Played on PS5
The most generous six out of 10 I can possibly give; I never want to play an open world game that is designed like this ever again (Google "Sunk Cost Fallacy"). The whiplash I felt between one of the greatest stories I've experienced in gaming and some of the most repetitive mind numbing tasks ever in an open world game was simultaneously infuriating and confusingly addicting.
The story, writing, and acting/animation is on par with the first two games in that it is fucking stellar! Every actor brings their A-game and the script itself expands upon the first two games' themes while being its own thing completely: taking down the Mafia from the outside as opposed to working your way through the ranks internally (which I thought was a cool way to differentiate itself from the previous games)! The design of the New Borudoux is super authentic to 1968 and the addition of actual Albums, Playboy mags / articles, and paintings from the era gives this game a phenomenal sense of authenticity and attention to time period detail.
When the game first started, I thought the side missions were going to be on par with the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, but, unfortunately, as the game goes along it is very evident that all of the interesting cut-scenes and dialogues that you have with side NPCs are relegated to the first few missions and the cutscene quality within side missions downgrades exponentially (the cutscenes and their cinematography remain, however, more and more of them begin using the in-game animation, as opposed to the highly realistic pre-rendered cut scenes, which I assume is due to a lack of development time).
Completing a checklist of menial tasks over and over again for every single underboss in every district got tiring after the fourth hour of the game. Once a Racket’s checklist is completed, a main story mission (or two) is unlocked, but this method of dulling out the story was honestly so frustrating. I played for roughly 56 Hours completing all the main DLC story missions prior to the main missions themselves because they don't require nearly as much obnoxious shit to be done in order to progress (not to mention, the individual and partially isolated stories told within the DLC sections are exceptional and on par with the quality of the main story thematically and in presentation).
The main problem lies in the fact that the game tries to be more like an Ubisoft open world while maintaining the linear and exceptionally well done story of the first two Mafia games, and the balancing act completely fails because the same tasks are repeated at nauseam throughout the entire game besides a few street races or Rescue missions here and there. The fact that the game is no longer linear means that the lack of fast travel in the open world drags on as many tasks have you driving from one end of the map to the other and it's tedious as all hell. A balance could have worked, but thanks to this new skewed design, the cops and their interaction with the player has been significantly simplified from the previous games which is a shame; traffic laws hardly matter anymore as long as you don't hit anybody which takes away from the more realistic feeling world compared to GTA that this series was known for up until this point.
Driving itself is still fun and the gun-play is serviceable but the only reason I stuck with the game for so long is because the story gripped me from the start (the first 3 hours felt like a traditional Mafia game before the bloated and repetitive mission structure began to take over). I liked the ending I got...
...with Lincoln leaving town & Vito ruling the city.
The game, for the most part looks beautiful, but runs sloppily even on PlayStation 5. The Weather changes are sporadic and very glitchy, and a lot of the time reflections don't work properly coupled with a draw distance that clips environments/models in and out (while I got used to it, it was very distracting for the first dozen or so hours).
If you can get this game on sale and really liked the first two games, I would definitely say try it out and make up your own opinion. By the end I was rushing through some of the tasks on an easier difficulty to experience the story, because completing everything to 100% completion is mind numbing and in my opinion not very fun. With all that said, however, the game was very ambitious and my final score reflects the craft in the art direction, period detail, and how much I enjoyed the story.
P.S. I loved the radio stations, but the songs repeated themselves waaaaay too often, but I do understand licensing popular Classic Rock & Blues from the 60's is probably a lot more expensive than the jazz and early rock 'n' roll of the 40s and 50s from the previous two games.
The most generous six out of 10 I can possibly give; I never want to play an open world game that is designed like this ever again (Google "Sunk Cost Fallacy"). The whiplash I felt between one of the greatest stories I've experienced in gaming and some of the most repetitive mind numbing tasks ever in an open world game was simultaneously infuriating and confusingly addicting.
The story, writing, and acting/animation is on par with the first two games in that it is fucking stellar! Every actor brings their A-game and the script itself expands upon the first two games' themes while being its own thing completely: taking down the Mafia from the outside as opposed to working your way through the ranks internally (which I thought was a cool way to differentiate itself from the previous games)! The design of the New Borudoux is super authentic to 1968 and the addition of actual Albums, Playboy mags / articles, and paintings from the era gives this game a phenomenal sense of authenticity and attention to time period detail.
When the game first started, I thought the side missions were going to be on par with the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, but, unfortunately, as the game goes along it is very evident that all of the interesting cut-scenes and dialogues that you have with side NPCs are relegated to the first few missions and the cutscene quality within side missions downgrades exponentially (the cutscenes and their cinematography remain, however, more and more of them begin using the in-game animation, as opposed to the highly realistic pre-rendered cut scenes, which I assume is due to a lack of development time).
Completing a checklist of menial tasks over and over again for every single underboss in every district got tiring after the fourth hour of the game. Once a Racket’s checklist is completed, a main story mission (or two) is unlocked, but this method of dulling out the story was honestly so frustrating. I played for roughly 56 Hours completing all the main DLC story missions prior to the main missions themselves because they don't require nearly as much obnoxious shit to be done in order to progress (not to mention, the individual and partially isolated stories told within the DLC sections are exceptional and on par with the quality of the main story thematically and in presentation).
The main problem lies in the fact that the game tries to be more like an Ubisoft open world while maintaining the linear and exceptionally well done story of the first two Mafia games, and the balancing act completely fails because the same tasks are repeated at nauseam throughout the entire game besides a few street races or Rescue missions here and there. The fact that the game is no longer linear means that the lack of fast travel in the open world drags on as many tasks have you driving from one end of the map to the other and it's tedious as all hell. A balance could have worked, but thanks to this new skewed design, the cops and their interaction with the player has been significantly simplified from the previous games which is a shame; traffic laws hardly matter anymore as long as you don't hit anybody which takes away from the more realistic feeling world compared to GTA that this series was known for up until this point.
Driving itself is still fun and the gun-play is serviceable but the only reason I stuck with the game for so long is because the story gripped me from the start (the first 3 hours felt like a traditional Mafia game before the bloated and repetitive mission structure began to take over). I liked the ending I got...
...with Lincoln leaving town & Vito ruling the city.
The game, for the most part looks beautiful, but runs sloppily even on PlayStation 5. The Weather changes are sporadic and very glitchy, and a lot of the time reflections don't work properly coupled with a draw distance that clips environments/models in and out (while I got used to it, it was very distracting for the first dozen or so hours).
If you can get this game on sale and really liked the first two games, I would definitely say try it out and make up your own opinion. By the end I was rushing through some of the tasks on an easier difficulty to experience the story, because completing everything to 100% completion is mind numbing and in my opinion not very fun. With all that said, however, the game was very ambitious and my final score reflects the craft in the art direction, period detail, and how much I enjoyed the story.
P.S. I loved the radio stations, but the songs repeated themselves waaaaay too often, but I do understand licensing popular Classic Rock & Blues from the 60's is probably a lot more expensive than the jazz and early rock 'n' roll of the 40s and 50s from the previous two games.