I played the original Mafia a lot when I was in college. The game had many faults: it was brutally difficult, driving around was tedious, and it was sort of a technical mess. But it was Grand Theft Auto in the 1930's, and when it all clicked, it was still fun.
So when Mafia: Definitive Edition was announced last year, I was excited. I still have the original PC game discs, and I'd tried to get them to run on my modern machines, but it would never work. Finally, I'd get to relive one of my favorite games of old!
I finally got around to playing it in 2021, and honestly, the game is just great. Even though the game has been rebuilt and changed around a bit, it has all the missions I remember from the original - and everything is much more polished and thoughtful.
Mid-mission save points take a lot of the frustration out of the more difficult sequences, so one mistake doesn't mean you have to carefully redo the entire level. The game physics are also a lot more forgiving - to the point that, if you accidentally flip your car over, you can press a button to right it. Sure, that can break the immersion a bit, but I don't mind. It's too convenient for me to get mad.
This particular game engine seems a lot more robust than the original as well - I played the entire game, from start to finish, without one problem. I even left the game running over multiple days, using my Xbox's quick resume feature to continue from the same point each day.
The game is beautiful as well; the city of Lost Heaven (and its inhabitants) never looked so good! Everywhere you go, there is careful detail to be found - I could go on and on about how much care seems to have gone into this game world. Even though the scope is a bit smaller, it's on par with games like Grand Theft Auto V or Red Dead Redemption 2, in my opinion - and the team who made it should be proud.
The cinematic cut scenes are particularly great. I never found myself wanting to skip them because they are so well done.
I have a few minor gripes, of course. The music, though good, is one of the only parts of the game that seems to have been completely changed from the original. I miss the original music, even though it was quite repetitive.
I also miss the original voice acting - but not nearly as much as the music. The new acting is actually really well done, and by the end of the game I didn't miss the original voice work at all, but if you played a lot of the original (and you remember it), the new voice acting might take some getting used to.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this game, and I'm glad that, thanks to this remaster, it wasn't lost to time.
Now I need to get on Mafia 2 and 3 - both of which I've never really played before!