknown how much time passed between the missions. I suppose not long either, how long can someone like the councilor wait to hold a funeral for their son, even if he didn't love him according to Frank.

 

The molotov cocktail is a big issue of the remake, I agree. I like to see it as a challenge factor, but it's extremely forced and brought from Mafia 3 with no major concerns. NPCs using them in confined spaces is just poor. I've seen them in the church, the prosecutor's villa, and a few more I can't remember. Hangar 13 should have disabled this mechanic in enclosed spaces.

 

The added shooting parts, I personally don't find them annoying, but I admit there was some fun in being able to escape the steamboat party nearly unharmed (and maybe even drunk if you knew the trick). In the prison they exchanged shooting bums (how they got their guns is a mystery to me) with fighting the police on the way out. Although recently I found out you can escape from the prison unnoticed if you follow certain steps, in the original you could do it if you hid the body of that worker lurking around the sewer entrance. But even if you didn't do that you only had a few cops on your tail that could be evaded easily, in the new game you have the whole police department in your tail as some officer tells you.

 

Moonlighting is indeed poorer in the new game, no discussion there. I miss Yellow Pete, and taking the train to go places. I guess they did this to cater to the more impatient gamers with less attention span. Kinda odd considering GTA V and Payday made heists so popular, they could have capitalized on that by enhancing the planning phase instead of outright cutting it. Tommy and Paulie wearing scarfs was an improvement though, even if that didn't stop Salieri from knowing what they have done (snitch Sam is at stake here I guess).

All of these things that you mentioned and more, are the reason why I find the atmosphere of the original to be a lot more authentic. I didn't feel like Mafia DE was set in the 30s, because of how outrageously action-packed the game is. The subdued and slow-paced nature of the original added a lot to the overall atmosphere.

[GhettoJesus]

17 hours ago, Nico said:

the prosecutor's villa

Good thing you mentioned this because I completely forgot about this mission. In the original you could do it with perfect stealth and without getting into a gunfight. In the remake it is impossible. See my main gripe with the forced shooting segments is that it takes away the variety from the missions. If all you do is shoot, shoot and shoot in every mission then the only thing that sets them apart is the location. I feel like it ruins the mission variety.

 

Now the Election Campaign, which you have also mentioned, is an interesting mission. I will be honest, I always hated how the hobos carry guns in the original. Like how do they get hold of guns and ammo? Especially shotguns. I doubt the police would have left weapons lying around. So in that regard I kinda liked in the remaster that the hobos don't actually fight you. But then the tower collapses thanks to some scripted event and the police storms the prison. That was pretty lame in my opinion. Though it would make sense for the police to be at the event and deduct that the shot came from the prison so I will give it that.

In the original the detectives only showed at the prison gate if you didn't kill the worker or if you didn't hide his body. They just patted you down (if you left the worker alive you were wanted and they would shoot on sight I think) and if you had no guns then you were let go. This was kinda lame because they pretty much saw you leaving the prison so why wouldn't they arrest you?

[Nico]

Another thing I miss from the original game is the music. The new game has pretty good music, fitting for the faster-paced action. But the original game's songs are just timeless. "Calm", "Good" and "Fate" almost sound too good to come from a videogame soundtrack. Yes, I know I'm kinda underselling the industry.

 

At this point it seems like I'm becoming a detractor of the remake, but far from it. I still adore it and think it's one of the best games I've ever played, despite its flaws. It's just the fact that, while the original game was probably superior from a general design standpoint, it's a nearly 20 year old product that shows its age in many aspects. The new game trades some of the uniqueness of the original for a more refreshed look and, in my very honest opinion: maybe not better, but easier gameplay for our current times. The original game is hard to play if you lack patience, don't know what to do and are used to more modern games, and it's also far too unstable in modern operative systems. The new one addresses this, at least for me it's fun to play and I don't recall having any crash with the game in an unmodded state.

 

I know this isn't enough to change the mind of OG fans, and that is fine. To draw a parallelism with something, the characters of my avatar come from an old show that probably is very mediocre by modern animation standards, but I still love them nonetheless. I don't think you need to deem something to be perfect in order to like it.

