Compared to Mafia 1 (DE, anyways) and Mafia 2, Mafia 3 is derivative as ♥♥♥♥. It's got a million different Ubisoft open world collectathon ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ things with it, a ton of mechanics from previous games were stripped out (police escalation -- a traffic violation warrants a death sentence in New Bordeaux, apparently, and don't hand me that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about the cops being bought out by Sal, because they were bought out in Mafia 1 too and they didn't gun you down on sight), vehicle customization, and the general way of progressing through the story. Not to mention the absolutely braindead AI (seriously, I played on hard and the AI basically never reacted when I shot someone with the Silentium, meaning stealth was boring and obnoxiously easy.) Other ideas like varied police response times depending on the neighborhood you're in (rich/white or poor/black) are neat in theory, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful in execution, same with civilians running to the phone. One could be close enough to spot any crime you commit, but far enough away that you won't catch them before they run to the phone, and the next thing you know there are five cops on your ass in ten seconds. The police system is generally miserable and the AI are retarded -- I saw at least 40 civilians dive directly into the path of my car to then get run over and killed, leading to a call to the cops.

It so desperately wants to be a Far Cry game and that comes with all of the resulting baggage of open world fatigue.

That being said, this is still a positive review because I found the story to be quite enjoyable in spite of the massive ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that is the game itself. John Donovan easily embedded himself with Joe from Mafia 2 and the Definitive Edition Paulie as one of my favorite characters in the entire series. The character writing is very strong and the story is decent, and while I used to turn my nose up at the story for what I perceived to be "woke ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" when it came out (mostly because I was young and stupid), I've long since come around to it and Lincoln is an interesting enough protagonist.

Compared to Mafia 1 (DE, anyways) and Mafia 2, Mafia 3 is derivative as fuck. It's got a million different Ubisoft open world collectathon bullshit things with it, a ton of mechanics from previous games were stripped out (police escalation -- a traffic violation warrants a death sentence in New Bordeaux, apparently, and don't hand me that bullshit about the cops being bought out by Sal, because they were bought out in Mafia 1 too and they didn't gun you down on sight), vehicle customization, and the general way of progressing through the story. Not to mention the absolutely braindead AI (seriously, I played on hard and the AI basically never reacted when I shot someone with the Silentium, meaning stealth was boring and obnoxiously easy.) Other ideas like varied police response times depending on the neighborhood you're in (rich/white or poor/black) are neat in theory, dogshit awful in execution, same with civilians running to the phone. One could be close enough to spot any crime you commit, but far enough away that you won't catch them before they run to the phone, and the next thing you know there are five cops on your ass in ten seconds. The police system is generally miserable and the AI are retarded -- I saw at least 40 civilians dive directly into the path of my car to then get run over and killed, leading to a call to the cops. It so desperately wants to be a Far Cry game and that comes with all of the resulting baggage of open world fatigue. That being said, this is still a positive review because I found the story to be quite enjoyable in spite of the massive fuckup that is the game itself. John Donovan easily embedded himself with Joe from Mafia 2 and the Definitive Edition Paulie as one of my favorite characters in the entire series. The character writing is very strong and the story is decent, and while I used to turn my nose up at the story for what I perceived to be "woke bullshit" when it came out (mostly because I was young and stupid), I've long since come around to it and Lincoln is an interesting enough protagonist.