Mafia Definitive Edition - Is it a worthy remake?

Am feeling a bit better for those who are wondering :) I hope you enjoy the video, I had a good laugh doing it but was left feeling very sad at how my beloved game has been butchered. I try not to think of how amazing this game would have been had they just left the voice acting and missions as they were, left the throwing mechanic, crouch, free ride and free ride extreme and took away cover shooting, fast travel and all the other garbage that this game did not deserve. Basically if it ain't broken don't fix it, just polish it to make it look nice.

Sadly it's 2020 and we get a 2020 game with all the bullshit trimmings that ruin most other games and I totally blame these gamers that have no patience and these useless reviewers that would not recognise immersion if it knocked them out for this state of affairs. I get why some people still like this, it is Mafia after all and can be fun, sadly I am probably a extreme Mafia fan which is why I ran the largest Mafia fan site in Europe so it's bound to piss me off more than most, this is why I did not really want to review it, anyway am off to bed, cya in two days with Star Wars Squadrons review.

What happened to the Mafia 3 WAB? Loved that video

I actually don't have an issue with all the hand-holding stuff like the diamond that tells you where to go, etc. IF it was all an OPTION. So long as I can turn these things on and off I welcome them. I can see times where there is something that I am supposed to do but struggling to find what the game needs from me to trigger things to continue. I might THEN cheat and use some feature like that to get past something stupid but THEN go right back to taking the training wheels off again. Let the gamers decide how much "assistance" they want for their experience.

I have to wonder a bit if this is sort of a chicken and the egg scenario regarding the changes in the industry. To some extent the gamers are to blame for wanting everything done for them and at the same time the industry is to blame for giving them all this hand-holding and guidance removing the need to figure anything out or learn the feel and touch to actually hit a target or drive a vehicle, for example, instead of just holding down the X button, etc..

I think it's both. I also think there is this sense of a rush to get the game over with. When you are actually having fun with something you're not in a hurry for it to be over with. THAT should clue everyone in on the fact that this isn't nearly as good as we are wanting, or are expected to believe it is. Reviewers are in a rush so they can get their videos uploaded, and I get that. The rest of us shouldn't be in a rush to get on with the next thing. I used to spend so many hours playing the same game and for months. I wasn't in a rush to get to the end to know how it ends, BECAUSE IT WASN"T A MOVIE! It was a game and those used to be two very different things. Now, it seems, this is one very morphed and blurred line between these things. I think modern gamers might want to `watch the game' more than `play in it'. They talk about "BEATING" the game as well. I never felt that way about a game. The arcade days had a certain element like that but otherwise the games I preferred were more simulations of sort. Playing a role in another place and time on an adventure is how I always perceived these things. I didn't want to hurry up and beat anything other than a bit that I didn't like that I wanted to get past just to get back to the other stuff I was enjoying. Every game had things like that, some big bad you had to beat but was more annoying than exciting, for example. Today it seems gamers are almost proud of how fast they blazed through a game. I say "I would be disappointed if I got through it in a hurry and was left with nothing left to do with it because there was nothing I wanted to go further explore". To me that's the sign of a good game. When I keep playing it and don't want to move on to something else because this IS the thing I want to be doing right now.

Either way, whether it's the gamer or the developer, that is more responsible for this trend by now I think everyone should be waking up to this as being boring and unfulfilling, despite the pretty visuals. Once gamers experience a more free-form playing style and the feeling of actually DOING something in-game rather than just watching it, I think this trend should shift back in the direction of old school style of game design. Well, at least I hope so.

For me probably the last game I played where I had some sense of going about things how I wanted was LA Noir, and even that was tainted with some of the, to become normal, automatic nonsense like in the fighting. The chases were also ridiculously fast and requiring way too much precision to stay on the road at that speed. I still however loved just driving around through town free form because you could go everywhere like every alley or back yard and access every vehicle too. The interactions with other random AI characters were sometimes funny. If you drove into some random thing the interaction, including sound effects, were there which told me they intended for you to be able to do all that. There was none of that "you can't go in there" or "you can't use that" BS. It was totally open world and that, combined with freedom to go about investigating however and in whatever order you choose to, aloud for not only immersion but also the fun of seeing how things would play out differently based on how you approach things. You were never forced to go here or do that or even talk with someone, even though you should. It was also during the beginning of the shift to cut scenes taking over the industry. It had them but not as bad as today. It's been awhile so maybe I don't remember it all exactly how it was but I think that was the end of the old days of games.

