Mafia 3: Video Game Review

Mafia 3 had every chance to be a good game. Interesting setting and non-trivial time age. Exciting cinematic videos. And like a cherry on a cake: the iconic origins of the series and a powerful publisher behind his back. Let’s do it.

Plot

Revenge, revenge never changes. Revenge is very convenient. One way or another it can give justification to many things, to give motivation to many actions. Especially in the place, it falls where it is necessary to justify the violence and give a motive for this very violence. That’s why revenge is so popular with writers of “violent” projects. Revenge is obsessed with the Marvel Punisher, it is driven by the Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed. But is such a scenario crutch so bad, allowing you to explain the blood rivers spilled by the protagonist without much effort. After all, there is “Count Monte Cristo” or “The Lucky Number of Slevin”, which means revenge itself does not mean that the plot is bad.

As you have probably understood, the main motive and the core of the plot is revenge. Whose, to whom and for what we will deal with.

Lincoln Clay was born and raised in the Afro-American ghetto of New Bordeaux. The mother is unknown, the father is all the more so. Formally brought up in a church shelter for boys, but in fact, the main education was entered at a young age in the gang Sammy Robinson, the leader of the main black group of the city. At the same time as a child, he became friends with Sammy’s son – Ellis, the son of the leader of the Irish gang – Danny Burke and the son of a local Don, who holds the city – Georgie Marcano. It is very fortunate that the homeless black boy befriended three people so different in status and origin. It is also very fortunate that our hero liked his boss so much that he treats him almost better than his own son. Either way, it’s a given that can only be accepted. No one is going to explain why everyone likes Lincoln so much and why they are such a close-knit family.

But our hero would not be himself, if not volunteered in the army, where, of course, served in the special forces. During the Vietnam War, he receives a number of very specific skills and even more specific acquaintances. But unlike Vito, this part of Clay’s life won’t show us. In general, the theme of Vietnam veterans is very popular in the West. From it is possible to draw and draw psychological problems and social conflicts: from concussions and “Vietnam flashbacks” to the theme of unsupported wars. It would be interesting to see how during the shootout the hero covers a flashback: the scenery is replaced from the streets to the jungle and the surrounding turn into soldiers of the Vietcong. I guess I’m asking too much. But at least the classic laments that “we thought we were heroes, fought for our country, and at home, we were waiting only for indifference and accusations of murder” could bring. Well, at least one nitty-gritty hippie tomato threw in an army jacket. Only at the beginning, Lincoln meets at the stop another veteran, who throws up the phrase that civilians do not understand them. This is the psychological and social consequences of the war for the hero. A couple of times in history, words like “we did that in Vietnam” will flash, but nothing more. For the most part, the very fact of passing the hero through the war does not affect his disclosure. And he is needed solely to explain the friendship with the CIA Donovan and, perhaps, Lincoln’s fighting skills (although, to be honest, his skills are not much different from the skills of a standard thug from the streets).

Rumor has it that in DLC you can see something remotely resembling Vietnam, we certainly will not check it.

Anyway, our veteran is thrown from his place in the tutorial: a little showdown with a rival Haitian gang and a big robbery. In a large robbery involved all childhood friends, their parents, and relics of the last part of the series. Here everything develops classically: the perfect plan, then something goes wrong, improvisation on the move, shootouts, chases, and dénouement with the division of prey in the bar. A good ending to a robbery movie. And suddenly a sudden turn. Italians betray the blacks, interrupt them during the division, and only the main character miraculously escapes from imminent death. Well, not exactly unexpected.

Up to this point, the game appears almost entirely corridor with clearly set as game scenes and cat-scenes. At the same time, the plot videos are very well worked out, especially the scene of betrayal in the bar under Paint it black. Thanks to the staging of the plot in the introduction are different from the rest of the game. Here it is chronologically heterogeneous and replete with techniques like “Two Days Ago.” The mainline goes during the robbery, but periodically appear inserts from the recent past. Despite the fact that flashbacks appear only in training, the rest of the plot was also fragmented, but in a slightly different way.

As such, there is no single storyline for the whole game. There is no such thing here that after completing the job A, you are given the task B, and you smoothly go on the plot. In Mafia 3 you have tasks A1, A2, A3, A4, etc., performing which you get access to more interesting tasks B1, B2, B3, B4, etc.

Offensive after a showdown in the bar, Lincoln decides to take revenge on the offenders, for which he screws up the gang. And he did not come up with anything better than methodically exterminating all his assistant’s abuser. Sal Marcano (the same offender) has three capos, each capo has two lieutenants, and each of the lieutenants has two stewards. At the same time to get to the Don can not be removed capo, to the capo – without removing lieutenants and managers, to the lieutenant – not removing the managers, to the manager – not ruining the business, and to ruin the business you need to perform a number of side tasks. On the pros and cons of such a feed in the gameplay, we will talk later, and for now, we will focus on the plot aspects.

Promote the plot only tasks to eliminate lieutenants and capa. Behind each of them hides its own story and set of staged cinematic katscen: some of them are the personal accountant of the Family, and in his ledger kept all the secrets of the Don, and someone is not at all enthusiastic about the new course of the organization and dreams to retire. Therefore, the missions to eliminate managers and ruin the business story can not be considered even though they are mandatory for passage.

So, what are the consequences of the plot of this approach? Pretty deplorable. Depending on your own preferences, you can first exterminate all the lieutenants in the city (as I did), or purposefully go to a specific capo (according to the scheme of lieutenant-lieutenant-capo-lieutenant-lieutenant-capo). So at the first approach, you will lead three conditional storylines at the same time and risk confusion: were counterfeiters, and where the casino. And when you consider that between the tasks of lieutenants and capa is a mandatory and quite a long period of “business ruin”, then to keep in mind the plot becomes very difficult.

I’ve seen this scene probably dozens of times, but it’s still good.

The second consequence of the fragmented presentation of the plot is the lack of development in terms of emotional and narrative saturation. Thus, with the linear progression of the plot, it, ideally, gradually gains momentum until it reaches a climax, with each step increasing the degree of emotional engagement and action, if it is required. In Mafia 3, neither the player nor the screenwriter knows in what order the lieutenants or the capo will be killed. Therefore, the writers do not know which fragment to make richer, and in the end, all the story missions are on the same level.

But wait, not in all open-world games the plot is served by fragments, is it also impossible to distract on the side quests and lose the thread of the narrative, as they say, a rare Dovakin will fly to the middle of the main plot. The problem is that in exemplary open-world games there are different storylines, not just individual story missions. When you’re on Trevor’s mission, you can always stop and go to Franklin or Michael’s missions, but you’ll see them as separate scenarios, and they won’t get confused. Mafia 3 missions, on the contrary, are very difficult to differentiate from each other. And we should not forget that the plot missions “need to be earned” by performing secondary tasks, and this seriously inhibits the narrative and also affects the perception.

Although, perhaps, the reason for the poor perception of the plot is not in its presentation, but in its quality. So, we have at our disposal a dark-skinned Vietnam veteran in a far from the most tolerant time, in not the most tolerant city, and also crossed the road to the main criminal boss of this city. What can we do with such a character, which ways we can lead him? Obviously, we can’t do anything with it, and we can only direct it. The plot is simple and just like a bolt, which put on it the writers. Above, I said that revenge itself, despite its simplicity and laziness, does not mean a bad plot. Literature, cinematography and the play-off know many examples of the stunning embodiment of such a motif. But Lincoln Clay’s story is not one of them.

The main goal of the game – to kill Sal Marcano, mafia boss of New Bordeaux. Not to take everything away from him and make him suffer, but just to kill. It would seem, why not go on the first mission to his home and kill? But no our hero decides that then his place will be taken by someone else and therefore it is necessary to kill all the assistants of Sal. This is fair and reasonable. Indeed, organized crime, and even more so the mafia has the ability to survive and after the death of its leader. But what does Lincoln care about? Motivation to destroy the entire criminal empire may appear in a man who lost something due to the actions of abstract crime (a striking example – Punisher: his family catches stray bullets during gang fights, and he decides to destroy crime as a class). Lincoln, on the other hand, lost loved ones because of the specific actions of one particular person, and these actions are personal. Crime and the mafia as a phenomenon did nothing wrong to him. Moreover, he is a criminal himself, not shy of racketeering, drugs and the like. Therefore, his fear that The Place of Sal will be taken by someone else is unjustified and pulled by the ears.

