WATCH: ‘Mafia: Definitive Edition’ shows new beginning for the franchise trilogy

“Mafia: Definitive Edition”. Image: Hangar 13/2K Games via AFP Relaxnews

Its sequels couldn’t quite live up to the family name, but now there’s a second chance to find out what made 2002’s “Mafia” so special in the first place.

Franchise custodian Hangar 13, previously responsible for 2019 reissue “Borderlands: The Handsome Collection”, and before that, 2016’s “Mafia III”, is putting the finishing touches onto “Mafia: Definitive Edition”, an enhanced remake of the original game.

An expanded storyline, larger city of Lost Heaven (the game’s combined simulacrum of 1930s United States cities) and 4K/HDR-ready visuals help update “Mafia” for a new generation of consoles and PCs.

Announced for Sony’s PlayStation 4, Microsoft’s Xbox One and Windows PC, publisher 2K Games hasn’t touched on whether “Mafia: Definitive Edition” or May’s “Mafia II” and “Mafia III” remasters will land on late 2020’s PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, though Sony and Microsoft have both been emphasizing compatibility between their respective console generations.

Since the debut of “Mafia” in 2002, expectations of open-world crime games have been raised, principally by 2K’s own “Grand Theft Auto” franchise: “GTA: Vice City” (2002), “GTA: San Andreas” (2004), “GTA IV” (2008) and “GTA V” (2013 to 2015, then 2021 on PS5 and XSX); not forgetting entries to the “Saints Row” and “Yakuza” series.

And a number of high-profile TV shows and films have also served to update common understandings of organized crime, from the period settings of U.S.-set “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Irishman” to international contributions such as “Narcos”, “Peaky Blinders” and “Gomorrah”, as well as more contemporary stories in “McMafia” and financial crime dramatization “The Laundromat”. JB

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