Navigation in maps was invented in 2005:
People before that:

Tommy sounds like sherrif woody. Great review mack

That molotov thing cracked me up hahahahahaha

All those fancy graphics and they still can't make smoke or the particle details like the first Mafia 2 game.. I'm waiting for the Mafia Definitely Definitive Remaster edition

I can handle indicators on minimap, but waypoint on screen...nahhh.

the game is amazing! playing it right now, again, after played the original back then ❤❤ i even ordered the guiding book - the original (from amazon) 😂😂😂😂 aawesome!

and the title OST is one of the best

There's an achievement called heat from the cops, must be dedicated to Mack

This game wasn't even disappointing. Mack is out to lunch

I love your reviews because you are brutally honest with objective opinions. This do look like a downgrade.

You know what's perfect just play the original Mafia game and just get a mafia Graphics mod and it's the best combo both

Third watch of this. Keep noticing something funny every time. This time, how about how when you are firing out the back of the vehicle (with infinite ammo!) there is a big yellow diamond on the car you're supposed to shoot?!?!

Mafia (2002) actually has my favorite combat of the whole series. One of those situations where you're given all the tools and it's up to you to use them efficiently. Greatly prefer it over soft lock on hit button to stick to cover combat.

I think I would prefer playing the original.
A few flashy graphical touches aren't worth it.

Not as good as the original for me

i recently played mad max and it reminded me of this game, its funny hoe mad max is so much better and has a more detailed open world when its supposed to be dying compared to a game set in a bustling city, way better combat in mad max to, you really feel the impact in it

Best remake ever.

"They made my dated game more modern, me no likey, me give bad review, whaaaaaaah, whaaaaaaaah, whaaaaaaaah" is pretty much what I got from this review. Game is great, game is fun. The actors either made me love their character or FUCKING HATE THEM (you'll know who I'm talking about when you play it). I was 13 when the original game came out and loved it, I'm 33 now and loving this new remake as well... The original game was the jankiest piece of shit with clunky controls and people saying otherwise need to remove their rose tinted glasses from their arse, like I said, I LOVED the original game, but play the remake, you'll enjoy the story more.

Great and very accurate review. Must say the model of Salieri was not as fatso and round as in this one. Besides the the friends were more credible.. here are more cartoonish... more childish..like paulie looks like a mexican stereotype.. its strange.

Wow not even a likes and dislikes at the end..
I remember how great the original was and your right the atmosphere, immersive experience was hugely important and these days Graphics are all a lot of developers focus on I mean no wonder it’s shit

One of these days, this guy is gonna complain about a game on the bases that the installation process was smooth and easy and wouldn’t let him download it via ms dos. The diamond is an example of responsive design. It’s so players from all walks of life can respond to moments in the game but is this on of the main reasons why you dislike the game? Wow. That’s almost like hating a game because you hated the style and the size of games font at the titles screen 🙈😂🤣

i didnt play the original game, but i am so disappointed with the world design, you cant do a fucking thing except shoot people and drive around, whats the point of adding all these trains and trams around the city and big signs for bars and shops when you cannot enter them? honestly its the definition of style and no substance

The end of this video was hilarious, Mack your impression of todays gamers is spot on.

This is what drives me mad about games these days. You don't play them, they play themselves ffs.

You're exactly correct about modern gaming with its leaning heavily towards cut scenes and quick mindless 'pew-pewing' and imbecilic, short attention spans. It's like they've forgotten about our generation and how we built gaming from the ground up, creating epic story driven games like Half Life 2 (My favourite game of all time).

However, even though that does massively concern me ... what concerns me more is the fallacious, ideological detritus that was birthed from feminism. Trans issues, pronouns, 6 stone women pissing on the graves of actual soldiers who died fighting so they could be free to dye their hair blue and transition into an anatomically correct cat. They've poisoned society, law, government, music film ... the only arena left was gaming ... and it being a predominantly male pursuit (I don't include candy crush etcetera) ... they HAD to come for that as well. It's this that I think is the real threat ... Because the companies are addicted to receiving faux virtue points most will continue to allow it to happen, probably following an exponential curve .... all because of an ideological house of cards ... that ignores truth, fact and even science ... I'm really worried we won't have anything worth playing in 5 years.

If Tommy WAS a Taxi driver, but then becomes a mob associate, and is Italian ... I have no issue with him sounding like a 'greaseball' ... I genuinely adore and respect your brutally honest reviews and your knowledge ... however as in this instance I think it may be you have more of an issue with your feelings of nostalgia being hurt/challenged. Obviously you're entitled to your opinion, but here I find you have a smattering of objectivity here rather than your usually replete objectivity.

Keep up the honest toil though my friend ... you're a genuine, passionate voice drowning in a sea of talentless, hackneyed, paid shills. Journalism in nigh on all of its guise is DEAD.

