Mafia Trilogy (Xbox One)

MAFIA 1*********I am very impressed how they have brought Mafia One up to next gen, it really does look good. If people want to compare it to GTA then it is going to lose but if you want an alternative to GTA then this is it. I do like the story setting. The Graphics are very good. Gameplay is a little chunky sometimes. There are different settings, like being able to play simulation or not. By doing that the police will chase you if you speed.I found the car race hard and with no option to skip (unlike GTA) it felt good when i did win.Just playing Mafia 1, will add once i progress. Completed Mafia 1, really enjoyed it. The cut scenes are very well done. Go to YouTube and watch the orchestra play the opening scene, it makes you think how much work goes into a game. Very good... onto Mafia 2MAFIA 2*********First impressions of Mafia 2... it is not a remake like the first one is. Story is good and it is more of the same in a different setting. There is a lot of swearing but also a lot of humour. With Mafia 1 & 2 there is a good variation of missions and you see the similarities with GTA 5, but Mafia 1 (2002) and Mafia 2 (2010), so did GTA (2013) copy ideas from Mafia? Mafia 2 has some great humour, the funeral mission, the mission where a drunk Joe is singing along to a song on the radio, but gets the words wrong! Brilliant stuff that people may not even notice. Completed Mafia 2 and enjoyed it overall, I think the city is authentic. Sure there are minor glitches but nothing that spoils the game. It comes with 3 additional add ons which add to the story. Apparently the 3rd one alone has 8 hours of gameplay, so you are getting a lot of game for your money.MAFIA 3**********The thing that strikes out about Mafia 3 is the songs, the 60s was a great era for music. Listening to Paint it Black by The Stones makes you want to just drive around rather than doing missions! Then Dance of the Hours by Beethoven Ben, never heard it before but what a nice piece of music!The game is similar to the others except as you progress more missions open on the map and you can choose which ones you do. It could be me but I find most of the fight missions to be darker, lower quality graphics? If you like a story and a 3rd person shooter then this is that. A good story based on revenge. I think the city is created well in the 3 games. The cops are easy to shake off the the 3rd game as they were in the first two. Mafia 3 is a fair bit bigger than the other two (without considering the extra content) so you get a lot of gameplay for your money.Each game have the odd mission is hard, more so in Mafia 3 but stick at it as they are all beatable. I did it !

I enjoyed 2 of the 3 games in their original form so I knew what I was getting from a game perspective. Since I enjoyed the mix of mission and free roaming with 'RPG lite' elements I'd been looking to try the remastered versions. I was able to play the first one as part of a subscription on Xbox and that made me sufficiently curious about the other 2.From a value for money perspective this is excellent with lots of content and the games all look good and run very smoothly on a Series X as you'd expect. Install sizes are not too excessive and as the definitive edition include DLC (for reasons not explained this excludes the campaign DLC for Mafia III). Highly recommended if you enjoy Shooting/Driving/Open world type games with period cars etc.

Mafia has had a great remaster and it’s just added to what was an already great game. Mafia 2 was the first mafia I ever played and it remains as my favourite part of the trilogy, the characters, the story and the open world it’s a real good overall experience especially for its age. 3 has to be the least popular, the story isn’t the best and same with the characters. The gameplay isn’t too bad but glitchy behaviour can ruin the experience at times. For the price you’d pay for one new AAA game you get two great classics and a third for the cherry on the top. 1 & 2 get a 5 but 3 bring this trilogy down to a 4 in my opinion which is still good

Unlike many of the other reviewers, being retired and late to the game, I hadn’t previous played any of these titles, which I believe have been remade and enhanced but follow their original format quite closely. Unable to give a like for like comparison on these remakes my review is purely as a newcomer to these titles.This box set of MAFIA arrived in a nice fold out case with all three titles stored safely in push on disc holders with relevant artwork adorning the outer folder.MAFIA_1:I was incredibly impressed with the first of the titles from the outset and although some of the character movement was a touch wooden, in general, the animation was, in my eyes, superb. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and the many separate challenges, some of which were quite daunting to a newbie like me. If you like car chases, especially of the police variety, then this game has it in bucket loads, well it does if you don’t behave yourself. Whether you are in a chase or simply driving to a destination, a route map can be displayed at the touch of a button or if you prefer, signposts will appear on the street guiding you to your intended destination.One of the challenges in particular, (of which I could find no way of escaping/skipping), is the three lap racing track simulation in competition with 16 other cars. You need to win this to progress and for me personally it took the best part of two playing sessions to finally win through and, I’m glad to say, kept me suitably gripped throughout.The cut scenes kept me totally impressed throughout this great game and it was often a relief to see them appear just as you think you might have blown whatever mission you are on.All in all I was totally impressed and immersed in the MAFIA_1 storyline and the animation/graphics were, in my eyes, superb. If this had been a stand-alone product I believe I might have started afresh and cranked the difficulty level up, however, coming as it did as part of a box set, I decided to move on to MAFIA_2 and it is here my enjoyment ended.Not a lot to say here other than, after installing the Mafia_2 game, everything seemed fine but quite quickly the graphics started to break up then resolve themselves then break up again. It was extremely unpleasant on the eyes but finally settled down again and I carried on believing it to be a power surge or whatever. However, moments later during a car chase, the graphics became so corrupted it was no longer possible to go forward. After shutting my whole system down, leaving it for a couple of minutes then restarting, I found to my immense let down the same graphic disruption I encountered before. I would like to think it was just my copy, it can happen I suppose but I didn’t want to risk waiting on a replacement game only to go through the same disappointment.It’s such a shame because if Mafia two or three were anything near as enjoyable as the original I had just completed it would have been brilliant. Maybe once I’m over the disappointment I’ll re-order, until then my return is on its way to Amazon.My Five star ranking is for MAFIA_1 only.