Mafia: Definitive Edition is fascinating to play in 2020.
It’s both beautifully modern and a relic of outdated design. It’s a showcase for modern sensibilities and aesthetics, and also a clear reminder of how game mechanics have evolved over the last twenty years.
The writing, performances, and visuals result in a truly compelling crime story that’s up there with some of the best traditional narratives in gaming, and this part of the Mafia experience absolutely holds up in 2020. Good writing is mostly immune to age, but the same can’t be said for gameplay.
That’s where Mafia: Definitive Edition struggles, and where it starts to show its wrinkles.
Click here for a PDF of the full review.
“Why is this not a live link?” you might be wondering. Great question!
This story was originally published on GameCrate, a gaming website with a long legacy of unique and interesting stories from the world of gaming and PC hardware. Unfortunately, as with many gaming sites that weren’t at the top of the pile or didn’t resort to aggressive content farm ad strategies, it was absorbed by a large corporation, redirected for leftover traffic, and quietly removed from the internet with little warning.
Fortunately, I was able to quickly preserve some of the pages. The formatting is awkward due to how quickly the preservation efforts were undertaken, and the PDF is compressed to reduce file size.
Here’s what GameCrate looked like in early 2021 via Wayback Machine if you’re curious.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or inquiries via LinkedIn, or email me at lparrill (@) leoparrill (dot) com.
Thank you for reading!