OG Mafia is superior to the Definitive Edition remake.

The original game is a janky, beautiful, challenging masterpiece with missions comprised of memorable, engaging setpieces that you are left to your own devices to explore. You're usually fighting for your life against a small handful of deadly foes. A lot of these levels feel like an emergent sandbox where you truly have numerous options. In the remake the levels are reduced to a generic extremely linear cover shooter where you're blasting literally hundreds of dudes often with scripted bombastic explosions. Many sequences were converted into cutscenes. Now instead of being a clumsy everyman with an evasive roll that feels like an act of desperation you play as a super soldier that can instantly zoop all over the place between cover and land a hundred headshots. Sure the remake looks better and is more detailed but these improvements are very superficial. It feels more like a distant interpretation of the original game akin to viewing in a museum setting. Play the original for a special, unique, definitive experience of Mafia. Sure its jankier and harder, but there is so much beauty within that friction.

OG Mafia is superior to the Definitive Edition remake. The original game is a janky, beautiful, challenging masterpiece with missions comprised of memorable, engaging setpieces that you are left to your own devices to explore. You're usually fighting for your life against a small handful of deadly foes. A lot of these levels feel like an emergent sandbox where you truly have numerous options. In the remake the levels are reduced to a generic extremely linear cover shooter where you're blasting literally hundreds of dudes often with scripted bombastic explosions. Many sequences were converted into cutscenes. Now instead of being a clumsy everyman with an evasive roll that feels like an act of desperation you play as a super soldier that can instantly zoop all over the place between cover and land a hundred headshots. Sure the remake looks better and is more detailed but these improvements are very superficial. It feels more like a distant interpretation of the original game akin to viewing in a museum setting. Play the original for a special, unique, definitive experience of Mafia. Sure its jankier and harder, but there is so much beauty within that friction.