4/5 ★ – ElementaryGaming's review of Mafia: Definitive Edition.

Features an excellent intro which brings your main character into the fold of the mafia. Noteworthy for being less vulgar, more "classy" than the modern incarnations of Mafia seen on the Sopranos and Goodfellas. Engaging camera work in the cutscenes. A fully-realized 1930s New York which perfectly sets the tone for the plot itself. It's historical fiction that doesn't pull any punches or censor the realities of the era, which is very admirable. It uses an open-world design to tell a linear chapter-by-chapter narrative, and it works very well. The game has a lazer focus on telling a well-written, engaging story with fun action gameplay, and it completely succeeds in this regard. It's nice that there isn't bunch of optional, watered-down side content that most modern open-world games have, and is instead confidently linear and high-quality. The driving, while difficult, is unique in that the cars have real weight to them, and each car drives slightly different than the last one. The inclusion of road signs which tell you which way to go to your next objective, instead of looking at the minimap, was a nice touch. It's also an excellent 1930s period piece which captures the era in a detailed and realistic way not often seen in games. Mixed with a film score-quality soundtrack, it works very well. There is some very unfortunate screen tearing which happens quite often. It doesn't ruin the experience, but it definitely detracts from it and is very noticeable. It's also strange how the ambient music in the background of the pause menu randomly will stop. Really too bad that these technical issues weren't ironed out before release, especially for a "definitive edition". It is by far the worst screen tearing I've ever experienced in a game. The gameplay, while it works, is fairly standard 3rd-person action game stuff. The sound and feel of the guns is a highlight, and the gunplay feels good. Overall, it utilizes shooting/driving gameplay that was popularized during the Xbox 360 era. The only part of the gameplay that doesn't really feel good is the stealth, which feels tacked-on and awkward when it is forced upon the player on mission 18. As someone who doesn't mind linearity in games, this is an very solid action-adventure which offers a good variety of gameplay styles mixed with a great story. It's very cool seeing the protagonist Tommy's appearance change on loading screens as you progress through the story, documenting his progression through the Mafia ranks.