But can Lincoln be excited about becoming a big boss himself? I don’t think so. At the time of his entry, we learn that he had no intention of continuing his criminal activities. He wanted to leave New Bordeaux and lead a simple life. The main catalyst for events was revenge, not ambition. Despite the fact that he actually takes over the criminal business, he says it is always in the key to “take away from” rather than “take away”. And he does not take away wow, and his assistants. He does not interfere in the management and organization of the business. In general, the hero does not make it clear that he wants to manage the organization.

Why did I decide that the protagonist only wanted to kill his enemy, not deprive him of everything and make him suffer? Well, first of all, he says it himself, secondly, the final task is to kill Sal, thirdly, for all the passing and after that, and fourthly, I don’t believe that the writers are capable of anything more. But why did I think writers couldn’t do more? Because almost all the missions are that you go and kill a specially trained man for this man. Once you just put a bug and you can not even kill anyone. Three times, if the memory does not change, you need to save someone. That’s just the actual difference between saving a person and killing him. But maybe there is a difference between the characters themselves, maybe they are deep and developed personalities, because of what their missions become very personal and unique?

Villains, in addition to the most important, appear on the screen in one, maximum – two cat scenes each, just before the mission to eliminate them. And despite the fact that these cut scenes are beautiful and sometimes very well staged, but they physically do not have enough time to open up. Their description is available on the Blacklist menu, which contains a small dossier of each lieutenant and capo, but two paragraphs of text are also not enough to get into the villains. And in general, they are not more than they can stand out, even if they had more time. Personally, I remember the accountant who kept Downtown. First, he’s like Mark Strong of Kingsman, and secondly, the outer shell of a quiet, quiet accountant, hiding a sociopath who can kill a man in cold blood and shoot an RPG in the middle of a hotel room, I thought the most a well-worked personality. All the other plot enemies seemed to me gray, and none of them I can not remember even a couple of days after the passage.

Such a person is able to scare much more than a verzila, waving his fists.

What about the main villains, Sal and Georgie Marcano? They got quite a lot of screens time. Inserts with their participation appear in almost every story-cat scene. Let’s start with Sal, he’s made all this mess, he’s the one at the head of the organization we’re so wanting to destroy. Well, Sal is a very ordinary mobster. He could have been a capo and a lieutenant with the same success. He has nothing to distinguish and elevate him over others. Remember Vito Corleone? He did not throw words, never fussed, did not give free rein to emotions and did not allow himself weakness and carelessness, because “only women and children can be careless.” His behavior has always felt power and power. And when you saw the room where Vito was, you didn’t have any questions about who was in charge. Sal is deprived of such a trait, he is short-tempered and speaks a lot. It is difficult to believe that we have a mafia don in front of us, and not the manager of some factory. But maybe it is allocated some other traits and internal contradictions. Maybe he’s not Vito, he’s Michael. Maybe it fights a man who never wanted to be a criminal, but forced them to become for the sake of the family. Maybe he’s come a long way from a law-abiding citizen to a crime boss, and we can see him as a struggle? No, it would be too much to demand. He’s just a bad man. But still, not all human is alien to him. Sal’s main mission is to build a casino, legalize business and provide a safe and comfortable life for his son. This partly explains why he betrayed Lincoln’s friends and does what he does. Against the background of everything else, it’s not bad.

It’s getting worse with Georgie. As I said, I don’t really understand why he made friends with Lincoln. How exactly the son of Don contacted an orphan from the Afro-American ghetto. It’s weirder now, it was a lot weirder fifty years ago. Maybe they explain it, but I didn’t notice. And it’s not just the difference in the race (although only one would have been enough in the southern states of that time), but also the difference of provisions. The hell with them, peace, friendship, gum. In the introduction, they look almost like best friends. So what kind of old man does he betray all three of his friends and let them in for mince? I’d like to show the boy to a psychiatrist because he has no motive at all. His father did it for the sake of casinos and the legalization of business, fearing for his life. But Georgie doesn’t care. Yes, at some point in time, he admits that he did it on his father’s orders, and he had nothing to do with it. The very popular and fertile soil of relations between fathers and children, motivation to impress a strict, but for some reason hotly loved parent, often and quite successfully used to justify bad deeds. But only during the whole game we never make it clear that Sal – a strict dad, and Georgie tries to impress him and make him proud of himself. And we’ve never been shown that Georgie is a little worried about killing his friends. From what we conclude that he was either faking friends, and then easily killed, or he is a clone soldier who executed the order 66, or the writers scored to prescribe his identity.

Okay, Handsome Jack wasn’t among the villains. Let’s bet on the hero and his assistants. I have nothing to say about the hero. He’s black and that’s about 80% of his personality. His tragedy about the loss of a loved one egg is not worth it, because it is not clear from what these people suddenly turned out to be his loved ones. Maybe I’m just too nitpicking, basically, a couple of scenes before the bar massacre was. And of course, our friend and ludonarrative dissonance were not spared. First, we describe Lincoln as a man of honor who does not kill women under any circumstances. A minute later, I’m going to blow my head out to two girlfriends because they’re interfering with me. Or first, we are described as nasty, bad and vile people dealing with nasty, bad and vile things, and half an hour later we recruit these people and do these things ourselves.

Lincoln’s allies are known by code names: “Haitian,” “The Irishman” and “Not so bad after the third part, right?” The surest thing you can say about them is that they are colorful. Imagine a typical Haitian, Irish and mafia and your mind will draw portraits of Lincoln’s friends. Although the further color is not particularly the case, they can be easily distinguished from each other in contrast to enemies. And they also have some personality traits. Cassandra is very concerned about the situation of blacks in New Bordeaux. She calls Lincoln a brother and Sammy Robinson didn’t like him in the first place because he was white. It’s all the voodoo stuff. Thomas Burke, a man whose boss once took away his territory, who was beaten by life in every possible sense. His every word oozes with incredulity and is like a complaint. And he’s a father, and a series of extremely boring side jobs can reveal him from this side. To work out the character of Vito took a whole game, and he is in more favorable conditions than any of the Mafia 3. But if you evaluate it without looking back at the past, I would call it the most businesslike, and even the most mater.

One of the slogans of Mafia 3: “Family – not those with whom he grew up (born), but those for whom he is ready to die.” At the same time, the emphasis when presenting the characters were put in such a way that the family – it is just our allies, as the antipodes of the classic mafia Family. However, this slogan does not work damn, at least against the Allies. (As I understood dieing our hero is ready only for already killed friends.) There is no chemistry in our “family” and all because they never intersect. In the very first video with Gamescon all three and Lincoln came to the swamp, and it seemed that they will often meet and climb together on the criminal pyramid. In fact, we meet each of them while carrying out their personal missions to eliminate the first lieutenants. After that, you can still meet them when doing their personal extra tasks. Together they meet only when dividing the next territory, but even at the same time, they exchange a couple of phrases only with Lincoln. They do not take part in story missions, do not communicate with each other. Yes, they can provide support: cut off phone lines, bribe the police or send a couple of double-comes to help. Honestly, I have never used these “services” in the whole game, because there was simply no need: it is easier to remove an enemy running to the phone or a witness, the police can leave even on a straight street, and the fight is not difficult at all. As a result, I do not understand why these three slackers are needed.

Although, if you ignore them and do not give new territories, they become very emotional.

