Mafia 3 is a third person single player shooter that uses its story line to captivate players. The game was released in October of this year, and the reviews are outstanding.

“My 30 hours with Mafia 3 were filled with fantastic highs and baffling lows. Its writing and performances are some of the best of this entire generation, and it isn’t pulling punches with the themes it tackles,” said IGN reporter Marty Silva.

The game takes place in an alternate New Orleans called New Bordeaux in the mid 1960’s. You play as Lincoln Clay: an African American veteran returning from the Vietnam War. When he comes home, the player learns that his childhood caretaker has gotten into some debt with a very powerful man named Sal Marcano. Marcano owns all of the criminal rackets in New Bordeaux, and it is your job in the beginning of the game to work for him to pay off the debt. Marcano ends up betraying Clay by killing his caretaker and his brother. One of Marcano’s henchmen shoots Clay, but he is just left with a menacing scar on the side of his head. For the rest of the game, your job is to take out all of Marcano’s criminal rackets by securing districts within New Bordeaux.

As you progress your way through the story, you begin to acquire your own underbosses that can aid you when you are in need of certain services like storing your money and car deliveries. As you continue to gain territory, you begin to find out more about the city itself and what Marcano’s big plan is. Once a district is gained, you can decide which of your underbosses gets the district. Giving districts to your underbosses will help you unlock better equipment and upgrades for your character as you progress.

Although this game offers a very unique storyline, there are some drawbacks to the gameplay.

“Some of the gameplay feels repetitive when taking out lieutenants and capturing districts,” said GameSpot. I find that this claim is invalid because this game is not meant to be played through in one sitting. The game is quite extensive in what you can do. There are three underbosses that you have while playing the game, and each of them has their own storyline which you can play if you ever get bored of the main story.

The Guardian claims that the game has some slight mechanical issues like render distance.

“Rendering in objects is yet another flaw found in the beta,” said The Guardian. Although this may be true when playing the game, it does not seem to affect the main storyline and is simply a graphical bug that can be fixed in future updates.

Mafia 3 features no multiplayer mode, but the storyline is enough to keep gamers playing this game for more than the thirty hours in the story. The creators of the game have also promised downloadable content for purchase to enhance the playability of the game. It is still unknown as to what the content will be, but the prequel to Mafia 3 offered many expansions to the main story which added playtime and an alternate view on the main storyline. It is safe to assume that the downloadable content will surpass the previous game and add a lot more playability offering a more dynamic playthrough.
Generally speaking, Mafia 3 is a game that offers a very dynamic story and great content that stands out from the dynamic shooters that the gaming world is plagued with today. Although the game has some issues, the developers will continue to create updates to make the game better, and downloadable content will make gamers come come back to the game even when they are finished. 10/10 would recommend.