[seaque]

On 11/7/2021 at 4:01 AM, sabitsuki said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-03/take-two-s-2k-cancels-53-million-game-from-developer-hangar-13

 

Bad news for Mafia fans. The new IP by Hangar 13 got canned, and there's probably gonna be some restructuring or worse, closure of the studio.

 

We're probably not gonna see Mafia 4 anytime soon.

 

Bad? This is amazing. This franchise will no longer suffer from Hangar 13. It can finally rest in peace. Mafia: Definitive Edition is just a hollow hollywood adaptation of a great book and it's sad so many people are loving it, the thing they love is not Mafia but a shell of its former self.

 

If you want to read.

Edited December 7, 2021 by seaque

[kobeni]

42 minutes ago, seaque said:

 

Bad? This is amazing. This franchise will no longer suffer from Hangar 13. It can finally rest in peace. Mafia: Definitive Edition is just a hollow hollywood adaptation of a great book and it's sad so many people are loving it, the thing they love is not Mafia but a shell of its former self.

 

If you want to read.

Sure, the game wasn't replayable, was way too arcadey and a lot of the animations were recycled from III, but I'll be damned if DE's story, atmosphere and acting wasn't objectively better.

Edited December 7, 2021 by sabitsuki

[LittleJesus]

10 hours ago, sabitsuki said:

Sure, the game wasn't replayable, was way too arcadey and a lot of the animations were recycled from III, but I'll be damned if DE's story, atmosphere and acting wasn't objectively better.

Hanger 13 has fine writers and casting crew as proved with III & DE

[seaque]

19 hours ago, sabitsuki said:

Sure, the game wasn't replayable, was way too arcadey and a lot of the animations were recycled from III, but I'll be damned if DE's story, atmosphere and acting wasn't objectively better.

 

I am too biased at this point. They just needed to make heavy combat and keep all the bizarre details in this game (like killing enemy with shooting the lamp above him). But yeah, a good game after all. But Mafia feels more alive, even though it's 20 years old.

Edited December 8, 2021 by seaque

[GhettoJesus]

 

If you haven't played the original Mafia 1 yet but are interested in it then watch out for this deal. Make sure you install the patch that brings back music that got cut in the Steam release.

[Grichka Bogdanoff]

They also confirmed a new Mafia game is well underway, though still a few years away.

Let's see where this goes, hopefully the rumors are accurate

 

[Zello]

Can they release Mafia classic on consoles? DE is nice but I want both versions.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Zello

[Ondr4H]

36 minutes ago, Zello said:

Can they release Mafia classic on consoles? DE is nice but I want both versions.

Im sure it will not happen, this game is really archaic and it will not pay back...

Yes there is PS2 version, but its really step back in every way than PC version.

 

 

I definitely cant wait for new Mafia, few years wait thats really bad. I just want from them small DLC for M:DE in the meantime. But hey, its something.

I really praise them for Unreal 5, because their own engine was just frankenstein monster and it shows sometimes really bad side.

[Mister Pink]

I just finished DE. It's my first time finishing Mafia. I bought it for OG Xbox back in 2005. Wasn't really ready for that type of game yet. I was hyped on Vice City and San Andreas. I really just wanted to play more of those games. I'm so glad Mafia got remade/remastered. I really loved the story. For those that notice differences between the original and the remake, I don't think it's of any consequence to a new player. The story was solid. I actually got slightly emotional at the ending. 

 

The game was also challenging on Medium difficulty which I like. It has the right amount of difficulty that at some parts I had to try and try again. Oftentimes in the last few missions I'd have 15% health and f*ck-all bullets. It just felt a bit realistic. I felt the sense of danger. I knew one bullet and it would be over for me. And I actually had to resort to hand-to-hand combat at the end cause I ran out of bullets. That was absolutely terrifying. 

 

I'm on to Mafia II and the change of controls and camera angles is a bit jarring to get used to. But I remember I enjoyed this game before. I still loved III even for all it's flaws and I get the hate. I think there is room for story-driven 13-15 hour games that don't need so much open-world stuff. However, I do love GTA and I do love the open world. 

