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.
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 GodfatherPart 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!
I’ve recently been playing Mafia: Definitive Edition and been having a blast. I love the Mafia series, even dusting off the old Playstation 2 a few years ago to experience the original game for the first time. The first Mafia came out nearly twenty years ago, but still has a charm and identity not found in more modern games.
It feels odd and comforting to play the remake so soon after the original game. Despite the remake built from the ground-up, developer Hangar 13 did a spectacular job of bringing the essence and locations of the first game to life. Their craftsmanship is so good that I can use my half-remembered map knowledge of the first game and it translates perfectly to the remake.
I was really excited to play the remake partly due to the story. The original Mafia is a collage of old gangster movie and literary tropes, but always tried to put a unique spin or add a thoughtful aspect into the narrative. This extends to the characters.
While most of the cast are Godfather or Soprano’s stock types, lead character Tommy Angelo is an interesting reflection and critique of not just characters in gangster films, but also gangster-based video games like Grand Theft Auto.
One mission that reflects Tommy’s personality and uniqueness in the original game is the chapter called “The Whore”. Don Salieri, Tommy’s boss, learns that a woman in a brothel, Michelle, has been spilling secrets to a rival gang who have taken over said establishment. Tommy is tasked with killing the manager of the brothel and Michelle, before blowing the building up to send a message to any else wanting to switch to protection to the rival gang.
Tommy carries out his task dutifully, killing the manager in front of the paying customers before heading towards Michelle’s room, but as he enters he realises he knows her; she is one of the friends of Tommy’s girlfriend, Sarah. Tommy feels sorry for Michelle and tells her to run and to never come back.
The definitive edition changes the scene…and in my opinion, for the worse.
In the remake, Tommy is asked by one of his friends, Sam, to spare Michelle. It turns out Sam is one of Michelle’s regulars, and he was the one that accidentally told her secrets that she inadvertently spilled to the rival gang. This completely changes the scene and takes away a large part of Tommy’s personality, I’ll explain why.
Here are the two clips from both games. Here’s the first from the original game (start at 5:04).
And here is the second from the remake.
With that set-up, let’s dive in.
Booze, Bullets, Broads and Bums – How Michelle Gives Tommy Angelo Character
I previously said that nearly all the characters are stock types. This can easily be seen with Tommy and his two friends, Paulie and Sam.
Paulie is a bruiser with not much going on between his ears. When doing a first shake-down with the gang, Paulie enters a shop alone, and Tommy can hear the crashing and banging from outside in his car. Frank, the consigliere of the Saleri family, remarks about Paulie, “Paulie has hit his ceiling…he’s not smart enough to run anything.” (1:32:03).
Sam is the more serious of the two, always stony-faced and not a big talker. When Tommy escorts Paulie back from the race track in Chapter 6, Paulie talks about all the ‘bad shit’ he’s done, and says that Sam is able to blank out all the crime in his head. Frank also says, “Sam is loyal, but has no vision.” (see above link). In the end, it is Sam wanting to move up in the crime world that sees him betray Tommy to the Don.
Tommy in the original is very quiet and unassuming. While many game protagonists are like this because they fall prey of Tabula Rasa Syndrome (a blank slate so anyone can project what they want onto them), Tommy’s personality is hammered home by the game script from the start.
Even after saving Paulie and Sam from a rival gang and being offered a place in the mob at the start of the game, Tommy initially refuses, saying, “I didn’t want to join some criminals, even if they had all the money in the world. It’s better to be poor and alive than rich and dead…I was going to get my cab repaired and try to forget it as soon as possible.” (11:06).
When Tommy heads back to the Salieri Family for protection after he is jumped by a rival gang for helping Paulie and Sam, the Don points him the direction for the people who attacked him and sends Tommy and Paulie to exact revenge. Frank muses to the Don, “I wouldn’t trust him so much. He seemed hesitant. He’s just accepted now because he has no choice.” (15:49).
Up until the chapter with Michelle, Tommy hasn’t done anything too crazy. He’s been in a few chases, some fistfights and shootouts, but he could always moralise killing other people by thinking it’s the other person or himself on the line.