The CIA and the Priest are the most interesting among the CIA entourage. John Donovan, a CIA agent whom Lincoln met in Vietnam. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about the joy with which they became so friends that with them so incredibly close happened that the acting CIA agent throws all his business and for a few months is taken to help our hero destroy the criminal empire municipal spill while violating virtually every U.S. law. I was tormented by this whole game, and until the credits, I could not understand such a game convention. But in a small scene after the credits, the explanation of this striking altruism was still found. Yes, it looks like it’s obviously sucked out of your finger, but thank you for bothering to explain it at all.

I don’t really have any complaints about Donovan. He is obviously a complete sociopath, cynical to the bone, but for some reason deeply incomprehensible to me, he is fanatically devoted to his friends and his country. He believes in the righteousness of his path and believes that nothing can be more important than his mission. It is the archetype of a bad cop, an antihero who spits on formalities and rules to achieve his goal. Steal FBI equipment to install illegal wiretapping? Easily. And though it is an interesting presentation of the plot. The video includes stylized recordings of Donovan’s interrogation by the Senate committee investigating Lincoln.

On the other hand, we have a father, James Ballard. And seriously, I’d like to play him instead of Lincoln. I’m even willing to say that I won’t be allowed to kill anyone in a game like this. And all because Father James, the only one in the game has real emotions and feelings, attachments and beliefs. In the game, we hardly see him, only at the beginning and at the end because he absolutely disapproves of The Initiative of Lincoln. But nevertheless, he has a lot of screens time, as though it also serves a plot, in the form of an interview for a most likely documentary, filmed in our time. Most of the time he just talks about something related to Lincoln, but always in his words, you feel love for his adopted son. You know such a characteristic love, which can be seen in the eyes of old people to their grown-up children, who often far and almost forgot about their parents. Father James’s goal is to save Lincoln’s soul, to preserve the little human that is left in it. The most juice – the story of the priest at the end of the game, after the choice of the ending. He can speak with a proud smile for his son, who eventually came off the slippery slope. Or vice versa, with tears of annoyance and disappointment, if this son breaks his heart.

In fact, I chose my ending only so as not to upset the old man. So at least the game was able to reach me at that moment, and it’s definitely good. In general, there are five endings in the game. Most youtube channels divide them into a group of good, acceptable and bad (I guess I watched the rest of the endings, not overpassed). But strictly speaking of such division the game does not give, almost everyone can be good for someone. And each puts a point in the story. The main three lines of the ending are chosen at the very end, after the final mission, and you can easily see all three endings, rather than sloppy as I am. Promotion.

Would you be able to break that old man’s heart?

When I started writing this chapter of the review, I expected to praise the story. I liked the story missions during the game, perhaps because of the bright contrast with the rest of the content. And perhaps our subjective opinion is not always rational, and the attitude to anything is not built at the expense of arithmetic manipulations with advantages and disadvantages alone. Again, I really liked the staging of the plot scenes, especially remembered the video after the plot mission with “Woman Capo” – Olivia Marcano. And, of course, the scene of the massacre in the bar. Such a warm beginning, especially after we try to show friendship and family affections. And then “Paint it black” is turned on. If this plot twist had not been pro-spoiler at the time of the announcement, if this scene had not been shown already in the second trailer, it would have been just tearing. But no matter what, she’s still good. Largely due to the music. Yes, the soundtrack is good. Although to be honest it’s a bit “bitter” – it’s the sixties! Here the Rolling Stones and Ramowns, Johnny Cash and Diana Ross, realize that my delight here is too subjective. Fans of opera or heavy metal, electronics and hip-hop will have nothing to listen to in the game. What can I do, to evaluate music differently than subjectively it is very difficult.

I also liked the story. Not a ragged presentation of plot missions, namely the plot. In addition to the direct plot cat scenes, showing what is happening in the game, there are also inserts of James’s father, John Donovan and Agent Maguire. And the feeling of the game is not that a documentary, or a crime drama with a slant under the documentary. “Leads” this film agent Maguire in our time, he operates only facts known to the public or investigation. He was not an eyewitness to events, so he has to restore the chronology of events, and he also has a very unambiguous assessment of Lincoln. By the way, he also reacts to the failure of the story mission in the framework from “Obviously, Lincoln Clay’s way could end only so” to “It is impossible, this was not, he could not die in the beginning!” At the same time, James’ father is interviewed, and although we do not hear the interviewer, it is obvious that he answers the questions. He was also not an eyewitness to most of the events but was very close to the hero. On his shoulders is the duty to tell about Lincoln as a person and to give an emotional coloring. John Donovan, in turn, brings the story through archival recordings of his interrogation by the Senate Committee. And because John was practically a direct participant in the events, and that he was interrogated shortly after these very events, his information is the most substantive and reliable.

In general, the plot and plot tasks to evaluate unequivocally I can not. During the game I liked it, but taking apart it in detail, I realized that it is not so good, if not bad. But his serve is so good that I did not notice these shortcomings in the process. Mafia 3 can not be called a good story game. You can’t play it just for the story. But as a background, as it is in most games and is, its plot fully justifies. The game can be compared with the average crime drama, not the Godfather and not Glorious Guys, but on TV twist and in the movies people also go, “you can look once.”

Side quests

By side quests I understand in this game, first, directly side-quests, that is, the tasks of assistants of your allies or personal favors to the allies themselves, which do not affect the plot and can be freely ignored, and, secondly, the mission to capture/destroy someone else’s business.

The first category is optional, as they say, from the word “general.” In general, it comes down to kill someone or go there somewhere. Strictly speaking, the same as the story missions only the scope of the smaller and cinematic cut scenes are not. If you suddenly think that you shoot very little and the degree of senseless violence suddenly began to decrease, then please kill these no different from other fools. Another not very obvious feature is the improvement of relations with an ally. There is a rumor that if you perform a lot of bows of the ally, he will not betray you, even if you deprive it of territory. Fans of the second Mafia may be interested to pass the Vito line to find out what’s up with Joe. But I would not advise spending time on it, nothing interesting there will be.

The second category is more interesting, not gameplay, of course, but structurally. By their presentation (and I mean the absence of any set cat scenes and complete monotony) they definitely look like side missions, which exist only to artificially increase the time of full passage. However, it is impossible to call them formally by-products or optional, because they are very mandatory. Without them, you can’t access story missions. As I said above, the plot missions are to kill lieutenants and capo. To kill the lieutenant, you need to capture his two businesses, and to kill the capo, you need to kill two lieutenants and capture two businesses of the capo. There are 3 capa, which means 6 lieutenants, which means 18 businesses. 18, Carl! (Is this meme still alive?) Because of this scheme, the takeover of the business becomes the main game mechanics of the game and still stretches the passage of the plot several times.

Fortunately or unfortunately, everyone will decide for himself, but just so to conduct 18 raider captures developers seemed not enough. Capturing a business is not just one job, but a whole set of jobs. For some reason, every manager in the city is elusive paranoid, albeit not very smart and appears in the world only if his business is covered with a copper pelvis. Our task is to lure the manager, causing damage for a certain amount. By the way, if you still have few tasks, which can be accessed only through another task, then half of the tasks that are part of the ruin of the business can be passed only after the mission to interrogate the informant.

The informant is supposed to be interrogated through a dangerous car ride to scare him. It was easier for me to blow him up with a grenade, to interrupt the environment and calmly interrogate without any stunts. Yes, informants are immortal until you interrogate them. In addition to questioning informants, there are other tasks. In general, they can be divided into the murder of the assistant manager and the destruction of any property. Thank God you don’t have to do all the tasks. It is enough just to cause the necessary damage, sometimes it takes a couple of tasks, but mostly more.

That’s how businesses really take over, not through complex economic schemes.

It ends with an attack on the manager’s headquarters. And then you have a wide tactical space. You can kill everyone. You don’t have to kill anyone. You can kill everyone in the open. You can kill everyone with stealth. You can kill some stealth and the rest in the open. You can’t kill everyone. And if you have a wiretap near these headquarters, you can lure the manager to his side instead of killing. How does it work? In theory, thanks to the wiretap Lincoln learns any points of pressure on the manager and, using this information, recruits the right person. In fact, he puts a knife to his throat and makes an offer that can not be refused. It is not clear why the wiretap is needed. Perhaps it was necessary to give the players the opportunity to decide to attack the headquarters at once when there are full of fighters and all sorts of fortifications and weapons or to weaken the manager of the ruin of business and only then to go to it in the open.

