r/MafiaTheGame • u/Mr_Pinstripe1 • 16d ago

Discussion I swear it’s all I’ve been seeing.

Don’t get me wrong, the game ain’t perfect but I’m not letting small imperfections ruin my entire experience.

I said it once and I’ll say it again. The driving is peak.

The story meets the standard for the Mafia series so y’know, it’s good.

The shooting is really good and yes it is better than all the other mafia games and also better than RDR2 and GTA V.

How is it better? Well, first of all, when it comes to shooting in RDR2, as the player, you don’t really feel the weight of the gun you are shooting.

Basically in RDR2 and GTA, it just feels like you’re shootings airsoft guns but mafia: the old country actually feels more realistic and I feel more immersed when it comes to gunplay and I don’t doubt other games also have better gunplay than Mafia: the old country but, I can’t speak on those because I haven’t played them.

To be fair, nobody, not even me, should be comparing Mafia the old country to other games outside of the Mafia series.

This isn’t me being ignorant also. The games has flaws. I definitely think it holds the game back to an extent but then again, consider the fact that this isn’t another Mindseye or Ubisoft game or activision game… and it does what it what all mafia games set out to do? Then you can’t complain too much.

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163

u/KingOfEreb0r 16d ago

Some of them have valid / ok points but others are just hating for fun because they are bored like having no swimming , linear game , no open world etc ...

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u/alexintradelands2 16d ago edited 16d ago

Calling it linear isn't being a hater lol; Mafia 2 has one of the most detailed open worlds ever as it's backdrop, it's incredibly well done, and driving between jobs felt so immersive as a result, as you got so many opportunities to stop at gun shops, or get petrol, or upgrade your car, or whatever, and police always keep you on your toes to either add chases between your missions or not drive like a fucking maniac, adding to it further.

I hate that people think calling TOC too linear isn't a valid criticism of it given how amazing the game it's clearly massively inspired by and constantly references is in its open world design. I do like TOC but it is missing that, and it's not a nitpick

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u/throwinitawhey 16d ago

This.

Mafia 2 doesn't scream "RETURN TO MISSION AREA" when you walk 3 feet in the wrong direction, as far as I remember. I tried running to the apartment really quick to load up on a mission where you get dropped off like a block away and it did that it was jarring

Also the skill and money system is kinda made useless with how little you can get your own guns.

11

u/MARATXXX 15d ago

also the game gives you the illusion of choice a couple of times between horses and cars. well, later in the game i chose a horse, and guess what? it broke the mission, lol. the quest npc didn't respond to me unless i arrive in a car. and this is one of those missions where you can choose to skip the journey.

the fact that the underlying game design doesn't even support the choices that you think you've been told you have, felt like a glaring mistake. hopefully they fix it, but it just speaks to their philosophy, i think.

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u/bravehart146 15d ago

Yeah the mission with leo right? Haha i tried to do the same, it was just out of reach. Return to mission area is stupid

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u/alexintradelands2 16d ago

Yeahhhhh, it really feels like they massively back stepped from Mafia 3 in terms of open world, but way too much to the point where it practically doesn't have an open world. Most disappointing part of the game by far, hopefully they can make something more balanced in the future. They do amazing narrative but this was a miss and people calling this criticism nitpicky is really irritating

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u/Soft-Crazy9568 15d ago

Thank you they didnt make the greatest open world mafia 3 but why gibe up fix it dont go the cheap easy route we want open world mafia with hits money laundering g collecting working our way up the ranks

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u/gr8fullyded 15d ago

I’m willing to bet they stuck to their guns on this, did the stuff they already knew they could do well, and im really holding out for the Mafia IV Las Vegas open world empire builder, only linear enough to tell a cohesive story arc no matter which rackets you get going or which casinos you take over.

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u/JuggerSloth96 12d ago

Mafia 3 was too much the wrong direction, story was so disconnected, barely a cutscene, so much repetitive gameplay between them I was forgetting what even happened and became uninterested altogether, on top of the story just being just another revenge story

My time in TOC I was completely immersed as enzo the entire time and was excited to watch every cut scene, there’s an open world mode for roaming about and they’re adding shit to do to that

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u/baldmof0 16d ago

this. Mafia 2 is the standard

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u/bondno9 15d ago

exactly, the metro games are good examples foe solid linear story games.

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u/sawrunn3r 16d ago

Mafia 2 also went through development hell of 8 years, story changes, and 2 game engines. The devs responsible for the open world had plenty of time to implement those details, unlike Hangar 13. The game was developed in just 3 years, which is an extremely small development time for AA/AAA games.

On the contrary, 8 years in the 2000s was not just a lot by AAA standards, it was one of the longest developed games of the time. Mafia 2 initially was supposed to be an entirely different game and came out a shell of what it was supposed to be, so little increments of it's former ideas, such as the open world, made it in. Mafia The Old Country never had an open world in mind, and that doesn't make it a bad game.

