Tag: Analysis

Joe Barbaro is Dead: A Mafia II Analysis

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It’s one of the longest-running “conspiracies” around a game storyline that I’ve ever witnessed.

Fifteen years on from Mafia II, you will still see comments, blog posts, and videos about how Joe Barbaro is alive.

Joe is the secondary protagonist of Mafia II, best friend to player character Vito Scalleta. Despite only officially appearing in one game, Joe has been hovering on the outskirts of the entire series.

He, alongside Vito, conclude the original Mafia’s story by completing an assassination on Tommy Angelo, with Joe firing the gun that kills Tommy. And in Mafia III, Joe is supposedly chauffeur to Leo Galante, a high-ranking member of the Commission and character in Mafia II.

Supposedly.

Because I believe Joe Barbaro to be dead. First, some context.

Joe’s enduring popularity stems from his best-friend status in Mafia II. (Source: greghorrorshow.wordpress.com)

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In very, very broad strokes and major spoilers ahead;

  • The final third of Mafia II is about Vito and Joe going into the drug business with their friend Henry Tomasino.
  • They buy drugs from the Chinese Triads, but later Henry is killed by them for being an FBI informant.
  • Vito and Joe raid the Triad base of operations and kill their men and gang leader.
  • This kicks off a war between the two Italian families, the Vincis, (of which Leo Galante is a part of), the Falcones (which Vito and Joe are part of) and the Triads.
  • To calm tensions in the city, Leo instructs Vito to kill his boss, Carlo Falcone. Falcone tries pitting Joe against Vito, but the two friends take down Carlo together.
  • After Joe and Vito kill Carlo, they are whisked away by Leo in two separate cars.
  • When Joe’s car makes a sharp turn, Vito asks, “Where are they taking Joe?”
  • Leo replies with the now iconic line; “Sorry kid, Joe wasn’t part of our deal.”

Okay, now with context out of the way, let’s get onto why Joe Barbaro has to die.

Dead Man Walking – Why is Joe Barbaro dead?

Okay, let’s dig in a little deeper on the context that I laid out.

In Chapter 15, Vito looks over the destruction that he and Joe caused, them lying to their boss Carlo Falcone and his deputy Eddie Scarpa about their involvement, and Henry being revealed as a rat. Vito says;

“The truth was going to come out sooner or later, and then we were going to have Falcone after us along with the Chinese and Vinci…I ducked it for as long as I could, but it was finally catching up with me. It was all just a matter of time…”

And when Leo picks Vito up the next day and instructs him to kill Carlo, he says;

“Frank and the rest of the Commission want you dead. So does Mr. Chu. And to top it all off, you vouched for a rat. You think Carlo’s gonna let that slide? You’re a dead man walking.”

There needs to be repercussions for Vito and Joe’s actions. Mr. Chu of the Chinese wants revenge, and getting the man who killed their leader Mr. Wong would suit him fine. Frank and the Commission see Vito and Joe too deadly and destructive to keep alive. And Vito vouched for a rat, a death sentence within the real-life Cosa Nostra.

But Vito has Leo, his golden ticket to safety. Leo literally says, “…if it wasn’t for me, you would’ve already been taken care of.” Joe doesn’t have that same privilege. So Joe has to die on a weighted, transactional reading of the story.

In the final mission Joe gets the offer to kill Vito…but their friendship wins out. (Source: Youtube: CJake3)

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Now to look at it thematically. When looking at its story structure, Mafia II is a tragedy. In basic terms, its about a young man trying to find a better life for himself and only when he has reached his peak, then realises he’s lost everything.

As Vito says when looking over his family album in Chapter 15;

“This wasn’t how I imagined it when we were startin’ out. I dreamed o’ money, cars, women respect, freedom…

“I guess I ended up gettin’ all of that more or less, but along with it came prison, living in constant fear, and the blood of my friends.”

Vito loses his house and possessions, loses his mother and sister, and by Mafia III he is old, grey, and seemingly tired of life, fuelled only by the last dying embers of his original dream of being a big shot.

The nature of narrative is to continue that thread. There is no redemption for Vito and so the story on a basic thematic level has to follow the thread of loss…which leads to Joe, the last piece of Vito’s life in the mafia that hasn’t already been taken away from him.

And when Joe’s car makes that turn, where does he turn to? The exact overlook that Vito, Joe, and Eddie dispose of Frankie Potts, another traitor in the Empire Bay mafia (seen in Chapter 7). It’s a symbol, this location means death.

The final frame of Mafia II…and another shallow grave. (Source: YouTube,Thomas Cedric Kielsholm Wilson)

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Finally, let’s look at the logical and logistical aspect of Joe being alive. Joe is wanted by not just the Commission and the Vincis, but also the remnants of the Falcone family (mainly Eddie Scarpa), the Chinese Triads. No city is going to be safe for him.

