10 Reasons Mafia 3 Is The Best Open-World Game In Years

2. Combat Is Brutal In A Way That's Ludicrously Satisfying

Over the years, Assassin's Creed has acclimatised us to all sorts of trailers featuring protagonists burying blades in their opponents' skulls, but I wager you've never reacted to a kill in AC with the level of "HO-LEE SH*T!!" recoiling that comes with Lincoln straight-up burying a knife in a dude's face.

Now I'm not saying brutality is instantly better, but if you're going to have a level of ultra-violence that somewhat reflects a primal reaction to racism, to that requisite standing in society and to the revenge-fuelled predicament Lincoln finds himself in, it just has to land with weight.

To that end, you'll sprint up on people and stamp their faces right into the concrete, you'll ram their heads into walls, slice their throats where they stand, snap necks - you'll even stick a gun their mouths, choke them on it and blow their head off anyway.

Too much? Possibly, but you try not wanting to revel in pure escapist glee when the game chucks a bunch of KKK members in front of you and asks you to take them out...