When he breaks into Michelle’s room and she tries to make excuses, saying she didn’t mean to hurt anyone, Tommy starts thinking, “I knew it. This could only happen to me, a total screw-up. I can’t just kill a young girl. A young naive fool…on the other hand, is it worth getting killed over it?”
Tommy decides to risk the Don not finding out and tells Michelle to leave and never come back. It’s a perfect example of Tommy’s worldview. He isn’t blinded by faith to the Don, only really becoming a gangster out of fear for his life, rather than any ambition.
It adds so much personality to him and reflects in later character moments such as sparing Frank’s life and attempting a botched bank robbery with Paulie.
It also helps that Michael Sorvino, the original voice of Tommy, has a very soft voice. He isn’t a gravely or baritone voice like Sam or Paulie, and he rarely if ever raises his voice in the story. He always sounds like an average joe, rather than a hardened criminal.
In the remake, it’s the complete opposite. While the new actor for Tommy, Andrew Bongiorno, is tremendous throughout, in the Michelle scene, he is very aggressive, pushing the barrel of his gun right up against her head and shouting at her. Overall in the remake, Tommy warms to the gangster life much more than he did at this story point in the original game.
The fact Tommy comes to the decision to let Michelle go because of Sam cuts away at that great character he had in the original game, and in doing so makes him seem more like a general goon rather than someone who was inadvertently roped into the gangster life.
It’s obvious that the Michelle’s connection with Sam was to give Sam some extra spark. In the original game, Sam essentially becomes a tertiary character, with Paulie taking centre stage with Tommy for most of the game.
But everyone gets more to play in the remake. Tommy’s wife, Sarah, gets one chapter appearance and then a handful of mentions in the original, but gets upgraded to a main cast member in the remake. Paulie gets more shades with his drinking issue and loose mouth, and Sam gets Michelle as a love interest. I would have been happier for them to just add a completely new narrative arc for Sam, rather than fall back on this one story thread.
At the end of the original game, Sam tells Tommy the Don has ordered Tommy’s execution partly because of letting Michelle live. It’s the same in the remake, with only a passing remark about Sam being sweet on Michelle.
I guess it makes Sam even more snake-like than he was in the original, that he’s willing to throw a girl he was very much infatuated with under the bus to get ahead in the mob, but it’s at the detriment of the main character.
In conclusion, I still love Mafia: Defintive Edition. And on its own, I actually really love the Michelle section. The emotions are raw, the dialogue is believable, and the actors sell the hell out of the scene.
But as part of a story, I think it undermines Tommy so much. It’s amazing how one scene, with just a small tweak, can totally change how we look at a character and their arc.
I knew Tommy Angelo would change in the remake, but I didn’t know that I wouldn’t find him as compelling as I once did.
He is one of the most beloved characters of the seventh generation and possibly the face of an entire franchise. Even now, almost a decade on from his role in the spotlight, you can find a myriad of blog posts and forum messages detailing why Vito Scaletta is one of the greatest characters to ever grace a computer screen.
Vito Scaletta is a central character in the Mafia series. An Italian-American immigrant brought into the fold of the Cosa Nostra, we play as Vito in Mafia II through the 1940s and 50s as he rises through the ranks of organised crime. Despite only being a playable character in the second game, he has featured in the series from the start.
While not named in the original Mafia, a mission near the end of Mafia II retroactively inserts Vito into the story, being the hitman that kills previous main character Tommy Angelo. After playing through his story in Mafia II, he is brought back in Mafia III as an underboss.
Vito (left) as he appears in the original Mafia, completing the hit on main character Tommy Angelo. (Source: stemacommunity.com).
It is cool having this unique connecting thread through the series, rather than a more standard sequel with a returning cast. Other series such as Assassin’s Creed and Timesplitters have had similar through-lines, but not as clear as Mafia’s (AC’s are usually just cameo appearances such as Charles Dorian in AC: Rogue, and TS had the Jones family featuring in the years 1853, 1965, and 2243).
So what made Vito such a compelling character? Well, I thought about doing a little character study. Let’s jump in.
