HellforLeather
Member
Jumped in on the PSNow promo for a month and started playing this game on a whim. I have some knowledge of the Mafia games but almost no first hand experience, so I cannot comment on things that were altered or updated from the original. I would imagine if you are an original fan you probably already played this version and know what those changes are.
Its pretty good for the most part with some big caveats.
First, the bad:
Gunplay is really sloppy. Aiming is very loose (which is probably intentional) and a lot of the guns dont have that much ooompf to them. Enemies can take a considerable amount of tommy gun fire before they drop short of a headshot.
Gameplay in general just isnt that much to write home about. Its not terrible, but you will basically be shooting or driving or some combination of the two throughout much of the game (havent finished it yet but I'm probably about 10+ hours in and I dont expect many curveballs on the gameplay front). Cars are interesting to drive and hard to come to terms with. Traction is low and cars are heavy. You WILL run into shit and you WILL fail some chase missions because you crashed and the cars take forever to get back up to speed. Cops will actually pull you over for traffic violations like speeding as well so it does feel a bit more realistic than your GTAs but they still dont bat an eye when you run stop signs or anything like that.
WTF is with the character models eyelashes!?
Now the good:
The story is pretty great. If you want your mobster video game, this scratches all the itches: Rivalries, assassinations, booze running, Italian restaurants, tommy guns, tough guys, beating the shit outta mooks. It doesnt reinvent the wheels but it's probably the closest video game mash up of Godfather/Goodfellas/Casino that I've seen.
The voice acting is almost universally fantastic. Again, it leans heavily on prohibition mobster movie tropes but it nails the time and place and all of your favorite stereotypes are here.
The city is fantastic as far as establishing it as a real place. Really impressive stuff here. The city really feels like a city instead of just a place where gameplay happens. It feels much more lived in and real than most open worlds that I've played.
Despite the gameplay not being very deep or varied, the missions keep things surprisingly fresh by taking you to new locations and having interesting setups. One mission will have you sneaking around and breaking into a rich prosecutors house with a safe cracker to steal some sensitive documents while another has you navigating through a dilapidated old prison that is being squatted in by a group of homeless people. Not all the set ups are winners but points for mixing it up as much as possible.
The devs really gave a shit about this game (unlike some other recent remasters) The graphics borderline on fantastic a lot of the time and you really get the sense that this was a labor of love. This is how remakes should be done.
Should you play it?
That depends on what you want: If gameplay is front and center for you and you prefer to skip all the cutscenes (which you can do in this game) I would say 'no' then. The gameplay is just too old school to keep you locked in from the beginning to the end.
If good story with excellent voice acting can drive you through some of the jank and old game design then this is absolutely a 'yes'.
Its pretty good for the most part with some big caveats.
First, the bad:
Gunplay is really sloppy. Aiming is very loose (which is probably intentional) and a lot of the guns dont have that much ooompf to them. Enemies can take a considerable amount of tommy gun fire before they drop short of a headshot.
Gameplay in general just isnt that much to write home about. Its not terrible, but you will basically be shooting or driving or some combination of the two throughout much of the game (havent finished it yet but I'm probably about 10+ hours in and I dont expect many curveballs on the gameplay front). Cars are interesting to drive and hard to come to terms with. Traction is low and cars are heavy. You WILL run into shit and you WILL fail some chase missions because you crashed and the cars take forever to get back up to speed. Cops will actually pull you over for traffic violations like speeding as well so it does feel a bit more realistic than your GTAs but they still dont bat an eye when you run stop signs or anything like that.
WTF is with the character models eyelashes!?
Now the good:
The story is pretty great. If you want your mobster video game, this scratches all the itches: Rivalries, assassinations, booze running, Italian restaurants, tommy guns, tough guys, beating the shit outta mooks. It doesnt reinvent the wheels but it's probably the closest video game mash up of Godfather/Goodfellas/Casino that I've seen.
The voice acting is almost universally fantastic. Again, it leans heavily on prohibition mobster movie tropes but it nails the time and place and all of your favorite stereotypes are here.
The city is fantastic as far as establishing it as a real place. Really impressive stuff here. The city really feels like a city instead of just a place where gameplay happens. It feels much more lived in and real than most open worlds that I've played.
Despite the gameplay not being very deep or varied, the missions keep things surprisingly fresh by taking you to new locations and having interesting setups. One mission will have you sneaking around and breaking into a rich prosecutors house with a safe cracker to steal some sensitive documents while another has you navigating through a dilapidated old prison that is being squatted in by a group of homeless people. Not all the set ups are winners but points for mixing it up as much as possible.
The devs really gave a shit about this game (unlike some other recent remasters) The graphics borderline on fantastic a lot of the time and you really get the sense that this was a labor of love. This is how remakes should be done.
Should you play it?
That depends on what you want: If gameplay is front and center for you and you prefer to skip all the cutscenes (which you can do in this game) I would say 'no' then. The gameplay is just too old school to keep you locked in from the beginning to the end.
If good story with excellent voice acting can drive you through some of the jank and old game design then this is absolutely a 'yes'.
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