I haven't played this remake but I absolutely LOVED the original one. The main problem I have from footage I've seen is how goofy the main characters look. Especially Sammy and Paulie. They, and especially Sammy looked really cool, now they look like cartoons.

The racing is so hard, I sold it.

Man with the technology they could’ve made all buildings enterable and added details for immersion like red dead 2 but it just feels shallow and the world feels dead

Hilarious review Mack. Please never stop

Cant switch off waypoints? Thats a no for me.

My god this game is clunky. It's even more frustrating when you factor in the severe lack of ammo and the enemies who sometimes take 5 or 6 bullets to kill.

Nope. The game is good.

You just saved me $ 24 on special C.Mess sale! outragedly sad what they did with this once amazing game! while i did not miss those ever long driving scenes, used to run over the blacks for more excitement, from A to B, not being able to enter the streetcar and closing gates while shooting cops is just nuts!

Damn, wish I had watched this before I bought the remastered trilogy when it went on sale. Is it still possible to buy the original game or has it been erased from history to force people to buy this?

I loved the original, probably still my favourite open world game for the story. Gaming has moved on though and imagine the criticism it would get if the GPS wasn't on there. At the end of the day, gaming is made for what the teens/20's/30 somethings expect a game to be like. Us older gamers particularly in our 50's and beyond can only look in despair at what gaming is becoming, full of in game purchases and DLC that years ago, would have been part of the game from the beginning.

what I hate the most of this game is if you go stray off the path you have to get back to the area in 10 sec and of course the city is empty.

I knew it would be bad, which is why I tried it only yesterday, while isolating at home. Didn't even finish Fair Play - uninstalled!


- First mission already is fucked! Switched around to make it more bombastic, some bullshit 'evade' routes that all lead into a cutscene and make no sense.
- They've made Paulie an obnoxious squeaky toad looking cunt.
- Sam looks like he's 16
- Tommy indeed sounds like a ruthless gangster, even before his first interaction with the mafia

- Second mission. For some reason the first cutscene with Ralphie - Paulie is an absolute wanker towards him. Not only he looks and sounds like an insecure bully-cunt, he actually is one!
- There is ZERO stealth in the second mission. You could either do it stealthy or provoke the guys at the bar and actually get a GUN from them and shoot back in the original. Here, you just follow the programming and do exactly as you're instructed, cause you're an idiot from Hangar 13's perspective.
- I was SO not prepared for the molotov mechanics, that I actually threw the first one over the fence and into the traffic :D :D :D

- Vincenco sounds like a fucking BRO! He used to be an older man, closer to Salieri's years, reserved and calm. Now he's a douche.
- You can't pull your gun out while at the Salieri's premises, cause we were TOO FUCKING LAZY to program the interactions that would happen, if you pulled a gun out and started shooting.

- How do you deal with the fact, that your police AI is shit and they don't react to you driving over red light? Remove traffic signals altogether, eh!?
- Ramming mechanics for vehicles? Fuck you!

- Can't open a map simultaneously while driving? Expected. Everything shown on minimap? Expected. Constantly having a golden square on the screen? FUCK YOU!
- You want old gun mechanics, where all remaining bullets in the chamber vanish? You can have that. Except in mission 4, where you have to chase after the car and suddenly your remaining bullets are infinity. FUCK YOU!
- Shooting while driving in this game? I'd rather slit my wrists!



I just needed to vent into the void...

Lol love it!!! Gotta appreciate the honesty 👍👍

i just wished someone made a game like this...but in more sandboxy...no real story needed, just mafia sandbox :)

You are hysterical man! Had me rollin!😆 F off! F off!!😆😆😆

Mac! Why no reconsidering since the patch has fixed all but trams of your gripes?

Game was the best of the 3. It has its flaws. I gotta say you're complaints were nitpicking for the most part... can't go on public transportation... really..... really....

Don't understand how Mack can vouch for these games when playing on classic the cars handle like shit, the racing mission is basically unbeatable unless you have a spare 6 hours of playing the same mission over and over again.

The game needed to have waypoints on the map because the cars handle so fucking terribly that you are likely to have taken half your HP from crashing which is super hard mode on classic with half hp. Like two shots maybe? It totally needed those improvements including Molotov arrows

Each mission, they give you the worst vehicles imaginable and they handle terrible. And he says they are better than the original?

This guy is the definition of looking through rose tinted glasses.

Bought the trilogy and got to chapter 10 on mafia 1 classic(dropped difficulty for the race) and don't feel like playing more than one mission each sitting due to how shit it is and I am only doing it because I spent £20 on the physical copy but thankfully it is worth £30 or £27 at least so I'll make a bit of profit