Made Man – A Look Back at Vito Scalleta
The first thing we have to address in looking back at a character, any character, is how the story or text is framed. Context is important, how the creator presents it can affect how it is received. The entire Mafia series is presented by flashback format; Tommy tells his story to Det. Norman, Vito looks over his family album, and Lincoln’s story is told through interviews of other characters in a documentary format.
Characters retelling a story can lead to embellishment, skipping over points that may seem inconsequential to them, but would aid a greater understanding of their life. This is nothing new; games ranging from Battlefield to Silent Hill, Dragon Age to Monkey Island have used unreliable narrators for action set-pieces, antagonist reveals, or even just for a laugh.
It seems that the team at 2k Czech were aware of this aspect. Games Radar mentioned that the original Mafia,
“…centered on the most significant events in [Tommy Angelo’s] life while largely ignoring his day-to-day life as a mobster.” (Reparaz, M. 2008)
In response, writer/director of both games, Daniel Vavra said,
“The player is going to experience more of everything…those action sequences will always be in context to the story and the mafia theme…[but aren’t] mutually exclusive to the ‘nitty-gritty life of a mobster’”. (Reparaz, M. 2008).
We also have to keep in mind the aspect of the nature of the avatar. Depending on who is playing Vito, he could be a bloodthirsty psychopath or a pacifist, a road rageaholic or someone who never passes 30mph. It is both one of the great foibles and assets when trying to dissect a videogame, as there is never a “concrete” personality to a character when in gameplay.
Personally, I will be working off the idea of the only characters that the player is under obligation to kill die during the narrative, as it is a good medium.
So with those addendums given, let us start on the game proper.
Vito’s first appearance in Mafia III. Soon after, he joins with Lincoln Clay to take down the Cosa Nostra. (Source: pinterest.com)
The first aspect ties in with the nature of the avatar, but from a designer point of view rather than a player. Jack Scalici, Director of Creative Production on Mafia II listed Vito’s character traits,
Scalici: “…he’s a nice guy. He has strong morals. He doesn’t kill people because he wants to, he kills because he has to.” (FAIR/PLAY, 2017).
I’ll add a few more; he is quiet, unassuming, and rational. He is the complete opposite of “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” Joe, that’s why they make a great pair. But all of these terms to describe Vito are rather nebulous. There is nothing standout about him, he is tabula rasa, a blank slate.
The technique of tabula rasa is used a lot in games, as it helps develop quick player identification. If there is no set personality, we can project whatever we want onto a character. Some of the most iconic and beloved characters are like this; Gordon Freeman, Link, Crash Bandicoot, Doom Guy, none of them have any notable character traits besides vague concepts like “brave’ or “wacky”, but they are often found at the top of ‘Favourite Game Character Lists’.
Tabula rasa can also lead to great narrative twists. Characters like James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2, Nilin in Remember Me, and Walker in Spec Ops, these characters are kept vague in the beginning, before their personality is revealed later into the narrative, leading to shame, shock, or abhorrence at their true colours.
Vito doesn’t have these quirks. He is kept elusive and quiet, possibly for player connection, but that unfortunately bleeds over into the game. It makes Vito look like someone who only takes orders and has no initiative. He’s constantly the fall guy, from start to finish, always kowtowing to his higher-ups. When Luca Gurino asks whether Vito is willing to “take the next step” by,
Luca: “…taking somebody out, just ‘cause someone points his finger at him and tells you to do it.”
Vito replies,
Vito: “I was in the war, Mr. Gurino. All I did was kill people I was told to kill…”
Luca laughs and responds,
Luca: “We need guys like you. Guys who can follow orders without asking questions.”
Throughout the two games that he prominently features in, Vito has this veneration for authority. When Cassandra and Vito square off, Vito falls back on his seniors,
Cassandra: “You can blame Marcano all you want, but it was your men who ambushed us.”
Vito: “My men were following orders. We got rules.”
When Lincoln breaks up the argument, Cassandra follows up,
Cassandra: “…do you know how many of my men this connard killed ‘cause Marcano ‘told him to’?”
