Mafia 3: 8 New Gameplay Features You Need To Know About

by Ewan Paterson

1. Psychological Warfare Is A Key Pillar Of Gameplay

Mafia 3 Combat
2K

Mafia III makes sure of the fact that Lincoln Clay is a one man warpath. A man that has had his entire family, livelihood, and home ripped right underneath him, with only a compulsion for revenge remaining. It'd be a pretty short revenge flick if he couldn't command the tools of the trade however, but that's where his background as a Vietnam vet begins to factor in.

We know from interviews that Clay is a master of psychological warfare. We're even led to believe that during his time fighting the Viet-Cong and the NVA, outgunning the enemy was never really enough - he had to outthink them as well. In the context of '60s New Orleans, this narrative addition concludes in a predictably uncomfortable fashion.

In combat, Lincoln can equip Voodoo dolls that effectively weaponise the Italian mob's racism against them. Upon spotting the so called 'Screaming Zemi', they disperse, returning racial epithets towards the player as their only protest against the (initially) harmless stitching. (it can later be upgraded to disperse smoke and even explode)

By all means, Hangar 13 has made a bold decision to implement racism as a theme not only present in Mafia's narrative, but as a feature of gameplay as well. It's a bold move to make, and certainly the right one when you consider just how many historically-grounded video games have eschewed the subject altogether - offering an implicit romanticisation of periods that were neither pleasant nor immaculate - but, as VICE's Austin Walker has mentioned in two articles tackling the topic (which you can read here and here), there is a danger that Mafia's pulpy tone bears a striking dissonance when it comes to confronting the racial injustices of the 1960s.

--

Mafia III releases October 7th on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, what have you made of the game's trailers and gameplay so far?

20 Upcoming Video Games That Might Surprise You

20 Recent Video Games EVERYONE Knew Would Suck

Denshattack! Review

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.