When finishing Vito’s “I Need a Favour” mission in Mafia III, Vito details how what he knows about the aftermath of Carlo’s death. Joe escaped his final car ride in Empire Bay and fled to Chicago, but the family granting him sanctuary turned on him. And while Joe might have got lucky during the course of Mafia II, there will come a point where that luck will run out.

The Mafia has a long memory. Tommy Angelo turned on his family and they hunted him down over thirteen years later. Joe caused untold damage to both the Commission and the Triads, there is no way they are letting him go…or letting him back into the fold.

Because that is the prevailing theory. At the end of Mafia III, Leo Galante comes to visit Lincoln Clay after the death of Sal Marcano. When Leo leaves, the camera lingers on his driver. The frame, the baker-boy hat, the knowing stare straight into the camera, it gives the impression of Joe.

Delving into the game files, the model off Leo’s driver is named “ma_head_003_joe_”. And shortly after the release of Mafia III, the Mafia X (formerly Twitter) account responded to a fan asking “why did you kill Joe Barbaro?” with “Did you finish the game?”, hinting that the man at the end is Joe.

But WHY? Why would Leo risk the wrath of the Commission, the Triads, and Vito and Joe (who are both well known for going on rampages for revenge) just to have a chauffeur who is good in a fight? Would Joe, after fleeing destruction, come back and be fine relegated to a driving job, when we see throughout Mafia II he’s continually setting up new scores?

Vito says in his conversation with Lincoln that, “…if Joe was alive – he would have found me by now.” Joe would know, since Vito was sent down to New Bordeaux by the Commission, and as seen by his actions in Mafia II, he totally would contact Vito. Even if he was forbidden by Leo under pain of death, Joe would take that gamble.

I think the face and the tweet are just nods to fans, nothing concrete. Just a dedicated game artist and social media manager hyping up a game and story that most Mafia fans didn’t enjoy.

Leo Galante’s driver in Mafia III…supposedly Joe Barbaro. (Source: mafiagame.fandom)

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So there, those are my thoughts on the Joe Barbaro conspiracy. Narratively, thematically, logically, and logistically, Joe Barbaro has to die and to deny that wrecks both his story and Vito’s arc throughout the Mafia series.

But if you are interested in Vito’s arc, then have a read of my character analysis right here!

Banner Photo Source: wallpapercave.com

Thoughts on Mafia: The Old Country

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I love Mafia.

The three titles spanning from the first game released in 2002 to the New Orleans-inspired third setting from 2016 is one of my favourite gaming series, up there with the Ezio Auditore and the Hitman trilogy.

The whole package was remastered recently, with a remake of the first Mafia released in 2020. There has been speculation over the next game and setting, with many tidbits indicating the next release would be set in the 1970s in Las Vegas.

But this year at Gamescom, developer Hangar 13 released a trailer for the newest title in the series, titled Mafia: The Old Country. The trailer is just over a minute in length, but it has set the Mafia fanbase abuzz with excitement.

And as a proud Mafia fan, I thought I could speculate too on what we might find in the game. Let’s start!

An Offer You Can’t Refuse – Speculating over Mafia: The Old Country

1. The Location and Setting

Both the title and the trailer give clues as to where and when the game is set.

“The Old Country” as a phrase is in reference to first-generation immigrants, usually to the United States of America. So for Italian immigrants, Italy is the “Old Country”.

“The Old Country” was even used as a chapter title in Mafia II, where during WW2, protagonist Vito Scaletta was part of the US Army invading his home island, Sicily.

We can hone in on Sicily as the exact location through the trailer. The first is an image of Saint Rosalia, covered in blood droplets. When members join the mafia, the go through an initiation process where they drop their own blood onto a chosen saint. Saint Rosalia is the patron saint of Sicily, which would indicate that this would be the location.

Another image from the trailer is the final landscape shot, with a distinct building with two towers. A building very much of this likeness was also a key location during Mafia II’s Sicily chapter, so it’s plausible that these could be the same location.

Saint Rosalia in the trailer. She is frequently depicted holding a skull. (Source: YouTube, Mafia Game)

The unnamed narrator’s first line in the trailer speaks of “This Thing of Ours.” This is also a veiled reference to the Sicilian Mafia, also known as “Cosa Nostra”. “Cosa Nostra” literally translates to “This Thing of Ours”, a way to obfuscate any officials listening in on the activities usually associated with the mafia, but indicates again that Sicily will be the location.