It could be that Vito appeals to authority due to his absent father. Throughout Mafia II, Vito doesn’t look too kindly on his father’s memory. When Joe mentions him near the beginning, Vito quickly shoots in and calls him a “deadbeat”. And when Mama Scalletta says she wished Vito’s father could have seen him return from the war, Vito sarcastically replies, “Yeah, sure.”
This could be a reason why Vito jumps in with the mafia, to have a surrogate family. He obviously looks up to Leo Galante as a father figure (although Leo does not see Vito as a son). This could be why Vito goes along with things that are a detriment to him because he’s wanted a security of family.
Vito Scaletta and Leo Galante at the end of Mafia II. Vito looks up to Leo, but the older man sees Vito as disposable by Mafia III. (Source: ‘LoudMouthZander’, YouTube.com)
There are only two times that Vito pushes back against other’s actions, both times weakly. When Vito returns from the war, Joe get him out of the service. Vito objects, saying that he will go to prison if caught. After Joe placates him, Vito never brings up the subject again, even after going to prison partly because he went AWOL.
The second is when he and Joe team up with Henry Tomasino after killing Alberto Clemente. Henry proposes the three go into the drugs business. Vito objects, saying,
Vito: “Drugs are bad. They kill people.”
On top of this, when swearing allegiance to the Cosa Nostra, Frank Vinci, one of the other bosses in the city, says,
Vinci: “Whatever you do gentlemen, stay away from the dope! No dope! That’s our policy.”
Yet, Vito goes along, swayed by the money Henry promises. He is greedy. When his house is burnt down by the Irish mob, Joe tries to console him with the fact that,
Joe: “…all that stuff that got burnt up, it’s just things Vito.”
However, Vito does not see it like that. He replies angrily,
Vito: “Just things? Hey, those were my things Joe. Why do you think I do the shit we do anyways? It’s to buy things, ya know, suits, cars, broads, houses.”
This thin motivation of material possessions is brought up again in Mafia III,
Lincoln: “Nobody forced you to get greedy. You could’ve sat back, been content, watched the money roll in. But no, that wasn’t enough.”
Once Vito is ‘made’, we get montages featuring him buying cars, a big house, and smart suits. Money seems to be Vito’s main motivating factor. (Source: tiltingatpixels.com).
So, other than a substitute family, it is a drive for the American Dream that pushes Vito forward. When thinking back on his arrival in Empire Bay, Vito remarks,
Vito: “Never in my life had I seen anything as fantastic as Empire Bay. It was beautiful…on the other hand, I’d never seen anything filthier or more disgusting than our new shithole of an apartment.”
He is always trying to better himself, motivated by an almost loathing of his parents for raising him in poverty. Maybe this is why Vito is notoriously work shy, throwing in the manual labour job at the port he gets at the beginning of the game, as it reminds him of his father. This aversion to the lower class is seen in dialogue with Joe near the beginning of the game.
Joe: “The working man is a sucker, that’s for damn sure.”
Vito: “You said it.”
And when talking to Joe after they exact revenge on the Irish mob for torching Vito’s house (therefore losing all of his accumulated wealth), Vito explains,
Vito: “I promised myself I’d never be poor again, end up a fucking wharf rat like my old man.”
Senior producer Denby Grace shed some light on Vito’s motivations during pre-release promotion of the game,
Grace: “He [Vito] just wants to get a bit of money, a bit of respect and a bit of power. Vito doesn’t aspire to be the Don.” (FAIR/PLAY, 2017).
Unlike Tommy who joined up for safety in the original Mafia, or Lincoln who was raised by the Black Mob in Mafia III, Vito just starts off as a delinquent and never wavers, even after a stint in prison.
The only acknowledgement that Vito wanted to be a gangster is an internal monologue during the scene where he becomes a made man.
Vito: “You might wonder why I’d take this risk again after spending almost seven years in the can. You see, where I grew up, the only guys who mattered were the ones who had the balls to take what they wanted…
…and after years of doing everybody else’s dirty work, I was willing to risk anything to finally be somebody.”
There is obviously a feeling that he always wanted to follow this path. In Mafia III, Vito’s death mission is literally called “I Deserved Better”. When he is beaten, Vito says,
Vito: “I gave up everything for this life. Everything! And look where I ended up!”
