As someone who throughly enjoyed the original Mafia and Mafia II, I was really excited about this one. I love what the devs tried to do here with the characters and story, but there's just so much wasted potential, especially when it comes to the open world and mechanics that I can't help but feel kinda bothered.

Once you finish the story, there is a free mode for you to walk around Lost Heaven, but despite being a beautifully crafted city, even with all those cars and npcs wandering around, it feels rather empty. There's literally nothing to do, besides searching for collectibles. I loved the Pulp Literature ones, but the mystery foxes are a chore and there's no reward whatsoever for taking the time to find them. There is no side missions, gunplay is fun but limited which doesn't differ very much from the old game, the gas stations scattered around the map are useless because at no point in the game they tell you that you can use them, but even if they did I don't think it matters much because even on classic difficulty I never found myself in the need to use any.

I was also bothered at the fact that they cut out good mission content and rushed a couple stuff, like Paulie and Tommy meeting to take the train and having a mini-tour around the city, the ability to use the train in general would have been a nice way for this Lost Heaven, which is beautiful, to have a purpose beyond the main story, but there is none. If you like collectibles, that's something to look forward to, but not much else.

Cool game, it really is. Incredible graphics, beautiful city, fun story, in-depth realistic characters, which are the main reason I'm recommending this. But there's just so much more they could have done with it that once you realize that there's nothing beyond the city streets, it is kind of disappointing.