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.

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