A fantastic remake that stays true to the original while also modernizing and trimming the worst parts of it and adding more depth to the story and characters. Gone are the silent drives from point A to point B, now you have proper conversations that add more to the world and characters, or better yet you can skip the drives entirely if that is your thing. This game has a good balance of choices when it comes to difficulty, I recommend playing on the classic mode, so you can feel the frustration that I felt when playing the original way back when. The combat is one the biggest and best improvements upon the original, I felt that Hanger 13 never had issues on this front as Mafia 3's combat loop was very fun, and that transfers over here too. I genuinely felt like a badass in this game, but man did it feel like I was still scrambling to survive since I was playing on classic mode, which meant that you would typically go down in about 3-4 shots or 1 good headshot (be prepared to see the death screen a lot). There is a very basic melee system, it feels very last-gen, but it does get the job done, and I imagine that this game didn't have the craziest budget, so it is understandable why it is this way, and its still leaps and bounds better than what we had in the original. Now the best part of this remake and what was need the most for an almost 20 year old game, is the graphics. This game looks drop dead gorgeous at times, and its surprisingly a very well optimized game too, the best part of the graphics definitely has to be the lighting and the reflections.

Now it isn't a perfect remake, there are some downsides to this. The world interactivity is non-existent, like Mafia 3, you can not turn light switches on/off, flush the toilet, turn the sink on/off, etc. Which I felt has always been a big part of the Mafia's franchise identity, and is also severe downgrade in my opinion since in the original you were able to do this, and in fact the sequel, Mafia 2, improved upon the interactivity by letting you visit stores, eat at restaurants, get drunk, change your clothes, customize and upgrade your cars, the list goes on. The main character Tommy Angelo, also changed a little bit, in the original he was a lot more grounded, since he was just a measly taxi cab driver before he joined the family, he generally tended to be the moral compass for the family. In the remake, he is for the most part the same, but some of the new dialogue seemed very out of character and made him come off as a bit more hardened then he actually is despite not even being in the family when said dialogue was being spoken. But for the most part, and what anyone can hope in a remake of a beloved cult classic, is that is has no major glaring issues, fixes most of the major turn off's from the original, runs completely fine, and has a very fun and satisfying combat loop.

Overall: 8/10 The epilogue scene Joe is dummy thicc

This what I imagined a John Wick game would be if it was actually good and well executed