How Mafia: Definitive Edition Changed HD Remakes
1. Narrative Improvement
Tommy Angelo's tale of treachery and tumult remains largely the same just 18 years later, but developer Hangar 13 made a smattering of story improvements that combine to easily best the 2002 original.
Sarah, Tommy's love interest throughout, has more on-screen time here, Vincenzo is far more light-hearted than the gruff exterior he presented in the original and chapters have been condensed and altered to better adhere to the remake's wonderful pacing (The Whore and The Priest missions from the original are presented here as a single chapter, for example).
It would have been all too easy to lazily slap an uninspired paint job over the original game and be done with it. Existing in the current video game landscape, Mafia: Definitive Edition's tightening of the core narrative as well as other environmental alterations stand out like a mafia boss at a birthday party.
The story doesn't feel like a relic from the past, and though inspiration has surely been taken from cinematic classics like Once Upon a Time in America and The Godfather, the tale presented here is compelling enough to easily deserve a seat at the high-quality, AAA narratives table.
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