"Wiseguys. You work for them, you're set. You fuck with 'em, you die." - Joe Barbaro
Mafia is a series of open world third person shooters centered around the eponymous criminal organization. Each game usually sets you up as a character who starts as an associate to a Mafia crime family and work yourself up to wiseguy. You go through various missions shooting, mugging, fighting, stealing, racketeering, and doing all the fun stuff you see in Goodfellas and the Godfather. They are usually set in pastiches of cities that have had mafia history like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco; mixing various pieces together to make the cities of Lost Heaven and Empire Bay.
New Orleans in Mafia 3 is the first city in the franchise that is an actual city in real life, so who knows if when they refer to Lost Heaven or Empire Bay, they might refer to them as "Chicago" and "New York City" as a retcon. Eh, who knows? Edit: I was dead wrong, the city is called New Bordeaux
"The guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life might not get anything at all." -Tommy Angelo
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is a third-person shooter video game initially released in 2002. It was developed by a Czech based company Illusion Softworks, published by Gathering of Developers and written as well as directed by Daniel Vávra. The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who has to accomplish various missions in order to advance in the game. You play as Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, a struggling cab driver in the gilded city of Lost Heaven. During Tommy's day job, he gets wrapped up in the Mafia and goes from nobody to a made man. At the end of the game, Tommy is arrested by the cops and ends up in a similar witness protection deal to Henry Hill in Goodfelllas. Mafia 1 was critically acclaimed and sold 2 million copies. (If anyone wants to add anything, tell me, as I never played Mafia 1)
"You know when we first started out, I thought I was gonna be the biggest, baddest wiseguy in the world." -Vito Scaletta
Mafia 2 is the sequel to Mafia 1, set in the new locale of Empire Bay in the 40s and the 50s. You play as Vito Scaletta, a man from a very young age that had aspirations of being a made man. In the intro of the game he broke into a jewelry store with his life long friend, Joe Barbaro, and rather than going to prison chose to be drafted into the army to serve as an Italian translator and infantryman for the corps invasion of Sicily. Even offshore the Mafia impacted him, as his life was saved from Facist Italian soldiers by a local bigshot Sicilian crimelord, and he was sent back to the states on leave. Getting into trouble in the old neighborhood, Joe finds away to excuse him from further military service and the two advance their criminal careers by doing jobs for the local Mafia families of Empire Bay. They go from punks to made men pulling their own scores. While having an openworld map, Mafia 2 was very story based and had not much to do outside of missions. It also ended on a very downer ending. It goes on sale often. My favorite part of the game is the fantastic soundtrack from, jazz, big band acts, to blues, to doowop bands and more.
"Family ain't who you're born with. It's who you die for." - Lincoln Clay
Mafia III is an upcoming third-person shooter and the third installment in the Mafia Series, being a sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and Mafia II. The game is developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K Games, and it will be released in 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Mafia III was officially announced in July 2015, with the first trailer unveiled on August 5, 2015. The game will take place in 1968 in New Orleans. Lincoln Clay will be the protagonist in the third game in the Mafia Series - Mafia III. He is a Vietnam War veteran who plans to start a new life and set up his own criminal empire. Thus far, all that has been revealed of Lincoln's early years is that he grew up in a Catholic orphanage in New Bordeaux. When he came of age, he joined the United States Army, seeing combat in the Vietnam War. Upon being discharged from the Army, he returned to
New Orleans to find that the Italian Mafia had murdered several of his childhood friends in the "Black Mob".At the beginning of the game, after coming home from war, he takes one last job that ends up with his friends being killed by the local mafia boss Sal Marcano to conveniently silence them and take the cut. Lincoln survived and was in a coma, and when he comes to he decides to establish himself as a powerful gangster to exact revenge against the Mafia for killing his friends. He is the first non-white character in the Mafia series. One notable feature in this game is the inclusion of a previously mentioned real city for the first time in Mafia. As the game is about building Lincoln's personal empire, he will have to make decisions based on the "lieutenants" (leaders of local crime) he chooses to use and support. Lincoln has three groups with their lieutenants he can use: The Haitians and their boss Cassandra, the Irish and their boss Burke, or, returning from Mafia 2, a new faction of Italians and Vito Scaletta, the previous protagonist. The inclusion of a period appropriate 60s soundtrack with songs such as "War" by Edwin Star and "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals.
Screenshots
Teaser
https://youtu.be/gBaSzHdIfI4
I like New Orleans a lot. The sounds, the architecture, the history, it's just a wonderful package. I was actually there three weeks prior to writing this OP. Before I heard about Mafia 3, I was looking at all the old buildings downtown and near the French Quarter and thought to myself "You could totally shoot a period piece detective or gangster flick in this city". This game wasn't even on my radar until I got back home and saw the news from Gamescom. I liked Mafia 2 even though it was lacking for openworld content and it seems rather short. I swear you can beat that game in like five hours. I love the mobster 40s/50s aesthetic and music. I'm a fan of mafia flicks like the Godfather parts 1 and 2, Goodfellas, and Casino. Although I really only liked the Vito sequences of Godfather Part 2, and the whole thing ended rather abruptly in my opinion. I was also into the Sopranos for four seasons, though I must confess that I think the series probably could have ended with season 1 or 2 and I would be happy, because there were some decisions made in the latter seasons that I didn't like.
Anyway, discuss!
Posts
Mafia 2 was 'ok', the storyline was fun but the open world was pretty boring.
Mafia 3 is being made by some other studio, which I'm... concerned by
But this one is actually in New Orleans. And there is a house. Everywhere.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Is that a snide comment about how the new protagonist is a newwave form of Blaxpoitation media in the form of a videogame?
Because I'd be into that. Blaxpoitation movies were usually unintentionally hilarious. Also full of boom mike.
I'm stoked for any interesting crime game, and Mafia 3 looks great. Any game that reminds somebody of Sleeping Dogs gets a big ! over my head.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
I haven't played the first two in a while, but I don't think they were true open world games. I don't remember any side activities or anything, just driving around wherever you wanted to go. I liked em though. There was more of a focus on just the cool Mafia stories in the games.
Or... I guess that still counts as open world, just with nothing to do but the main story. I can't remember, did Mafia 1 have side activities?
Mafia 2 was technically open world but it's true that there was very little to do as you free-roamed, no side missions or anything. It's one of the reasons the game got a mediocre reception, I think: people expected it to be GTA with fedoras, and that's just not something it was ever intended to be.
Mafia 1 I have never played (own it on Steam but have never gotten to it, realistically there is little chance I ever will) so I can't speak to that.
I think the best part of the game were the cars. The game was clearly intended to be a driving game first, and had about as realistic of driving as you could imagine, meaning handling 1930's cars really sucks. The very first mission you get to learn how hard it is to drive basically a 1930 Studebaker Dictator.
They let you collect the cars and keep them in a garage for later. One set of side missions had someone show you how to steal some of the rare stuff, like this beauty.
One thing that I remember is that reloading a gun would cause you to lose whatever ammo you had left in the magazine. I could be wrong about that, it has been thirteen years since I touched the game, but that's something I can't recall any other game I've ever played use.
People didn't like that. Or thought it was mixed.
Also dead wrong about being "New Orleans" although I swear it originally was
Some more positive videos on it and the series
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rHBzOM5iSZ0
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0lestiMZ4qk