Mafia: Definitive Edition – Part 3-3
Surely, the most profitable part of organized crime is spending huge swathes of money and manpower on a gang war, right?
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As a logical extension to our previous conversation about Tommy’s role as a player cipher, naturally that means he has a sense of morality that has to closely resemble the player’s, while still being malleable enough to exist inside the world of organized crime. I mentioned before than this puts me in the mind of a Nathan Drake-type character, who murders hundreds of people in gameplay segments, yet stalwartly refuses to take a life in a cutscene. I assume this is for the player’s benefit, because they would rather play as someone with moral clarity than a hardened criminal.
The car bombing is the first time Tommy has killed someone (inside of cutscenes) that isn’t directly involved in the wars between mafiosos. While Tommy does react to it, after this sequence it isn’t brought up again and largely doesn’t impact him or his outlook on what he’s done.
It reminds me of a statement from the producer of the FF 7 remake project. In an interview, he talked about how the rough polygonal graphics of the original created a heightened sense of unreality, similar to a stage play, that created breathing room for events to play out in ways that aren’t necessarily “realistic”, but nonetheless true to the themes and characters. When adapting that story to more modern graphical fidelity, that sense of unreality is lost and certain details like the disconnect between Cloud and Tifa don’t work as well anymore.
I wonder if a similar effect is happening here, where the more detailed models and environments break the unreality of the PS2 game. Perhaps one day I’ll watch a Let’s Play of Mafia 1 and see for myself.
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