Mafia III might be a little repetitive and glitchy, but it is still on solid game

After being roped back into the life of crime, Lincoln was shot in the head during a group assassination of his gang at the hands of a local Italian crime family.

While the rest of his family was killed, Lincoln survived the attack and swore revenge.

This is the basis for Hangar 13’s latest offering Mafia III, which puts players in the middle of a

gruesome tale of death and destruction.

With a plot worthy of a Hollywood film, the game’s story is presented in faux documentary, set decades after Lincoln’s bloody gangland war with rival mobsters.

More than just a gritty revenge story, the game doesn’t shy away from racism, trying to offer authentic social commentary on what life was like as a black man in the southern part of the US during the 60s.

With stellar writing and performances, era-appropriate pop music and well thought out cutscenes, Mafia III offers a cinematic experience unrivalled by most games on the market.

It’s just a shame Mafia III’s flawless story isn’t replicated in terms of gameplay.

The core of the campaign requires you to secure territories held by rival gangs and this quickly becomes repetitive.

Each territory has two illicit businesses, which are taken down by completing side quests — either killing and interrogating enemies or destroying valuable loot.

Once enough damage has been caused to the racket, the rival gang leader will make themselves known and you have to kill them.

Killing both gang leaders heading up each of the operations will make the mob boss running the district come out of hiding.

Kill him and you will run the territory.

This mundane task will need to be completed throughout the nine districts of the game, before you can fight the big boss and take control of the whole city.

Despite missions not changing much, there are a number of different methods to kill your enemies, which allow you to really mix things up.

Luring the enemy and killing them in stealth will allow for a violent cutscene, while a number of different weapons can be used in general combat.

I had the best luck going for headshots with the standard pistol.

As Mafia III is an open-world design, players are free to explore the city and complete missions are their own leisure.

Unfortunately, there is not a great deal to do when not completing the main story missions other than collecting Playboy magazines or record covers.

With no fast travel option and little to do outside of the missions, the driving aspect of the game can be very tedious — especially when having to travel a long distance to the next mission.

It’s not all bad though, with upgrades during the game making your car faster and better to handle.

There is also impressive attention to detail with the controller rattling as you drive over cobblestone roads.

Another issue with Mafia III is the fact it is quite glitchy toward the later stages of the campaign.

A few minor glitches could be overlooked, but I found myself frustrated with glitches that required me to restart the console on more than one occasion.

Luckily, I didn’t lose too much progress.

Lets face it: Mafia III isn’t winning awards anytime soon.

With repetitive gameplay, glitches and boring driving sessions, the game is far from perfect.

Saying that, I still found myself wanting to finish the campaign mode just to see where the story would go.

And while repetitive, blasting people away is always going to be fun if you are a fan of that type of thing.

Fans of the predecessors will be able to get into the swing of things and I suspect newcomers will thoroughly enjoy themselves too.

All in all, I had a lot of fun playing this game and would have no hesitations recommending it to people wanting an easy escape from reality.

Just don’t expect it to be changing the world of gaming anytime soon.

Have you played Mafia III? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @mattydunn11

Mafia III is out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Originally published as Tale of death and destruction