History VideoGame / MafiaIII

* TokenGoodCop: While most of the New Bordeaux Police Department is [[DirtyCop) in the pocket of Sal Marcano (to the point of actively protecting Marcano properties), not to mention being [[RabidCop heavy-handed]] and [[BigotWithABadge thoroughly racist]], Detective "Big Jim" [=McCormick=] is an exception. He's a dedicated, honest, cordial and notably not racist individual, who is sincerely disgusted the damage that [[MadDoctor Doc Gaston's]] drug ring is doing to the French Quarter. Given that the NBPD's corruption has caused all his efforts to bring Gaston down to fail, he's willing to [[EnemyMine accept Lincoln Clay's help]] to get rid of the drug dealers.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Slavers are portrayed as the scum of the earth even compared to the other criminals in the game. Lincoln is a violent and ruthless WellIntentionedExtremist at best and a self-serving rat-bastard at worst, but one thing he absolutely ''despises'' no matter how he gets played is slavery. As such, no matter if their districts are wiretapped, you can't recruit Merle "Trigger" Jackson from the Dixie Mafia or Chester Moreau from the Southern Union, as they are respectively behind drugging Black women and turning them into sex slaves or [[spoiler:running an actual human trafficking operation.]] Lincoln will just kill the [[AssholeVictim little parasites]] the second he gets his hands on them.

* VillainousBreakdown: Remy Duvall will have one on the radio just after you've shattered most of his criminal enterprise.

** The rank-and-file working class soldiers of the Southern Union hates their rich, upper class superiors. You can even overhear one of them talking about how "the only thing worse than a nigger is a rich white man putting on airs" and says that once they're done with the black citizens, he wouldnt mind going after the rich white ones next.

** This can also happen if you don't divide territory and rackets fairly between your lieutenants. Depriving one too much will cause them to turn on you. This seems to happen if a lieutenant doesn't receive territory after 4 consecutive district takeovers, in addition they don't like having territory you already gave them taken away and increasing their earn via side quests seems to increase their tolerance.

** This can also happen if you don't divide territory and rackets fairly between your lieutenants. Depriving one too much will cause them to turn on you. This seems to happen if a lieutenant doesn't receive territory after 4 consecutive district takeovers.

** During the scene where Vito tortures and then murders Michael Grecco, one can hear [[Music/RoyOrbison Running Scared]], an operatic power ballad, play in the background.

* ReplacementGoldfish: During the opening heist mission, Lincoln recalls a rather harrowing story about a Vietnamese mother who carried both her baby and a live pig on a leash as she was about to board a medical ship during a civilian evacuation in Quảng Ngãi. The MP told the mother she could only carry one thing onboard, so she tossed the baby into the water, much to the shock of the MP who ordered someone to retrieve the helpless child and berated the woman for (possibly) killing her offspring. The woman scoffs it off, saying she could always have another baby anyway.

* RealIsBrown: The shading is dominantly brown, as if trying to evoke movies or tv shows of the era, in stark contrast of the predecessors.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Slavers are portrayed as the scum of the earth even compared to the other criminals in the game. Lincoln is a violent and ruthless WellIntentionedExtremist at best and a self-serving rat-bastard at worst, but one thing he absolutely ''despises'' no matter how he gets played is slavery.

** In the ''Sign of the Times'' DLC, the otherwise empathetic and ActualPacifist Father James gives Lincoln his blessing to [[KillThemAll wipe out the Ensanglante]] [[spoiler:after Anna's suicide and learning of what drove her to that point]].

** The sneaky approach can trivialize a lot of the game due to the poor field of vision of the AI, making it easy for the player to have Lincoln hiding in a door way or behind a corner and use the whistling distraction to lure them in one by one and then picking them off before they ever realize what's going on. To counter this, attack on police automatically triggers a search even if the same trick works on mafia enemies.

** Marcano's outfit seems to be a deconstruction. They worked with the Irish and Black Mobs when it suited them, then tossed them aside in favory of allying with white supremacist groups like the Southern Union and Dixie Mob. Note that they don't seem get along with them well (Remy Duvall calls Sal a "greasy wop" and Sal was just using him to ahold of some land contracts). They also deal with Cuban communists, but talk in private about how much they hate them. They're equal-opportunists not because they welcome everyone, but because they're willing to ''use'' everyone.

* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Generally averted. The reports heard on the radio are generally news-worthy, including actual events from 1968 such as TheTroubles and TheVietnamWar. Meanwhile, though Lincoln Clay is never mentioned by name in the broadcasts, even his more discreet actions leave enough damage that they make headlines anyway.

* StepfordSuburbia: Frisco Fields is New Bordeaux's nice little slice of upper-middle class, white flight suburbia. The housewives have gotten themselves addicted to a 'weight-loss supplement' that turns out to be PCP, while their husbands support the [[TheKlan Southern Union]].

** If Burke is left in charge of New Bordeaux, [[spoiler:his violent temper prompts him to start gang war after gang war. He survives until 1984, when he is finally assassinated, but he ends up leaving behind a power vacuum which leads to a never ending gang violence in New Bordeaux, since no criminal organization can sustain dominance for long]].

