Early on in Mafia Definitive Edition, there is a mission called Fairplay, in which you are tasked with stealing a rival mob boss’s prized Italian racecar in order to ensure the racecar your boss is backing wins the upcoming race. The first part of this mission is actually quite a blast.
Tooling around the city on a rainy night trying to get the stolen racecar to your fixer mechanic, then back to the racetrack without anyone noticing is a nothing short of zany. The game developers were smart in limiting the amount of patrol cars are on the street while you blast through town. There are a handful of well-placed, scripted patrolmen that call in your antics and raise your wanted meters, but thankfully, mercifully, you never have to actually outrun Johnny Law.
But then comes race day.
Having previously played the original Mafia, I knew what was coming. Your boss’s driver is unable to race, leaving nobody but you to place first in the race.
And sure enough, just like in the 2002 original version of Mafia, the racecar mission in Mafia: Definitive Edition is complete and absolute bullocks, a massive load of crapola on a gondola. After several failed attempts to stay on the road or not completely spin out, to say nothing of even competitively placing, I hunkered down and got Vin Diesel on the game’s butt.
And after a little crafty maneuvering and some downright dirty driving, there I was in first place on the tail end of lap two. Of course, I would then find myself coming out of a turn unable to regain control as my car fishtailed for what felt like a quarter of the track. All I could do was swerve back and forth, watching car after car overtake me. I ended up finishing in 12th.
That’s when I remembered there’s a skip drive feature in Mafia: Definitive Edition. Surely, I thought, since this mission was so inconsequential (nothing more than soup-to-nuts aggravating driving), this must be the best time to utilize such a feature. Except, no, this is not considered one of the driving segments they thought anyone would want to skip. Nope, just the random in-mission driving between action sequences. Really, who the hell would give a shucks about skipping those?
They even have the gall to let you skip the opening cutscene if you press start during the cinematic.
So here I am, unable to progress through a racing mission in a non-racing game. I didn’t buy Mafia wishing I could play Forza. This isn’t a game designed on the back of a racing sim; it’s a clunky friggin’ Mafia game. So I guess I will either have to get good or just stick to the free-roam segment of the game. Which honestly isn’t a half decent consolation prize, since I mostly just like soaking in the ambiance of the time period.
And just when I had made my peace with the antiquated controls, and I was actually falling in love with the story all over again, suddenly I’m forced to win a race in what is very clearly not a racing game.
Of course, Attack of the Fanboy has a Fairplay mission guide, so maybe this will help me out. Cross your fingers, folks, there’s a long road ahead of me. Literally.
