History YMMV / MafiaIII

** Oddly, the Southern Union. Fighting TheKlan has proven one of the most popular elements of the game and they're a group that only shows up in one area. A DownplayedTrope as the Dixie Mob occupies most of their role in poorer areas. Still, many fans would have loved a whole game about fighting them and Remy Duvall.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: The game's main selling point. Lincoln is a [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veteran]] with a stick up his ass, a bullet drilled into his head, and an explicit desire to make Sal Marcano suffer like hell. How does he take away Sal's brother? ''By sabotaging a ferry full of upper-class fundraising a corrupt politician, who is set on fire''. ''And then it explodes, killing everyone but Lincoln''. Every execution is in some way excessively violent, and every mini-boss uses some form of chaos and excessive violence. The entire narrative is about interrogating Lincoln's minions after he single-handedly ''destroyed New Bordeaux''.

** The re-release of ''Mafia III'' as the ''Definitive Edition'' in 2020 comes during a time of Civil Rights protests, protests against PoliceBrutality, and a backlash against white nationalism (particularly Neo-Confederate).

* PortingDisaster: Basically sums up the PC version, as the developers made the decision to lock the frame rate to 30 fps, citing consistency with all platforms as a reason. Naturally, this doesn't bode well with PC gamer crowd as they expected the game to be more feature-filled than the console releases. Though complaints did die down after the 60 FPS patch came out.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: An early one comes up in-universe with Lincoln Clay thinking of his adoptive father Sammie as a shrewd businessman, honorable man, and pillar of the community. Cassandra, by contrast, considers him a weak brownoser who was nothing more than Sal Marcano's puppet.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Why is it just the same stuff over and over? It gives you a set of tasks you complete them and then they reskin it and give you a slightly bigger achievement each time.

* UnfortunateImplications: Zig-zagged at best; During private preview events gaming press were shown a tool Lincoln Clay can use against enemies, a Voodoo doll. As an object based in stereotypical images of Voodoo and conjuring Black tribal savage imagery, it's not a good look. The devs tried to work around this by explaining that Lincoln is a psychological warfare specialist and while he doesn't believe in Voodoo, the Italian mobsters he's fighting are superstitious enough to react to a Voodoo doll fearfully. [[http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/the-giant-beastcast-episode-64/1600-1693/ While discussing their respective preview events]] Vice Gaming's EIC Austin Walker--who is Black--thought the justification was still pretty flimsy and problematic while Italian-American Vinny Caravella of [[Podcast/GiantBomb Giant Bomb]] summed up having the explanation told to him during his previewing as "they pulled back that punch and elbowed me right in the face."

* UnfortunateImplications: Zig-zagged at best; During private preview events gaming press were shown a tool Lincoln Clay can use against enemies, a Voodoo doll. As an object based in stereotypical images of Voodoo and conjuring Black tribal savage imagery, it's not a good look. The devs tried to work around this by explaining that Lincoln is a psychological warfare specialist and while he doesn't believe in Voodoo, the Italian mobsters he's fighting are superstitious enough to react to a Voodoo doll fearfully. [[http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/the-giant-beastcast-episode-64/1600-1693/ While discussing their respective preview events]] Vice Gaming's EIC Austin Walker--who is Black--thought the justification was still pretty flimsy and problematic while Italian-American Vinny Caravella of [[Podcast/GiantBomb Giant Bomb]] summed up having the explanation told to him during his previewing as "they pulled back that punch and elbowed me right in the face."