 

If Mafia IV is set in Las Vegas, I'd hope the game returns to form in a sense that it pleases original fans as well as fans of the open world. I don't think the open-world is inherently bad for Mafia, it just wasn't executed in the best manner in III. Progression was walled behind levelling up and doing side stuff which I don't think is right. Rockstar seems to be able to do things really well where the story and open world exploration don't have to compete against each other. I'd love to explore Vegas in Mafia and own some casinos and to do work to build my assets outside of the story. But don't make it compulsorary. I think if they just focus on the story and made open-world and extra-story activities optional then it can please both worlds. If you want to just do story, you can can go chapter to chapter. But if you like roleplaying a bit, living in the open-world, there are some crime-related missions to do. Extortion rackets, card games, prostitition, smuggling. And then things to spend your money on like clothing, perhaps upgrades to your apartment or house, cars etc. It doesn't have to be massively open world. Keep it all Mafia-related. Keep it all story-related. Don't let side missions block story progressing. Don't force anyone to do non-story content. Then there's notthing to complain about. 

 

They basically gamified the open-world in Mafia III to the point it was a hindrance. Open world content should be completely optional. The player should choose to engage with it if they want. 

 

An absolute must-have is a proper photo-mode. I probably spend about 30% of my time in games in photo-mode. 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Ondr4H]

There are Rumours about prequel Mafia set on Sicily... With young Salieri and Morello story.

 

But I also heard rumour about Las Vegas.

 

Maybe they have both game in works, who knows.

 

Anyway Im having hope, that they deliver something great story wise...

[Zello]

37 minutes ago, Ondr4H said:

Im sure it will not happen, this game is really archaic and it will not pay back...

Yes there is PS2 version, but its really step back in every way than PC version.

Port the PC version over to modern consoles. That’s what I want.

[Ondr4H]

8 minutes ago, Zello said:

Port the PC version over to modern consoles. That’s what I want.

This game is now giveway. All right...

 

 

And you want from them to invest a decent amount of money to play on PS5 ... Ok

 

Just stick HDMI into TV and run some Xbox controller mod... Easiest solution to everything...

 

[Zello]

46 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

If Mafia IV is set in Las Vegas, I'd hope the game returns to form in a sense that it pleases original fans as well as fans of the open world. I don't think the open-world is inherently bad for Mafia, it just wasn't executed in the best manner in III.

 

I’m going to be disappointed if it’s not open world. Imagine 1970s Vegas a setting many have wanted for years and you can’t explore it. Yes Mafia III was bad but thankfully a lot of the people who were in charge of it either left or were fired. Let’s hope that whoever is in charge of Hangar 13 is getting inspiration from the right places.

[WanteD1]

 

[Mister Pink]

9 minutes ago, Zello said:

I’m going to be disappointed if it’s not open world. Imagine 1970s Vegas a setting many have wanted for years and you can’t explore it. Yes Mafia III was bad but thankfully a lot of the people who were in charge of it either left or were fired. Let’s hope that whoever is in charge of Hangar 13 is getting inspiration from the right places.

That's exactly what I mean. It would be such a tease not have some kind of open world. 

 

They could even be bold and the open world begins after the story. And the open-world co-incides with Story DLC. But, for more purists of the original style, they have have classic Mafia story for 15 chapters, then the world opens up and you can start empire building. Of course it would have make sense to the ending of the story or it jumps to a different character you play.. basically any viable character that comes out of the story can continue on doing side missions, then story DLC etc. Imagine just playing in the open-world while we're waiting for story DLC to drop. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Mister Pink

[universetwisters]

1 hour ago, Zello said:

I’m going to be disappointed if it’s not open world. Imagine 1970s Vegas a setting many have wanted for years and you can’t explore it. Yes Mafia III was bad but thankfully a lot of the people who were in charge of it either left or were fired. Let’s hope that whoever is in charge of Hangar 13 is getting inspiration from the right places.

 

tbh after the saints row reboot and cyberpunk I'm not too hopeful for Mafia 4 being remotely good

 

I mean yea the people who were in charge of Mafia 3 are gone and its up in the air and I really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really want to be proven wrong and Mafia 4 be a hit but I don't see it happening realistically tbh

[Jason]

That's another really early announcement to add to the list, lol.

