Low Points, High Stakes, Endless Routine
This game doesn't really follow the structure most of the Mafia series was building up to Mafia II. The old ones were linear story-focused shooting games in a open world setting, with little to do outside the main story. Mafia III on the other hand tries it's best to make a wider use of the city and buildings gameplay-wise, and it success at some points. The main difference with the older games is that this ain't linear, it's mission based.
Let's talk about the most glaring issue this game drags from start to the very end. It's repetitive, really repetitive. Most of the time you follow a routine just to continue the main story.
Before anything, you have your subordinates. Cassandra, Burke and Vito. They will manage your business and districts once you adquire them.
I'm not kidding, this is what you'll do for the rest of the game:
"The Start Line"
First go to Donnovan, he'll give you information about the overall operation. He will say he knows a man that knows another man that knows the guy you are after.
"Uh oh, chores"
Go to the man that knows some information about the district business that is directly connected to the guy you are looking for in the first place. A bunch of missions will be added.
"The Fun Part"
Piss off the dude running the business on set district by destroying his assets or killing people related to set business and make their income gain goes to 0$.
"Taking Over: The Business"
Once made their income gain go to 0$, head on to the guy that knows the information about set district, the very same one you met a Step 2. Now he'll give you the order to kill the dude that runs that business. Once that is done you will have the business for yourself and subordinates. Choose between the 3 underlings to run over the business you just unlocked.
"Taking Over: The District: Finish Line"
Do that 2 or 3 times and Donnovan will give you the order to kill the big guy that is running the whole operation on set district. Once you are done, he'll give you the district alongside the business you already unlocked.
It doesn't sound bad on paper for a gameplay loop, funny number gets bigger. But what I just explained gets repeated through the entire game with little to no variation. It's structure is that simple and predictable. But, it's not all negatives though, there are missions that take a linear approach to it's design like in the older games. Those missions get special threatment, mechanics and are great once you quit the slog (the repetitive missions), leading to that moment.
You can also play side-missions that are much of the same: Kill a certain dude in case of Vito and steal X in the case of Cassandra and Burke. Don't bother with those really unless you have some minutes to spare.
Gameplay wise, it's good. This is what kept me going all the way to the end. It's snappy, fast, fluid and brutal. You will be getting little upgrades after making your subordinates happy after giving them a business or a district. Say, Vito gives you the chance to summon some of his man to a shootout, it's good stuff. It's an entertaining loop, but one that gets very tiring after a while. It should've been shorter in my opinion, but the repetitive missions I talked, get reduced to little annoyances you have to do to get to the very end after you get most of the upgrades.
One thing that made me buy this game no joke were the cutscenes, the songs and the writting. It's just too damn good and full of charisma for an era that wasn't explored that much in games, the end of the 60's or plain the 60's. 'Nam, War, Race and big changes to the american society in general. "A time to dream". It nails the ambience of the period with a great arrangement of songs of famous artist of the time (and still are to this day). Steppewolf, Jimmy Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash all safe but great selections. Personally they are the best choices, but I would've liked something more unique.
As I said before, the script and the characters is what sold me. Favorite? Donnovan, he's just so fun while on screen, Father James is up there too. Father James in particular got to participate a documentary about him and his relationship with Lincoln, the main character. As for Donnovan, he is brought a senate comitee to tell his role on Lincoln's crime career. Pieces of that documentary and congress tapes will be shown as we progress in the game.
About my personal experience with this game. Had like 6 or so crashes and 11 five second stutters on Xbox One played through Xbox Series X. Can't say if the PC or PS4 version suffers the same problems but this damn game is very unstable to me.
This game doesn't really follow the structure most of the Mafia series was building up to Mafia II. The old ones were linear story-focused shooting games in a open world setting, with little to do outside the main story. Mafia III on the other hand tries it's best to make a wider use of the city and buildings gameplay-wise, and it success at some points. The main difference with the older games is that this ain't linear, it's mission based.
Let's talk about the most glaring issue this game drags from start to the very end. It's repetitive, really repetitive. Most of the time you follow a routine just to continue the main story.
Before anything, you have your subordinates. Cassandra, Burke and Vito. They will manage your business and districts once you adquire them.
I'm not kidding, this is what you'll do for the rest of the game:
"The Start Line"
First go to Donnovan, he'll give you information about the overall operation. He will say he knows a man that knows another man that knows the guy you are after.
"Uh oh, chores"
Go to the man that knows some information about the district business that is directly connected to the guy you are looking for in the first place. A bunch of missions will be added.
"The Fun Part"
Piss off the dude running the business on set district by destroying his assets or killing people related to set business and make their income gain goes to 0$.
"Taking Over: The Business"
Once made their income gain go to 0$, head on to the guy that knows the information about set district, the very same one you met a Step 2. Now he'll give you the order to kill the dude that runs that business. Once that is done you will have the business for yourself and subordinates. Choose between the 3 underlings to run over the business you just unlocked.
"Taking Over: The District: Finish Line"
Do that 2 or 3 times and Donnovan will give you the order to kill the big guy that is running the whole operation on set district. Once you are done, he'll give you the district alongside the business you already unlocked.
It doesn't sound bad on paper for a gameplay loop, funny number gets bigger. But what I just explained gets repeated through the entire game with little to no variation. It's structure is that simple and predictable. But, it's not all negatives though, there are missions that take a linear approach to it's design like in the older games. Those missions get special threatment, mechanics and are great once you quit the slog (the repetitive missions), leading to that moment.
You can also play side-missions that are much of the same: Kill a certain dude in case of Vito and steal X in the case of Cassandra and Burke. Don't bother with those really unless you have some minutes to spare.
Gameplay wise, it's good. This is what kept me going all the way to the end. It's snappy, fast, fluid and brutal. You will be getting little upgrades after making your subordinates happy after giving them a business or a district. Say, Vito gives you the chance to summon some of his man to a shootout, it's good stuff. It's an entertaining loop, but one that gets very tiring after a while. It should've been shorter in my opinion, but the repetitive missions I talked, get reduced to little annoyances you have to do to get to the very end after you get most of the upgrades.
One thing that made me buy this game no joke were the cutscenes, the songs and the writting. It's just too damn good and full of charisma for an era that wasn't explored that much in games, the end of the 60's or plain the 60's. 'Nam, War, Race and big changes to the american society in general. "A time to dream". It nails the ambience of the period with a great arrangement of songs of famous artist of the time (and still are to this day). Steppewolf, Jimmy Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash all safe but great selections. Personally they are the best choices, but I would've liked something more unique.
As I said before, the script and the characters is what sold me. Favorite? Donnovan, he's just so fun while on screen, Father James is up there too. Father James in particular got to participate a documentary about him and his relationship with Lincoln, the main character. As for Donnovan, he is brought a senate comitee to tell his role on Lincoln's crime career. Pieces of that documentary and congress tapes will be shown as we progress in the game.
About my personal experience with this game. Had like 6 or so crashes and 11 five second stutters on Xbox One played through Xbox Series X. Can't say if the PC or PS4 version suffers the same problems but this damn game is very unstable to me.