“Mafia 3” arrived to a rocky start, as the initial release of the game on the PC turned out to be plagued by an issue which locked it to 30 FPS for everyone. PC gamers were immediately turned off by the situation, which was completely expectable considering how sensitive they tend to be towards the performance and quality of their games.
Now that the developers have released a patch to address the problem and everyone can enjoy the game as it was intended, what is everyone saying? There was a lot of speculation about the actual gameplay quality of “Mafia 3” leading up to the game’s release, and some suspected that the game might have some hidden problems that the developers were afraid of showing us.
This fear was mostly inspired by the fact that the game didn’t have any review copies sent out to critics, which is usually a major red flag in the industry. At the same time, some popular streamers did get advance copies, but they were only allowed to show certain aspects of the game.
The overall verdict seems to be positive, and the game delivers on many fronts. From its rich, deep setting, to a story that can keep players glued to the screen, the developers of “Mafia 3” seem to have done a lot more than was expected of them when crafting the world of this game.
Gameplay itself is smooth and fun, with lots of things to see and do. The map is large enough to give players plenty of details to explore, and those who like to go out of the way and look for hidden secrets will apparently be rewarded as well.
However, this is also an area where the game can reportedly use some improvement, as we’ve seen various displays of glitches and performance issues. Recently, gaming forums were flooded with funny GIFs showing “Mafia 3” glitching in humorous ways.
And while they’re clearly fun to watch, we can only imagine the frustration players must have felt in some of those situations. A boat chase scene, for example, resulted in one of the boats shooting into the sky and landing back onto the player, killing them.
Another interesting aspect of the game which has drawn a lot of attention to it, is the depiction of racism. It’s no secret that American society was in a bad place with regards to their treatment of blacks during that time, and the developers of the game have taken a deliberate decision to portray those attitudes exactly as they were.
This means that there are lots of racist remarks all throughout the game, and players should arm themselves with a thicker skin if they believe they could get offended by that. But we certainly agree with the developers on the importance of not skewing history to avoid offering someone. It’s important that we remember the times we’ve gone through, as shameful as they may have been.
Plus, players can make some positive decisions in this regard in “Mafia 3”, so it’s not like the game forces the player themselves to become a racist. It would be interesting to see the kinds of discussions this move will generate in the future, as we expect that there will be a lot more attention on the issue in the coming months. With the various issues in society at the moment, the game can serve as a nice platform for some much-needed discussion.