It will be interesting to see how the landscape is laid out in the game. Sicily is a mix of mountain ranges, dense cities, dry landscapes, and clear blue sea. The original Mafia included a countryside, but later entries just focused on cities.

The series has also always used fictional cities such as Lost Heaven, Empire Bay, and New Bordeaux (Chicago, New York, and New Orleans respectively). Palermo (Sicily’s main city) is heavily tied in with the lore of Mafia, so I wonder whether they keep their trend of a fictional city or will finally base it in a real city.

While the trailer doesn’t give a concrete indication of the time period, the fact it is called “The Old Country”, a rotary telephone can be seen in one frame, and a figure is seen wearing an old-style waistcoat would indicates the early 1900s, the earliest time period the series has ever been based in.

Sicily would be a new and interesting location for games in general, moving away from the standard US setting (Source: Youtube, Mafia Game).

2. Characters

While we only got a brief glimpse of one character in the trailer, we can infer possible cameos, ancestors, and families from looking ahead to the other Mafia games.

To be made a full member of the mafia, a man must prove that he is from Sicily or is a descended from Sicilian roots. People from other nations can work for the mafia, but can never join as full members.

Several important characters in the series started their criminal life in Sicily before moving to the USA. From the first game, Don Ennio Salieri and his consigliere Frank Colletti grew up together, setting up dog races as children and winning bullet casings and other trinkets. Another Don from the same game is Marcu Morello, who also moved across from Sicily as a child.

Official artwork showing a Lupara amongst the lemons, imagery associated with the Sicilian Mafia. (Source: mafiagame.fandom)

In Mafia II it is the same, with major characters like Leo Galante, Frank Vinci, and Carlo Falcone, all emigrating in the early 1900s. Alberto Clemente, another Don from Mafia II, had to flee Sicily after killing a police captain in Palermo. One of Clemente’s lieutenants, Henry Tomasino, was also born in Sicily, fleeing at his father’s request after Mussolini took power.

With all these characters being born somewhere between the 1880s and the 1900s before moving across the Atlantic Ocean and setting up business there, we could see a few of these family members making their start in organised crime. As mentioned above with Saint Rosalia, the image of the saint is used during an initiation, so it’s highly likely that that same imagery will be in the game.

I don’t really want any previous characters to be the playable protagonist (I would rather it be someone new to keep some mystery as to their life story), but those character could be featured as cameos for a few chapters. With so many leaving for the United States, it could be a nice bittersweet moment. When we think of people leaving for a better life, we rarely remember those they have to leave behind.

From L to R: Eddie, Vito, Joe, and Henry from Mafia II. Maybe we’ll see their ancestors in The Old Country. (Source: vg247.om)

3. Story

This won’t be a general outline, but more ideas that I think may turn up in The Old Country.

The series as a whole is heavily influenced by cinema and cinematic presentation, usually taking situations and themes from films such as The Godfather and GoodFellas and replicating them in the game.

Portions of both The Godfather Part I and Part II are set in Sicily, with families taking revenge during funerals and shipping their children off to America when it becomes too dangerous for them to stay. With all the characters that left Sicily to move to America, this is probably a major story point in the game.

Artwork in the trailer includes Jesus Christ on the cross as well as the Greek myth Acis and Galatea, with common themes about love, jealousy, and eventual death. They would be easy story points to add into the game.

The 1900s was a tumultuous time for Europe, so it has to come up at some point in the game. With WWI from 1914 to 1918 and Italy being a major force fighting against Austria-Hungary, the war setting could easily be a way to have the player character have a general knowledge of how guns work.

1918 also was the year that the Spanish Flu was widely recognised across Europe. While I don’t think it would be a major part, it’s an interesting fact that Saint Rosalia is also the patron saint invoked during plagues. Maybe it will be a background theme or giving a character a death scene much like Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption II.

The main historical point in Italy in the early 1900s is the fascist Benito Mussolini’s rise to power in 1922. There was a very public and concerted effort by Mussolini to destroy the mafia, with special prosecutors sent to root out criminals in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy.

I think this will be the main crux of the game, seeing the Sicilian Mafia be built up and then crumble as more and more flee to the safety of America and Mussolini cracks down hard on organised crime. We probably won’t be fighting old Benito ourselves, but maybe a special prosecutor who is brought in.

Some of the artwork for The Old Country looks very reminiscent of Mafia 2‘s Sicily level. (Source: mafiagame.fandom).

It’s also of interest to note that in Mafia II, the Italian Blackshirts surrender due to the local Don, Don Calò, who is a real life person and supposedly helped the Allies invade Sicily. Just a little something to think about, as a neat way to keep the tradition of seeing Vito Scaletta in every game.