After the business, you can give one of your caps, and after conquering the district and the whole area. For getting business allies to give you gratitude, usually a weapon or the ability to upgrade. For different areas different awards. In addition, the general calculation of the income received by the ally and at certain points you are given additional bonuses: increased health, the ability to upgrade weapons, etc. Why? Probably because pumping is on-trend right now. In fact, the only useful bonus is increased health and possibly bulletproof tires. Everything else is useless, to say the least, including money that has nowhere to spend.

Additionally, side, secondary missions in Mafia 3 are monotonous and not inventive. But unlike other games, and they are a lot of them, where the side quests are so dull that they are taken only crazy trophy hunters, Mafia 3 made them strictly mandatory, which is, in fact, one of the vilest and lazy game design moves for artificial increase the duration of the game and the plot. Imagine that in Ancharted you will not be released from the location until you find all the treasures on the level. Or in Wild Hunt, you won’t be allowed to go any further if you haven’t fulfilled all the contracts (unfortunate example) until you’ve won all the games in Gwynt (also a bad example, um). And what if the side missions are made interestingly, qualitatively and with soul? Then their obligatory will not worry about anyone, it will be perceived as an interesting element of the story campaign. But in the performance of Angara 13, it’s either dull cones that made mandatory, which is very ugly, or it’s a very dull and lazy plot mission, which just sucks. If the main storyline is more elaborate and large-scale, it would be possible without sacrificing the duration of the game (which is so loved by the developers) to make the seizure of the business or its ruin optional, but the passage of which, for example, would affect the complexity of other missions.

Having expressed my objective opinion as objective as possible, I cannot but voice a subjective opinion. To be honest, I didn’t feel uncomfortable because of the obligatory butterflies. I love the meditative, grindy gameplay, especially related to capturing and stripping areas. So I would have done all these tasks any way. And if you also like to slowly grind, then you may not also notice the above-mentioned cons.

Combat system

In front of us is a third-person shooter with elements of stealth and hand-to-hand combat. What are the requirements for such a combat system? For me personally, entertainment is important for me in TPS. If the focus in this genre would be directly shooting, realism or immersion then the model of the character on which we constantly need to look would be clearly superfluous. It’s not a toothpick Doom, not a tactical Siege or a competitive Battlefield, but a simple popcorn battlement. What, then, is needed for the entertainment of what is happening?

First, speed. Gameplay should not be slow. Neat strictly calculated actions here do not place, I do not say that there should be no hint of tactics, and it is necessary to run headlong, where the eyes look. It’s just that there shouldn’t be a long wait in ambush or positional shootouts in combat. The game should force you to act, move and attack. However, it should not be too fast, it is certainly fun, but then the game turns into a hardcore reaction test, and you just do not have time to notice anything but the crosshairs.

To maintain the optimal speed of gameplay, we will serve a good AI, which will not sit in the shelter and will not let the player do it. Enemies will surround the hero, smoke grenades and do everything to make him move. Unfortunately, the fighters of the Third Mafia fundamentally disagree with my vision of a good TPS. Most of the time they prefer to sit in a shelter, occasionally leaning out to throw a couple of stray bullets. Sometimes they still go on the offensive, with respect for directness and faith in their immortality. The two only things you can be surrounded by are if you have passed part of the territory in stealth, and then opened fire, and the enemies were initially from different sides, or when reinforcements arrive. At any other time, you can not worry that you will be bypassed from the flank or rear.

Enemies in the game are quite clearly divided into categories. At first, most will be armed with pistols. Complexities do not represent any but can throw grenades or Molotov cocktails. That’s good because grenades make you move. But the bad thing is that they throw grenades extremely crooked and rarely get where it is necessary. The second group is armed with shotguns and has increased thick skin. They are basically going on the offensive and forced to change position, if, of course, for some reason, you could not kill him, while he was slowly walking in a straight line. Automatics and snipers are not singled out in any principle except the weapons used.

Fearlessness is by far the best feature of local gangsters and cops.

The system of shelters does not help to maintain dynamism. It would seem for the last decade sticking to the shelter has managed to get into fashion, spread to everything and everything and slowly begin to go out of fashion. Still, there’s a fundamental difference in New Bordeaux between squatting behind a drawer and hiding behind a box. In addition, to move from one shelter to another, without running in a random direction, is quite problematic. The good thing about shelters is that some of them are destroyed, which again forces them to move.

Secondly, the entertainment provides direct animation of combat, physical behavior of Lincoln, enemies, and weapons. Without further ado, this is the best part of the game. Shooting is nice, the weapon feels the recoil and it sounds great. But the most relish – hitting enemies. Often in games, you can meet enemies who do not react to the damage until their internal counter hp says that it’s time to the side. Lincoln’s enemies react to every bullet they receive. Getting damage disorients the enemy, which is perfectly shown by animation. Each weapon is guaranteed to have a stopping effect. Usually I, like any player, prefer to shoot in the head for maximum efficiency. And although the hit to the head also looks great: the head abruptly throws aside and the body immediately falls to the ground like a bag of potatoes, much more fun to shoot at the body as in the action movie. Watching the body theatrically shudder from the bullets is quite amusing. In addition, the game has a difference between gameplay death, that is, the moment when the enemy can no longer cause harm, and directly death. Many people still breathe after falling to the ground or fight in near-death convulsions. Some even fall not immediately, and stand, holding on to the wound, waiting for sufficient blood loss or a control shot. This realism is pleasantly surprising.

So, the test for entertainment can be considered passed. Despite the possible sagging in the dynamics of the shootouts, they themselves are performed at a high enough level. And yet it makes sense to look at other aspects besides the speed of gameplay and entertainment. For example, complexity. Although the opponents are completely stupid and incapable of challenging, they beat hurt. Walking constantly with a minimum of health is normal because the scale can knock down even a couple of bullets or a single shot. But the difficult game still does not become. First of all, the enemies are still very stupid. Secondly, thanks to game design tricks, the last visible percentage of health can take a significant amount of damage. At first, it always seems that he was on the verge of death and coped. It’s a nice feeling.

A rather dubious mechanic seemed to be the arsenal of the hero. Obviously, for the sake of realism, we can carry only two weapons: one gun and one, not a gun. You can change the set only by taking the enemy’s weapons or calling the store on wheels. At first glance, it’s not a big deal, but it severely limits the player, does not allow you to play as you want at this moment. Sniper rifle, assault rifle, and shotgun suggest different styles of play, and they completely depend on what kind of weapon you had at the time of the shooting because it is far from the fact that in the process you will find what you need. At some point in the game, I realized that it was much easier and faster to perform mandatory optional missions with a sniper rifle, which required me to carry my rifle with me all the time and store ammunition for it. So Almost all the shootings I went through with just a gun. And you know, I haven’t had a problem. I do not even know the plus or minus, but I know for sure that the entire arsenal presented in the store is not needed at all, especially when you consider that the player is limited by the original mechanics.

And shootouts are the best feature of the game.

The firefighting combat system, though at times questionable, but in general very good. However, Lincoln Clay does not live as a single gun. You have to be able to wave your fists, too. I’d like to say that the hand-to-hand combat here is one-button, but it’s two-button. One button to beat, the other to press for parry during the zTE. Nothing outstanding, no work or depth, and formally for it can be scolded. But if you consider that it is TPS, that is a shooter, and hand-to-hand combat here as an appendage, then perhaps you do not need to quibble with it. Among the advantages can be noted spectacular finishes and even more spectacular finishes, for which you need to pass zTE. Among the disadvantages is the lack of melee weapons.

