Mafia 3 Deserves A Little More Respect

The Mafia games should be given some more respect, especially when it comes to Mafia 3 which was released in 2016. The game was published by 2K games and developed by Hangar 13 (who also made Mafia 2 and Mafia: Definitive Edition).

The story of Mafia 3 takes place in the fictional city of New Bordeaux – this world’s version of New Orleans – during the 1960s. You play as Lincoln Clay, a former Army soldier who has come home from Vietnam. At first everything seems to be going OK, but things take a turn when Lincoln and his family are betrayed by the Marcano crime family. Vowing revenge, Lincoln puts together his own crew, and that is where the game really shines.

Throughout the game, you enter into partnerships with the leaders of three different local mobs. Thomas Burke who is the leader of the Irish mob, Cassandra who leads the local Haitian gang, and Vito Scaletta, the Italian mobster who you played as in Mafia 2. What separates this Mafia game from others is that from the start you are in charge of your own crew and how it operates. 

You don’t start as the usual hired gun and work your way through the ranks; you are starting a new gang and tightening your grip on the city with a little help from your friends. This brings us to another unique dynamic in the game: the power of choice. Whenever you take over new territory, you have a sitdown with your lieutenants and each makes a case for why you should give them control over that territory.  After each speech, you can cycle through your lieutenants and see what perks come with rewarding them, including how much revenue they will earn you.

For example, if you award Burke – the leader of the local Irish mob – a territory, your days of getting flat tires are over as he’ll reinforce your wheels to withstand bullets throughout the game. Vito, meanwhile, will send guys with shotguns and machine-guns whenever you call for backup. But if you ignore one of your lieutenants and refuse them, they will grow upset, and if you decide to cut them out of any territory, then they become your enemy. If you decide not to award Cassandra – the leader of the Haitian mob – any territory, she will break off your deal. This leads to Burke and Vito advising you to kill her as she’s now become ‘an issue,’ and the same scenario applies if you decide to go against either Vito or Burke. 

When a lieutenant becomes your enemy, so does their gang. They will attack you and perform drive-by shootings if you set foot in an area they control. This adds weight to your decisions. Do you choose to rule together and evenly? Lead alone and kill all three? Or leave others feeling left out and be forced to eliminate them, rewarding full control to the last remaining one? The choice is yours.

The map of New Bordeaux is divided into several different areas, each run by a different gang or crime family. Each area does a great job of standing out from the next, and really gives you a feel for who runs what. For example, if a crime family makes their money through drugs, you will see more users and drug dealers in those areas compared to others, where it may be the case that prostitution is rife in the area due to that being a given gang’s racket. Through little details like those, the city of New Bordeaux has a wonderful sense of grit and life to it.

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Each area provides you with a different experience, which also come in the form of how you decide to take over each area. You can deal damage to each mafia family by destroying drug boats and dens in a blaze, or by killing drug suppliers and pimps. The latter can be interrogated too, gaining you knowledge about how each family runs their business. Following an interrogation, if you choose to let them live, Lincoln tells them – with a knife to their throat –  “You work for me now” and like a scared child they agree to new management.  If you choose to recruit them they will add a one-time amount of cash to your bank account.

Its story is presented in a faux-documentary style giving it an extra sense of realism. The whole story is narrated by the game’s retired FBI Agent John Maguire – who you never interact with – which makes each one feel like an actual historical figure. If you fail a mission aka die, a cutscene of Maguire will play where he becomes beside himself and questions how Lincoln’s story ended in various ways.  There are also cutscenes involving a local priest known as Father James who acts as Lincoln’s spiritual advisor and treats him like a family member throughout the game. One of the game’s endings involves Father James making a shockingly huge decision in determining Lincoln’s fate. 

While it’s not new to play as a protagonist who has hit rock bottom, the fact you get to build your own criminal empire from the ground up and take over pieces of the city one by one is enticing – every newly owned piece of turf really feels owned. Where GTA exaggerates its world, Mafia 3 feels a lot more grounded and real. So head on down to New Bordeaux, and experience it for yourself.