So those are my thoughts on Mafia: The Old Country. We won’t be waiting long until we see more of the game, as Hangar 13 promised more in December of 2024. I for one can’t wait to see more!

Photo Banner Source: YouTube (Mafia Game)

Thoughts on the Tomb Raider Trailer

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Back in June 2016 I wrote a piece on the then announcement of Alicia Vikander being cast in the role of Lara Croft for the new Tomb Raider film. There have been quite a few updates from when I last spoke about the film, the major point being the release of the poster and the first teaser trailer for the film. For those who haven’t seen the latter, let’s have a look right now, then I’ll go through parts I like along with some other general stuff

Okay, so let’s get into this.

First things first, the film has a reported release date of March 16 2018. At the time of writing that is still half a year away. Teaser trailers are usually sent out before the film has been signed off, so a lot of people complaining about poor CGI quality, it’s not fully representative of the final film. Yes, it’s odd to show it in a trailer if it’s not representative of a final film, but hey-ho, look at Suicide Squad. But while the CGI doesn’t look particularly good, the stunts are done for real. Looking at this behind-the-scenes featurette (warning: may contain spoilers), you can see for yourself that the sets are largely built and that the Stunt Co-ordinator is none other than Franklin Henson (whose list of credits is extensive). He has worked on similar themed films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom and National Treasure: Book Of Secrets, which if they are anything are fun, pulpy adventure films that Tomb Raider should fit comfortably alongside.

One point I also want to make is that I love how many references to the 2013 game are in the trailer. The majority of the film is based on the 2013 reboot, along with dashes of the sequel to said reboot, which was released in mid-2015. These are more than just a wink-and-a-nod to the audience who are in the know, these are the scenes ripped direct from the screen to the…erm, slightly bigger screen. The slow-motion jump from the ship, falling through the broken glass of an airplane cockpit, climbing the broken wing of another airplane; these are all shots players of the reboot will recognise. This is probably to appeal to us fans since the film won’t be truly following the game, but that’s adaptations for you, what works for one medium won’t work for another. One scene from the game that hasn’t been shown in the trailer is Lara’s first kill. Lara is using her bow and axe in the trailer, so it’s guaranteed they’ll be some bloodshed, so I hope that this dramatic and memorable scene from the game, where Lara is covered in blood and in shock after killing someone for the first time is in there.

Sadly, there is no Sam or Sam-approximate featured (Lara’s possible beau in the reboot series), just a few lines from Kirsten Scott Thomas being the only female interaction in the trailer. Vikander stated that the film will pass the Bechdel Test, so there has to be some more female characters in there. In the same interview, Vikander also stated the film “…actually has relationships and stories…” so maybe it could be a subtle approach to the perceived “not-straightness” at play in Tomb Raider, which I’ve written about here.

The trailer and the behind-the-scenes featurette do sadly give away a bit too much of the plot for my liking. Maybe that’s my fault for watching too much, but to be honest, apart from the trailer and poster, I’ve stayed away from news about this film. I’m not going to go through the trailer and start dissecting all the scenes and speculate about what might happen in the story (despite previously doing it for Red Dead, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed and many more on this exact site) because the trailer is pretty clear on the narrative beats, evil scheming and all. Thinking about it, it’s better than Assassin’s Creed, which hid half of its bogus story away from the trailer, making us all believe more than half of it was going to be in the Animus.

Talking of Assassin’s Creed, yeah I know. We’ve all been burned before. Assassin’s Creed was a personal one for me. I’m going to keep harping on about Macbeth forever, because it was the perfect precursor to what an Assassin’s Creed film could look like. That film was excellent, and yet despite having the exact same cast and crew, Assassin’s Creed was a confusing mess, despite showing us the exact opposite in it’s promotional material. Maybe I’m too forgiving of Hollywood, maybe I’m clutching at straws in the hopes of a game I love being adapted for a wider audience. All it has to do is not be terrible. That really shouldn’t be a big ask.

Finally, I just want to address the wave of backlash against Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. Check out the comments for the trailer up above, or the comments in IGN’s thread on the trailer. I called this back in May, that Vikander was going to have a hard time because she wasn’t “real Lara” i.e. Lara from the 1990s. Despite Vikander herself, the trailer, the behind-the-scenes clips and the poster all saying or inferring that this is an origin story, some people are just not getting it. However, the lovely Easter Egg at the end of the trailer with the dual pistols is a neat nod to the series roots, especially since they look like the same pistols from Angelina Jolie’s TR films…

And hey, Nick Frost is in there, it’s always nice to see him.

Those are my thoughts (or looking back on it, ramble) on the Tomb Raider  trailer. Time will tell if the film is going to be any good, but I’m already excited.

 

Banner photo source: nerdist.com.