I don’t want to sound like a game-design-Nazi, but the slogan “Stealth for Stealth” or “Stealth Mechanics – Only stealth games” haunts me. I understand that the fusion of genres and their interaction is good for the industry, allows it to develop. So I’m going to paraphrase the slogan, “Do either well or don’t impose.” Stealth is a genre that is not easy to develop or pass. And the requirements for it are very different from the requirements for TPS. And as a rule, in games not sharpened under stealth, it is very bad, mainly because aI was initially sharpened for completely different purposes and was not modified separately. The implementation of stealth is especially catastrophic when it is made mandatory for any mission.

In Mafia 3 stealth works according to the standard scheme. Initially, enemies are positioned to you aggressively (that is, they will attack as soon as they see, not after your aggressive actions). Also, by default, they do not know about the presence of the enemy (that is, they are not looking for anyone and quite calm). The detection system is tied to the “suspicious scale” (if the enemy hears or sees something that should not be scale filled, once it is filled, he realizes that there is someone nearby). At the same time, the levels and the hero are poorly variable, there is an opportunity only to choose where to enter the territory. Thus, whether stealth will be good is only affected by AI. Unfortunately to notice something sufficient amount of time above the abilities of local thugs and police officers.

Lincoln’s amazing superpower is also not playing into the hand. What is it: sixth sense or detective vision? What exactly gives the hero the opportunity to see through the walls and feel their enemies? And most importantly, why does he need it? The only thing that helps the enemies is Lincoln’s wild slowness. If the usual silent killer seeks as soon as possible to return to the shelter and drag the victim, then our brave soldier can stand for a few seconds in full height with a knife in the throat of some poor fellow and only then return to the shelter.

However, one fat plus overrides all the wretchedness of the local stealth. It’s optional. In the game, you can and should go into an open battle. For the whole story, there is not a single stealth mission, so there is absolutely no need to suffer this nonsense.

Mafia 3 combat system is excellent, fun, fun and spectacular from the point of view of TPS, despondency and primitive in terms of bit-em-up, disgusting and disgusting from the point of view of stealth. Is it sad that the AAA game can not embody more than one gameplay mechanics? It’s possible. But if you approach the product from the right side, you can get pleasure.

Open game world

During the conversation about the open world of the Shadow of War, I raised a little about the open worlds in general and tried to divide them into three conditional groups, to understand what requirements to make for each particular sandbox, because God sees them very much, and they’re very different. To not force anyone to click on the links and because this blog has so little text, here’s a quote:

Content-dependent worlds for me are the ones where the player himself at the expense of only his own mechanic can not entertain himself. He needs additional activities, classes, activities. I would include GTA and similar projects in this group. Many of me maybe criticized because in GTA you can have fun as you like and without additional activities. But remember the huge number of clones of this game who use the same starting set (a large space in the form of a city, for example, a hero from a third person, the ability to control the technique, the ability to shoot and fight), but forever remain forgotten with shameful stigma of a clone. Content for the open-world is reduced not only to a set of sidequests but also to its overall “fullness”, including the social environment.

Constructively-dependent worlds, on the contrary, do not require for the game almost anything beyond itself. The word “empty” is offensive to the first group, it doesn’t matter to them. The structure and design of the world, the diversity of its device, is important here. Because space itself plays a paramount role in gameplay. Such open worlds are used for example in races. I know a few people who play The Crew, not for the sake of racing, pumping, and other things, but just to ride in the u.S. When I had the chance to try Steep, I enjoyed riding without competition. That is, conditional GTA with proper filling can easily exist in the city, the streets of which represent a grid of identical rectangles, and the same conditional NFS here will be extremely uncomfortable, even if every house can go, and all NPS have individually prescribed character.

Games with an extra open world each of us can easily call in a hurry. My favorite example is L.A. Noir. For all its outstanding features, the open world of this game seemed to me to the ugliness of sadness. You can drive cars, you can admire the views of a quiet historic city, you can prevent crime. But in general, this open-world distracts from the excellent detective and sifts the speed of the narrative. In my purely subjective opinion, the costs of the open-world could have been better used.

The design of the world for TPS is not particularly important. It remains only to determine whether this game is necessary at all open world, or it would feel better as a corridor adventure. On the one hand, the open world is necessary for the story and gameplay system chosen by the developers. Without an open world, all this tinsel with the ruin of business would not be able to incarnate normally. On the other hand, all this tinsel with the ruin of the business itself is quite doubtful. But for a corridor adventure here is too short a plot. As a result, we have a content-dependent open world, that is, in order to be good, it must be well filled.

First, decorative occupancy. I don’t mean filling in for a tick, but what kind of decorations artists put in this world. For example, the Assassin’s Creed series is famous for its beautiful decorations, regardless of some of them, it is always interesting to wonder just looking at the architecture and reading historical references. New Bordeaux is based on New Orleans, one of the most colorful and famous cities in the United States. Personally, I have associations with this city based solely on cinema and other products of popular culture. I know that historically Louisiana was a French colony and here, unlike the rest of the states, it is french roots, not British or Spanish, that is still strong. This is a southern state, which means there are many blacks, but their social situation is very deplorable. It is the birthplace of jazz and crazy festivals, and they have alligators crawling through the streets like bears. More or less New Bordeaux was able to give me what I expected but still would like more color.

Geographically, the world is quite diverse. There is a black ghetto where we begin our journey. There are business districts with skyscrapers, port, and industrial zones, an elite suburb and even a semblance of the rustic outback and open nature. Also, this world constantly makes it clear about its temporal affiliation. Starting with the quite obvious design of cars and signs “Only for whites,” ending with open advertising of alcohol and cigarettes on the radio. Oh, I miss the days when no one cared about the health of the public, and nine out of ten doctors recommended Lucky Strike. The only thing missing is the variety of fauna, although I sincerely do not recommend swimming in the swamps.

The streets of the French quarter with colorful, but shabby old houses, clearly lack carnival.

Second, social occupancy. Probably, in some simulator forester society would not play any value, moreover, it would be absent as a fact. However, in a game where the main place of action is the city its social component is important for maintaining authenticity. (At this point, you can define Mafia 3, and together with any sandbox with a population, as a “social content-dependent open world,” terminology and classification are still under development). And what does it take to maintain this very authenticity? In my subjective opinion, three elements are the most important:

The first is the population, its behavior, and relationships. At the same time, seats in the group are spread from the main to the advanced. Without a population, be it people, orcs or teftelian pasta monsters, society is impossible. In Mafia 3, it’s all good, people are men and women, black and white. The behavior of the population is understood by what its units do because society is not a totality, but a system, and therefore its elements must do something, and not just exist. If you drive through New Bordeaux, you will have the feeling that everyone is busy with something. As a rule, they are busy with some nonsense and their behavior is absolutely idle, they go, sit in restaurants, smoke. One person can spend hours in one position to consider something in the store, and if you hurt him, he will immediately leave. In this game available only imitation with what is very rough. In defense, we can say that the vast majority of players will drive these guys at high speed and the flaws in behavior will not notice. Whether such an excuse is enough for himself to decide. And since society is not just a system, but an interconnected system, its elements must interact with each other. It’s nice to see two chums meeting begin to talk, and at this moment one of them robber pulls out a bag. Not that I enjoy other people’s suffering, but the fact that the world can shake something but me is certainly inspiring. By the way, this sketch was not from Mafia 3, here the maximum is a conversation of two or three chumps, who have been standing for ten hours and waiting for someone to pass by. In general, the population of New Bordeaux confidently copes with the task of imitation and creation of a background. As long as you are distracted by the task, they will be able to convince you that the world is alive.

The second element is the social institutions. Within the framework of a real big world, this means fundamental forms of organization of society (state, church, marriage, etc.). As part of the game, I propose to call so a set of in-game organizations aimed at maintaining its normal life. For example, In Mafia 3 there is a social institute for public order – the police, the social consumption institute – shops, service stations and gas stations, the social institute of catering and entertainment – bars, restaurants, strip clubs. There are few of them, but there are, so there is something to consider and criticize. But there are no ambulances and firefighters.

