Greetings. Quite a lot of time has passed since the debut trailer for “Mafia 3” was shown and the first gameplay footage was presented. Now that the hype train has slowed down slightly and the fire in the comments has cooled down, the time has come to exhale and seriously talk about why “Mafia 3” is not a rethinking or a restart, as some claim, but the most direct continuation of the series, which, potentially, can develop the ideas of the previous parts and take them to a completely different level. Just in case, I’ll warn you that the history of both previous parts will be analyzed here. And therefore SPOILERS!
This world is not governed by laws written on paper. It’s driven by people.
A little historical background: the first mafia organizations appeared in Italy in the mid-19th century, and these groups positioned themselves as vigilantes: people who took up arms to stop the arbitrariness of those in power against ordinary people. And when at the beginning of the 20th century, on the wave of immigration, they formed in the United States, one of the goals was a generally good intention: protecting the interests of immigrating fellow citizens.
But by the middle of the twentieth century, a lot had changed, and the level of interests and goals of the mafia gradually degraded along with drug trafficking, pimping, the murder of politicians, internecine wars and constant betrayals within organizations. In fact, they turned into those whom they once despised – ordinary bandits, not very burdened with any morality. And the “Mafia” series, in my opinion, perfectly reflects this process.
It’s not as simple as we were taught in elementary school. But it’s still good to have strong beliefs and stick to them. In marriage, in crime, in war – everywhere and always.
Many, remembering the first part of the series, claim that it is about gangster romance, about the aesthetics of Tommy guns, the period of Prohibition and felt hats. But, if you look closely, there is no sign of romanticism in the story of Thomas Angelo.
It’s worth starting here with the fact that Tom never wanted to become part of a mafia family or even take up arms. Circumstances forced him to join the Salieri clan. In doing so, he becomes a mafioso, bypassing the initiation rite, which was never carried out, which emphasizes the idea that this is an alien world for Angelo. This is not his lifestyle, not his choice.
Throughout all twenty chapters, we are consistently conveyed the idea that mafia families, be it the Morello clan or the Salieri clan, are a bunch of scum. The characters, most notably Angelo himself, clearly convey the idea that there is ultimately not much difference between the hot-tempered and cruel Morello and the intelligent Salieri.
Salieri, to some extent, turns out to be even more terrible than Morello, since Morello, for all his cruelty, is quite simple and straightforward. He is an admitted bandit and thug and does not pretend to be anything more than he is. Salieri manifests himself as a cruel intriguer and cynical manipulator: step by step he arrogates power to himself in the city, going over heads, eliminating competitors not so much through wars as through precise stabs in the back.
There are also hints that Salieri is a drug dealer. This is not advertised in the game itself, but they make it clear to us that Don has a shadow business and, most likely, more than one. I think it would not be a great exaggeration to say that the smuggled diamonds found by Tom, Paulie and Sam in cigar boxes are nothing more than a veiled allusion to cocaine by the authors, since their value is approximately the same.
Ultimately, for Salieri, the principles and honor he cherishes are much less important than the power he seeks to gain. And with such an order, his subordinates have only two options: either continue to stand for their ideals, knowing that at any day former friends and allies can come to their home and shoot them like mad dogs, or accept this order, reducing their personality to the level of a “murder weapon”, which Sam has become.
In the first part, the mafia is presented not as a group of noble robbers, but as a huge suffocating octopus that is ready to take away everything from a person: his life, his personality, his family, his right to choose and free will. This is “becoming part of the Family”.
You might be surprised that I took a risk again after spending almost seven years behind bars. You see, where I grew up, they only respected those who had the guts to take what they wanted. I’ve been doing other people’s dirty work for too long and I was willing to risk anything to finally become someone.
And here we smoothly move on to, in my opinion, the greatly underrated “Mafia 2”. Yes, there are certain oddities and mistakes in it, yes, it’s clear that the game was cut very painfully. But, in essence, the story presents us with a completely logical development of ideas and images from the first part. We are shown a world in which previous ideals are gradually dying out, becoming nothing more than an application, a world where nothing is valued more than money and power.
And Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro, in their limitations, fit perfectly into this reality. They are an illustration of the fact that the mafia, first of all, needs not brains, not personalities, but strong, efficient hands, not burdened by internal contradictions. At a certain point, Vito himself honestly admits that he is not interested in anything in the life of a mafioso except money and a sense of permissiveness.
This is an unthinking https://miamijackpotscasino.co.uk/ and principled Angelo – for Scaletta, the biggest tragedy is that his villa was burned by the Irish. He didn’t care about Omerta: if you trace his entire path in the game, you can clearly see that one way or another he consistently violates all possible provisions of the mafia “code of honor”: starting with the fact that he spends a significant part of his free time in bars and brothels, and ending with the fact that he enters into cooperation with an FBI agent.
And at the same time, unlike Angelo, Scaletto survives at the end of the story. And this, it seems to me, perfectly reflects the main idea of the sequel. Vito, being much dumber than Thomas, turned out to be much more adaptable. Precisely because he had no principles, there was nothing in life that would make him look back, doubt. And so, while Tommy was choking on blood on his lawn, Vito crawled out like a snake. Because he is included in this system, there is nothing in it that would contradict his own, truly primitive value system.
You’re talking about family. Do you even know what this word means?? You were born into your family. You didn’t have to look for those who would accept you. You didn’t have to bleed in the jungle to find your real brothers. Deny the Lord just so someone can finally accept you as a son. Family. It’s just a word for you. If you really knew what family is, you wouldn’t touch mine.
And here we come to the third part. A story that, in my opinion, should finally put everything in its place, turning the Italian mafia from protagonists and allies into our worst enemies. The very plot itself, in which the Italians usurp power in Louisiana and kill people, as if they have the right to dispose of other people’s lives as they want, leads us to certain thoughts about how far the mafiosi have moved from their former ideas about ideals, about national solidarity and honor.
Lincoln Clay is the personification of new views on the concepts of brotherhood, family and duty. It is no coincidence that in the debut trailer he mocks the “classic” mafia’s understanding of family. He and his multinational gang, structurally reminiscent of the clan of Lucky Luciano, are what should destroy and replace the hypocritical and rotten Cosa Nostra from within. And the fact that Vito Scaletto becomes our ally and partner in this task is a wonderful punchline for this whole joke of black humor. The mafia doomed itself to death by growing something that would drown it.
Lincoln Clay is the man to do the job. He is the one who has reasons to cut into meat the smug faces of each of the Dons, wipe them with Omerta and rape their wives in front of their children.
This is what, in my opinion, “Mafia 3” should become – a very correct and logical conclusion to the trilogy, which will make us reconsider our views on the entire series as a whole.
You know, I think that in everything you need to know when to stop. Yes, measure is a good word. Anyone who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. True, those who want too little from life may not get anything at all.
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Mafia II
Mafia III
Best comments
Vito survives in the end not in the name of ideas, but against any common sense, IMHO. Well, or in the name of some pretty bad writers, because whatever one may say, the story in Mafia 2 is terrible for a number of reasons.
Well I don’t know.
The second "Mafia" is like, excuse me, excuse me, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag after the first AC. That is, it’s playable (if, again, you don’t get frustrated by the cut content, which in the end the original game was terribly lacking), but not at all about assassins mafia, and if so, then what does “Mafia” have to do with it?? In other words, some usually gangster themes – yes, majestic mafia – no. Not even close. No, no and no again. There was no mafia there, no mafia spirit, no mafia themes.
And in the game, whether about the mafia, or about assassins, since they lead me to this topic with their name and previous parts, I still want to see what was stated.
Therefore, whether it’s right or wrong, time will tell, maybe the right topic will be revealed in the third part, but Mafia Jwa, with all its not very numerous, but strong advantages, was still, if I may use the word, a clear miscast in an already shamelessly short series of games.
Well, that is, for me, any attempts to justify the poor script of the second part with arguments that “the era of the Family is gone,” ta-ta-ta, the Dons don’t give a damn about their subordinates ends exactly where Vito for the tenth time in a row, to Joe’s idiotic proposal “let’s go do some crap,” carefreely and resignedly replies: “Come on.”!"and they once again get into shit.