But Vito is wrong. He did not ‘give up’ everything. He lost everything. He lost his family, with his sister Frankie breaking ties with him. He lost his freedom when he went to jail. He lost his friend Joe and lost his way within the Cosa Nostra when he killed Carlo Falcone. As Tommy says in the epilogue of the original Mafia,
“…the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life might not get anything at all.”
Vito is at first sceptical of Lincoln’s help, fearing that he would be betrayed once again just like he was back in Empire Bay. (Source: pinterest.com)
Vito’s ‘death’ in Mafia III also sheds light on his character. If Lincoln kills the other two bosses, Cassandra and Burke, he is restrained and gentle in their final moments together. He sits with Burke while he drifts away, and returns Cassandra’s pendant with a picture of her dead daughter to her.
Vito is the only one that is holding a gun in his final cutscene, dropping it to the ground after realising it is empty. However, he pulls a switchblade out and rushes Lincoln, forcing the latter to shoot him dead. This can be seen as a continuation of his traits in Mafia II. As Vito says in his confrontation with Lincoln,
Vito: “There’s always been someone waitin’ to fuck me.”
The switchblade makes sense; he’s been around for too long and will take any chance he gets to bring some semblance of balance to his world. He’s turned grey with age and anger, only having dominion over a scrap of land given to him more out of loyalty than being an earner.
And once he is dead, his underboss Alma sadly refers to him as “a good little solider.” That is seemingly all he was, even after all this time.
Yet if he takes over when Lincoln leaves, Vito seemingly drags New Bordeaux out of dirt. Unlike Burke or Cassandra, Vito revitalises the city and lives into old age. He builds casinos, arenas, convention centres, turning the city into “the Las Vegas of the South” according to Jonathan Macguire. He finally ‘wins’. It is all material, nothing but bricks and mortar, but as mentioned previously, that is all Vito wants for.
Conclusion
As I said in the introduction, it is rare to find a character like Vito that develops with subsequent games. Even the other famous Italian gaming icon, (no, the OTHER one), Ezio Auditore, doesn’t change much over the thirty-five years we spend playing as him, only really changing in the first act of AC2 when his father and brothers are murdered. And that’s the main difference; Ezio starts with tragedy, Vito ends with it.
I think it is this beautifully melancholic arc, which is why Vito is so loved. Tommy in the original Mafia doesn’t get as much time to grow, and Lincoln is seemingly indifferent by the end of Mafia III. We see Vito through both the major moments and his everyday life, and it endears us to him.
Even now nearly a decade on, Vito and Joe’s story is fondly remembered by fans of the series. (Source: greghorrorshow.wordpress.com)
His nature as a protagonist also makes us look favorably on him. As an avatar, we have a slight bias towards him. I think a character, especially one in a story-driven game like this, digs into a psyche deeper than a general protagonist in an open-world crime sim.
Following on from that, the setting also helps aid our connection to Vito. For all the open-world games we have nowadays, there are very little that have a period setting. And while the original Mafia is a fun game, it is brutally unforgiving. There is an idolisation of the gangster trope, seen in Hollywood since the 30s. This was the intended goal by 2k Czech, as Cinematic Director Tomás Hrebícek said in an interview,
“We want to present the whole game in a Hollywood film like style…” (FAIR/PLAY, 2017).
Sat next to your best friend, both dressed in snazzy suits, wielding a classic Tommy gun, driving a sleek convertible, listening to classic rock-n-roll blaring out of the radio, it is hard not to see the draw. And being the guy we get to experience that with would make him stick in your mind.
And speaking of friends, what of Joe? Even when he kills innocent bystanders and causes havoc for Vito to clear up, it is never questioned, because of that bond. Joe is Vito’s friend, therefore by extension is ‘ours’. The company we keep can be just as enticing as the lead.
In the end I think I like Vito more in Mafia III. There is a history there that is interesting to ruminate on and more to play off. But the simple layers of Mafia II worked their magic, seeing this once promising young lad reach for the dream of something better, but lose everything in the process.
