Mafia III

The Good
The Graphics are nice and some Songs are also great like the Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. There are also some nice features like your radio could not get 100% of the music Quality if you are driving into a tunnel.

The Bad
Many bugs like the AI that is still to easy on hard. Also you could get many Graphical Glitches or the Police is not following you if you are a little bit of the street. There are also too many collectibles like some of the Story needed Fuses for the phone Box hacking are not needed I still could find around 100 of those Fuses and have over 100 in my inventory after I found every Phone Box. There is also something called Story but I have to say that it is also not so great.

The Bottom Line
If you really want a good looking Mafia Game you could buy it but you better wait for a good Sale. If you want a Mafia Game with a good Story you should Buy Mafia 1. If you want better Graphics then Mafia 1 and a better Story then this Game Mafia 2 would work for you.

The Good
Let's go back in time. Like, really long. No, not the prehistoric times. I'm talking the 1960s. The 60s marked a tremulous period in United States history with the advent of the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement and the evils of those wacky communists plotting to eat your red-blooded American baby. It's one of the most liveliest, disturbing, empowering...and interesting periods in modern US history. So what happens when a game is based around it? Enter Mafia III, the third entry in the critically acclaimed Mafia games.

The main plot is more straightforward and simplified compared to the previous games. You are Lincoln Clay, a biracial orphan in the seemingly divided city of New Bordeaux (aka New Orleans). His adopted family, the Black Mafia, is killed by the Italian Mafia, and is left for dead. Lincoln wants vengeance (duh), so he works with Thomas, a drunk, but cunning Irishman who runs the Irish Mafia, Cassandra, a smooth-talking voodoo queen who is the head of the Haitian Mafia and Vito Scaletta, who is more jaded and cynical than previously seen, to enact revenge and take control, while a priest who serves as Lincoln's voice of reason and a FBI agent provide advice to him. The game's cutscenes play out like a movie; utilizing interviews and fictious footage from news reports and testimonials. The simplicity, while oozing in droves, works and the documentary-style cutscenes are rather well-written. Hell, the entire game is very well-written from top to bottom. The dialogue feels realistic, engaging and punchy, and you can't help but pity the bad guys while you run around destroying their sleazy operations. Well, maybe except for the Ku Klux Klan folks you face later on. The characters are unique and clever in their own way, especially Lincoln, who is badass and evokes comparisons of that to Wei Shen of Sleeping Dogs.

As for New Bordeaux, it's a surprisingly accurate depiction of 1960s New Orleans. It is both divided culturally and location wise, with the racism of the time being captured excellently, and it's shown subtly or overtly from police activity being lower in the poorer neighborhoods to being forced to leave a white-only restaurant, store or gas station. It's also surprisingly realistic and lively: civilians will say hello to you while you cross the street, engage in conversations with friends or family, eat at restaurant, flirt, get drunk, or have sex. These details are not something I'd normally see at this time; so kudos to Hangar 13 for that!

Driving is also really fun. There's a wide variety of vehicles to utilize, from muscle cars to off-road fare, alongside the recent addition of boats. They are absolutely fawn-worthy, especially to car enthusiasts, thanks to the usage of realistic engine effects and handling. There's also an option that allows the driving controls to be more like a driving simulator. The in-game radio stations include a eclectic variety of music at the time, from Jefferson Airplane to the Rolling Stones, which fit the game's time period and are a blast to listen to. The game's original music, while not as memorable, is still well done.

The graphics, sounds, controls and voice acting are great too, and while there's the occasional graphical glitch, the cutscenes are shining with details, right down to the facial effect. Guns sound just as real and even feel meaty when used on anything that's moving or explosive.

The Bad
Being someone that loved the two previous games for their gameplay; Mafia III makes an exception to that...by being repetitious. In contrast to the semi-linear variety of Mafia 1 and II, III was seemingly rushed. The game's pattern of "talk, interrogate, kill, destroy, take over" is repeated constantly. The racket missions are just as bad; where you have to "take vehicle carrying X" to a racket. Combat is also more simplified, especially hand to hand combat, in contrast to II's hand-to-hand combat system, and it's not as fun to beat up goons. The AI is also unspeakably clumsy and foolish; as they do the typical things most dumb AI do - run into walls, shoot random objects thinking it's the player, all of that jazz. It just doesn't feel right in the realistic world of the Mafia games. The repetition bogs down the rest of the game, which is a big letdown when you take the fact that there's some well-done (and even really fun) moments during the story.

III was also clearly rushed to meet the release date deadline. Bugs, glitches and all sorts of goofiness, while patched, are still frequent. One glitch I remember was parking a car near a racket, and the rest of the cars appeared after loading and destroyed it. It was funny, but it stook out. This one is more self-explanatory than it is, and there's videos of glitches on YouTube already.

Next, III also eschews some of the more realistic parts of the previous Mafia games in favor of a more straightforward open world approach: cops won't ticket, arrest or even beat the crud out of you (this was a common sight at the time). Instead, they just chase you until you escape them. This isn't compatible in III's world, I think, and it proves to be a hindrance. The same can be said for some elements too - you can't buy and consume food or drinks, let alone engage in any other side activities, unlike the previous games. It's less Mafia-ey and more...I dunno, streamlined..ey?

Lastly, for something trying to be so realistic and boundary pushing, III didn't touch in some cases, and went crazy with others. The world is massive and amazing, there's no doubt about it, but the world sometimes lack depth. For example, murals are seen in some of the locations, but in the rest, there's nary any. This may seem like a nitpick, but when you take into account that there's bunches of Civil Rights murals in New Orleans alone, that's saying something. Blood effects are just as unrealistic, especially when the NPCs when injured cry in pain and wither on the ground in a disturbing fashion. Apparently, one bullet to a person's brain is enough to paint a house!

The most nit pickiest I can get is with the dev's message before the game. I get the idea, but it's so restrained, politically correct and forced. It just doesn't work for the rest of the game.

The Bottom Line
Mafia III isn't my game of the year, much as I hate to put it. Despite an engaging world, fun moments, clever story elements, excellent writing, and exceptional audio and music, III is bogged by repetition and sometimes a keen lack of self awareness. It feels like an separate IP at times instead of being the Mafia game everyone was looking forward to. It might double as an E-book reader for those wanting to read the Playboy and Hot Rod magazines you collect, but that's about it. If the devs were more willing to take these into accounts, fleshed the game out and such, I would be more than happy to make it into my personal game of the year for 2016.

Fortunately, there is going to be DLC in the future, such as races and new story expansions that might add new stuff, the most recent being outfits. I'm hopeful that the rest of the game improves, but if not, oh well. Maybe Mafia IV won't be so bad...