Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake that does a lot of things right, but stumbles when it comes to being a full-blown modernization. Its rebuilt visuals and overhaul of the script, not to mention the stellar new voice cast, all come together to offer up a truly engaging experience that compliments the original and what it aimed to do some 18 years ago. But as good as the game looks, or sounds, its dated gameplay drags down the experience with a bevy of instant fail mechanics, a clunky and poorly implemented combat system, and a lack of variety or personality to its large rebuilt world.
The story itself has seen a lot of improvements over the 2002 original. The first change is an alteration to how Tommy first meets Detective Norman, a man who Tommy is detailing his life of crime to in hopes he can protect him and his family from mob retaliation. There is also a change to the game’s ending to make a certain moment bring a better sense of closure. There are also countless changes, additions, and alterations to some several other moments, that either enhance, expand, or reduce the tedium of some of the original game’s mission structure. Some characters, such as Sarah Marino, sees a drastic change from originally being a throw-away character, to one of the remake’s standout roles; a confident and strong-willed woman who comes into Tommy’s life, someone who makes Tommy a better person overall. There is also Salvatore, a safecracker who is now a mostly speaking Italian; a language change that brings a fun comedic twist to a mission that was largely generic some 18 years ago.
With much of the script and dialogue being rewritten for the remake, we get a better sense of who each character is, often coming across significantly better characterized than the original due to some stellar voice acting. The original game suffered from a very uneven flow of tone, with some lines feeling like they were recorded months apart with the actor not knowing the volume or tone of their voice from the previous line. Here, every single character just comes to life with very unique and engaging personalities. While the game does look gorgeous with some very emotive characters, they don’t quite reach the heights of something akin to a Naughty Dog experience, but the facial tech used here to capture each of the actors still manages to allow everyone to convey a ton of story across their face. This is very noticeable as when Tommy comes home after a job gone wrong, and Sarah’s face says everything you need to know about how she feels towards Tommy. It’s an impressive feat without being the best use of the tech out there.
Even despite the rewritten script, the story is still as good as it was back in the original. You play as Tommy Angelo, a cab driver in the 1930’s who begins a life of crime when he unexpectantly becomes a getaway driver for a pair of mobsters; Sam and Paulie. These two become decent enough friends towards newcomer Tommy, despite sometimes being more trouble for what they are worth. It’s also not long before Tommy is introduced to the boss, Don Salieri, one of two men who are at odds with one another in Lost Haven. The other, Don Morello, is a man who we are often told is pure evil, and while we do get a few decent scenes to convey that, he is largely a name in the shadows that we’re told to fear but never quite given the proper motivation to do so. As the story progresses, Tommy attempts to look out for himself and his friends, often coming at odds with wanting to do the right thing or being loyal to the boss. This conflict does make certain parts of the story interesting, but then Tommy makes a foolish choice that doesn’t quite sit right with his character that turns much of his loyalties into question and paints a pretty big target on his back.
The only issue I have with how some of the story is told is the time jumps it makes. While we get a bit of narrative between Tommy and Detective Norman to move the story forward, we lose out of what could have been some interesting moments that we only hear about, instead of experience. There is also a moment between Tommy and the Don where they address his sobriety, a moment that feels glossed over considering we never had evidence that Tommy had a drinking problem in the first place, and if it was there, it was likely a single line of dialogue I must have missed. I also find that the game often just throws major characters to you to wrap up loose ends, such as how quickly you take down Morello and his right-hand man, missions that sort of just come out of nowhere to resolve. The story and dialogue are often fantastic, but the pacing can be something altogether different and lacking in conveying that story.
