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melmer

Mafia III: Django Unchained

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Is it my imagination or had this game wildly changed tack. Like I'm sure when it was announced as a 4 player co-op experience like Ass Creed Unity? Either way this looks a million times better, having played mafia 1 & 2 I'm glad it's gone in this direction as I feared the game would end up retreading similar ground. Now it full django unchained meets the punisher meets ghost rider.

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My bad, there's gameplay videos as far back as last August with this protagonist. Guess I just didn't take any notice.

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I watched bits and pieces of the E3 gameplay videos and I'm now officially cautiously optimistic to optimistic about the game.

 

I loved the original game, especially the ultra slow way in which the story gained momentum, as well as the setting. Many people were probably seriously annoyed about the slow pacing and slow cars, but for me at the time it felt really refreshing. I'm sure the gameplay doesn't hold up at all, but my first playthrough of Mafia is still one of my fondest memories in gaming.

 

I liked the sequel as well. I was surprised that they still dared to sprinkle the game with slow, uneventful story moments (e.g. driving a body to a dumpsite only to find out that you are not ambushed on your way there). Many reviewers and players seemed to be really pissed off by the fact that they built a city with nothing much to do. This did not bother me because I had another way of looking at it, i.e. that Mafia 2 is a linear, story-driven game that happended to be set in a modeled city. My goal was to see the story through, not go bowling with my cousin. Of course the game still had its issues. The gunplay still didn't feel quite as tight as it could have felt, and some of the missions were seriously annoying (looking at you harbor-warehouse-molotov-cocktail-party mission).

 

Mafia 3 seems to be ramping up the action 500%. At first, I was really sceptical about this decision, but if the gameplay feels as good as it looks in the videos, I might still be up for it. The setting looks brilliant, the choice of the protagonist is intriguing, and the apparent (partial) focus on stuff like the KKK and the super-racist parts of relatively recent history of the USA might be really refreshing if also brutal. There is still a chance that the gameplay is not up to par, and that the story turns out to be a letdown or downright gross, but we'll have to see.

 

Please, please, please be a good game. I really want to drive around New Orleans listening to the sweet music of the 60s.

 

("M has come to" I guess?)

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Oh shit, it's set in New Orleans? I loved the original Mafia, although remembering it, the gunplay was rubbish. Loved the driving, the town, the soundtrack and the traffic tickets.

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Well, New Bordeaux, but anyway. Clearly modeled after New Orleans.

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I simply loved the original Mafia. It was an awesome game with really cool missions etc.

 

I did play through the second one and even though the city looked amazing, but also quite empty like it was just a sandbox where you go from point A to point B and there's much nothing in between.

 

The third one I haven't paid attention pretty much at all. I don't have any interest in it, but I'd really like if whoever owns the rights to the first game would release it in GOG / Steam, that would be awesome.

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It used to be on Steam but was removed due to licensing issues with the music.

 

I also adored the first Mafia, I'm played through it several times. I even enjoyed the gun combat, it was clunky but made things feel much more tense, Also it was released in 2001 before many 3rd Person Shooter conventions were established.

 

Mafia 2 is exactly like you said, the city was a means to go from A to B and even at that there was massive areas of it not used. Add to that a pile of content was gutted from the story to be used as DLC which they decided to turn into some arcade style high score chasing mess. I was incredibly disappointed.

 

Liking the look of Mafia 3 so far, city looks interesting and I like the idea of choosing who to place in charge of areas etc.

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This is vaguely starting to creep its way back to my 'one to watch' list, though I'll certainly wait for the reviews to come out before I think about buying it. Certainly it's cool to see such a big game with a black protagonist, but I do wonder how the game is going to handle that; the earlier titles weren't exactly known for their sensitive treatment of racial issues. 