The New Bordeaux Police Department was dispatched from Los Santos or Liberty City, though it would seem Lost Haven and Epeyer Bay are much closer. They show their zeal to the guards of order only selectively but in full force. Don’t worry that you’ll be punished for speeding or driving to the red, but if you do come to the attention of the police, you can’t hope for a fine or handcuffs, the understanding of punishment here is hardly more humane than that of Judge Dredd. The police do not have any degree of interest in your personality, they immediately want to kill and throw in search of the participant of the accident almost all free crews.

The topic of discrimination runs through the whole game, although in the open world it does not manifest itself much.

However, not everything is so bad, some elements of the police look very interesting. For example, in a rich area, it is difficult to pass at least a couple of blocks and not run into a policeman, and in the ghetto, they do not appear at all. If someone calls them to the slums, you will have time to go to the other end of the city before they arrive at the crime scene. But on the call to the suburbs, they come so quickly, as if behind the nearest bushes waited. Whether it’s the worst police technical equipment of the 1960s or the fact that all blacks are on the same face, but if you’re not caught right at the scene, no cop will come to you. It is enough to leave the search area and you can feel safe.

Funnily, there’s not a single black cop in New Bordeaux. Therefore, if the police (and in some cases ordinary civilians) see that you get in a patrol car, you will be put on the wanted list. Moreover, if you drive up to the police in their own car, they will open fire on you. Personally, I am ready to perceive the inadequate attitude of the police as a satire over the attitude of the police to black people, both then and now. Especially since I’ve never seen them molest anyone else.

As for the rest of the institutions, there is something strange about them. There are shops and pawnshops marked on the map, but you can’t buy anything in them. There are bars and restaurants, but you can’t eat and drink. The only store available is a van with a weapon that is called from the menu. In the beginning, I was willing to accept that it was just the laziness of the developers. But why the icons on the map, why the names of bars, why the zones for the staff? And after I found in the game some very nice little things, which Later I will say, I refuse to believe that it was originally conceived. It’s like the fact that the game was started by some people, and finished by others, or the fact that they just did not have time to do everything on time and had to produce a half-finished product.

The third element of socialization will be the hero’s ability to interact and influence society. Perhaps the most complex element rarely played correctly. The new Mafia could not surprise anything here. The only significant interaction is playing with the police. Otherwise, the world almost does not notice the hero and does not allow him to influence himself. Offended passers-by apologize with the same phrase, bartenders meet also one phrase. Except perhaps some bars. Going there, you will immediately hear the question, if not lost hero. And if you don’t realize right away that you’re not welcome here, the bartender will run to call the police. Personally, I gave such a hostess in the jaw, and when a couple of minutes later again drove past this bar, I saw the police there. What it was, bug or feature, I do not know, but it is interesting.

Third, if you’re still keeping an eye on the numbering, the content occupancy itself, that is the presence of side quests and other time-killing. They talked about earlier. A short retelling: everything is very, very bad.

During the game, I noticed some very small but very interesting mechanics. It is because of them that I am so sure that the game that lies on the shelves, and the one that was developed initially, is very far from each other.

I will not say much about cars and their behavior, firstly, because my experience is unacceptably small to systematically assess the simulacularity, and secondly, because in games besides directly racing simulators the behavior of cars is always Strange. In Watch Dogs they were all the same, in Sleeping Dogs they were worn from side to side as in a fit, in GTA 5 and Just Cause 3 you can literally jump to the roof of the skyscraper. Ideal ly in Mafia 3, of course not. But the behavior of the tractor, different from the behavior of the car, and the mask car is nice to go into the chasing. I liked the control of the cars right up to the moment of collision. The mechanics of object interaction are simply terrible, and the model of damage is catastrophic. There is a feeling that in each laid script: getting 100 pieces of damage, becoming mint, 500 damage – dumps the hood, 1000 – explode. And do not waste time on the workshops, they are squalid and do not affect anything.

Oh yes, I was going to tell you about the little things. For example, look at the headlights of your car at the moment when you will jam the engine, they will not die out immediately, because the thread of incandescent does not immediately cool down. And getting out of the car, pay attention to the salon, when opening the doors it will be illuminated, as in a real car. Even at night, not only the headlights are lit but also illuminated when the engine is turned on dashboard and radio, you can check while riding a convertible. Cars get dirty when driving off-road. When the engine starts, the headlights will hang out slightly. But the most relish is the radio, going into the tunnel, it is slightly muffled. Well, I don’t believe that people adding the influence of the tunnel to the radio and the lighting of the cabin were going to make a bad game.

And what an open world without towers and collected objects. Although the map is open from the beginning, the towers are still there, they are presented in the form of telephone switches (or something like that). Putting a wiretap in it on a certain area of territory will be visible the location of collectibles, first aid kits, and radio details. And if you install the bug in the right place, you can spare the manager. By the way, to install the bug need radio details, the location of which appears on the map after the installation of the bug. Don’t you feel the pick? Grind for the sake of the possibility of even more grind, opening towers for the possibility of opening other towers. What saves is that it’s not necessary at all.

Since I stopped in terms of emotional and intellectual development at the mark of twelve years, I was engaged in the possible only collection of Playboy magazines and paintings by Vargas. And here I do not understand how a game in which collectors – erotic magazines, can get a score below “Amazing”, a mess of some kind. What is Playboy, you probably do not need to explain, but for a tick – a magazine, which publishes photos of naked and almost? In the game, these magazines usually consist of a cover and a U-turn with the girl of the month. But there are instances with multi-page interviews of very interesting personalities, definitely not bad for immersion in the era. Why stop, you could put completely magazines. Alberto Vargas’s paintings are stunning examples of pin-up art from the middle of the last century, especially stunning the degree of nudity. At this point, I had to go into the game and see what else I could do in New Bordeaux. So, there are music albums, or rather covers (for example, the album of the group Credence Clearwater Revival – Willy and the Poor Boys). There are also Repent magazines, a kind of agitation of far-right Christians, but I didn’t really understand what, he seems to be the only one made-up, but that’s not accurate. But the magazine Hot Rod about cars, and apparently quite real. It ends the list of communist propaganda, which is incredibly delivered in English. In general, the collected items are quite good, they quite transmit the zeitgeist and are found quite easily.

So what is the open world of Mafia 3? It is diverse and conveys the style of the era, but very mediocreimitates life. There is absolutely nothing to do in it, but it has interesting collected items. Its social institutions work crookedly, if at all, but there are little things that strike their depth. The open world of Mafia 3 fully corresponds to the Mafia 3, it is ambiguous, misunderstood and incomprehensible.

Who is Mafia 3 made for?

The following text I wrote immediately after passing the entry even before the start of the gang’s collection and the main gameplay.

I fully realize that only the beginning has passed, but nevertheless I do not understand the whole wave of negativity that was poured on Mafia 3. The plot captures from the first seconds, the cut scenes are perfectly staged and directed, and the inserts perfectly complement the narrative. The skirmishes are well-implemented, and if all that notorious grind is about shootings, I don’t mind. The start is promising.

After the game, my opinion did not change very much. In the notes, I noted that it is quite difficult to follow the story missions and those whose business I ruin. Only thanks to the help of the menu I was not completely confused. But in general, the plot is at its height, it is interesting and served still at a high level. As for the gameplay, not everything is as scary as it seemed. You don’t have to do all-all tasks to get ahead. They are quite diverse, but they can be reduced to skirmishes, and the shootouts are still fun. The world is alive and doing something, but it is impossible to immerse yourself in it. The ending left a pleasant aftertaste and a sense of completeness.

In short, I liked the game, even though I wrote above. And not to forget anything to list its advantages:

• An interesting non-trivial presentation of the story;
• The well-placed cut scenes
• The story missions are set in interesting scenery and conditions;
• In general, a good story;
• Excellent shooting mechanics;
• A pretty diverse world.
• Interesting items collected
• Colorful characters
• A chic soundtrack;
• The atmosphere of the 1960s and the various pleasant little things.

