Mafia 3 FAQ-Review

[Techicolors]

What is this? 

A review in the form of an FAQ for Mafia 3 PC version.

 

What's it about?

A guy named Lincoln Clay avenging the death of his entire family, also backstabbed by what he thought was his loyal friend Giorgi. The guy who called the shots was the kingpin Sal Marcano. Lincoln Clay then tries to flush him out by dismantling Marcano's entire operation.

 

Enjoyment factor?

If you like doing the same thing over and over again (which involves killing goons again and again), loving the recycled content, there is some glimmer of enjoyment.  

 

And the offensive content?

Referring to this image

Spoiler

Yes, there is a lot of offensive stuff in this game (the n-word, colored vs whites, police brutality, hispanics, corruption...). Yes, the KKK is in this game as well. Not much sexism though. 

 

How long did it take to beat?

Took 30 hours. Did some optional missions as well but I think 90% of the time spent is working up until the endgame.

 

So what do you do in this game?

You do a lot of repetitive activities. Over and over again. I am used to doing repetitive stuff, but there is certainly a lot of it in this game. 

 

First, you will meet 3 underbosses: Vito (from Mafia 2), Cassandra, and Burke. Then you'll have to take 9 territories, and each territory contains several illegal activities, such as racketeering or gambling. Each territory is ruled by one of Marcano's underbosses, and it is your job to dismantle each territory to flush out the underboss so you can kill them. You take the territory afterwards, but you'll have to give it to one of your underbosses. The activities in each territory can be given to any underboss, but the entire territory has to be ruled by someone, and it doesn't have to be the same underboss. For example, I can give Burke gambling, but I can still give either Cassandra or Vito the entire district. 

 

Sense of progression?

There is some. As you give your underbosses some power (and do their loyalty missions), they'll earn more money. But it can also result in another underboss losing power, and thus losing money. 

When an underboss gains more money, they'll reward you with perks, like Burke's ability to call off the cops for a few minutes. If an underboss loses money, you lose the perk you have gained from them previously. Additional rewards like new weapons are also given to you, but as far as I know these are permanent so you cannot possibly lose those. 

 

How hard is it?

The hardest part is how mind-numbingly repetitive the game is. 100% true.

 

There are 3 difficulties. I played at medium, but hard mode isn't that bad. You just get killed a lot faster if an enemy flanks you or you stay out of cover a second too long. 

 

You can also change driving. Normal or Simulation. Simulation feels like traction control is off. I just leave it on Normal. 

 

If you have played cover shooters like GTA, this game will be very easy.

 

Power-ups?

You can call Burke to call off the cops even when they're still pursuing you (though it gets locked out in certain missions). 

You can call Vito for 3-4 guys sent out to help you. You cannot command them, so they go off doing whatever as long as they get to kill enemy AI. they can get killed-off very easily in a lot of situations. 

You can call Nicky (Burke's sibling) to help you cut off telecomms. This prevents anyone from calling in reinforcements or witnesses to call police. 

 

There are more but those are the most powerful. 

 

Stealth gameplay?

You can play this game stealthily. The AI is ridiculously dumb as soon as you try to kill them off with a silenced pistol or even a sniper rifle. But they will immediately become aware of your location if you take out a couple of them in a group at once. Some missions however prevent you from going stealth. 

 

How uninspiring is Lincoln Clay?

I admire his conviction, but this guy is just like Aiden Pierce from Watch dogs 1. The parallels are so similar they might as well be twins. If you haven't played Watch dogs 1, then... Lincoln is sadly very uninspiring. IMO of course

 

Any memorable characters?

Only Vito, since he is the guy you played from Mafia 2. Father James, as well (he narrates a couple of monologues, and they're quite good). Maybe Burke and Cassandra, after you do their loyalty missions.

 

 What about Joe Barbaro??

Spoiler

He's dead. Vito gets really emotional after you do his loyalty missions, which actually pertain to you tracking down to "loose ends" that were involved with Joe's death. 

 

And Leo Galante?

Spoiler

 

You meet him when you killed Sal Marcano and leave his unfinished Casino. Basically he sends a message, offering Lincoln to take Sal Marcano's place. But Lincoln has to pay a cut to Leo every year.

 

 

 

 

Romance??

What? There is no romance. There is one very suggested implication though, but nothing happens. 

