I will start by saying that an honest review is dearly needed since too many people either try to bring down the score by giving it a 1/10 or more often, falsely and scrupulously, trying to artificially raise the score by giving it a 10/10. Currently there are 6 reviews on this site for this game that give it a perfect score, which would imply that there simply isn't anything wrong with this title. Where these people playing a different game? I think we're all playing the same game and if that's the case then these people are liars and since GameSpot and other respectable reviewers are keeping radio silence and trying to avoid a controversial review for as long as possible by waiting and assessing the situation rather then the game, I feel obliged to write this review.
Graphics: The earliest trailers of the game have superior graphics and effects while the newer ones downgraded the graphics and are trying to hide this by making everything fuzzy as all hell which actually makes things worse. It looks like Mafia II in a lot of places and in some even worse because of the bad effects and blatant attempt to hide them. One of the worst sight in this game is when you look at buildings and you have a flashback of playing GTA: San Andreas, where buildings looked like cubes placed on a horizontal plane, add to this the numerous artefacts that can be seen throughout the game and you will want to throw the freaking thing out the window. If you get lucky you might endure this torture to your eyes if you rush through the game from one cutscene to the next, just so you can see some decent textures and cleans your retinas. - Bottom line for graphics: Terrible.
Gameplay: Developers should add new features to sequels but instead they seem to strip away features and streamline everything. If we compare Mafia I to Mafia III we can see that the later is severely lacking. No longer can you limit your speedometer to the legal speed limit, now cars go from 0 to 100 like they're race cars, with burnt rubber at every start, turn or stop, but it doesn't really matter since the police doesn't give a damn if you go with 200km/h or if you run a red light. And while we're at it, the cars handle is horrid, they are uncontrollable piles of junk, even with a controller they honestly offer the worst driving experience in a video game since I can remember. What else is there to driving in this game? Well, gun play of course! That sucks bricks too... with guns feeling the same, enemies being bullet sponges or just simply not getting shot by bullets that should make their mark. It doesn't help that your reticle is a pinky sized attempt at a circle that is more useless then a gas station in hell. While you're dealing with trying to aim that poor attempt of a target you'll have to deal with backwards controls that are counter intuitive, bad cover system, clipping and bugs up the a$s!
Story: It starts you right smack down in the action with almost no idea of how you got there, the game relies instead on a story telling cliche, the one where people are telling your story to the audience. The cutscenes at first seem interesting enough till you notice that they ruin any narrative surprise that might have been, warning you countless times of people that will die and things that will happen. You can do this once but when you repeat the same attempt to surprise the player by telling him the future it gets old, fast. The characters are boring with the exception of a few key ones that on occasion do or say something interesting. The voice actors for the most part try their best but it's no use when the dialog is so boring and generic.
Setting: I left the setting of this game for the end since i felt like this needed to be addressed. Since the game God Father 2 i feel like this period is cursed to always fail when portrayed in a video game. And it's a shame since it's an interesting period, with interesting subjects Vietnam and the Black Panthers being some of them but they are just glanced over in favor of tired old subjects that we've seen hundreds of times. One good thing that they managed to do was use really good music from the period but even that gets overused and somehow ends up being another obvious attempt to mask the bad storytelling. Every time there's a cutscene or a moment in the game they will blast you with Vietnam war themed music like Eve of Destruction, Paint it Black, Sympathy for the Devil, All Along the Watchtower and of course all of the well known CCR songs like Fortunate Son.
Verdict: It's a shame what became of a dear franchise, they were on the right track with Mafia II but they dropped the ball on this one, a substandard mash of mistakes named Mafia III. If you are able ask for a refund, if not... well... you aren't alone. Vote with your wallet and show these developers that we are not suckers and that we see behind a good name, they need to give actual effort if they want to remain relevant if not, i'm afraid that this game will be the last in the Mafia series.
Final Score: 3 I would give it a 4 if it wasn't for the name they ruined with this... mistake.