Later this year, we’ll revisit the first game in the gangster-themed series with Mafia: Definitive Edition. A remake of that original title, it’s looking to walk that fine line between being faithful to the original, but also bringing new options for those new players who probably aren’t too familiar with it, such as new difficulty options. It’ll also seek to expand things from that game, including giving a bit more time to some characters and missions.
In an interview with USGamer, Hangar 13’s Haden Blackman talked at length about the remake. He detailed how part of what they would be doing with this game is aiming to flesh out some characters who didn’t get much time in the original. He uses the example of Sarah, the protagonist’s girlfriend, and how her screen time has been increased to help players better understand who she is and why she’s important.
“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.”
Story isn’t the only thing getting expanded, either, as the team examined the missions from the first game and expanded those where they thought it would benefit. While not every mission is bigger, it seems they aimed to add new content where they felt it was appropriate.
“We took a hard look at each mission and looked at whether or not we could add additional set pieces,” Blackman continued. “If there was additional content we could put into those missions to flesh them out a little bit, or add a couple more memorable moments to each without sacrificing the core narrative beats or the intent of the mission of the story overall.”
Mafia: Definitive Edition comes out August 28th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
