8 Reasons Mafia 3 Is One 2016's Most Underrated Gems

2. An Open-World Crime Game With Great Combat

Let's just be honest for a second: GTA's combat has never been its most recommendable asset, and that goes double for anything melee-related. The sword fight on the tanker in San Andreas, or taking a kitana to Lance Vance? They always sounded way more fun in theory than execution.

Whilst Mafia's combat is definitely repetitive, its base framework of combining solid third-person shooting controls with one-button (oftentimes contextual) stealth kills provides an addictive gameplay loop that succeeds far more than the critical consensus seems to admit.

The story paints Lincoln as this righteous embodiment of pure vengeance, and once you start combining brutal knife-to-eye finishers with head-slams, chest-bursting shotgun blasts and face-crushing stomps, you can tear through enemy encampments like nothing else.

It's a level of pure power fantasy wish-fulfilment that GTA never comes close to, and Sleeping Dogs only matched when you were belting out environmental kills every few seconds.