In the year 2002 the games industry was not as thriving and with this level of progress as it is now ... But if you are one of the old "players" .. you definitely did not miss trying one of the best games at this time which is Mafia with its first release on PC and then its arrival. For the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004 .. We were astonished by the power of the graphics "at this time" and also by the style of wonderful classic gameplay and the amazing dramatic story that stuck in our minds and did not leave us, but who would have imagined that the experience would return but with the character of 2020 games?
The game takes place inside the fictional city of Lost Heaven during the thirties of the last century, and follows the journey of the taxi driver who turned into a gangster Tommy Angelo in the crime family led by Don Salieri, the story is the same as the original game story, but the scenario of events has been changed to appear more realistic and logical, if You have played it before, of course, it will bring back memories that cannot be erased from the memory, and if you have never played it before, this is your lucky day.
I do not want to delve into the story too much to avoid any of the elements of possible burning, but the thing that must be mentioned is that the story was presented very well through the acting and performance of the characters and the musical soundtrack as well as the modified sequence of events in this version. Dead Redemption 2 is for that matter, but soon the story will quickly take you deeper into it.
The cinematic clips in the game also must be said that they are well designed. You will feel that you are watching a movie, and the game is rich in these clips, especially at the beginning of the game. The duration of the clips will often overcome the playing time at some times.
Perhaps the biggest change in this Remake from the original version of course is the fees .. and nothing but the fees .. So I will start talking about it in the review. Unusually, indeed, the developer Hangar 13 has excelled in rebuilding the game completely from scratch while preserving all the details of the city The original as it is, which is the difficult equation in the remake games, as you will find here the same vehicles and characters as well as city details from the original game, but with improved graphics, of course, as a result of using a newer engine than the original version was.
The graphics in general look amazing, but there is a clear discrepancy between day and night in the game, where the game appears much better at night due to the reflections and the wonderful lighting effects that the developer has placed in the game engine. I might exaggerate when I say that I felt at times that I Playing a game that has ray tracing effects, but it isn't.
But all the lights reflect perfectly on the roofs, as well as the rainy atmosphere that you will encounter a lot during your progress in Mr. Tommy's journey was more than wonderful, whether in the morning or at night, the water on the ground is amazingly reflected and the effect of the vehicle tires looks as if it is real. Driving and wandering the game world at night and in rainy and stormy weather much more than the game in the morning.
This does not mean that the game is bad in the morning, no, on the contrary, the game also offers impressive graphics, especially with sunset timing, as well as with the overlap of shadows with the buildings and their reflection on the city streets in a dazzling visual way, or if there are "pools" of water on the ground left by the rain, you will find that the trees For example, it reflects on that small pond in the ground, which is one of the things that personally dazzled me in the game.
Speaking about the game world .. To be honest, the world here is not very diverse, but it is also wide at the same time, and in fact in a game like Mafia this matter is not required "I mean diversity in the world", except outside the city that contains many green places, But it can be said in general that the game world depicts that era of the "thirties" in a more wonderful way, especially since the city of Lost Heaven in which the events of the game revolve is a fictional city and does not exist in reality.
The design of the missions was also very perfect, which is what I liked the most while playing the game, the tasks take the linear aspect in their design greatly, but the game leaves you free movement in the city and here appears the first defects of this remake version, which is although the game offers an open world experience for players But there is actually nothing you can do in this world.
The idea of presenting an open world devoid of side activities may be liked by some, especially if we mention those games that offer three or four types of side missions that are distributed on the map and are repeated in a boring way, but that idea changed with games like The Wieher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn, which presented Interesting "separate" stories in side missions, so I did not like the absence of any kind of side quests or something that would make me take a few breaths and take a break from the story missions, even the idea of playing the game after completing the main story seems impossible with this empty world of activities.
Mafia: Definitive Edition stuck to the classic style of gameplay, and this means that the game in all difficulty levels will be "difficult" and like most games of that period there was no idea of automatic health regeneration, and therefore you are required to search for health tools scattered inside buildings in places you found Very balanced in order to regain your health level during battles.
There is also punishment from police officers for exceeding the speed limit on the roads and also against your commission of crimes in the game map, it can be said that police chasing is one of the almost "zero" side activities in the game.
But despite this, the developer has put in this version the Casual Mode, in which health is restored automatically with hiding, as is the case for all games this period, but I personally do not recommend it.
The correction is the other. You stick to the "classic" in the way of striking with different weapons, or equipment such as Molotov cocktails and regular bombs, and in fact there is no great diversity between weapons and there is also no way to buy them .. You only get them with the progress in the story, you will suffer a little with a decrease in ammunition especially in missions In which there are a lot of enemies, but this makes the game fast-moving and encourages not to hide, but you must move to get additional ammunition from the enemies that you killed and then re-position to kill the rest of the enemies.
The game puts you in many exciting moments during car chases, but unfortunately shooting while driving looks very "bad", there is really nothing fun in that mode, you just press the aim button and leave the rest of the Aim Assist, some missions on the contrary offer More fun chases while giving you freedom to shoot at enemies.
As for Melee fights, it was boring to be honest. Hand fighting started as if it was a game released about 10 years ago, and the animations were not that strong, but the good thing is that the stealth system works and some missions allow you to perform tasks in disguise and surprise enemies silently from behind. From entering directly into confrontations with weapons, as I mentioned, the ammunition in the game will represent a headache in your head throughout the playing time, so a little bit of sophistication will help you finish the tasks faster and better.
The driving style of the vehicles is "fun", but it can be said that it is a little difficult and you will need time to get used to it, especially since the game gives you between the normal mode and the simulation mode for driving, there is a great variety between cars in the game, not only in shape but also in driving methods, speed and all these things, You can also modify some cars through your garage by changing their shape or even their color, which is a wonderful touch that I personally liked in the game.
Also, I liked the route determination system very much, as it shows you the road in the mini map of course and also appears as signs on the road, these signs disappear when approaching it, which is an addition that I found great and easy to drive without having to look at the mini map.
The game still retains the ability to determine a specific speed for the car, Speed Limiter, to facilitate its driving and avoid problems with police personnel, I liked the realism that is characterized by the game in terms of driving as the collision will cause damage to you that may reach death at times.
Mafia: Definitive Edition is not an open world game, it is a completely linear action experience, you will move from one point to another, and important to another linearly until the end of the game, but these linear missions are polished and well designed and have a great deal of fun, especially as they are coupled with a wonderful and dramatic story.
