Mafia Definitive Edition test: a remaster with small onions

Mafia… Its shootings, its car racing, its settling of scores, its betrayals and its soundtrack… Ah, that soundtrack! Almost 20 years since Illusion Softworks' masterpiece was released on PC and that's obviously the time it took to encourage 2K Games to make one remaster by porting it to the graphics engine used for the third opus. The opportunity for the little youngsters » to discover this monument of the action-adventure game of the early 2000s?

Mafia Definitive Edition test: a remaster with small onions See PriceRead ConclusionMafia Definitive Edition

The atmosphere, the atmosphere of Lost Heaven
Remarkable writing, despite the stereotypes
Quality of the staging, dialogues
Particularly successful graphic overhaul

Uninteresting exploration
Perfectly useless free flow mode
Some (rare) unwelcome rewrites
Still a few bugs, including collisions

August 27, 2002, the Czechs of Illusion Softworks took everyone by surprise by distributing the excellent Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It took eight long years before a sequel – soberly called Mafia II – saw the light of day, but only four more to see a third opus, Mafia III. The latter was unfortunately not as convincing as its predecessors and, it must be admitted, we feared that Mafia: Definitive Edition was inspired by it a little too much. Fortunately, it is not. Hangar 13 has been very respectful of the original material and so to speak all the modifications are really going in the right direction. A resounding success.

First steps in the mafia

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and this “Definitive Edition” therefore share the same scenario. Things start in 1938 when Inspector Norman enters a diner in Lost Heaven. There is an appointment with Tommy Angelo, a notorious mobster who seems to have some revelations to make to him. The exchange between the two men serves as a common thread, interludes between key moments in Tommy's story in the “family” of Don Salieri. Thus, after a few words, the scenario really begins with a first chapter which announces the color: “An offer that one cannot refuse”.

Like millions of other workers, Tommy Angelo was hit by the 1929 crisis. To survive, he found a taxi job in the streets of Lost Heaven and, because it was better paid, opted for a night service. It was while he was on a break between two races that he crossed paths with Paulie and Sam, two of the main henchmen of the "Don", Ennio Salieri. The Freedmen need a driver as they get shot and "requisition" the hapless Tommy. Skillful driver, he manages to sow the opportune ones and brings his "passengers" back to their destination.

Although involuntary, this helping hand from Tommy Angelo to Paulie and Sam somehow seals his fate. First, because the guys he managed to shake off were guys from Marco Morello, the other “Don” in town. Then because these same guys now have a grudge against Tommy who is going to get badly beaten up before finding refuge… with Paulie and Sam who obviously don't miss the opportunity to return the favor. Tommy Angelo is now a member of the "family", a henchman of Don Salieri.

Acheter Mafia Definitive Edition

And the gangs are afraid of each other

These first steps of our alter-ego are told through two “introductory” missions. They serve as a tutorial and we learn to move, drive and handle some weapons. Very quickly, things escalated and it is at the forefront that we follow the rise of the Salieri "family", its rivalries with the Morello clan and their respective trafficking at the time of America. of prohibition. The framework is identical to that of the Mafia of 2002 and whether it is the order of the missions, their progress or the dialogues, it is an almost perfect copy, a happiness of every moment.

“Almost”, firstly because the developers of Hangar 13 have, as expected, carried out a facelift. The idea was to take the skeleton of the 2002 game to transpose it to the graphics engine of the third opus. It was of course necessary to redo innumerable assets, to redraw many models and to completely revise the animations. The result lives up to the hopes that fans of the original game – including us – placed in this remaster: not content with being very beautiful, it does honor to the work of Illusion Softworks and retains the cachet of the first opus.

As such, the rendering of faces is quite remarkable and the animations of facial expressions are very successful. There are still a few flaws in collision handling or characters and vehicles, which can feel like they're sliding on the ground, but overall it's a great job. It is also worth noting that several changes have been made so that Mafia Definitive Edition is more playable, more "functional" than the 2002 opus. Thus, although the plan of Lost Heaven is strictly identical, some of the main arteries have been widened for more architectural consistency and more efficient gameplay.

Between freed and incorruptible

Here we touch on one of the main improvements of this redesign. Indeed, despite all its scriptwriting qualities, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven suffered from serious gameplay problems. By reading these words, the oldest will remember this famous mission of motor racing where these shootings not always very precise. There is no longer any question of such defects on this Definitive Edition which is much more modern at this level. The driving – on the circuit therefore, but also outside – is not worthy of a car simulation, but remains convincing, above all fun.

The same goes for the numerous gunfights and there is no longer any question of relying on a lucky hit or an enemy that blocks to prevail. It is also no longer necessary to use tricks like shooting at the wheels of a vehicle which, later in the mission, will be used by our adversary to escape… Insiders will understand the reference! No, in general, the redesign signed Hangar 13 is a great success. The game is more enjoyable to play, more controllable, despite still having some issues with our preview.

