Mafia: Definitive Edition (PS4, 2020)
In Mafia you play as Tommy Angelo, a cab driver in the city of Lost Heaven who has a chance meeting with some Mafia guys one night. He has another chance encounter with the same Mafia guys a few weeks later, whereupon he's invited into their boss's restaurant to interview about giving up the cab and becoming a wheelman for the Mafia. What follows is a stunningly realised period piece, with 1930s America the backdrop for an assortment of open world driving and shooting.
I never played the original Mafia, either on PC or PS2. I've played 2 and 3, although 2 was so long ago I can't really call on it as a point of reference. Either way, the Definitive Edition of Mafia rebuilt the entire city and re-voiced the characters. I understand that this might affect the way players of the original think of the game, but it doesn't apply to me. As a result I can say that Lost Heaven is absolutely remarkable. In terms of capturing the aesthetic of the time period I've not seen something this successful since L.A. Noire. Every detail of the world is stunning. The vehicles, the buildings, the music, the environment, every part of it. Each area of the city feels distinctive as you drive around. You could honestly just drive about for a few hours, listening to the radio and following the speed limit and be quite content. Things are a bit shallow in terms of what you can interact with, but the scale and detail of the achievement is to be admired. I think I said something similar when I played Mafia III, so it's clearly a developer that knows what they're doing.
Mafia is old enough that the open world aspect is old enough to separate Story Mode and Free Roam. The story has chapters where you start a mission and finish it before moving straight to the next one. Free Roam is separate. As someone longing to see Driver make a return like this, I can respect that. It does make the world feel slightly hollow though. There's no benefit to exploring aside from a few period collectables and the chance to unlock some new cars for your garage. But then in Story Mode you get given good cars every time anyway. It almost feels like this fantastic world was made but rather than really let the player loose on it, it's just... there. Maybe it's just me. Maybe open world games have changed too much. But for a remake, couldn't you update this one thing?
Gameplay is functional. Driving is a strange experience. I don't think you could slide cars from the 30s the way you can here. There's a deliberate way of driving them that can make police chases awkward if you need to make sudden turns, but they're still manageable enough that you can overcome it. Cars also have a fuel gauge and a speed limiter, so if you do spend lots of time in Free Roam you can pull into a garage and give a kid a nickel to fill er up. It's quaint, but it's a nice touch. There are also guns, melee combat and a bit of sneaking available, and they all work well enough. Aiming can be a bit vague but if you pop in and out of cover headshots almost become a formality.
The story itself is good. It's classic Mafia story stuff. Lots of characters with the usual names. The standalone missions can make some of the minor characters feel inconsequential. For instance, one mission Tommy walks the bar owner's daughter home. Later on, they're married. Later, he's not coming home on time and his dinner's cold. He has a daughter. I don't think his daughter is even named. Character development only really happens for Tommy, then Sam and Paulie, the two guys he meets at the start. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with this, but the game starts by introducing you to a bunch of people who you think are going to be important who quickly become part of the background.
Still, I like the development of those three over the course of the story. The voice acting on all three is great too (my apologies to the original cast), and it's just all very believable. Maybe because there's a similar structure to all those Martin Scorsese films but it feels easy for a game like this to fall into cliches and tropes, and outside of everyone being impeccably dressed I don't think it is. To be extra critical, there are references made to the Great Depression (and the general misery of the 30s) but these are always just in the background. Radio noise, posters on a wall. I think the possibility to make a real social commentary exists here, but the lack of immersion in the world hinders it. There are only twenty story missions. A modern sandbox game like this would have at least double that and probably twice as many characters. Ultimately, there are a few occasions where I just feel like the game could have done more than it did with what it had to work with.
One thing I've just remembered after finishing that I'm putting in here. One occasion where you feel disconnected from what's going on is a mission near the end, where you need to break into an abandoned prison to climb the guard tower so you can assassinate a politician giving a speech. The prison has been taken over by homeless people who meet you with a range of responses - attacking you, calling you a fed, telling you to leave, or insane babbling. Things like "I lost an arm in France for this" written on the walls. The level comes out of nowhere and is a genuinely haunting experience. It comes and goes with no mention before or after. This is the sort of thing I mean, something that could be explored further and given context. Instead you just have something off-putting, rather than truly haunting.
Since I didn't play the original, I can't say if this is the sort of remake of a beloved game I'd be happy with. The obvious care and attention paid to the world is fantastic. The story still holds up, and I could see this as something I would have spent a lot of time with if I has it on release, when I was 12 years old. That's probably all I can say about it.