 

Weapons?

There are a few (pistols, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns (yes there is a tommy gun), and special weapons which are rocket launchers, an LMG, and a noobtube). Some can be bought, some have to be unlocked by doing favors for your underbosses. Some can also be unlocked for free, which requires a certain money threshold for an underboss. There are also weapon upgrades. No, they are not attachments. Just passive effects like more ammo or more stability. Guns upgrades aren't available for the special guns.

 

Upgrades?

You can upgrade the usual, like health, faster cars, etc. All require certain money thresholds to be met for an underboss, and some can be taken away from you if that underboss falls under the threshold. 

 

Cars?

You get 6 cars, 2 are already available early-on. A very early perk from Burke allows you to get one of these six cars to be delivered to you as much as you want. The car upgrades you can obtain are only applied to these six cars. 

 

Collectibles?

There are Playboy magazines you can collect (yes, uncensored nudes). Also oldies albums, patriotic/communist posters, Hot Rod magazines, and "Vargas paintings" which are equivalent to lewd anime art. 

 

Endings??

Spoiler

 

There are several endings you can choose. But no matter what, you'll have successfully killed Giorgi and Sal Marcano. You cannot fail to kill them. Though interestingly you can sort-of "refuse" to kill Sal Marcano, but that leaves him to just kill himself. You cannot "refuse" to kill Giorgi.

1. Rule together - Lincoln is the kingpin, and Cassandra, Burke, and Vito are his underbosses. Of course this means that you didn't kill any of them before the final mission. Otherwise only the underbosses that are still alive get to rule with you.

2. Rule alone - Lincoln kills Cassandra, Burke, and Vito, and he rules alone as kingpin. But... he gets killed by a car bomb set by Father James, a very close friend of Lincoln and his personal priest, right after Lincoln kills his underbosses. Huge plot-hole there, honestly...

3. Leave the city - Lincoln disappears. Dozens of sightings of Lincoln doing whatever, running away basically. As for the city itself, it is ruled by either Vito, Cassandra, or Burke, or all of them. Not sure what conditions determine who rules the city. Meaning you cannot choose who gets to take your place. 

 

 

And after the endgame?

Spoiler

 you do not get a continue after finishing the game. You are simply put back to where you have to decide which ending you want when you reload. Here you can do favors and other optional stuff, or choose any other ending. 

 

Performance?

Really, really bad. After an intermittent patch some moons ago, it still runs like crap. Do not buy this game! Least until it gets a hefty sale.

 

I played at 30fps. But frame pacing is terrible. 60fps cannot be achieved (I have a 1070 and 4690k). 

 

How are the graphics?

I run a reshade profile from this link. IMO makes the game look a lot better https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/6205/

 

However, there are some really ridiculous graphical bugs 

- the reflections. I don't even know what's going on here, but it keeps "updating" and is super blurry. While in motion, it gets even blurrier, like when driving. I have to stand still for a few seconds for the reflections to look "right". 

- hair. Everyone's hair looks like crap, apart from pre-rendered cutscenes. 

- artifacting. and no, this isn't my card dying. But straight-up graphical anomalies such as a blimp-like shadow that follows behind me or textures flashing. 

- lots of haziness around shiny objects. goes away after idling for a moment but immediately comes back as soon as you start moving. 

- the sky. it looks like it's painted pastel... you can see the cross-hatching, it's weird. 

 

Any glitches?

Not very much, actually. A YMMV type of deal.

 

DLC?

What? DLC?

 

There are a few planned. Guess I'll cover them when they come out. 

 

One free DLC actually came out, and it is adding more outfits for Lincoln Clay... yep. 

 

Any pros, at least?

Voice acting.

Facial animations. Especially in cutscenes.

New Bourdeaux itself. Really quite detailed. 

1960s depiction. Not wholly accurate, but captures it decently.

[suchamoneypit]

Very in-depth review, gj!

[shadowbyte]

very wel done, thanks

[Clyne]

I will say that Mafia 3 will run like shit no matter what, struggled to get 60FPS at 1080P Medium with a 8320 and a Fury...

You'd probably need like a 6700K and a 1080 to even get 60FPS 1080P with decent settings(Medium/High)....

As for the weapon upgrades, the added ammo was applied to the Tommy Gun that I had.