Live Magazine Christmas 2016 ISSUE Live Magazine December 2016 Issue | Page 165

don’t catch them first – unless it’s
a convertible. Then, without having
smashed a window to get in, you
can cruise off scot-free. The game
takes pains to avoid the tired of ‘all
white people are racist’, but the
reality of the time still sits there,
harsh and real thanks to these little moments. That gives Mafia its
character above all else.
There are bugs too, of course,
but none game-breaking. Mafia III
more has the ones that make for
perfect GIFs. Lincoln flipping out
of an upturned boat onto the top
in a split-second, crashed cars falling into the ground or floating into
the sky – funny stuff that doesn’t
impact your actual progress. In any
open world game, these things are
bound to happen and will no doubt
be addressed in later patches, as
it always is.

Where Mafia III shines brightest is in
these little details. Police respond
slower to crimes in poor or black
neighbourhoods, if at all; going into
whites-only stores or into employee-only areas anywhere can get
Lincoln quickly into trouble. Even if
you’re only walking down the street,
any passing police will immediately
be aware of you. Similarly, if people
see you stealing a car, a witness
will run off to tell the police if you

This isn’t to say it’s a perfect game,
of course. No game is. While Mafia
III lets you skip a lot of the boring
side-mission stuff if you’re not in a
mood, there’s still plenty that can
really drag down the pace. Wiretapping junction boxes, for example, requires you to collect fuses
scattered around the map. Each
box requires several fuses, though.
If you’re not diligent in stopping to
grab them when you see them,
it can easily lead to having to
scrounge around the map when
you’d much rather be shooting.
Add in that cars have an irritating
habit of despawning or relocating and there’s a lot of time when
you’re just running down the street,
searching for convertibles to steal.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNiHOpHbCzM

3.9
/5

Also: there are not one, not two,
but six different kinds of collectibles to grab on your way through
New Bordeaux. It’s a reflection of
the time and a call back to previous Mafia games, but having Playboy magazines and actual nude
pinups being things to collect is a
little on the nose in 2016. Even if
the Playboys do, in fact, contain
articles. I hadn’t expected to see
a 1968 interview with Stanley Kubrick in my gangster game – but
there it is!
Mafia III is one of those rare games
which excels in one area without
failing in others. New Bordeaux
feels like a real place, filled with real
people. It responds to your actions
and does not flinch away from portraying the brutality of Lincoln’s actions or the social injustices of the
time. It may not rewrite the book
and the missions might get repetitive, but it does what it sets out to
do: present a story of loyalty and
revenge, and present it well.
Turn back the clock and take a
look.

WRITTEN BY aaron milligan
WWW.STICKYTRIGGER.COM