* DownerEnding: If Cassandra is left in charge of New Bordeaux, [[spoiler:her SuicidalOverconfidence sets in and no one takes her claim seriously because she's both black and a woman. So, dozens of gangs from across the South try to take the city from her. She manages to butcher and defeat them all, but this draws the attention of the State government, which tries to put her down. She eventually assassinates the Governor after he declares martial law, causing the government to cut off most federal aid to the city, causing it to be devastated when a hurricane hits. In the aftermath, Cassandra's ultimate fate is unknown; while many believe she was amongst the casualties of the hurricane, rumors still persist that she in secret rules the scattered remains of the former city's underworld from somewhere out in the bayou]].

** The Southern Union, curiously enough. Much of the game's advertisement and magazine coverage has mentioned Lincoln fighting both TheMafia as well as TheKlan. In fact, [[TheKlan the Southern Union]] is only one gang in one district.

** If Cassandra is left in charge of New Bordeaux, [[spoiler:no one takes her claim seriously because she's both black and a woman, so dozens of gangs from across the South try to take the city from her. She manages to butcher and defeat them all, but this draws the attention of the State government, which tries to put her down. She eventually assassinates the Governor after he declares martial law, causing the government to cut off most federal aid to the city, causing it to be devastated when a hurricane hits. In the aftermath, Cassandra's ultimate fate is unknown; while many believe she was amongst the casualties of the hurricane, rumors still persist that she in secret rules the scattered remains of the former city's underworld from somewhere out in the bayou]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: No matter which path you choose in the end, you end up with one of these. If Lincoln decides to stay, he becomes a crime lord and either rules the underworld with his remaining lieutenant(s) (Burke, Vito, and Cassandra, minus any who defected due to not receiving enough rackets), becoming rich and powerful, but [[FullCircleRevolution just as bad]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters as Marcano had been]] or he decides to kill them and dies of a car bomb courtesy of Father James. If he decides to leave, he disappears from history, and heads to California where he makes a good try at going straight, but eventually returns to a life of crime, spending the next few decades as a vagabond all over America. Either way, Father James gives a sad, depressed confessional about Lincoln's fate (though he's slightly more optimistic if Lincoln leaves town, reasoning that his choice to walk away from money and power proves that there was still some good left in him).]]

** If Vito is left in charge of New Bordeaux, [[spoiler:he manages to successfully fulfil Sal Marcano's dream of legalizing gambling in the state of Louisiana before transforming New Bordeaux into the Las Vegas of the East. The epilogue shows that he's still alive as of now]].

* CrapsaccharineWorld: New Bordeaux is this for its citizens. While publicly a lovely and thriving city, the racial tensions are boiling to explosive levels. Police corruption and brutality is rampant as well. This is TruthInTelevision for many American cities of the time period but it gets worse due to the fact the city is run by a mixture of TheMafia and TheKlan with Lincoln Clay willing to inflict extreme collateral damage to remove both. Things can get [[AWorldHalfFull better]] or [[FromBadToWorse worse]] depending on the player's decision.

** The Southern Union itself plays this straight. Even compared to the similarly bigoted and trashy Dixie Mob, it has very little scruples about lynching minorities, harassing anyone deemed an enemy to the white man, and even holding ''[[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave auctions]]''.

** Subverted with Sinclair Parish in the ''Faster, Baby!'' DLC. At a glance, it's a "sundown country" where Jim Crow is still king and is lorded over by bigoted cops and the Southern Union, so you half-expect the whole area to be filled with backwood hicks ready to lynch at a moment's notice. Except that the townspeople at large are generally decent folks, while Sheriff Beaumont's efforts to keep the parish white are ironically turning them against those very policies.
** The Southern Union itself plays this straight. Even compared to the similarly bigoted and trashy Dixie Mob, it has very little scruples about lynching minorities, harassing anyone deemed an enemy to the white man, and even hold ''[[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave auctions]]''.

* HillbillyHorrors: Subverted with Sinclair Parish in ''Faster, Baby!'' At a glance, it's a "sundown country" where Jim Crow is still king and is lorded over by bigoted cops and the Southern Union, so you half-expect the whole area to be filled with backwood hicks ready to lynch at a moment's notice. Except that the townspeople at large are generally decent folks, while Sheriff Beaumont's efforts are ironically driving

** The [[DownloadableContent mission set "Faster Baby"]] has Lincoln help out a Black Panther like organization trying to file a federal Civil Rights case against [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Sherif Walter "Slim" Beaumont]] of Sinclair Parish, just outside New Bordeaux, and whose deputies gleefully enforce the Sheriff's unofficial "Sundown Policy," which states that any non-white that hasn't vacated the "Whites Only Parish" by sundown [[UnPerson will never be seen or heard from ever again.]] To take down Sheriff Beaumont, Lincoln partners up with [[AfroAssKicker Roxy Laveau, a fast talking ass kicking activist.]] For better effect, play these missions with Lincoln wearing the "Revolutionary" outfit which has him sporting a bald head, as well as a Black Panther style outfit.

* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Played straight with Giorgi, but averted with his father, who wants to go legit with his casino because he's spent a lifetime in the mafia, and the paranoia and violence is quite literally killing him. He mentions in one cutscene that he hasn't had a decent nights sleep in 40 years.
** Averted with Lincoln Clay himself, who is totally focused on his revenge scheme and never gets to enjoy the benefits of being one of the most powerful mob bosses in the city (before becoming THE mob boss of the city). He lives in purely functional safe houses, dresses in his military fatigues, and generally avoids anything resembling fun.