He may not have much to say, but he has a damn good story to tell. And a good story will be remembered and treasured.
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If you’ve enjoyed this post, then please have a look at my newest article, where I attempt to disprove the myth that Joe Barbaro is alive!
I recently finished Mafia III after a good few months playing it. It was one of the first games I got when I upgraded to the newest console generation and I was pretty much playing it non-stop, leaving other newer games by the wayside just to come back to this one again and again.
And after finishing the game I’m certain this will be among my favourite games I will play on this system.
Not since Remember Me has a whole game caught with me rather than just one or two good parts of it. So I thought a little breakdown about the points that hooked me into staying in New Bordeaux for much longer than I would ever imagine…
“We are a cruel and wicked people”– Why I love Mafia III
The Story and Characters.
The story is the high point of the game. Telling the story of bi-racial orphan and Vietnam veteran Lincoln Clay, the narrative is told in a documentary flashback format. Characters tell their story in interview format, evoking recent films like Precinct Seven Five.
This feeds into the linear game structure, as we are being told a story (much like the previous Mafia games) which helps keep the pace up which can sometimes suffer in a game where you can go anywhere, anytime.
Despite having this linear structure the multiple endings all fit the character depending on the player’s reading of Lincoln.
I was surprised we didn’t start in Vietnam, similar to Mafia II starting in WW2 Italy, but that added to the characters, leaving us open to interpret Lincoln actions in Vietnam from his and comrade Donavan’s stories.
The story is beautifully realised with several standout characters. We have the three main bosses, Burke, Cassandra, and Vito, each with their own unique quirks. Vito is especially interesting, it’s fun to see a once playable character from the other side (again), where his simple layers in Mafia II (due to being a playable character) become a lot greyer with age and antagonism.
The second-in-commands too are well defined and have some interesting layers to them, making them more than cardboard cut outs that sometimes arrive with games as big as this. Emmanuel, the once refugee-saver reduced to dope peddling, Alma, the businesswoman not afraid to use female charms for her own gain, and Nicki, a woman struggling with her sexuality in a time and place that does not care for it, they all add something to the game, all through optional dialogue (which I am a big fan of ever since I first encountered it in PoP 2008).
But highest praise must go to Alex Hernandez for his portrayal of Lincoln Clay. Convincingly switching from cocky and confident to anger, sadness, light-hearted and eventually bloodthirsty when the time comes, he is truly an asset to the game.
(From L to R) Father James, Sal Marcano, “Cassandra”, Lincoln Clay, Vito Scaletta, Thomas Burke and John Donavan, some of the most layered characters I’ve played alongside. (Source: mafiagame.fandom.com)
The Missions
One of the main criticisms of Mafia IIIis its mission structure. Very much like the first Assassin’s Creed, the game centers itself around taking down members of the Marcano crime family one district at a time.
Once you talk to a contact in the district you have several tasks dealt out to you, but these always follow the same path; kill some people, interrogate a member of the crime family or destroy their shipments. Once done then you can take over the rackets in that area before going after the main controller of the area.
This is just going to be one of those cases where I find enjoyment that others don’t. I think it might be because I really enjoyed the driving and combat (more on the latter next) so I had fun being given new scenarios lasting a few minutes to make my way through.
Hangar 13 said their approach to the missions, at least side missions, was “Lincoln doesn’t go fishing”. Essentially, this means the mission must make sense for the character to do (why does psychopathic murderer Michael De Santa do yoga in GTAV ?). This feeds back into the story, again, keeping the pace and flow up rather than bogging the game down.
The Marcano capo missions are fun due to their added story and setting with each one being a completely unique situation; a shootout on a sinking steamboat, sneaking into a swanky whites-only party, breaking up a KKK-inspired cross burning, the list goes on and on (all involving excellent and period-fitting musical accompaniment such as the Rolling Stones, Del Shannon, and Janis Joplin).
With missions in mob-enforced saunas, partially built casinos, supremacist rallies, burlesque houses and drug dens, Mafia III can at least boast of having some memorable places for action sequences. (Source: geforce.com)
While most devolve into shootouts the combat is so fun I never got bored. Speaking of which…
The Combat
I can’t actually remember how long it’s been to have a combat system this satisfying, but it was probably at least back on the PS2 (I’m going to have a wild guess and say 007: Everything Or Nothing).
