Mafia: Definitive Edition Review (Greens)
Mafia: Definitive Edition
- Mostly faithful remake. It’s pretty neat to see all the iconic scenes are areas recreated.
- Solid story which has been expanded from the original. Most of the additions are really good.
- Good characters.
- Decent gameplay.
- Good pacing.
- Memorable missions.
- Tons of vehicles and solid driving mechanics.
- Great graphics and art style.
- Much more polished than the original game.
- A lot of padding was cut that was in the original.
- Cars are stored in an infinite garage now, so you don’t need to sacrifice cars when you unlock new ones.
- Paulie and Sam are more present in this game compared to the original, which helps flesh their characters out more. Other characters are expanded upon as well.
- Some missions were shortened from the original game, but also some missions were expanded.
- Some story details were changed. You may or may not like the changes, but I think they’re mostly fine.
-The game does a better job at directing the player compared to the original game, but sometimes this goes a little too far and makes the game feel too linear and hand holding.
- The open world is neat, but it’s pretty shallow. This isn’t a deal-breaker given that the game is mostly linear.
- The stealth mechanics are a bit better, but now they’re fairly generic. There’s no more hitting enemies with baseball bats from behind to knock them out. Now you just have a typical ‘Press B from behind’ takedown system.
- Cover mechanics in the combat are a questionable inclusion.
- The shooting while driving mechanics are still a bit clunky, so it’s a bit of a sidegrade.
- The Lucas Bertore sub-quests from the original games story were exchanged for free roam side missions instead.
- Combat and gunplay feel more generic compared to the original game. Most weapons feel worse than the original. The Tommy Gun being one of the most noticeable downgrades.
- The game was made significantly easier compared to the original. I’d recommend playing on Hard or Classic.
- The racing mission is notoriously difficult, especially on Classic difficulty.
- Some of the chase sequences are pretty scripted.
- Some of the collectibles are neat, but there’s too many of them and the in-game methods of tracking them are incredibly lacking.
- Various downgrades from the original. The city is a bit less interactive, being able to freely ride public transport was removed, car damage isn’t as impressive, some of the immersion feels weaker. The original game also felt fairly advanced for it’s time, this remake feels a bit too safe and generic in some ways.
Mafia: Definitive Edition isn’t without it’s faults. But overall it’s a really solid remake and I would consider it to be (mostly) an improvement over the original. It’s not super replayable, but it’s definitely worth a shot for the story alone.
8/10