** Further analysis shows that the game also upscales from 720p regardless of how powerful your hardware is, resulting in blurriness even if one turns anti-aliasing off ([[UpToEleven even despite also seeing jagged pixels]]). What makes this stand out is that the Xbox One version of the game does the same thing, while the Playstation 4 version upscales from 900p, meaning the Playstation version technically looks cleaner than both the Xbox and PC versions. Furthermore, button prompts involving keyboard and mouse are prone to be glitchy for abnormal reasons, and switching an input for control seems to ''crash the game when it's pressed.'' Which is bad considering it's not exactly a perfect control setup, what with Left Alt being your counter button and all.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A common complaint about the game is that while Marcano is a racist backstabber who gets what's coming to him, Lincoln ends up being no better than him or any of his cronies during his CycleOfRevenge. For example, he ends up killing several people who had very little to do with the murder of his family, such as [[spoiler:Frank Pagani, and several people onboard Lou's boat]] and turns New Bordeaux into a war-ground, which causes Father James to [[spoiler:realize he is no better than Marcano and kill him should Lincoln kill his three cronies.]] In addition, Burke and Cassandra fair no better, being greedy jerks [[spoiler:who end up up destroying New Bordeaux if Lincoln leaves most of New Bordeaux to either]].

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: The game's plot is about acquiring territory for your gang with a RagtagBandOfMisfits associates. This is a concept which has been done in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', the ''VideoGames/SaintsRow'' series, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'', and plenty of other titles. Aside from its setting and focus on racism, the game doesn't arguably distinguish itself very well from other titles of its nature.

** The Dixie Mafia's racism and criminal activity is serious, but when even the city located brothel security staff wears overalls it's kind of taken too far the redneck stereotype.

** Lincoln himself can cross this by [[spoiler:killing his underbosses so he have complete control over New Bordeaux's criminal underworld]]. Notably, if he does this, Father James realizes he's no better than Sal Marcano, possibly worse, and [[spoiler:has him killed with a car bomb]]. And that's not considering how many civilians the player has killed by now, mostly for kicks.

** While it's a nice AntiFrustrationFeature, the fact that traffic violations don't get Lincoln in trouble in a town full of racist cops is a bit jarring. Walking into a white-only bar is apparently a worse crime than driving 100mph on the opposite lane.

** While the sandbox element of the game is widely applauded, many people either feel that it isn't used to its full potential, as you can't buy anything from stores or do side activities, or that the linear elements of the previous games suit the series better.

* EarWorm: In addition to all the licensed music, the dueling banjos jingle for the "Native Son" radio show is disturbingly catchy.

** [[PompousPoliticalPundit Remy Duvall]] is a BlueBlood of New Bordeaux, and the host of its widely popular "Native Son" radio broadcast. On the air, he presents himself with a [[SouthernGentleman folksy, gentlemanly demeanor]] while he espouses white, Christian values. In private, he's the militant leader of the Southern Union, a white supremacist group, and in league with the Marcano Crime Family. Under his leadership, Duvall's group beats and murders blacks, helps the Marcanos in their PCP operation, and, vilest of all, [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil literally sells blacks into slavery]] for wealthy whites, a crime that disgusts even other mobsters. After Lincoln Clay dismantles his operations, Duvall gathers his followers with the intention of leading a manhunt for Lincoln, which involves marching them to Delray Hollow and burning it to the ground in revenge. Though Duvall claims to love his city and want to protect it, he's ultimately a self-serving hypocrite who thinks the city belongs to him and only cares about Christian whites, and he's even willing to harm them through his drug dealing and criminal activities if [[ItsAllAboutMe it will benefit himself]].

