Leave the gun, take the cannoli — or maybe the gumbo. Mafia III and its take on 1960s New Orleans hits consoles and PCs this fall, and as the name implies, you’ll be taking down plenty of racketeering operations. But just how you choose to do this — and deal with the powerful “enforcers” — is up to you.
“Each criminal racket within Mafia III is made up of various differing objectives,” says executive producer Denby Grace. “All of the open-world activities of the game, and quests and missions, are all linked to the main narrative of this criminal racket. The player picks and chooses which ones they want to complete and order to do enough damage to that racket and lure that hideout boss out to … defend his turf, so to speak.”
A new developer video gives a quick demonstration of this with protagonist Lincoln Clay going toe-to-toe with a boss, whom he unceremoniously blows away with a sawed-off shotgun.
Like you’d expect from criminal organizations, the rackets in Mafia III use various “fronts,” though it’s unclear if any of them are in the olive oil business. The public muscle of these groups are “enforcers,” who Clay can eliminate to more easily take over a racketeering hideout. If you choose to ignore them and take on a hideout anyway, the enforcers will be waiting inside, making the mission much more challenging.
“Because every player’s story is unique in our games, we don’t dictate that you take these guys out, but they’re big targets and you probably want to go after them,” adds design director Matthias Worch.
Mafia III is out on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 7. Publisher 2K Games recently unveiled a collector’s edition, which comes bundled with two vinyl records, lithographs, an art book, dog tags, and even “faux leather establishment drink coasters.”
