Mafia: Definitive Edition Review: Half-Baked in Every Sense

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Spoilers ahead for Mafia: Definitive Edition

At the very end of Mafia: Definitive Edition — 2K-owned developer Hangar 13's remake of the 2002 critically-acclaimed original — the cabbie-turned-mobster protagonist Thomas “Tommy” Angelo (Andrew Bongiorno) notes that family is everything. On his deathbed, Tommy is at peace, for his family's safety and financial future are secure, even as he might have spent most of his married life chasing fellow mobsters or in jail to ensure that outcome. But the ending's familial focus feels out of place because Tommy's family have essentially been ignored until that point. His wife Sarah (Bella Popa) is an afterthought and the daughter doesn't even have a name. Those are glaring omissions, and emblematic of its fumbles across the board.

It's a shame too, for the story is (still) by far the best part of Mafia: Definitive Edition, as it was nearly two decades ago. And it's been improved upon on nearly every front. Even though he's working with a plot that's inspired by dozens of mafia movies — Goodfellas and The Godfather among them — and lacking in originality or humour, writer-director Haden Blackman (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed) lifts it on a scene-by-scene level, with richer dialogue and performances. And a new cast — well chosen for their acting abilities and vocal authenticity — infuse life into the characters that inhabit Mafia: Definitive Edition, while massively benefiting from the technological progress made in the video gaming arena in regards to facial capture since 2002.

Mafia: Definitive Edition also adds to that with the most easily overlooked of things: radio. Set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the game takes place during an era when economic collapse has cast