The original Mafia game, released in 2002, is a legendary game that received a remake in 2020 as Mafia: Definitive Edition. This study aims to analyze the main differences in gameplay between the two versions, focusing on the first mission called "An Offer You Can't Refuse".

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the 18-year difference in game design and assess how challenging it is to satisfy both players who have played the original game and new players born around the time of its release.

The mission involves driving a taxi on a night in the autumn of 1930 as the main character, Tommy Angelo. The objective is to drive Sam and Paulie away from their tail and then take them to Salieri's Bar.

In conclusion, this study will explore the changes made to the mission design and gameplay mechanics between the original Mafia and the Definitive Edition.

Due to the speed of the player's car, they are challenged to come up with other possible solutions. Players must exploit the game environment to outsmart their opponents, as pushing them to the wall often does not work since opponent's car is stronger. It is worth noting that the remastered version added multiple tail cars, rather than just one.

In the Definitive Edition, the player's main weapon are checkpoints on the map that trigger scripted cutscenes in which one of the enemy cars is destroyed. The player cannot influence anything during these cutscenes, and can even reach the checkpoint at a slow speed to trigger the high-speed chase cutscene. This approach is similar to the gameplay in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005).

The original game design not only required players to complete objectives but also encouraged them to develop skills that could be used in later missions.

However, the remake penalizes players for using game mechanics and skill to their advantage. If a player's driving is too good, the tail will be teleported closer to them, forcing them to use checkpoint mechanics.

Nevertheless, players can still outplay this mechanic by strategically blocking the tail car and allowing their passenger to destroy their car.

While the remake also uses this first mission to teach players key mechanics, the experiences gained from the original game's mission are more valuable and applicable later in the game.

After escaping the tail car(s), your next goal is to drive to Salieri's Bar. In the original game, this part of the mission was still challenging. Your time was limited, and you only had a compass with a general direction to follow. Additionally, there was a possibility that your car could be damaged or running out of gas.

In contrast, the remake provides a GPS-style road without a time limit.

The difference in navigation mechanics between the original and the remake could be attributed to the technical limitations of the original game. It made sense for a taxi driver like Tommy to know every street in the city and be able to drive to the bar without any problems, whereas the addition of a map with GPS navigation made sense for the remake.

To compare these two adaptations, we have to analyze their core mechanics. The original game is a puzzle of escaping in an environment that can be used to your advantage. On the other hand, the newer adaptation is mostly focused on driving through specific points in the environment.

The difficulty of the original game comes from the challenge of escaping from one hard-to-defeat enemy, while the remastered version distributes the challenge among multiple weaker enemies.

It is hard to say which approach to the game is better. We have to understand the difference between gamers then and gamers now. The original game could be too frustrating, forcing players to overcome more than just the core challenge mechanic. However, in my opinion, the approach in the remaster is somewhat lazy from a game design point of view.

The original game allowed free reign to players to overcome and exploit game mechanics, leading to more fun and a sense of reward [1]. That is the main reason why I think that having one strong enemy and using the environment to defeat it should have been kept in the remaster version of the game.

On the other hand, mechanics that involve the timer and orientation via the compass can be removed to make the game more user-friendly for gamers nowadays.

Note: I have tested this mission on the hardest difficulty. For better scaling to newer or more casual players, the mission can be even easier on lower difficulties.