[classic swim] Posted July 7 Posted July 7 IGN dropped 9 minutes of gameplay for Mafia’s new Sicily adventure. Wasn’t going to talk shit until I saw the grenade kill at 7:20. Quote
[classic swim] Posted August 8 Author Posted August 8 Spoiler There’s a definite cultural shift as “fucks” aren’t thrown around like crazy, at least early on. Mafia II would’ve had 20 F bombs by the first hour, and Don Spadaro was the first to mutter it out of intimidation. The fire in the sulfur mine was a real intense use of the Hangar 13/Mafia III engine. The knife fight looks to have returned a sense of Mafia II’s combat which is nice. Mafia II was also going to have knives. The theme sequence that plays after riding the first horse was done so well. I was hoping for a theme to really kick just like Mafia II, and I think they did it. ”On my land, you own nothing.” - Don Torrisi Mafia I’s reboot had its highs and lows with the new interpretation, but my favorite of the revamp was Tommy and the guys driving out of town into the country. I get a similar good feel with Enzo & Luca riding the horses. I don’t care for the durability with the weapons. That mechanic sucked in Red Dead 2 also and why I never bothered with it. For a game it’s not realism. Just an annoying mechanic. But I get this was an era without automatic machine guns, so you need a challenge or whatever... The dodging of Luca’s strikes took me back to that bullshit during Vito’s Shawshank chapter. The score’s pouring heart and love into it just like Mafia II’s track, and you can hear it with just the horse race. Isabella having a “thousand uncles?” Yep. Goodfellas. An hour and a half in and this is the single best thing Hangar 13 has done in their career since they’ve taken over this franchise. I gave them shit before but I really have to admit they’ve done well and have finally earned respect. A real turnaround from when they first started. Spoiler By the time you get to Manuele at the quarry, that’s when the knife combat starts to become repetitive. Some might’ve thought the same about throwing punches in Mafia II, but it felt more like a fun mechanic there instead of a downright necessity for boss combat. ”Galante? Like the tuna?” ”Sure. Like the tuna.” Leo Galante young looks unbelievable. Can still see the resemblance. I just remember him shorter. It hit me that I’m listening to an English dub of this game, and that’s why Leo’s accent sounds jarring. The dub doesn’t take into account what he’s like in America in Empire Bay. I should hear his Italian. Takes over two hours before you’re able to start using the guns. The music gets you in a real good mood. The gunplay looks rough, but I’m also not the one using the controller. If anything, the shooting looks better riding horseback as opposed to being on foot. Looks a lot less sloppy. Quote
[classic swim] Posted August 9 Author Posted August 9 Spoiler In spite of being good ways away from the sulfur mines, Enzo still holds the late Gaetano’s postcard of Empire Bay. The closeup of the postcard shows it to be the same visual as the backdrop main menu screen from Mafia II. A screen I’ve stared at countless times years ago. Empire Bay to Enzo no longer seems like a place he’d feasibly flee to, but sheer symbolism of being free makes it such a sacred item to him. The Enzo-getting-made chapters give you a real fun light of Enzo Favara, Cesare Massaro & Leo Galante making the best out of their partnership. The three drive drunk at night in the outskirts exactly like Vito, Joe & Eddie several years later into America. Them drunkenly singing bad music as well. Mafia II, you had to stop the car so Eddie could vomit, or risk getting puke in the car. Old Country, you stop the car and Cesare pisses off a bridge while singing. I wasn’t expecting the car race at all. I thought the horse race would’ve been enough. You get a great ordeal on how past characters come to be. They set their sights on exporting wine to Empire Bay... mobsters from Empire Bay come to discuss things with Leo. Frank Vinci is with Leo! No inkling yet on just how the two would later rule things in the United States. Seeing Leo in that way made me feel better about Joe Barbaro doomed to becoming Galante’s driver. Giuseppe Palminteri by this point was already a respected illegal plates guy. You save him from guards at the San Celeste Town Hall where Vito Scaletta fought in the WWII chapter of the second game. It put things in perspective how that building was a lot of people’s introduction into the franchise. I was barely half expecting for it to be enterable again, but it was. Enzo’s given shit by everyone almost every day for being a mine boy who came from nothing. No matter how up the ladder Enzo clearly is by now, he’s always taunted with the idea of being a nobody and a follower. Any time you hear Enzo & Isabella talk to each other, everyone knows it can’t be. Spadaro’s had informants, an unsanctioned public attack that got them all on the city press, and he arranges a sitdown just to tell Don Bernardo Torrisi to his face that he plans on taking over all the land. Any mob sitdown you see in fiction typically ends with them leaving the area and working some type of angle from there. These guys were shot at the fucking sitdown... Leo Galante’s grandfather, Don Galante, was the first to be killed. Luca took one to the arm and the chest. You had to battle your way to escape into Torrisi ground with Luca barely coming to. I could feel it in my gut when Luca lost to his wounds. The most respected man in the entire game. More respected than his superior. Don Torrisi was just feared. Driving to the sitdown... Luca & Torrisi talk to you about their youth and the beginning of the outfit when it was smaller. The dialogue wasn’t done as a way to impress you, or make you go “man, I hope we get that story next.” The takeaway I got was the men being cursed to do the shit that they do. It’s not endearing for it to be passed down to Enzo & Cesare. Cesare was in no way a serious person until Luca was suddenly gone. Torrisi just becomes a fucking ghoul. Luca Trapani... enforcer who did absolutely everything by the book, did exactly as what he was told and enjoyed doing it... he tells Enzo while in a pool of his own blood to “get out.” It wasn’t until he knew his life was over and away did he have remorse and regret for wasting it all onto this. Quote
[classic swim] Posted August 9 Author Posted August 9 Spoiler You get a moment that shows Leo Galante & Frank Vinci setting their sights for Empire Bay. Both honoring the fallen Don Galante. With the unnerving thought of Cesare & Don Torrisi down Enzo’s neck, Leo offers different. He gives Enzo the option to escape with them. Driving outskirts to take Isabella to the boat. Empire Bay postcard taped by Enzo in the car... Mafia II’s pause menu audibly seeping its way out in the transition. Isabella makes it out. Enzo does not. I’m appreciative that Enzo spared Cesare, even when Cesare in fact did not spare Enzo. ”Filthy carusu.” ”That’s all I ever was to you!” I’m glad that was finally said in the battle between Enzo & Torrisi. I don’t know what it was for Cesare that made him take the knife to Enzo’s back. He had to watch everything burn, nothing left. The last words his uncle had given to him were the same berating he had received the entire story. Enzo surviving would mean exactly as it did for Tommy, in most cases. Someone would be after him. Except by that logic, same could be said for Isabella. But, who would want to? What family would be hired for this? Everyone’s gone, lost. Valentina took Sam and her newborn to Lost Heaven. If Enzo had made it to where Galante and Vinci wanted him to go... he’d be in company with what would become the most powerful crime family in Empire Bay. So in theory, it would never end. They’d want Enzo to play along. Fucking terrific lead up to Mafia II’s 15th anniversary on the 24th. If this is gaming’s only representation of Sicily’s rise into infamy, it’s done well. Quote
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