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

I’m going to try and keep my reviews short after this because I notice I pressure myself to write long reviews when I don’t really need to. Anyway, Mafia is one of those cinematic games that could easily be a movie with how great it’s narrative is. The characters of Sam, Paulie and Tommy are so well written and their dynamic is very interesting to watch change as the story develops. Tommy our main character and the character we play as is the new guy in the family, a guy who joined just to really make some extra cash and as the story develops he slowly realises how bad the mafioso life could be. Paulie is the guy who cracks the jokes and acts the most unserious but behind his jokes and behind his smile there’s a more darker and depressing side to him. It’s as if the jokes and the unserious persona is a mask for his true feelings in which he’s tired of the killing and robbing. Sam acts as the stern one, the character who keeps the other two in check making sure they never betray the boss, which then leads to a climax where he betrays his friends in order to move up the ladder. Sam’s betrayal was disheartening as he killed his bestfriend Paulie due to a heist him and Tommy did without the Boss’ permission, all that friendship built up throughout the game was destroyed just like that which all in all felt heartbreaking. I believe the dynamic of Tommy, Paulie and Sam hold the narrative together so well. In terms of gameplay I’d say there’s wayyy too much driving missions (I get thats the point) but at times the missions can feel really mundane or annoying to do. (the race mission is one of the most annoying missions ive ever done in a game) I believe the annoyance really comes from how we have to travel everywhere by car each time between missions and during missions it gets to a point to where it’s repetitive. It makes traversing the map so much less fun and at times I was wishing that there was a fast travel feature. When you’re not driving everywhere by car your getting into gun fights that use the basic cover system that most third person action games use (like GTA) and to be fair there’s not much to say about it.. It works well enough I guess I don’t have mant complaints about it I had fun with it at times. I think the visuals are BEAUTIFUL though like the visuals really immerse the experience and bring the world of new haven to life. I finished this game quite a while ago but all in all this is a pretty good game. Other than the repetitive mission format and traversal it holds up well and I’d reccommend this game to anyone reading this. Slayzie Rating - 4 ⭐️