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Mafia: Definitive Edition, the remake of the 2002 game that follows the rise and fall of mobster Tommy Angelo in the 1930s, is taking lessons from its two sequels and implementing some of their best aspects.
Speaking to USgamer, Mafia: Definitive Edition developer Hanger 13's president and chief creative office Haden Blackman described how it's updating so many parts of Mafia, from gameplay improvements to expanding out story bits, like with Tommy's girlfriend Sarah.
"For example, Sarah, the love interest in the original, she doesn't get very much screen time, but she's the heart of why Tommy Angelo is doing what he's doing," says Blackman. "At the beginning of the game you learn that he's trying to arrange a way out of the life and he's doing it all for his family, so we wanted to make sure that as a player you knew what it was that he was trying to protect. We wanted to make sure that Sarah got more screen time; she's in the game more, has an understandable kind of role in the lowercase family and uppercase Family."
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Another focus in this remake is addressing the "valid criticisms" in regards to the repetitive nature of Mafia 3's side missions. The team wants to add new, meaningful missions without that repetition. Blackman even stated that "almost all of our emphasis was on the missions for Mafia: Definitive Edition."
Mafia: Definitive Edition will also give players a wide range of options. A big part of the original game was following traffic laws and being extra cautious around police, as Tommy is more of an everyday citizen than a hardened criminal. In this upcoming version, there are settings for police presence and how strict they are to players who break these laws, like riding through a red light. The original settings can be preserved, but this sliders are put in place to give players more choice in how they want to experience this story.
Gunplay will also a big change from the original, as it pulls a lot from Mafia 3 and its more cover-based gunplay mechanics. Whereas Clay was a former soldier and Tommy was just a cab driver, Hanger 13 wanted that difference to be felt in the gameplay. Combat is a "little bit more lethal" for Tommy and "every bullet matters."
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Mafia: Definitive Edition will be released on August 28, 2020, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. Mafia II: Definitive Edition and Mafia III: Definitive Edition are available now, and players who purchase the Mafia: Trilogy will get all three games, and the first Mafia will unlock when it is released.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.