It’s your standard shooting, melee, and stealth tri-factor, but each one is done so well.
The gunplay feels responsive and sounds meaty, with a vast array of weapons to choose from.
At the start I was on-the-fly, picking up weapons due to limited ammo. Then I specialized in a sawn-off shotgun and sniper for both range advantages, before coming round to silenced pistol and assault weapons for an action/stealth combination. This is a perfect distillation of Hangar 13’s motto, “Every player’s story is unique”, and can be seen in the multiple approaches to combat as well as hidden pathways through the missions.
The animations in combat as well are a nice detail. With lovely smooth transitions from running (where Lincoln holds the gun one handed), to aiming, to the short sidestep after stopping, the little points make the game feel rich and loved by the creators.
While the melee can become stale after the fiftieth whistle-come-stab, it does have moments of intense fun especially with the running takedowns. Only in a handful of games have I audibly “oohhhed” at the brutality I’ve dished out on NPCs (Sleeping Dogs is probably the main one), and Mafia III’s American Football-style takedowns are poetry in motion.
You can choose between lethal and non-lethal attack as well. Even if the change is hidden in the pause menu rather than switching in gameplay it’s nice that you at least have the option. Especially since most games just give you “kill” as a catch-all for their combat.
The feeling of combat is one of the better from an open world game, and has several variables and the opportunity to customise. (Source: geforce.com)
The Open World and Travel
The world of New Bordeaux is a lovely city to drive around in. The cars seem more arcade-y than the previous Mafia games (there is an option of a Simulation mode for purists in the option menu). Lincoln’s signature vehicle is a classic, wheel spinning, fire spitting, drifting muscle car, and sliding across three lanes of traffic or 180 hand brake turns are easy to pull off and create that sense of spectacle and wonder we want from games.
As usual in Mafia games the setting is an approximation of a real city (this one being New Orleans), but has enough of its own style to stand out rather than feel like a copy/paste of Google Maps. The South has been the setting before in games, with indie hits like Virginia being in, well…Virginia, Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1 in Georgia, GTA: Vice City in Vice City (a version of Miami) and Left 4 Dead 2 in a swathe of southern states.
I would say only the latter two come close to creating a sense of place as good as New Bordeaux with Vice City also having Haitian and Cuban influences (but better at creating a sense of time rather than place) and L4D2 having a wide range of locales like Mafia III (but most feeling more like shells rather than a fleshed-out world). Mafia III is the first one that actually feels like a living place with countless indoor locations, pedestrians, and drivers.
Talking of the variety of locations, Mafia III has a selection to rival most other open world games. With settings such as the bayou, junkyards, quarries, downtown areas, and its own version to the French Quarter, the city has a tremendous scope of backgrounds for Lincoln to dish out punishment on the Italian mob.
And despite having these completely distinct sections the map, New Bordeaux doesn’t feel disjointed when moving from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, which has happened within other open world titles focusing on rising criminal empires.
With customisable cars and easy inputs to pull of a variety of stunt-worthy moves, the driving is a wholly enjoyable experience. (Source: microsoft.com)
Conclusion
The interesting part about my time with Mafia III is I was completely sick of open world games when I started. I was sick of the endless stream of side missions, the “revealing” of the world through climbing towers, the largely meandering story that can sometimes come with having a sandbox as big as it can be.
I had been wanting a more refined experience and Mafia III delivered. That’s what sets it apart from its contemporaries; GTA has the bustling modern metropolis filled to the brim, AC has the historical fiction, Fallout has the nuclear dys/utopia, and The Witcher/Skyrimhave the magical fantasy. The Mafia series works because it has a focused central story that fires straight as an arrow carving out its niche in the market.
And that niche made me adore Mafia III. Add in a cracking sense of time and history, as well as vivid locations and brutal, satisfying combat sections, Mafia III is a gem in my game library.
TOM CLEMENT | GAME PRODUCER | NARRATIVE DESIGNER 