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u/alexintradelands2 16d ago

I still find it difficult to justify that they toned it back to the extent they did. The world itself is beautiful, and they had a light framework of the police system from Mafia DE. If the missions were about as open ended as Mafia DE with that police system ported over, it would've been decent enough.

I still think it's something to criticise anyways, and still not a nitpick regardless of how much dev time the game had. New Vegas was done in 18 months and is a pretty similar arrangement tbf, where they designed a new map and added some mechanics (in TOC knife fights and horses) but otherwise the engine and assets were the same

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u/MARATXXX 15d ago

there were no police patrols in sicily at that time. they'd have to be on horses, probably.

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u/alexintradelands2 15d ago

That's very true actually, yeah. You'd think they would wander the streets and such at the least, though

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u/sawrunn3r 16d ago

The engine wasn't the same, however. Mafia 2, 3 and DE used the Fusion engine, Mafia TOC is on UE5.

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u/alexintradelands2 16d ago

I thought Mafia DE was on UE, honestly. I'm a dumbass, ignore my last comment lol. It's weird how similar DE and TOC feel despite the totally different engine

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u/sawrunn3r 16d ago

You are not a dumbass. You are a good person. You raised valid points

1

u/PromptStock5332 15d ago

The fact that it’s lacking features because it was rusher doesnt make it any better…

0

u/sawrunn3r 15d ago

Because a game took less development time doesn't mean it was rushed. It's a complete experience with minimal bugs, meaning the developers did everything they wanted to do and polished what's important.

Why do you not just...play an open world game if you want an open world experience? It was quite literally advertised as a linear story experience, it's not like you were fooled about what you're getting into.

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u/PromptStock5332 14d ago

I don’t want an open world experience. I want a good Mafia game.

I’m just baffled to decide to spend tons of money building a big open world and then just not have it add to the experience in every way. They should have just skipped the open world entierly and spent the money on a better story and try to make the gameplay not feel like 2010.

I don’t care about an open world, i care that it has an uninteresting and predictable story and gameplay that isnt fun.

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u/JuggerSloth96 12d ago

All mafia games have predictable stories and you’re delusional if you think otherwise, mobs are predictable in how they act and there’s only so many ways to tell a mob story

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u/PromptStock5332 12d ago

Thats just not true, I didnt see Sam’s betrayal coming 1/3rd through the game. And just because it’s a mon story doesnt mean it has to be a carbon copy of generic mob story #4, it is possible to atleast inject some creativity.

I mean, you don’t need to get defensive about it. If you think it was a good game then that’s good for you. I think it was mediocre at best and think they should just let the IP die and move on to something Else.

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u/JuggerSloth96 12d ago

It was a spin off, imagine letting an IP die over a spin off hahaha 🤣 and it’s not defensive to have an opinion on mafia stories as a whole, I personally guessed all the betrayals before they happened, if you watch a lot of movies you’d realise just how rare it is for a story to not be predictable

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u/PromptStock5332 12d ago

I mean yeah it was a spin off.., and the game before it, Mafia 3, was so bad that it already ruined the IPs reputation to begin with. Following that up with just a marginally beter mediocre game is just not good.

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u/LucaColonnello 15d ago

Mafia 2 open world implementation didn’t add anything to the experience. And I’m not saying this out of staying an opinion as a fact, cause it is a fact that you doing any of the things it allowed you to outside of the main story, didn’t contribute in any way to the game direction or character development.

It may made it feel more immersive TO YOU, and that I would not debate as it’s an opinion and personal experience. But open world elements being there or not would be indifferent to the outcome, which is not the case in games where open world is part of the game design (side quests, levelling, grinding), and not just minor interactions like press triangle to open or close a door or tap.

And Mafia 2 is one of my favourite Mafias BTW, so I’m not bashing, just trying to make some possibly objective observations.

This is why people dismiss the open world aspect, not because is not fun, but because if you want it to matter in the game (and not just to people with OCD wanting the game to allow them to close the doors), you would need mechanics that deviate from Mafia’s main story, which matters more given a linear game.

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u/alexintradelands2 15d ago

I don't think it needed to contribute to character growth or game direction, though. Even though it does in some aspects by introducing Giuseppe and Harry as characters that you can visit at anytime. You're constantly stopping at those places to gear up between missions too, which counts towards overall progression.

While I get where you're coming from, I completely disagree. You interact a lot with the open world naturally anyways between missions. I always find myself robbing a gun shop while driving to my next mission just because I need ammo for whatever it might throw at me. And oh shit, the police saw me and are gonna be a pain in the ass; better get some new clothes. In fact I always do this after robbing the jewelry store, which is in the middle of a mission. To say it doesn't add anything to the experience, I couldn't disagree more, and I'd go as far as saying that I don't think the game would be a cult classic if these open world elements never existed.

