When you think of the mob you may not associate it much with New Orleans, but that’s the direction Hangar 13 has gone in for their debut game in the series, Mafia 3. Far from the location seeming out of touch with what we know of the organised crime world, it manages to evoke a new, sinister appeal that should make it one of the big gaming experiences to look forward to in 2016.
For anyone familiar with the previous installments of the game and wondering where the 2K input has gone, you can relax because 2K Czech have been working with Hangar 13 to support in the development of the title and 2K Games will once again be publishing it for release. This should mean that in addition to the series getting a few new ideas, it’ll also be firmly rooted in the exceptional gaming of the previous two outings in the series.
Release date
The Mafia 3 UK release date has been moved back to the 7th October 2016, having previously been slated for the 27th August 2016. It will arrive on the same day in the US and confirms our prediction that it would be out at some point towards the end of the year. The push back has given Hangar 13 time to fine tune the finished article without worrying too much about a release date looming, so hopefully it’ll mean the game is as slick as it can be, and from the look of the gameplay trailer below that looks like it might be the case.
It’ll be available on Xbox ONE, PlayStation 4 and PC, as well as making its way to Mac OS X, which is good news for any frustrated Apple gamers out there.
Story
The plot is shaping up to be a crucial ingredient in the potential success of the game, which you can see for yourself in the story trailer below. It centres around a Vietnam War veteran called Lincoln Clay who returns to his home in New Orleans to find that the Italian mob have got the upper hand. When they attack and leave his own Black Mob “family” dead and burned to a crisp he sets out to exact his revenge and take control of the city with the help of a few key associates.
One of the cooler elements of this is that he’ll have Vito Scaletta at his side, who, for anyone that missed out on the previous game, was the main character in Mafia II. Eighteen years on from the the majority of the previous game, Vito has picked up a fair few grey hairs, so it’s going to be interesting to get the back story of what he’s been up to since his epic battles in Empire City.
The immersive storyline from the previous game was one of their defining characteristics and we’re expecting that to be the same again here, especially with the setup of Lincoln’s orphan upbringing, new family and return from the war. However, things get really interesting when you take into account the fact that there will be multiple endings and plot developments to the game depending on the decisions you make as you develop, so it should really feel like a personal journey as you fight your way to the top.
Mafia 3 story trailer:
The game has been given an ESRB Rating M for MATURE in the US, which means that there’ll be blood, intense violence, nudity, scenes of a sexual nature, effing and jeffing, use of drugs and alcohol. Visit ESRB for more information. In the UK, that equates to a PEGI rating of 18. Visit PEGI for more details.
Gameplay
As with previous games in the series, Mafia III will be a third-person action adventure that will see you taking control of Lincoln as he wages war with the Southern mafiosi. It’s open world setting will give you 1968 New Orleans as your playground, which will stretch up to the swamps and bayous on the outskirts of the city, giving you the perfect place to get rid of unwanted dead weight in the belly of beasts out in the wetlands.
Gunfights play a big part of the progression throughout the game, so you’ll have all manner of old school shooters at your command, but with Lincoln’s war training you’ll also have explosive weaponry like grenades to up the ante in your battle with the Italian Mob. The action has auto trigger targeting to hone in on enemies quickly as well as free aiming to go for any head-shots you need to swathe through the ranks quickly.
You’ll also have the added protection of what appears to be a fairly solid cover and fire system that makes the same feature in Watch_Dogs look cumbersome in comparison. The smartest feature is the way Lincoln can shoot without leaving the protection of cover, so you can either take out an enemy with a lucky shot or lay down some push back fire to to give you an opportunity to set up the perfect kill shot.
Your main man’s army training doesn’t just come in handy with the weaponry and gun fights as he also has some pretty brutal melee attacks that range from simple combat to rush take-downs. These come in handy if you’re trying to conserve ammo or if you just have a few anger issues that you want to blow some steam on in the controlled environment of the crime land game. However, they also take a very sinister twist in Lincoln’s stab move, which if we’re being honest is a bit too brutal for our sensibilities.
It’s not all guns, grenades and gut punches though, because you’ll also be able to do a fair bit of sneaking around to get the job done with as little attention as possible. Nowadays, action adventure games wouldn’t really be complete without a good amount of stealth gameplay to look forward to and Mafia III is no different, but it does make things a whole lot more interesting and if it gets it right then it could help to ratchet the tension up as you make your way through the game.
Ever since Grand Theft Auto entered the fray, cars have become almost as much a part of third-person adventures as stealth has, so you’ll have lots of old classics to career around the city in. To add in something new, Hanger 13 has built in a feature that involves you using your craziest driving technique to help you interrogate an enemy. With you behind the wheel driving like a lunatic and them in the passenger seat bricking it, it doesn’t take long to make them sing. Once you’ve got the information that you need you can either kill them mercilessly or spare them by letting them jump out of your fast moving car and hope for the best.
It’s a nice touch, but the reality is that the success of the game will be massively impacted by the quality of the driving experience itself. The fact that there’s a driving combat capability should help to make this come to live, and it’ll be added to by the cinematic element to the way cars react in different situations, with the kind of over-sized movement action that you might be used to seeing in Fast And Furious films.
With some similarities to the territory control element of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, you’ll be able to muscle in on gang real estate by beating and taken over from your rivals. Once you’ve done that you’ll then be able to allocate the newfound territories to one of your three main associates to run for you. Essentially, it’s an old school turf war and if you can string all of the skills together it should make for an immersive addition to your games roster.
Graphics
The look and feel of the game may not be ground breaking as such, but it is very slick, with a good level of detail and activity in every scene you find yourself in, whether it’s a dark graveyard teaming with a gang of drug dealers or the dangerous bayous.
The real brilliance of the graphics for Mafia III is the attention to cinematography that is built into the style of the game. It really looks like its been crafted for the big screen with stunning lighting effects, powerful shading, epic shifts of the camera angle during take-downs and impressive environmental features like smoke machines on the dance floor.
Perhaps the coolest development of this is the fact that explosions move the environment and people in it in the direction of the blast in a way that we just haven’t seen done as well previously. Throw a grenade into a room with mob enemies in it and they’ll fly off in the direction of the blast zone, taking chairs, desks and whatever else is in the line of fire too. It looks super slick and if the game is made up of the same level of attention to detail then it will definitely justify it’s placement in our top 20 Xbox ONE games in 2016 to look forward to.
First impressions
Mafia III looks like it’s going to be a whole lot of fun as it takes the best elements from the previous entries in the series and melds them with the best of much-loved third-person action adventure games like Grand Theft Auto V, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Watch_Dogs. Decent graphics with a cinematic quality, the prospect of another sweeping mafia story and ferocious action should be enough to bring in a lot of gamers, whether they’re new to the series or seasoned veterans.
It feels a bit like a low tech, 1960s equivalent of Watch_Dogs, but with a mean streak. It’s hard to say why we’re so surprised by the exuberant stabbing take-down that Lincoln lashes out with in the gameplay video below, but it does feel a bit excessive. That aside, it looks like its going to be a big hit when the release date rolls around in a few days.