Well, as Daniel Varva himself stated, the plot of the first part was quite simple and a little clumsy, in particular because of this very theme of “a good guy forced to do bad things” and in the second he wanted to create a more complex construct, moving away from the theme of “victim of circumstances”. As they say, initially there should have been a choice between factions. Perhaps, if it weren’t for the strict restrictions on all fronts, both in the script and in the gameplay, the story might not have been so clear-cut.
Well then, the likelihood that this entire text is a search for deep meaning where there is none increases significantly
Maybe in your thoughts you are right in some ways, but in the second Mafia the presentation suffers greatly, and therefore it is simply impossible to see Vito’s adequate motivation. And in fact, everyone loves the Mafia not for the deep plot, but for the atmosphere, presentation and well-thought-out characters… which the second part was deprived of. Not to mention the gameplay.
And as Emilka already said, the Third Mafia, judging by the available information, will not be about the mafia at all. Not about the mafia that Gotham needs now.
And even if this whole chain is really implemented in the plot, without a good, powerful presentation everything will again slide into a dull narrative, without clear motivations and with stupid murders of everyone who crossed the path of the main character.
Well, his vitality fits well into the society of frankly spineless and unprincipled Dons into which he found himself. The bosses there are those who frankly don’t give a damn about their charges (Salieri at least played the role of “father”), who care only about their personal gain. They start knocking on Vito’s only when things get really bad, and the FBI is shining through their windows.
Yes, there are no Dons in the second part, in fact. There is only Vito and his friends, who dance along the rake with dedication that many masochists would envy.
Thank you for such a detailed and interesting opinion.
Overall, I don’t really think Vito is that much of an idiot. He, in principle, is adequate to the environment in which he grew up, and his ardent possessiveness can be understood by looking at the fate of his father. Here, rather, we are talking about why each of the heroes violates Omerta. Tom breaks it in order to save other people’s lives. Vito, for the most part, violates it to satisfy his impulsive needs and accumulate capital. I can’t say that any of the characters are much better or worse. They are adequate.
By the way, I heard similar comments from a friend regarding Angelo, that he is not nearly as thoughtful as he wants to seem. This is probably what distinguishes a good plot: there are several different opinions about the same character.
Well, I think when Mafia 3 comes out, I’ll also write a detailed analysis of it, the plot part first of all)
The comments on the series are valid, however, the game and the entire game series is not only about this. More precisely, in this case, these are just completely minor surrounding things, although very entertaining. The whole point of this series is clearly not in this and whether the third part will be “worthy” is written with a pitchfork on the water.
And the same second part, as for me, is assessed quite correctly. Because playing as a stupid scumbag turned out to be really quite unpleasant (although there were strong hints in the game that initially this should be another “victim of circumstances”) + some serious gameplay miscalculations.
And it depends on the number of sales. But since everyone will buy it on the wave of hype, it is possible that there will be a fourth part..
I partly agree. Yes, this story is clearly not about Dons, principles and the Family, but rather about black pistols, soap in the shower and new wheels for a car. But this, it seems to me, has its own charm: we are shown an environment where money and connections have the greatest weight, where nepotism (just remember how many times Leo promoted and pulled out Vito) matters more than origin, values and abilities combined.
The third part, it seems to me, in this regard, can become a kind of “return to the roots”: now Cosa Nostra is the tyranny of power, and we are vigilantes carrying out lynching, protecting the city from them, a new canon of the mafia.
Well, as I wrote, there are mistakes and absurdities, and in general the script was clearly cut. Barbaro also irritated me in places, a kind of Jar-Jar Binks from the world of the mafia. But, in my opinion, when Vito is separated from Joe, he no longer seems such a moron and the story seems to take on a more serious tone.
Well, the series may not be completed, but at the level of the first three parts, as a kind of general chain, I think there should be some kind of conclusion.
I don’t remember the details, but he was doing some nonsense there, connected with his sister’s man, it seems, in which Joe was not involved.
Well, her husband was drinking and walking to the left, and Vito punched him in the face, threatening that next time he would put a bullet in. And he turned out to be from an Irish gang, which, as I remember, set fire to his house.
What’s the problem? Three is always a special number, plus it is clear that the authors refer to certain elements from previous parts, the same Vito at least.