The Mafia II remaster didn’t fare well when it released a couple of months ago, but Mafia: Definitive Edition holds far bigger promise. A full-fledged remake in development at Hangar 13, the studio that made Mafia 3, it is due to release on August 28th for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
In an interview with USgamer, Hangar 13 studio head Haden Blackman revealed that the Mafia: Definitive Edition will sport even better lighting than what we saw in Mafia 3. Blackman also confirmed that the studio has several other projects in the works, which will build upon this latest iteration of the technology.
We’re actually a multi-project studio. Everything we do at Hanger 13 is meant to be shared across projects. The lighting in Mafia 3, we thought was really good, but at the end of the day, it felt like maybe it wasn’t good enough. So we went in and we redid our lighting model for Mafia: Definitive Edition. That’s now tech that’s been added to our engine and that will carry over into the next game that we do, the game that we’re working on now.
[new hires] will be able to roll into the next project well-educated on how to build content. Because of where Mafia was at, it was always a little bit ahead of one of our other titles, so they spearheaded a lot of our production philosophies as well. We revamped the way that we do milestones. From a tech standpoint, there’s a number of things, including that lighting model, that are carrying over. That’s now tech that’s been added to our engine and that will carry over into the next game that we do, the game that we’re working on now.
As you may recall, Mafia 3 featured a setting appropriate police system depicting the discrimination that occurred at the time in the United States. Blackman stated this won’t be in Mafia: Definitive Edition since it wouldn’t quite make sense in this new setting.
One of the things that I was really proud about with Mafia 3 is the fact that we were able to take kind of gameplay and narrative and marry them in that way. With Mafia: Definitive Edition because of the nature of the story, the setting, and who the character is, that particular system didn’t seem as relevant. While that one system didn’t make the transition, because it just didn’t translate into the story or the time period, a number of others like the simulation mode of driving did.
Are you hyped for Mafia: Definitive Edition?