So most people have bad taste? It's not good buddy, you can throw slight on me all you like but the facts are it's not a well regarded game critically but I'm glad some people enjoyed it. Hopefully Old Country is significantly better for my tastes.
Mafia 3 is by no means perfect, but to ignore its many strong points and label it awful is extremely shallow. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but if you can appreciate art, old cars, classical films (like the Bullitt), classical music, as well as the atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s you simply can't dislike Mafia 3. This game it's like a time capsule that transports you to that era and lets you experience it all like no other game.
I think many gamers play games mechanically and without appreciating the art (they simply don't notice what's in front of them). It's like walking without noticing any of the beautiful things around you (the nature) and then telling other people that walking is boring. Unlike typical gamer I have always been keen to immerse myself fully in a gaming experience, which is precisely what led me to appreciate titles such as The Order 1886, Callisto Protocol, and Mafia III. These games had an extremely detailed world that allowed me to become fully immersed in the experience.
Mafia 3 strong points:
- It features a detailed open world and beautiful indoor locations. In that regard, Mafia III was clearly an AAA game, on pair with GTA.
- An extremely faithful depiction of the 1960s (cars, clothes, atmosphere, topics like racism and Vietnam war)
- Amazing soundtrack. IMO only GTA Vice City had better.
- Amazing car driving! There isn't a single open-world game that can match the car driving in Mafia 3. This point alone makes the game great because you can drive around even without a purpose and still have fun.
- The game's combat is good. Cover system works well and aiming on the gamepad feels satisfying. There's also a stealth element.
- Amazing story and interesting main story missions.
- References to iconic films from the 1960s / 1970s like Bullitt, but even films about Vietnam war.
- Very good graphics and art style, especially when the game launched.
- Good performance on modern PC's, but I recommend to use reshade 6.0 and uncap the framerate with it to get perfectly smooth framepacing above 60fps.
Mafia 3 weak points:
- Unlike main missions, side missions are extremely repetitive. You always need to kill everyone in the area, or destroy property. What's even worse, the developers used copy-and-paste locations. However, since car driving and combat were fun, I was OK even with these repetitive side missions.
- Stealth is slightly unbalanced because if you're good at taking out enemies with a silenced pistol, you can take out every single enemy in the camp without any problems. In my opinion, Mafia 3 should have limited ammo for the silenced pistol because this weapon is too effective.
- AI can be bad, but it's not a big problem because games with good AI don't allow for such a large degree of stealth and freedom. In my experience realistic games arnt that fun.
- There are bugs that make it impossible to progress without restarting the game (even definitve edition has this problems).
- TAA in this game is extremely soft. This problem can be fixed on a PC with a good sharpening filter and downsampling.
Considering all its points, I would rate Mafia 3 an 8/10, but I saw potential for a 10/10 if the developers addressed the problems I highlighted and included more rewarding collectibles. I think that's why open-world Rockstar games are so good. They provide a compelling reason to explore the world, while mafia 3 is focused on main story.
