Mafia III begins with protagonist Lincoln Clay playing a part in a grand heist. It's not something we haven't seen before in video games, but it still feels kind of unexpected. This game's predecessor, Mafia II, spent far too much time depicting the rote side of mob life. Selling cartons of cigarettes out the back of a truck, loading cargo, driving people to and fro -- it's the Goodfellas Henry Hill school of thought that you put in your time and prove your loyalty. That maybe makes for a good plan to rise through the ranks of a real crime syndicate, but it does not make for an entertaining game.
In that way, Mafia III is kind of Mafia in name alone. This is a title that wastes no time getting to the point. Its documentary-style recounting of events lends itself to a Pulp Fiction-like skipping about in the timeline, leaving developer Hangar 13 free to punctuate the story with important moments whenever the hell it pleases. It's a narrative tool that, in theory, should clear Mafia III's plot of any egregious pacing issues.
I wouldn't know quite yet, though. I'm a few hours in, three or four probably. It's enough time to have seen Clay's rise and fall from grace, and the beginning of his quest for revenge. It's also enough to say with confidence that Mafia III has had no problem keeping my attention -- something that I distinctly remember Mafia II struggling with six years ago.
One of the most striking aspects of Mafia III so far is watching how people in a 1960s southern America setting treat Clay. His mother was black, his father was Italian, probably. As an early bit of exposition astutely points out, that other half doesn't really matter; it was a time and place where if you looked like a black man, you were treated like a black man.
via destructoid http://ift.tt/2dSPvK3