The Mafia franchise has been a tumultuous one as of late, regardless of how beloved the original two iterations of the series actually are. The franchise took an arguably downwards trend with Mafia 3 where fantastic storytelling and voice acting took a backseat to repetitive gameplay that managed to grind everything to a brutal halt.
The series continued to make unfortunate headlines as they updated both Mafia 2 and Mafia 3 as Hanger 13 released what they called ‘definitive editions’ for both which resulted in game-breaking crashes and glitches while some color filtering was added to ‘update’ the visuals.
With framerate stuttering and the occasional crash out to desktop, rumors have been growing as to whether Hangar 13 could deliver a proper Definitive Edition for the original title that sparked the franchise in all of its gruesome glory.
Today, the gameplay trailer released during PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show seemed aimed at quelling some of the unrest that has arisen since the other two definitive editions launched.
Presuming that the trailer is indicative of how the title Mafia: Definitive Edition is shaping up, the concern might have been all for naught.
The more studious viewers may have noticed a small caveat at the very beginning stating that what is shown in the trailer isn’t gameplay, which is frankly more on-the-nose than we typically get from Ubisoft, but that clause (which likely denotes that we’re viewing a juxtaposition of various cut-scenes) has some fans Spider-sense tingling.
Even more so when you consider that Mafia: Definitive Edition is a short two-months away from its scheduled release date.
When you combine that knowledge with how the ‘Definitive Editions’ have fared thus far for Hangar 13, and perhaps the speculation is well-earned at this moment. An announced delay wouldn’t be entirely surprising; there’s only so much crunch developers can withstand before quality takes a nosedive.
Taking into further account that the original writer for Mafia, Daniel Vavra isn’t involved and that Hangar 13 has taken some liberties with the story, and that this is a completely different studio now working on the beloved original title, and it becomes downright disconcerting.
Still, fans should take heart; there’s a massive lens on the studio right now as they attempt to remake a hallmark title that cherished an era of romanticized mobsters and Italians running amok, and it would be surprising if the studio would fail to deliver on this. There’s a lot riding on the shoulder of Tommy Angelo yet again as he cavorts around Lost Heaven, Illinois in one final throwback to a brilliant title.
