PLATFORM: PC, PS4, XBOX ONE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
A full-on remake of the 2002 original, Mafia: Definitive Edition offers players a finely-tuned story campaign that follows Tommy Angelo’s path from cab driver to criminal. Set in the fictional (yet somehow occasionally recognisable) city of Lost Heaven during the Great Depression, the entire game has been completely rebuilt from the ground up with a fully redesigned world, newly motion-captured characters and a brand new score.
Lost Heaven is stuffed full of details and surprises, but the campaign doesn’t allow for too much exploration – constantly engaged in missions with no downtime in-between (there’s a separate “Free Ride” mode where you can do whatever you want, including finding some really wacky side quests), players are pushed through 10-15 hours’ worth of tightly-scripted missions. One minute you’re competing in a 1930s race car, the next you’re sneaking into a hotel, taking down a couple of targets, blowing the place up, fleeing from the police across the rooftops, then shooting your way out of a funeral… The war that unfolds between Tommy’s newly-adopted crime family and their rivals is rarely anything less than gripping and, at its best, it’s absolutely thrilling.
In line with its near 20 year old origins (and the game’s 1930s setting), gameplay is on the simpler side of things. Tommy has access to a handful of firearms and is able to drive around the city in any vehicle of his choosing, and that’s pretty much all that’s needed. Playing something so straightforward, that also manages to maintain the interest and excitement levels throughout, feels like a breath of fresh air. Mafia: Definitive Edition is a solid remake that gives players an opportunity to experience a supremely underappreciated game. Tense, exciting and exhilarating, a stunning setting (really, it’s beautiful) and tons of small details, both thumbs are definitely up for this. It really is a bloody good game.