 

Like many other people, I loved the first Mafia, but the second game left me somewhat disappointed and confused. There were some beautifully crafted set pieces in Mafia 2 - the first time you walk into Little Italy is an extraordinarily detailed piece of environmental storytelling - and the city as a whole was a beautiful creation.  And of course the concept of having the world change so dramatically between two periods of time was a brilliant idea. I didn't especially mind the absence of side-missions or extra activities, but for every great story mission, there were at least two or three that were just inexplicably dull and menial. Some of them were so bad I started to wonder if they'd run out of time or budget late on in development and just had to work with what they had to get the thing finished. The whole prison sequence where you're mopping out toilets? Dashing between petrol stations to get ration stamps? Even that one great moment where you get to

assassinate the protagonist of the first game

only has you drive up outside while the rest happens in a cutscene; you don't even get to pull the trigger.


 

I always rather liked the argument (originally featured in Rock Paper Shotgun, I think) that Mafia 2 was secretly a game about the real nature of crime as being mostly pointless, boring legwork, much like any other job - except with occasional lashings of ultraviolence. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

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This game is a weird beast. Full of technical problems and gameplay annoyances, yet I did not end up hating it. Hell, I finished the thing.

 

Performance-wise this game is somewhat of a disaster. You get glimpses of what the city could have looked like every now and then, but usually - and especially while driving - you are looking at blurry textures and lack of detail that reminds you more of PS3-era games. I usually don't care if the graphics not the best or if the game does not run as smoothly as it could run, but here I feel that the performance problems actually made the city feel less real and alive, which is a real shame because, the different districts are quite varied.

 

The gameplay is this: You create chaos by killing enforcers, destroying goods, etc. until a boss man is forced out of hiding. Then you sneak in and eliminate the boss. You repeat this process for a second time. After eliminating two bosses, you get a more interesting mission to kill their boss, after which you gain control of their district. Your repeat this two more times, in order to unlock all three of your underbosses. Then you repeat this three more times. And another three more times.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I loved the quieter, non-combat moments of the previous Mafia games. It quickly became apparent that this game does not really have those missions, and you are mostly just sneaking, choking, and shooting, and when I realized that, I was fairly certain that I would have the strength to finish this game. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the game (apart from the serious lack of polish) is that I actually liked the action-y gameplay quite a bit. The stealth is relatively easy and forgiving - you hide behind a cover, whistle, and choke the guard who comes to look for you, change cover and repeat - and when you eventually fuck up and get discovered, you can still usually manage to shoot your way to freedom (thanks to the generous auto-aim). The balance between the number of enemies and the amount of damage you can sustain was usually quite good in that the stealth approach feels valuable but you don't have to reload if you get caught. If I recall correctly, there were no forced stealth sections, and only a couple of arena style meat grinders.

 

I also found the story - or more accurately, the storytelling - quite interesting, and the racism was handled in a way that I did not find abhorrent. The disclaimer at the beginning of the game was nice reversal of the Assassin's Creed "Our team is multicultural, so... (?)"

 

Quote

Mafia 3 takes place in a fictionalised version of the American South in 1968.

We sought to create an authentic and immersive experience that captures this very turbulent time and place, including depictions of racism.

We find the racist beliefs, language, and behaviours of some characters in the game abhorrent, but believe it is vital to include these depictions in order to tell Lincoln Clay's story.

Most importantly, we felt that to not include this very real and shameful part of our past would have been offensive to the millions who faced - and still face - bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, and racism in all its forms.

 

 

 

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Noah Caldwell-Gervais just released a full look at all things Mafia franchise (1-3 and all dlc content). It's super duper worth a watch, though it spoils the story entirely for those who haven't played. He mirrors your sentiments about missing the structure of Mafia 2.

 

 

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Mafia III is a PS+ game this month. I have started playing it - I'm probably three hours deep. I am impressed, so far. Anyone else playing, lately, or have thoughts they never got to dump about Mafia III?

