When you think of the mafia, images of Al Capone and The Godfather usually run through your mind. Unsurprisingly, these are the types of gangsters that 2K Games brought with 2002's Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and the 2010 sequel Mafia II. However, the new reveal trailer for Mafia III released at Gamescom 2015 Wednesday shows that 2K Games will be going in a completely new direction for this new installment in the franchise, which is exactly what it needed.
Mafia III is set in 1968 New Orleans. The game's main protagonist is a man named Lincoln Clay, a biracial Vietnam veteran, which is important to note because the South is still a hotbed of racial prejudice at this time, and all he has ever wanted is to belong. This motivates his decision to become a part of organized crime so that he can finally have a family.
The new reveal trailer for Mafia III opens with Lincoln driving alone at night on a swampy road along the Louisiana bayou, his dog tags hanging from the rearview mirror and Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" playing on the radio. We soon learn that Lincoln was an orphan and fought in the Vietnam War before getting involved in some trouble upon his return home.
It's revealed that Lincoln has been speaking to a man beaten, bound and gagged in the backseat of his car this whole time. Lincoln pulls over at a swamp, and you can probably guess what happens to the man next. We get a glimpse of the rest of the family as The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" plays us out.
Last week, it was revealed that 2K Games would officially announce Mafia III at Gamescom, and the reveal trailer for this long-awaited follow-up doesn't disappoint. It looks like this game is going to be extremely gritty, nuanced and breathe some much-needed new life into an already well-trodden genre.
Mafia III will be released in 2016. You can watch the game's full reveal trailer below.
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