While much of your time in Lost Haven is driving around during missions, or the brief moments you can find your own path to your objectives, there isn’t a single thing to do in the city apart from tracking down collectibles, new cars, or the odd secret if you look hard enough. This remake could have benefitted from giving you at least additional quests or other means to flesh out some of its underused cast. You do have a free ride mode that unlocks early on to allow you to explore the city at your own pace, but with no additional missions or anything to really sink your teeth into, the city feels bland and uninspiring as a character, becoming merely a backdrop that you’ll often find yourself driving the same roads and routes during the game’s 20 missions. I will say that visually, the city is more alive at night, mostly due to the bright colored signs that populate the streets, making for a more visually interesting time as you drive around. From a design point of view, the biggest annoyances are the objects that you cannot drive through or the occasional part of a wall that has just the slightest protrusion that causes your car to come to a complete stop as you back up, turn slightly, and try to catch up to your chase, something that is made even more frustrating when there is a timer attached to it, often having you fail it due to the short window you have to catch up. Driving itself is decent enough, even if the cars themselves don’t seem to break considerably well, with some cars becoming clear favorites as they are not terribly fast, but control significantly better.
From a gameplay point of view, this is where Mafia: Definitive Edition could have benefitted from a bit of modernization in how it plays. Combat tends to become a game of wack-a-mole as you can press a button to adhere to cover and pop up to shoot and then duck back down to reload or avoid gunfire. There is a decent enough auto-aim, but it rarely assists in any way towards moving targets, especially when you’re riding shotgun in a car on an airstrip, shooting out the engines of a fleeing plane. The window you have to shoot down the plane is absurdly short, often failing even despite the plane still being above you, yet we’re told it ‘got away’. Shooting from any point of view here feels clunky. It’s serviceable and gets the job done, but even games release years ago just feel better in every single way. You have a small assortment of guns to swap out when you find them, which is fine, it is the 1930’s after all, but none of them feel really that satisfying to use. You can shoot behind cover, but standing cover can often block the target trail of your molotovs for some reason, making them partially useless unless you break cover and then just whip them out. You can swap shoulders should you not like the default, but it won’t remember your preference when you go back into that aiming mode. There is a hand to hand combat system as well, with you mashing down a button, but when you’re meant to dodge, the button almost needs to be pressed before you see the prompt for it to function at all. I don’t know how many battles I lost pressing it the moment it appeared, making me wonder what the hell was going on half the time. This is made even more annoying when in a tight hallway when the camera angle can often block you from seeing the prompt at all.
While Mafia Definitive Edition looks the part of being this gorgeous modernization of the original, it suffers the same problems of most remakes in that while the visuals themselves have been rebuilt from the ground up, the gameplay feels drastically dated out of the gate. While there are certainly a ton of new systems or better systems here than what was present in the original, you have to compare it to what the industry is not just doing now, but has been doing better for years. There are games from even a decade ago that have vastly better cover systems or shooting mechanics, or driving, that would have made this game feel new from head to toe, instead of this contemporary remake feeling so one-sided in what it’s capable at and what still needs work. This isn’t to say that everything visually about the game succeeds as there is still a decent amount of pop-in or graphical detail needing a few extra seconds to render, or some stilted animations like reaching for a gun on the table, only for the gun to shift slightly to left for a second so the character can actually pick it up. Again, the majority of this game is downright gorgeous, but there are a ton of little graphical flaws like this that crop up quite often.
Mafia Definitive Edition isn’t quite as impressive of a remake as I was hoping for as while the game can be downright gorgeous more often than not, the feel of the game isn’t anywhere as much of a leap forward as it could have been. Shooting, cover, combat, and driving feels drastically dated and clunky at best. It’s functional sure, but given the care and attention that went into remaking the game from the ground up, it’s a shame these systems don’t feel as modern as they could have been. Regardless, there is enjoyment here as the game is still serviceable from a gameplay perspective, but its real satisfaction comes from the improved script, voice acting, and story. Mafia: Definitive Edition is the typical two-sided coin when it comes to remakes, often landing face-up on one side and ignoring its face down counterpart altogether.
Mafia: Definitive Edition was purchased as part of the Mafia Trilogy by the reviewer and played on an Xbox One X.
All screenshots were taken on an Xbox One X.