Do you like the 1960s era in the United States? Interesting gangster romance of those years? Crime drama – your choice to go to the movies? Do you like third-person shooters? Not against the grind and used to clean up the map to the last scrap? Do you honestly think that music could only be written half a century ago?

7/10. And it’s not a joke. In any case, I do not advise her to take for full price, but if you, as I have converged all the above points, the game may well give pleasure from the passage.

Unfortunately, this assessment is only true if the stars have converged. At least one answer is no, and the score will immediately drop to 5/10. Because the disadvantages of this game are very serious and they can outdo only a complete and unconditional love for everything that is in the game. In this case, the game should be taken only at a very large discount. And it is even better to leave thoughts about it until its free copy is in your hands. In addition, some of the disadvantages grow out of the pros:

• Even if the presentation is interesting, but the fragmentation of the plot between single-level tasks in conjunction with the long grind between them does not allow to perceive the plot as something whole and enjoy it to the fullest;
• well staged only strictly plot cat scenes, all the others are not staged at all, just two models in front of each other;
• all story missions, despite the scenery, are reduced only to the murder of a certain person;
• the plot at the level of a mediocre crime series, takes only the staging, if you delve, it becomes clear how flat it is;
• Shooting mechanics, although not bad, the game artificially limits the arsenal of the player, and AI is too simple to challenge, in addition, stealth and hand-to-hand combat are performed at a very low level;
• The world is only pretty if you pass through it at a speed of a hundred miles per hour. It is empty, there is absolutely nothing to do in it, its social institutions do not work, it is impossible to interact with it. In fact, it is a huge cardboard scenery and nothing else;
• The characters, though colorful, but most, including the main character, are not spelled out, their relationship is extremely incomprehensible;
• the soundtrack is naturally limited by its era.

And besides the fact that all the pros can be brought to the disadvantages, there are also disadvantages in themselves:

• The same gameplay
• The artificial increase in in-game time
• A terrible model of car damage;
• A technically mediocre schedule;
• The lack of jumping after all.

If you approach the game from this end and if you did not answer any of the questions “yes”, then to spend time on the game, even for free, does not make sense.

Just a concept art from the boot screen to separate the sofa analytics.

Mafia 3 is a very ambiguous game, and it’s not even that it looks like a semi-finished, in which perfectly managed to make some details, but did not have time for others. It raises a few questions that, by and large, should be taken into account every time the question arises whether to spend money and time on something.

First, the evaluation of an art object that does not have strict size and whose criteria are very vague is of no importance for the most part. In my blogs, I try to show that this conditional gradation can vary greatly depending on who is evaluating. The editors of SG generally refused such dubious pleasure, giving constructive criticism during the review, eventually assigning a subjective-emotional assessment. “Listen/read the review, not look at the score” © In any case, it will always be a subjective measure: liked/disliked, and this everyone should decide for himself.

Secondly, in a world where everything has a price, the issue of this very price should always be taken into account when assessing. For example, I love one kind of beer, the price tag for which in local bars starts with 350 rubles. But because for various reasons every time I can not drink it, I take draft beer for 90 rubles or even canned beer. So, to the product for 90 rubles I will not make a claim as a product for 350. And I’m not going to compare the nectar of the gods to the urine of an elderly donkey. This is me to the fact that the estimates of such a controversial game as Mafia 3 at the start of its sales for 2 or 4 thousand rubles, and a year later, when at sales it is 2 or 3 times cheaper, should vary. I would not advise anyone to try it for 4k, but for 500 rubles why not.

Third, moderate expectations. Unreasonably inflated expectations can affect the impression spree of the final product much stronger than its objective properties. If you’re waiting for a date with Scarlett Johansson, but instead of her will come to Svetka from filfaka, Miss StudVesna and in general Komsomolskaya Pravda, an athlete and so on, you’ll be disappointed. Although objectively Svetka is the most beautiful girl you have seen live and the only one who does not look at you with a grimace of disgust and pity. Be reasonable and remember examples like The Division or Watch Dogs, it was waiting for her like a revelation, and on the way out everyone spat. And then a year later people started to appear, who was a little shy to say, “I really liked to Watch Dogs,” so the doctor’s voice usually tells about itching in the groin area. But these are new titles, fans of the series is a nightmare.

I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all fans, as well as to those who want to get fans. Fans are evil. When you get the fans, you think you’ve found a soul mate, and everything’s going to be fine. You will love each other forever, grow and develop together, and on your way, you will help each other in everything. However, in fact, it turns out that the fans – it’s a terrible maniac. He kidnaps you, keeps you in his basement, and considers you his property. Once upon a time, his sick mind liked your smile, now he will dress you in the same outfit for the rest of your days and make you smile as well. Ideally, he’ll throw you wax so you never change or change.

Throughout the review, I deliberately avoided comparisons with the first or second Mafia. Not because I believe that each work is unique and should be evaluated in a spherical vacuum. No, it’s not, every part of the series carries the legacy of this series and is bound to match it. I did not compare, because it is pointless, from the beginning it was clear that it is a completely different game. In general, it is not known how voluminous the participation of the developers of the first two games in the creation of the third. Moreover, these comparisons would be like beating the lying, the third Mafia is full of its flaws.

The second reason is that I hate “Mafia fans”. There are no such things. If you’re one of those who spit on the second part, and still spit on the second and third Mafia, then you’re a fan of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, not the whole series. You can’t be a fan of the series if you only like one part and the other you despise. If you like the first and second parts, like me, then you just like the games about the Italian Mafia, because the difference between the first and second parts is very significant. If you spit on the second Mafia, and with the exit of the third stop, then fu be.

And not to end on a sad note bonus score for the bonus category of gamers.
Are you a guy? Or a girl who’s interested in other girls? Are you temporarily or permanently alone? Do hormones do it go away? Imagination doesn’t help? And the Internet was enough only to open this blog?
10/10. After a small entry, all the magazines and paintings can be collected without passing the plot.

DLC

I really wasn’t going to take on DLC, first, because basically against crushing the content of the game, secondly, because Mafia 3 is not the most exciting game. But after finishing the review, I went back into the game to check whether the lighting in the cabin really works, while opening the doors, and in anticipation of the onset of darkness, took up the task from the supplement “Faster, baby!” And I was bribed again by the cat scene.

The supplement suggests visiting the previously inaccessible location of Sinclair Parish, where the Ku Klux Klan followers hold power. And since our hero is black, everything about black people concerns him as well. Sinclair is a small rural town surrounded by farms with vast fields. Good variety after a stuffy city and even more stuffy swamps. All your stereotypes about the farming hinterland of the United States will be reflected here. In its appearance, this addition and location are similar to the demo version of Far Cry 5.

The plot is built around Sheriff Beaumont, an ardent racist, ready to kill black people in the middle of the street. Lincoln and his comrades need to collect dirt on him and take care of witnesses to put Beaumont in prison. Because of his manslaughter of the equality movement won’t help. I wish I could say a little more about the plot, but then I’ll tell it in full. Seriously, after passing I looked up a minute-long trailer supplement and realized that it showed all the supplement.

However, the pitch is still good, the cut scenes are juicy and perfectly staged. The actors didn’t pump up. First, Roxy, the owner of a large, rounded and most likely very elastic hairstyle, as well as very large and the same round eyes (seriously, the eyes are just huge). She will be our companion throughout the story. And at that moment I realized what I was missing in the main game. Company. For all those pathetic speeches about the family, Lincoln was always alone. Some will probably say, “Again, a strong and independent black woman.” But what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with a character, and what difference does it make in color and gender? It’s black because the game at this point tells the story of black people’s struggle for their rights. And even one white man is involved in this struggle. It is strong and independent because it is a member of a radical group and conducts almost revolutionary activities. She’s a woman, because why not.

The villain turned out to be a little faded. Yes, he has a certain character, but it is quite difficult to see a person there. In fairness, he doesn’t have much time to prove himself.