On this subject, note that the keyboard controls – fortunately modifiable – were oddly chosen. We can also blame the game for a lack of flexibility on certain checkpoints. Indeed, in order to modernize the progress within a mission without however allowing backups at any time, these checkpoints are more numerous than in the original game. Problem, they are not all perfectly arranged and in two or three cases, the recharging is done at a moment that is tense to say the least: it is better to react quickly so as not to reload... in a loop!

Bring down the mobsters a godfather

For the rest, we must admit that we are not far from the masterpiece. This is of course a matter of taste, but first we must salute the writing. There, it is obviously not Hangar 13 that we congratulate, but the original developers of Illusion Softworks. Rare are the video games whose scenario we think could be quite suitable for a film or a book. This is indeed the case here. Although somewhat stereotypical, all the main characters are interesting and their psychology develops over the course of the story. The situations are also rather well seen, even if the "classics" of the mafia film are obviously there.

We are thus entitled to multiple shootings, the ambush in the restaurant, the settling of scores, car chases and robberies. But Mafia also offers some more unusual sequences – at least in a video game – featuring these moments of doubt, more uncomfortable sequences for characters that are alternately melancholy, vindictive or tormented. It is at this level that the writing is the most successful because at no time does Mafia Definitive Edition sink into the clumsy or the grotesque. However, there is a disturbing element, which we do not understand well, whereas Hangar 13 wanted to rewrite certain – rare – passages.

Indeed, the end of "Crème de la Crème" is rewritten with an air crash which no longer completely closes the mission: we do not really understand the interest of this somewhat grotesque epilogue of a plane which manages to fly for several kilometers with both engines on fire since takeoff. More embarrassing, Hangar 13 rewrote the very end of the game. Obviously we won't tell you more, but it seems to us that the concluding text narrated by Tommy Angelo in the 2002 version was more accurate, more in the tone of the game than that of the 2020 version. It's a detail, but it has its importance for the fans.

JVFR

A beautiful staging © Nerces for Clubic

The cam will get the better of Salieri

For the rest, we are not far from faultless and we should therefore salute this excellent remaster which does not distort the original game, which retains its main qualities and goes back to its shortcomings, its faults. Be careful, there is still an element that has not been corrected by Hangar 13. A defect that could not really be corrected anyway unless you redo the entire game: Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven can give the impression of being an open world game and it is true that one can always survey the city at will. In fact, this open city is a “decoy”.

Let's just say that Lost Heaven doesn't have much to offer apart from miles of asphalt to "work" and the Free Traffic mode - added for the occasion - is of little interest. Don't play Mafia Definitive Edition like you play Red Dead Redemption 2. Here, the city is just the pretty setting for a story as poignant as it is linear: apart from a few cars to recover for Lucas Bertone, the mechanic, there is in any case no secondary mission, no activity to furnish our wanderings and discover this city which borrows almost as much from New York as from Chicago.

Wanderings that we will practice at the start of the mission by deviating a tad from the path traced by the developers. We then take the opportunity to discover the magnificent city, play with our new car or steal another one, carelessly parked on the side. Finally, because one cannot complete an article on Mafia without mentioning the soundtrack, these peregrinations are also an opportunity to take advantage of the exceptional compositions signed Duke Ellington or Django Reinhardt – for example – and which considerably reinforce the atmosphere, the charm of the game. We are surprised to see that music from the 2002 game has been discarded, swapped for others… fortunately just as successful.

JVFR

Mafia Definitive Edition: the opinion of Clubic

Despite some technical flaws and sometimes perfectible gameplay, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven occupies a special place in the video game pantheon of yours truly. Phew, Mafia Definitive Edition does not knock it off its pedestal. Not only does this remaster honor the original material, but it takes the opportunity to make real improvements. Driving – target of all criticism in 2002 – is much more successful and bugs are much rarer. The characters' facial expressions give even more strength to the very good dialogues and the dubbing (in Spanish as in English) is of high quality, even if we have a preference for the original version.

Finally, and this was probably the trickiest thing, Mafia Definitive Edition manages to completely redesign the places, the characters without ever betraying the atmosphere of the basic game. Despite this amazing rewrite of the epilogue, Hangar 13 signs a remaster as we would like to see more often. Thanks.

Test carried out using code provided by the publisher.

Mafia Definitive Edition

Without ever betraying the 2002 game, Hangar 13 manages to give it a makeover that could not be more successful. Armored with references to all the gangster films, Mafia Definitive Edition allows us to (re)discover the adventures of Tommy Angelo. The excellence of the scenario is magnified by a production of great beauty and the atmosphere is simply exceptional. On the other hand, do not go there hoping for an open world like Red Dead Redemption. The city of Lost Heaven is only a pretext for a scenario as inspired as it is linear.