You know that kid at school who seemed disruptive and lazy, but then a few years later it turned out that s/he was actually some kind of genius, and just wasn’t being well-served by the comparative mundanity of the classes on offer? And was actually capable of brilliant things, given the right encouragement, but some of the other kids still had their doubts regardless? That’s Mafia 3, basically. The genius is in the game’s world-building, atmosphere, narrative design, and the fine crafting and layered thought that has gone into the vast majority of its core gameplay systems.

The lack of stimulation comes by way of a great many bland, uninspired, slight, and inconsequential mission designs that frequently fail to make the most of what Mafia 3 is capable of.But let’s start with the good stuff. Because Mafia 3’s start is its purest distillation of the good stuff, and there’s a nice symmetry to that. Simply, Hangar 13’s game has the best opening four or five hours an open-world game has achieved in a very long time. Introducing its characters, themes, systems and structure by way of an intoxicating deep-dive into the socio-political melee of late-‘60s America, it starts in 1968 New Bordeaux – New Orleans in all but name – and follows returning Vietnam vet and Black Mafia member Lincoln Clay as he makes his first attempts to reintegrate into an environment deeply troubled on both a local and national level. The hot, balmy southern air is thick with turmoil, as the war, civil rights, political ideologies, and multi-ethnic crime politics clash and shift. And Mafia 3 doesn’t sugar-coat any of it. Taking a bravely disjointed – but ultimately linear – structure during its opening hours, it jumps between time periods and perspectives whenever most effective to relate any specific angle of the story or present any particular point, using a disarmingly powerful, faux-historical documentary device to frame the action as a factual slice of the whole, anxious period.

Metacritic Game Reviews, Mafia III for PlayStation 4, In 1968, after years in. It's obvious that Mafia 3 is a game with huge potential, with a great. For example, you can call in favors that take care of menial tasks like storing your money so that you don’t lose it if you die, delivering you a fresh car, or hailing a mobile arms dealer to meet you wherever you want. Mafia 3 isn’t the first game to do this, but it’s a much-appreciated feature that should become standard across the board.

Fuelled by intelligent, sober writing, strong, sober ing performances, and a mature restraint when it comes to sensationalism or judgement, it’s a matter-of-fact yet thoughtful intro whose intent is not just to present, but to discuss.That this sequence plays as well as it is narratively conceived is the final, sparking touch-paper of Mafia 3’s initial, exciting potential. Along the way we’re progressively introduced to the game’s robust shooting, stealth, and driving systems, all of which handle with a satisfying, tactile heft.

Gunplay is perhaps a little woolly when it comes to lining up finesse-shots under pressure, but pre-empt your kill by lining up from cover first, and you’ll find snappy, cartoonishly brutal headshots abound.