Editorials Reviews Previews Essays Worth Playing

Mafia III Game preview

Game preview 16 June 2016, 15:02

author: Kristian Smoszna

Mafia III Hands-on – how to free a city in a GTA clone

It was one of the last opportunities to see Mafia III before it’s released in about four months. In Los Angeles we’ve had a chance to see how to rid a city of thugs and what are the consequences of deliberately not appreciating our partners in crime.

This article was written prior to the game's release.

This text was based on the PC version.

There’s really not much time left until the release of Mafia III, so the big presentation of the game at E3 wasn’t a huge surprise by 2K Games. The publisher didn’t disappoint; 2K’s booth was stylized for an old cinema, and we’ve seen quite a piece of the game. Lincoln (the game’s protagonist) was trying to take over the control over one of the big city’s districts, currently controlled by a guy who shouldn’t have it. Gaining control over new areas is one of the key elements of the campaign in the new Mafia. Without them, Lincoln Clay will not be able to expand his sphere of influence, which in turn won’t allow him to fulfill his ultimate objective, which is a good old vendetta on the Italian mobsters who betrayed and killed Lincoln’s friends.

There’ll be some fancy rides in the game. This set of wheels looks like either a Camaro or a ‘Cuda. - 2016-06-17
There’ll be some fancy rides in the game. This set of wheels looks like either a Camaro or a ‘Cuda.

GTA: New Bordeaux

Lincoln’s main area of operations will be New Bordeaux (based on New Orleans), city divided into 9 districts. The districts are going to be very diversified; the Westernmost Delray Hollow consists mostly of not very tall, dispersed buildings; the Northern part of the city, Frisco Fields, is a luxurious district, full of magnificent mansions and well-dressed, respectable WASPs. But each district has its own dose of organized crime, and each has the man who runs it. The showcase focused on the elimination of one of these bosses – a fat man with a big mouth called Lou. The boss of French Wards.

Out of the doorway the bullets rip… - 2016-06-17
Out of the doorway the bullets rip…

Eliminating important gangsters in Mafia III is a two-stage process which requires quite a lot of preparation. First, Lincoln must seriously damage the business ran by the chosen boss, which is achieved with a series of side-quests. Eliminating his partners, blowing up boats with his drugs, kidnapping couriers and taking over brothels, these are only some of the various missions created by people from Hangar 13 studio. Each successful operation fills the quota required to complete stage one. This means that Lincoln needs to deliver a couple of well-aimed blows in order for his opponent to see the effects on his bank account.

Gang wars

There’s going to be a plenty of pretty vistas around the city. Yeah, it’s a Camaro. - 2016-06-17
There’s going to be a plenty of pretty vistas around the city. Yeah, it’s a Camaro.

During the presentation, the developers have shown me one of the ways Lincoln Clay can supply himself with guns and other gadgets, such as Molotov cocktails. The “groceries” can be done by calling a special van, which will arrive somewhere in the neighborhood. Looks like somebody has been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto IV (on the screen)

When Lincoln’s target’s wallet finally becomes empty, the player can initiate stage 2 – eradication. Those are full-blown story missions with many scripts and cut-scenes. In the example shown by 2K, Lou was aboard a ship, so Lincoln had to damage it first, than swim up to it, mow down a flock of bodyguards and only then he could perform the execution. The authors have said, however, that a frontal attack isn’t the only possibility; such missions might as well be executed stealthily. In our example, however, all hell broke loose kind of quickly, so there was no way to play cat and mouse. As long as Lincoln was trying to stay behind cover, he remained unseen by all those the rascals on the ship. But then it got nasty, and all kinds of grenades, rifles, shotguns and Molotov’s prevented the protagonist from performing any subtle moves.

Serious talks of real men end with a hand-kiss. - 2016-06-17
Serious talks of real men end with a hand-kiss.