The main feature of the supplement was the chase. They make up almost half of the entire small plot. The development of the main mechanics added the opportunity to arrange obstacles for the pursuers. If you’ve played NFS Most Wanted, remember that by interacting with some interactive objects on the road, you could destroy police cars. It’s the same here, but you have to shoot them. Another mission was interesting to make a mess on the car: break posters, shops, houses. In general, the chase is exciting, but the crooked model of car behavior slightly spoils the feeling.

At the end of the supplement is given three more as if story missions, which in their implementation are more like secondary. They are made better than the butterflies from the main game but do not reach the level of the main. There is a strange feeling that they had to enter the plot, but did not have time to make videos for them, and when it turned out that the supplement lasts from the strength of an hour and a half, decided to throw them too. However, one side activity is quite interesting. Not in terms of final implementation, but simply as a fact. Within it, you will be asked to create a small farm and cultivate different varieties of a prohibited plant.

Raging speed, dozens of cops on the trail, whistling bullets and The Rolling Stones – my personal paradise.

Farming isn’t fast, so I had to do something again. This was something of a “Stones unturned” addition. In it, Lincoln will finally help Donovan, not the other way around. The plot is built in the form of a spy gunman, which contains almost all the necessary stamps for this. Crazy hero? Yes, two grand. As in the past editions, we will always be accompanied by a partner. This time, Donovan will accompany Lincoln. In love with this character, I confessed a little earlier, but again, he is still the same devotee, slightly traveled and stands somewhere outside the usual laws and morals. Definitely, to pass the game even with a computer partner is much more fun.

Also, available is a former agent who became a defector and our main enemy. He even has a scar on his face, like a typical Bond scoundrel. If he hadn’t been initially made bad-bad, he could have been the nail of the add-on, because he has some strange ideology that could lead to the question, “Who is the villain here?” And of course in his plans a grandiose villainous plan, which in theory can lead to the third world. He even has his own tropical island, which we will storm. Well, the island isn’t exactly it, but it’s the little things. And a pinch of cranberries has been added for the taste. Do not be afraid, nothing vulgar or associated with genetically modified Russian Ivans. In fact, the Russians are not even in the game, but the light and frightening shadow of communism entourage add.

This addition is also very small. Instead of chases here a lot of shootouts, even the chase turned into skirmishes. As “mandatory” for DLC, new mechanics added time-slowing and sniper support calls. Neither makes any sense. Sniper support is applied by the mechanics of grenades, which adds it to the long list of useless strays, instead of which you will use grenades. Also, of course, a new weapon and a car, which no one for nothing and did not give up. After passing the plot there will be three missions of the bounty hunter, in which you have to catch alive three people. And here comes a question, which before that was muffled by interesting skirmishes. Who the hell is going on? Why is this in pursuit of a former castor rushes a local criminal? But it’s a cranberry spy boy, you can’t ask him such questions. But to entrust the capture of small violators to the head of the criminal organization, it is a complete finish.

Just so you might think, I didn’t have enough to pump my little farm to the maximum level. There was no choice but to go to the sign of times. In the story, Lincoln and father James go to visit the burnt-out bar Sammy Robinson, stumble there on a very unfriendly cult and save from him a girl named Anna. In the future, our hero decides to investigate the activities of the cult and destroy it.

At times, it became really uncomfortable and even scary until I remembered that I had a two-meter pitching machine gun.

There is nothing outstanding in the plot, of course. But in the course of its development, it turns out that it stands a head above not only the other additions but also the main game. Cult manages from the first minutes to intrigue the player with his existence, contributes to this and Anna, which is not that crazy, not something pumped, but most likely methodically did both. I don’t know why, but she’s right there. The girl looks completely defenseless, very unhappy and infinitely lonely. We have no doubt why she resigned herself to the cult. When you feel that you are completely alone in this big and frightening world, it is not difficult to trust the wrong people, especially if you hear the words, albeit feigned kindness and empathy, probably for the first time in your life.

I do not want to disclose any details of the plot, because it is traditionally very short. And I do not want to quibble with him, but what to do, I will try to at least justify each of the disadvantages. The main villain may not have been so expressive. But the rest of the game, too, stars from the sky do not miss, so that on their background this looks quite smooth. But if you take as a villain, not one person, but completely a cult, he even furnished his colleagues. Lincoln’s attachment to Anna is a little drawn, they do not have much joint screen time to develop any relationship. But if we consider Anna not in terms of personal affection, but as a symbol of all abandoned and defenseless, perhaps the hero sees in her reflection. He was also abandoned first at birth by his parents, then when the orphanage was closed, and he also trusted the bad people who showed sympathy for him. But he was lucky, his foster family did not wear terrible masks and did not sacrifice anyone, and just robbed and killed. And rather a quibble than a full-fledged minus, but why should have made these racists. I have nothing against making racists bad guys, but we had racist enemies along the course of the main story and the first edition is dedicated to the whole city of racists. It was possible to make these guys a little more tolerant, they are already cultists, bringing a human sacrifice, and the swearing with the superiority of the white race on the weather will not particularly affect. On the other hand, before that, all the racists were God-fearing Christians, and these are kind of Satanists, so what no variety.

But do not pay attention to these quibbles, the plot is still very good. Before that, we had a crime drama in the main game, a movie about a chase in “Fast, Baby!” and cranberry-spy thriller in “Old Accounts”, now we are waiting for a detective thriller with a slight bias in mysticism. In it to the extent of hallucinogenic, not only in the cut scenes, let it not be Vietnamese flashbacks, which I asked for at the beginning of the review, but still turned out enough atmospheric and even frightening levels. And when I wrote “detective,” I meant detective, Lincoln could look for traces of an ultraviolet lamp, examine the scene of the accident, and look for clues. Not L.A. Noire, but for a change quite good, even one puzzle is. More of the gameplay elements I liked ambushes. We’ve been ambushed or chased before, but it usually meant a couple of cars. From which I was just leaving. Cultists approached this issue more thoroughly: one day a garbage truck drove out of the corner, collisions with which could not be avoided, immediately drove up a few more cars with armed thugs, another time near me exploded unremarkable parked car, and while I was recovering, I was surrounded. In all cases, I had to abandon the car and, shooting, hastily seek shelter, which is very unusual for this game. Also, among the novelties of this supplement for all feminists and feminists are female enemies who behave usually like men, but sometimes break into unpredictable and berserker attacks. And I can’t help but celebrate the final mission. It takes place on the island, in an abandoned hospital, in the midst of a thunderstorm, and if you still have a little atmosphere, getting off the boat, be sure to get in the car.

There were also strange innovations. For example, during the final mission, there was an opportunity to slow down the time when shooting. Absolutely useless, like the previous slowdown. After the story, there will be an opportunity to re-build the bar “Sammy.” It was conceived, obviously, as a kind of “Corvo Bianco”, which in itself is not so bad, again there is a place to spend tons of accumulated cash. However, it is not clear to me why this element of gameplay had to be pushed to the very end of the most recent addition when it is assumed that all possible other missions have already been completed?

Summing up my impressions of the season ticket Mafia 3, I can conclude that it is very, very good. The plots are beautiful and sometimes exciting and are served whole, not as in the main game. They do not have the most controversial element – grind ruin of businesses. But like the main company, they are all very short: in the first do not have time to enter into the taste of frenzied chases and civil rights struggles, as it turns out that you all won, and in the last, a little more time would not hurt to reveal the characters and their Relationship. There are strange new mechanics that you are unlikely to try. Although the new side activity may seem interesting. Supplements Mafia 3 to the last byte are devoted to her in its ambiguity. Would I recommend them for purchase? If you, like me, like the game itself, the additions, especially the latter, will cause almost delight. If you have treated the child of Angara 13 more than cool, the additions will not affect anything. The only thing I can say for sure is don’t miss them if you already have them. At the same time, it is better to pass them until the end of the main plot (especially the first and last), so you diversify the grind of ruin businesses and get quite funny side activities in the form of bar repair and farming.