The Basics
Controls: Mafia plays like your standard action game. L2 targets while holding a weapon, R2 will fire the gun. R2 also is the accelerator while driving, Square opens doors, and so on and so forth.
The only real downside to this is when the game asks you to use stealth during missions, since Mafia at its core is an action game and not a stealth game, the controls can be a bit clunky but fortunately nothing that can’t be overcome.
Driving: The driving in Mafia is smooth…well as smooth as can be while remaining true to the time. Cars handle like you assume they would have in the 30s and 40s they aren’t great for taking sharp turns, wet streets make handling even more tricky all help immerse the player in the atmosphere of Lost Heaven.
The Story
You play as Tommy Angelo, a Lost Heaven cab driver who happens to be in the wrong place at the worst possible time; after running into two gangsters, Sam and Pauly of the Salieri Family who force you to help them escape police Tommy’s life changes forever.
He soon meets Don Salieri after being attacked while taking a break during one of his shifts a day after helping the two mobsters evade police. After this Tommy is the newest member of the Salieri family and you follow Tommy as he learns the lifestyle of a gangster eventually becoming one of Salieri’s most trusted men.
This covers the rise and inevitable fall of Tommy Angelo and draws you deep into the character. You will meet many colorful characters along the way and see that the life of a gangster is a mixed bag of glamour and violence.
Free Roam
One of the newest features to the Mafia franchise is free-roam which can be accessed once you start the game and exit the main story. This allows you to travel the city without being confined to the main game.
You can travel the entirety of the Lost Heaven map I haven’t spent a ton of time in Free Roam (about twenty minutes) but the one complaint I found is you really cannot access many areas, maybe this changes once you get deeper into the game but so far all I have been able to access is Salieri’s Bar.
You can change your wardrobe, view your garage, and grab collectibles throughout the city as you have Detective Comics scattered in various locations throughout the city. You can unlock over the top side missions throughout free roam by interacting with certain characters throughout Lost Heaven.
Overall: 8/10
Mafia Remake is a fun, nostalgic ride through Lost Heaven. If you remember the first one you will most likely enjoy the ride and appreciate the added content to cutscenes and gameplay that help flush out more of the story.
The entire trilogy is available through the Definitive Edition and I would recommend playing all 3, although they don’t go together.
I’d give the game 8 out of 10 as the visual graphics are stunning, the gameplay is relatively simple to learn and the story always keeps you interested and invests you in all the characters involved. It has its glitches but nothing game-breaking or unable to look past.