The mechanics of Mafia III seem to perform smoothly. There’s a typical TPP cover system, making it substantially easier to decimate enemies’ numbers from behind the walls and marble columns. The players will always know the attitude of their enemies – it’s now indicated above the minimap. There are three possibilities: ‘no witnesses’ means things are calm, ‘alarmed’ means that the thugs are looking for Lincoln, and ‘combat’ means that there’s a dozen dudes with machine guns trying to tear you apart, which is kind of self-explanatory.

Game of mafia thrones

Once the player manages to capture a given district, they have to decide which of their lieutenants will take care of running it. And things get pretty interesting here. Lincoln is able to give the control over a district only to one person, which certainly won’t make the rest happy. For the sake of the presentation, the devs favored Cassandra and ignored Burke from the beginning. Without any serious task, Burke eventually felt humiliated and left the organization, betraying Lincoln in the process. His decision then resulted in a new story mission, in which Clay had to go to a junkyard belonging to his former partner, and eliminate him after a pretty long gunfight. Of course, nothing stands in the way of those players who want to try and treat all their partners equally, but it’s nice that the devs have taken some alternatives into consideration and prepared additional quests in case of mutiny.

Feel the atmosphere? - 2016-06-17
Feel the atmosphere?

Finishers look great in Mafia III. They are different depending on what sort of weapon is Lincoln wielding in his great paws. The authors have provided many spectacular animations, most of which is gnarly-brutal. Shooting somebody three feet away in the back of their head with a semi-automatic is just another day at the office for Lincoln.

This was a great proof that being betrayed by a lieutenant will actually have a big impact on the game. As you might have heard, each of the lieutenants who control a district provides a regular income and different bonuses for Lincoln. Deteriorating relations with his partners-in-crime will mean Lincoln loses those bonuses, which might have otherwise came in really handy during important missions. That Burke guy I mentioned? He can rig your cars with bulletproof tires, for example, which is pretty useful if you’re planning to blow up half of the city’s criminal underworld.

Very solid GTA clone

As a conclusion, a couple of words about the technical side. Mafia III looked amazing during the showcase. This is a GTA clone, but the devs managed to make it real, while setting the game in times that Rockstar just doesn’t touch. I realize that many people would rather see the devs going back to the concept of the original Mafia, which was a linear game but with a very strongly emphasized plot. Some of the people also complained about swapping a besuited Italian with a black war veteran and how it killed the spirit of the series. The change is very apparent indeed, but certainly doesn’t kill the mood. Quite the contrary, in fact. The music perfectly fits the theme of gangsters settling their scores, the world looks beautiful and intriguing, and it certainly has its share of besuited Italians. One of Lincoln’s friends is Vito Scaletta, known from Mafia II, and the Italian mobsters are the main antagonists.

Smoking kills. - 2016-06-17
Smoking kills.

Personally, I really liked what I’ve seen. It assured me that the devs knew what they were doing when choosing this direction and this setting. I appreciate the fact that the third Mafia has its own “personality”, and even though it will not dethrone GTA, it still looks like a bloody decent game. There’s certainly no point in hating it “just because”, since it may mean losing out on a lot of fun on the account of groundless prejudices.

Valheim - the Hot New Online Survival
Valheim - the Hot New Online Survival

game preview

Survival games have been wildly popular, but not many of them absolutely conquered hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of players, getting 96% positive reviews out of almost 17 thousand. What's all the fuss about? Valheim .

Yandere Simulator hands-on – Hitman in a skirt or a rather disturbing high-school murder sim
Yandere Simulator hands-on – Hitman in a skirt or a rather disturbing high-school murder sim

game preview

Yandere Simulator may be one of the weirdest and most disturbing among the games which are currently developed. While it originated in the USA, it’s got a distinct, and intentional, vibe of a morbid Japanese curiosity.

Songs of Conquest Preview: Singing Hymns of High Praise
Songs of Conquest Preview: Singing Hymns of High Praise

game preview

Is Songs of Conquest the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 worthy successor? Do we have a winner? Here's our preview of the Early Access version.

See/Add Comments