14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Hangar 13 and publisher Activision have revealed that the launch date for Mafia 3 is set for October 7, and now, the two companies are also willing to deliver more information about the world that the game will explore and its unique features.
Haden Blackman, the director working on the title, tells Gamespot that the title will not be strictly linear and that there are plenty of sequences that one might not see during a playthrough because of the choices made.
This should ensure that Mafia 3 is very replayable and that gamers will spend a lot of time with it, despite the fact that Hangar 13 is not willing to talk about the number of hours required to get through the main story.
Blackman adds, "I hope that people are encouraged to replay and see things that they didn't see before. Hopefully, people go back and look for those little hidden gems. I wanted to build games that really tried to push the notion that the players co-author in the experience. We have that tag line for Hanger 13, which every player's story is unique."
Mafia 3 will tell the story of Lincoln Clay, a biracial veteran of the Vietnam War, who returns home only to find that his friends have been murdered by the Italian mafia, which leads to him starting his rival criminal organization in order to take out the culprits and deliver justice.
The game will use a full open-world structure
The action will take place in 1968, and the developers have said that they want to explore the impact that racism had on the main character and the society of the moment, although their focus will be on the revenge narrative.
Mafia 3 is fully open world, but it seems that the choice and consequence systems created by Hangar 13 will allow players to significantly affect the course of the story based on their morality and reading of each situation.
Some fans are unhappy with the fact that the series is moving to the open-world space, saying that it makes the experience too close to that of the Grand Theft Auto franchise from Rockstar.
Gamers who want to pre-order the title can get both a Digital Deluxe version and a physical Collector's Edition, which come with both more weapons and vehicles that can be used in the game and other bonuses like an art book and the soundtrack on vinyl.