Home Xbox Game Pass just added a remaster of one of the best open-world adventures

Xbox Game Pass just added a remaster of one of the best open-world adventures

tl;dr

  • Mafia: Definitive Edition has been added to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
  • The game is a remaster of the 2002 original, featuring enhanced visuals and refined gameplay.
  • Other Game Pass updates include Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Valorant for consoles.

Mafia: Definitive Edition has been added to the monthly subscription service, Game Pass.

The original Mafia title was developed by Illusion Softworks in the heyday of the open-world gangster gaming surge of the early 2000s. Games like Grand Theft Auto, Sleeping Dogs, and Saints Row were all about taking the crime lifestyle and making a sandbox for gamers to explore alongside a narrative progression system.

Mafia: Definitive Edition comes to Game Pass

Mafia harkened back to the early 1930’s and focused on the Cosa Nostra, or the Italian crime syndicate heavily popularized in film and television. The game also coincided with the smash hit HBO series The Sopranos, which also explored similar themes of family, power struggles, and omerta, the the mafiosi’s code of silence.

James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano was an established Capo in contrast to Tommy Angelo’s lowborn taxi driver, but both did wonders at showing the eventual climb to the top of the gangland food chain.

The Mafia: Definitive Edition remaster was published in 2020 by Hangar 13, the same 2K Games studio that delivered the Mafia II and Mafia III in 2010 and 2016 respectively. Strangely enough, Mafia started its life on Windows and was an eventual port to console. This is a key part of the port and the work Hangar 13 has done to reimagine the classic in an incredibly polished light.

The fictional city of Lost Heaven provides this backdrop to the gangland crime saga amid the Great Depression, but it is nonetheless a fun battle to the top with tommy guns and finely tailored suits.

The remastered scenery of the classic cars, the rainy environments, and the Chicago-inspired architecture make for a worthwhile trip back in time. Those players picking up the game as part of the monthly subscription service can also grab Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Creatures of Ava, alongside Mafia: Definitive Edition.

Other monthly Game Pass updates include the console release of first-person-shooter Valorant, the DLC for No Man’s Sky, and Sea of Thieves: Season 13.

Image: Hangar 13

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Brian-Damien Morgan
Tech Journalist

Brian-Damien Morgan is an award-winning journalist and features writer. He was lucky enough to work in the print sector for many UK newspapers before embarking on a successful career as a digital broadcaster and specialist. His work has spanned the public and private media sectors of the United Kingdom for almost two decades. Since 2007, Brian has continued to add to a long list of publications and institutions, most notably as Editor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning multiple awards for his writing and digital broadcasting efforts. Brian would then go on to be integral to the Legacy 2014,…

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