[Nico]

Indeed, just like the GTA 6 "announcement" is still way too early to start talking. You can't just say you have something being worked on, with nothing valuable to show and still years away from release. You never know what might happen in the meantime; suddenly one day Mr. Zelnick might wake up terrified about a nightmare where the profit estimations of a game where not met by barely one dollar, deem another Mafia game is not worth the risk in the midst of a panic attack, and outright cancel it.

 

The interview with the Mafia staff was a nice read, though.

[_P136_]

19 hours ago, Zello said:

Port the PC version over to modern consoles. That’s what I want.

The classic PC version doesn't even work well on modern PCs. I bought it on GOG a while ago and spent a lot of time trying to stop the vehicle exhaust smoke from flashing (very irritating), which is apparently a thing with newer GPUs (relative to the game's original release date, so virtually any nowadays). Eventually I gave up and decided to wait for the DE.

 

I agree the Mafia world has so much potential though. I've played through all the 3 DE games (except Mafia 2 DLCs) and enjoyed it all but it could be so much more. It's great to see others think the same. Hopefully the developers take note.

[GhettoJesus]

2 hours ago, _P136_ said:

I bought it on GOG a while ago and spent a lot of time trying to stop the vehicle exhaust smoke from flashing (very irritating), which is apparently a thing with newer GPUs (relative to the game's original release date, so virtually any nowadays)

Funny, that has never happened to me and I have an 1050TI. Maybe the widescreen fix could have fixed it, but PC Gaming Wiki hasn't documented this bug yet.

[Ondr4H]

3 hours ago, _P136_ said:

The classic PC version doesn't even work well on modern PCs. I bought it on GOG a while ago and spent a lot of time trying to stop the vehicle exhaust smoke from flashing (very irritating), which is apparently a thing with newer GPUs (relative to the game's original release date, so virtually any nowadays). Eventually I gave up and decided to wait for the DE.

 

I agree the Mafia world has so much potential though. I've played through all the 3 DE games (except Mafia 2 DLCs) and enjoyed it all but it could be so much more. It's great to see others think the same. Hopefully the developers take note.

I would strongly recommend mentioned widescreen fix and capping framerates...

 

I would try 30, like classic GTA ... There can be some framerate related bugs.

[GhettoJesus]

10 hours ago, Ondr4H said:

I would try 30, like classic GTA ... There can be some framerate related bugs.

Since the original Mafia was made for PC it works just fine with 60 FPS. I think you can cap it at 60 in the setup window but I am not sure, you might need the widescreen fix for that.

[_P136_]

11 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

Funny, that has never happened to me and I have an 1050TI. Maybe the widescreen fix could have fixed it, but PC Gaming Wiki hasn't documented this bug yet.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mafia#Flickering_shadows

 

I also used the recommended mods at the time. There are lots of reports of this issue on the GOG forums as well, for example:

https://www.gog.com/forum/mafia/shadow_flickering_problems

https://www.gog.com/forum/mafia/flickering_shadows_1

 

Although it seems there are also new possible solutions that appeared since I last tried it to fix it years ago. At this point, I'd rather just play the DE though.

 

[PolishRye]

seems like nobody mentioned it, soo

mafia 1 OG is going to be fo free on steam in a few hours, up until 5th sept

[kobeni]

On 8/30/2022 at 5:44 AM, universetwisters said:

I really (×20) want to be proven wrong and Mafia 4 be a hit but I don't see it happening realistically tbh

On one hand, the writing, atmosphere and dialogue in both Mafia 3 and DE were great. On the other hand, translating a great story into actual fun gameplay was their greatest weakness. This is something I hope get rectified with the new director and team.

 

Also, I guess I'm a little more optimistic now, but after the generally poor reception on games like Cyberpunk, 2042 and the new Saints Row, I'm pretty sure by now many devs and publishers would already get the message to more or less get their sh*t together. I'd be genuinely surprised if they still did the same sh*t tbh in which case i hope the industry crashes again lol

Edited September 2, 2022 by sabitsuki