Mafia 3 First Impressions

Mafia 3 is the first game in the last 6 years for the series. The Mafia series is an immersive world that tackles street crimes and culture. Each of the games was set in the past in a reimagined city. In Mafia 3 the setting places you in 1968 in a reimagine version of New Orleans called, New Bordeaux. When 2K announced that they will be making an internal studio in 2014 to work on Mafia 3, many gamers were excited to see what 2K had in making a new development studio. Now that the game is released we finally can see Hanger 13s (Developers) work in action.

Mafia 3 starts off with a strong and powerful opening prologue. You play as Lincoln Clay, a biracial orphan who just came back from the Vietnam war. His family and friends being the Black Mob; it didn’t take long for him to get himself into trouble. Over the course of the game you are able to recruit, kill, and steal NPCs in their appropriate district. Once you recruit NPCs/Bosses you will be able to send them to watch your turf.

Hanger 13’s vision of New Orleans is massive and full of life. Every NPC that walks by always have something to say. Being black in the 60s was not a great time. Everyone looked at you with a fearsome face expecting something bad is going to happen. Hanger 13 did a really great job in portraying the racism in the 60s without going too far. Early on the world feels empty with not a lot to do. But as I progressed through the story the open world fills up with things to do.

Of course this is an open world game, and open world games has a history of having bugs. A big part of the game is being immersed in the world. There were times that I felt the immersion broke. I kicked over a chair and it got stuck in the wall. This wasn’t the only incident. A pedestrian was walking across the street and a car just stopped beside him and they both just stopped. Open world games were made for the gamers to feel immersed.

In 2014 2K announced they were going to make their own studio called, Hanger 13. When Hanger 13 was created Haden Blackman was named studio head. Haden Blackman previously worked for LucasArts and had his name in multiple games like, Star Wars: Galaxies, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 and 2. Blackman has a knack for telling great stories, you can see that through the cut scenes in Mafia 3.

The more I play Mafia 3 the more I think about it. The narrative is powerful and relatable. The way the narrative is told feels new and refreshing. The open world nature of the game creates a realistic, lived-in world that is immersive. Besides the emptiness of the open world, the game does a great job creating a different version of New Orleans.

Comments

Destiny 2’s New “Gambit” Mode Revived the Game’s Competitive Scene

Destiny 2’s competitive scene has always been a second thought compared to the co-op PvE activities. At the launch of Destiny 2 Bungie tried a different more team-play orientated approach with an all 4v4 pvp match-up. Over time players got tired of that formula, especially, the way players were strategizing. The only way to be competitive is to team-shot a player at long distance, this was the only way everyone played. This kept the matches long and stale. Bungie understood the frustration and decided that they will change something about the Crucible (PvP). In July, Bungie pushed an update that changed the 4v4 format for Crucible to a 6v6, just how it was like in Destiny 1. Adding two more players on a team might not seem like a big change, but it completely changes how freely your team can strategize, this is especially true with solo matchmaking. Bungie knocked it out of the park with this change, of course they had a lot of help from the community. The community wanted th...

The Calming, out of this World Experience from Tetris Effect is a Great Change of Pace and Emotion from Other Tetris games

Ahh, Tetris. A game that your parents and almost every other parent knows. The longevity of it has made it evolve over its existents with the “hold” mechanic – which I’ve grown up with -- and doubling down on the competitive nature of Tetris with Tetris Battle, Tetris DS, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and more. Growing up I was terrible at Tetris – making lines with falling blocks was simple enough, but I didn’t understand how to fix my mistakes. There are many insane Tetris players that I can’t even think about competing with. The stress of trying to keep the best layout of blocks while trying to keep up with my opponent is too intense for my taste. However, Tetris Effect is the total opposite of all those competitive Tetris incarnations. The way Enhanced Games and Mizuguchi plays with music and players emotions to then incorporate it into a puzzle game or even something like Rez: Infinite can give old concepts like Tetris a new breath life. Everything in Tetris Effect is amplified by x...

PlayStation Experience 2016 Was All About Trailers

This past weekend PlayStation Experience (PSX) was held in Anaheim Convention Center. And what an experience it was. Trailers was being presented left and right. Everything from Lara Croft Go to The Last of Us . Last year’s PSX didn’t show much trailers, but they were memorable. This year was the same, but more! With that there were also many highlights from it. Naughty Dog had a massive showing at PSX2016. Last year they showed Uncharted 4 , this year they showed off gameplay of what looks to be a stand-alone DLC for Uncharted known as,” Uncharted: The Lost Legacy .” In the trailer, you won’t be playing as Nathan Drake, but as Chloe ( Uncharted 2 & 3 ). She is sneaking through a war zone to meet with an accomplice, that you might know. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Uncharted was just a taste from Naughty Dog . At the end of the conference, Naughty Dog released, but has said that this game was in very early development. The Last of Us: Part 2 . The trailer had n...

TinhmanDer

Search This Blog