FAMILY AFFAIR
Relive the rise and fall of Tommy Angelo in MAFIA: DEFINITIVE EDITION, a shiny remake that’s still rooted in the past.
Welcome to the 1930s. The economy has collapsed, authoritarian regimes are gaining power around the world, dust storms are killing crops, and to make matters worse, booze has been declared illegal. But for Tommy Angelo, a lowly cab driver in the city of Lost Heaven, the Dirty Thirties are an age of opportunity. This is the story of his rise from working stiff to mafia big shot.
But before you dive into the criminal underworld, you have to spend some time earning an honest living. The first mission in Mafia sees you driving a taxi, picking up passengers, and getting a feel for the city. The Mafia series has always been great at slowing down and giving you a chance to immerse yourself in its evocative world, and this glitzy remake of the 2002 original is no different.
Naturally, it doesn’t last long. After a fateful encounter, Tommy ditches his cab and joins the Salieri crime family. The jobs are simple at first: squeezing protection money out of local business owners, driving people around town. But thanks to a vibrantly paced story, it’s not long before you get to indulge in car chases, shootouts, robberies, and all the other jolly activities of a hardworking mobster.
MOB RULE
Mafia features an open, explorable city, but it’s not an open world game.
This is a completely linear experience, split into tightly designed missions, so don’t go in expecting a big GTA- style playground. It’s a cover shooter, really, interspersed with long drives and slower moments of scene-setting to let you soak up the atmosphere, before the bullets start flying.
It gets the balance right. You rarely feel overloaded with combat, with plenty of breaks in between to wander around, talk to people, or take a drive. The shooting is chunky and satisfying, but ultimately pretty basic. And sluggish character movement makes sprinting between, and snapping to, pieces of cover feel clumsier than it should.
It is, honestly, a deeply average, old-fashioned shooter. But through its use of set-pieces, world-building, and storytelling, I was often having too much fun to care. One mission in particular, which takes place at night during an apocalyptic thunderstorm, is brilliantly crafted, thrillingly tense, and hugely atmospheric. It’s still just
Deep down it’s the same game and sticks closely to the source material