* CompleteMonster:
** [[CorruptHick Ritchie Doucet]] is the leader of the Dixie Mafia and manages to be a fairly reprehensible individual despite only being the game's StarterVillain. Doucet's first shown participating in the betrayal and destruction of the Black Mob, where he personally stabs Ellis, Lincoln's younger brother, to death. As a reward for his help, Doucet is given control over Delray Hollow by [[BigBad Sal Marcano]], and starts running heroin and prostitution rackets. His prostitution racket is revealed to be comprised of black women whom he's had [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil abducted, addicted to heroin, then forced into sexual slavery to service white patrons]].
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Remy Duvall]] is a BlueBlood of New Bordeaux, and the host of its widely popular "Native Son" radio broadcast. On the air, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity he presents himself]] with a [[SouthernGentleman folksy, gentlemanly demeanor]] while he espouses white, Christian values. In private, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain he's the militant leader of the Southern Union]], a white supremacist group identical to TheKlan, and in league with the [[TheMafia Marcano Crime Family]] (though his opinion of them is only slightly higher, as he occasionally refers to them by Italian slurs such as "wop" and "guinea"). Under his leadership, Duvall's group beats and murders blacks, helps the Marcanos in their PCP operation, and, vilest of all, [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil literally sells blacks into slavery]] for wealthy whites, a crime that [[EvenEvilHasStandards disgusts even other mobsters]]. It is later revealed by Donovan that Remy took part in the murder of four civil rights workers three years before the events of the game, in which one of them was decapitated (with her head never being found). After [[PlayerCharacter Lincoln Clay]] dismantles his operations, Duvall gathers his followers with the intention of leading a manhunt for Lincoln, which involves marching them to Delray Hollow and burning it to the ground in revenge. Though he claims to love his city and want to protect it, Duvall is ultimately a self-serving hypocrite who thinks the city belongs to him and [[MoralMyopia only cares]] about [[AngryWhiteMan Christian whites]], and he's even willing to harm them through his drug dealing and criminal activities if [[ItsAllAboutMe it will benefit himself]].
** ''Faster, Baby!'' {{DLC}}: [[DirtyCop Sheriff]] Walter "[[BigBad Slim]]" [[CorruptHick Beaumont]], the vicious, ruthless and racist sheriff of Sinclair Parish who seeks to maintain power and to [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain make sure the town has an all-white influence]], does so by [[KillerCop murdering black citizens]] after sundown. He also works with the Southern Union, letting them loose on Sinclair Parish, using additional murder and intimidation to keep its citizens in check. When a movement starts to expose his crimes and bring him to justice, he murders Ezekiel Dandridge, and steals the written testimonies gathered against him. By the time Lincoln and Roxy arrive in Sinclair Parish, Beaumont is already targeting the citizens that are testifying against him. When Lincoln and Roxy put a stop to his plans, he has Lincoln abducted and prepares to leave him to the Southern Union, taking the time to [[EvilGloating gloat]] to him. After his arrest, Lincoln dismantles the last of Beaumont's operations to get more people to testify. Beaumont then agrees to testify against his accomplices in the Southern Union and police department, if only to get a lighter sentence.

* AccidentalInnuendo: One of the potential lines Lincoln may yell upon "hiring" a new informant is "Your ass is mine!".

* InternetBackdraft:
** In two respects. First, after the game was announced, a group of white supremacists began raiding the game's Steam forums to complain about the game having a non-white protagonist and using lots of racial slurs. Second, naturally this lead to a lot of backlash back at said supremacists, who were accused of being "nothing but a bunch of racist idiots."
** Post release there was the backlash from PC gamers upon the announcement that the game would be locked to 30 frames per second to maintain consistency across all platforms, which was only compounded by the discovery the graphics were also upscaled from 720p (an anemic 1280x720 true resolution) rather than being rendered in true 1080p, QHD, or 4K.

* CatharsisFactor: Many people take the opportunity at the [[TheKlan Southern Union]] rally to not only kill Duvall and the armed guards, but also every unarmed person in a white robe.

* CounterpartComparison:
** A Vietnam veteran who returns from the war only to get his family massacred by TheMafia, triggering his RoaringRampageOfRevenge? Are we talking about Lincoln Clay or [[Literature/TheExecutioner Mack Bolan]]? Or [[ComicBook/ThePunisher Frank Castle]]?
** Lincoln Clay also shares a resemblance to Frank Lucas, the VillainProtagonist of the movie ''Film/AmericanGangster''.
** Vito Scaletta has been compared to [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Michael De Santa]]. Like him, Vito is a career criminal in his 40s forming a criminal team with other associates.
** Thomas Burke is an even more violent version of [[VideoGame/MafiaII Joe Barbaro]]. Notice his hawaiian shirt, [[TheAlcoholic alcohol abuse]] and HairTriggerTemper. Given his AxCrazy behavior, he has shades of [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Trevor Philips]] as well.