Mafia Creator Daniel Vávra Talks About the Mafia Remake

Mafia: Definitive Edition has been released and Daniel Vávra, creator of the original game, has something to say about it. On Sunday, he gave an interview to Czech blogger Agraelus during a charity stream on Twitch.

Reddit user Ontyyyy has translated the key points of the broadcast, where Vávra spoke not only about the first Mafia, but also about its two sequels.

What Vávra liked

Vávra noted that he liked both the Czech and English voice acting, praising the director of it. Visuals such as the reconstruction of the city are amazing. According to Vávra, the developers of the Definitive Edition did good work on details. Such things as newspapers headlines, conversations in cars, and radio broadcasts create a stark picture of the Great Depression. Also, he likes that Sarah got more attention than in the original game.

What he disliked

First of all, Vávra dislikes cover-shooters, because it makes everything more passive. Vávra noted that in the original game, the developers were trying to structure the missions in a special way. The original missions might be longer and more complex, although there were just a few enemies and smaller locations.

He also criticized the “driving physics,” although developer Hangar 13 tried to imitate the original game. In the remake, according to Vávra, cars skid not because they are difficult to drive, but because they were made this way.

But Vávra was especially disappointed by changes in the dialogue that changed the moral of the story. As an example, he cited Sam’s dying words. However, Vávra admits that now he would rewrite the Mafia script himself.

About Mafia II and Mafia III

Creative disagreements about Mafia II and Mafia III caused Vávra to leave 2K Games. None of his script for the third part was used in the published Mafia 3 game. More than two years of work were thrown into the trash.

Initially, Vávra wanted to release Mafia II only on MS a couple of years after the first part, using the same technology, while Mafia III was to become the “big game” for the next generation.

You can check out the full stream here.