0

u/LucaColonnello 15d ago

Some of the elements you cited are indeed fun, and as others have said, are a result of a much bigger budget and development timeline. And they are nice additions to the experience, but they could have been implemented like TOC, where you can also go and stock ammos and weapons for example, and it doesn’t feel playing it like something is missing, just different…

I do agree on the fact that police snd the camouflage element could have added to the immersion, but then again, it’s Siciliy in the 1900, not much like a bustling city tbh.

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u/alexintradelands2 15d ago

TOC suffers in that it very, very rarely lets you use the stuff you unlock throughout the game. The only thing that you're always going to get some value from is your knife, otherwise for the most part you'll not get a chance to choose your own guns, usually a car is chosen for you, etc. I remember one mission wherein you are to go somewhere and in the corner of the screen, my objective was to ride or drive to the location. So I decide to walk to the stables, which are completely blocked off. You really don't get much agency at all.

In terms of police, they could've had foot patrols around the main cities at the very least. I get why there's not horse patrols as that'd be a pain in the ass to code I imagine, but surely foot patrols would be okay?

1

u/DonkeyIntelligent501 15d ago

I don't think police are fitting as from what I know they didn't really exist, but what they could have implemented is other families coming after you if you cause a ruckus in certain parts of the map.

I'm not sure how many families are present on the available map mind you.

1

u/LucaColonnello 15d ago

If you have any open world element, yes. Others the player is never going to encounter them. Like in uncharted, it won’t really gave a chance to engage if all you let them do is go from mission to mission. Just a different style of gameplay, but bear in mind building such mechanics takes time, so when they say it’s been developed in a short time, you’re going to see how the main focus had to be the story and representation of the time and place, and I think they nailed that! I think J’d even remove the skill tree they put, which was very useless and the item collection tbh.

1

u/OpinionatedMisery 15d ago

I agree Mafia 2 was better than TOC in openess, but Mafia 3 felt really open, and the side missions were fun.

1

u/alexintradelands2 15d ago

I quite like Mafia 3's world as well. I don't think it's got near as many details as Mafia 2, which has a pretty small city but absolutely tons of detail in it. 3 is quite a massive city albeit not loads to do, atleast not without DLC

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u/Alberot97 15d ago

I think the biggest issue with Mafia 3 is how they went with a big map yet a considerable portion of it is empty in matters of activity

6

u/devilrocks316 15d ago

the no swimming thing was never a complaint, someone just pointed it out with a video on twitter and people started getting defensive about it. the whole thing got out of hand for no reason lol

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u/CaptainFrancis1 16d ago

The open world one to me is valid.

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u/thatdawg972 16d ago

Except Mafia was never open world. It had some open world elements but was never an open world game until Mafia 3.

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u/Chrisjex 15d ago

What do you mean Mafia was never open world?

Mafia 1 and 2 had an open world you could travel around, only difference to Mafia 3 is that it wasn't bloated with repetitive tasks.

Mafia 1 and 2 were linear, however they had an open world which focused on immersion over content. Same as LA Noire.

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u/Haunting_Drag_1682 16d ago

Why? Mafia isn't known for open world and when they tried it in Mafia III everyone complained. Also 2 out of 3 games prior were linear and the devs said it wouldn't be open world when the game was announced. I feel like that criticism would only be valid if it was marketed as open world, which it wasn't.

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u/KingOfEreb0r 15d ago

Mafia is not a open world franchise .

0

u/aimes1993 15d ago

How you going to complain that there is no open world in a game that was announced from the beginning that it would not have open world?

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u/JPOW1977 15d ago

The only mafia to have swimming and an open world was 3, and people hated that game.

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u/GoGoGadgetGabe 16d ago

The linear complaint is weird to me, I played several open world games back to back before TOC so I was happy to have a game that just goes mission to mission with light exploration.

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u/alexintradelands2 16d ago

It's an easier to understand complaint from the lens that Mafia 2 had one of the most detailed open world and police systems I've ever seen.

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u/LucaColonnello 15d ago

Seriously though? There’s so many better games than Mafia 2 for police system, think just about GTA, RDR2… Maybe for that time, when Mafia 2 came out, possibly yeaah…

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u/alexintradelands2 15d ago

GTA isn't even close. Red Dead 2 is closer given how insane the balaclava system is, but I still don't think it's as interactive as Mafia 2's. What makes you say it's worse than the systems you mentioned?

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u/LucaColonnello 15d ago

In GTA V for example the police is so alive you can report a crime yourself and they will come to stop it! Same if you rob or become a menace. The one detail Mafia has that GTA don’t I think is the ticket you get for speeding, that’s definitely a nice touch!

0

u/TheRealJacob603 15d ago

Saw some youtuber, one of those grifters that like to complain about games and nothing else, say that Mafia TOC sucked and compared it to Mind’s Eye. All his points were ass except for the one where he said it was shitty to make the combat segments 4 hours into the game, which is past deadline in order to get a refund on Steam.

I feel as though some people except every single game to be exactly like GTA, and any sort of story heavy cinematic experience that doesn’t put emphasis on an open world is deemed “slop”.