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I have played enough Mafia III to decide I love it; it is socially and politically ambitious in ways no other sandbox games have seemed, to me. The characters are deep and the missions/activities are consistent with the plot and the game world. I understand what Lincoln is doing at any moment and why it is necessary. All of the upgrade systems, as favors from your network, make thematic sense. I don't think I have played a sandbox game this consistently designed. 

 

Mechanically, I love the driving - I set the model to Simulation and suddenly driving with analog triggers becomes necessary and allows me to drive with precision I wasn't getting in Arcade mode. 

 

The crowbar lock cracking is dull - it's about the only aspect of this game that turns me off.

 

Anyone else?

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Yeah it's a good one. I liked the driving and the stealth-action a lot too. Only thing I had against it was the lack of mission variety. It starts off with that cool bank-robbery mission, but after that pretty much every mission follows the formula of "sneak/shoot your way into a place, kill the boss". The core gameplay is solid enough that despite this, I did stick with it till the end.

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Loving this game more and more. The writing is such high quality. Every character is fully developed. This has been my favorite line in the whole game

Burke: She's around here somewhere if she aint out quail huntin
Clay: Quail aint in season
Burke: Bwuhhuh, for her kind it's always in season

lolol are you kidding me!? Lincoln even pauses and processes it for a second - Lincoln Clay is a man who knows his quail seasons. This is Naughty Dog-level nuance in a gigantic, LONG sandbox story. The more I watched that line, the more I hope they're actually talking about quail, though, and not some shitty euphemism. 
I played about ten hours of The Witcher 3 two years ago and I really liked the depth of its characters, but I have found Mafia better written, better acted, more grounded, and richer, so far. I wish I had played this game when it first released.

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On 20.08.2018 at 6:25 PM, Henke said:

Yeah it's a good one. I liked the driving and the stealth-action a lot too. Only thing I had against it was the lack of mission variety. It starts off with that cool bank-robbery mission, but after that pretty much every mission follows the formula of "sneak/shoot your way into a place, kill the boss". The core gameplay is solid enough bestfootballbettingsites-org despite this, I did stick with it till the end.

I love this formula too.

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16 hours ago, coughlinjon said:

Loving this game more and more. The writing is such high quality. Every character is fully developed. This has been my favorite line in the whole game


Burke: She's around here somewhere if she aint out quail huntin
Clay: Quail aint in season
Burke: Bwuhhuh, for her kind it's always in season

lolol are you kidding me!? Lincoln even pauses and processes it for a second - Lincoln Clay is a man who knows his quail seasons. This is Naughty Dog-level nuance in a gigantic, LONG sandbox story. The more I watched that line, the more I hope they're actually talking about quail, though, and not some shitty euphemism. 

I don't get it. What is "her kind?"

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7 hours ago, TychoCelchuuu said:

I don't get it. What is "her kind?"

It's either the super quail hunting kind, or I'm guessing it's a sexuality euphemism; I hope it is the former.

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It's a sexuality euphemism, he's insulting his daughter being a lesbian. I think it also works with the plot in such a way as to imply she has a mom fetish thing going on, but I think that's more subtext than they were going for. 

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36 minutes ago, neonrev said:

It's a sexuality euphemism, he's insulting his daughter being a lesbian. I think it also works with the plot in such a way as to imply she has a mom fetish thing going on, but I think that's more subtext than they were going for. 

 

damn. that was my fear. alright, i rescind my fascination. can you imagine the version of this game in which they're just adding color to all of the characters with a genuine discussion about quail hunting? that's the game i want. 

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I mean, I would also much prefer that have been just a 'nah fuck the laws' sort of establishing moment for her, but it does also work as an establishing moment for Burke in the game's very grey-grey morality. It's been a good while since I played it, but as I recall, all your allies are somewhat likable, deeply flawed jerks who don't actually like you. Never finished it though, really buggy for me after a while.

In an ideal world, that line is about one of the swamp people types, because that's for real where hunting laws stop mattering for some people and places and it is entirely thematic and works as a good line still, but it wasn't. Still a game that goes some places AAA doesn't basically ever.

 

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