New Bordeaux, based on New Orleans, 1968 is not a place that I'm familiar with. There's no post-Katrina deluge of gray, or the dinky tunes of jazz playing in the background. There's little sign of the Marsalis family, or the presentation of a coastal city plagued by hurricanes. Instead it's the mafia who are the focus of New Bordeaux, presented among the background of history with the death of JFK, Martin Luther King, and the fallout of the Vietnam war setting the scene. Lincoln Clay rides around in his All American Samson Drifter rocking out to Steppenwolf, Johnny Cash, and Otis Redding as the mood strikes him taking out those who have wronged him in his revenge-fuelled rampage. It doesn't feel so much New Orleans during the late 60s but a statement about change in American culture, and how many people are still sorting out the aftermath.
Gameplay involves running and gunning, stealing items from the rival gangs, and forcibly taking over areas throughout New Bordeaux, in a similar fashion to Saints Row, or Far Cry 4's district allotment. The mission structure enables different sorts of presentations for the same sort of goals - you steal or destroy different items or men to force the current owner of the district to face you. The type of men and items change from district to district but largely operate in the same manner - cause as much ruckus as possible to fight the district owner and take over their land.
The contention of Mafia III can be summed up in its enemies ranging from Redneck racist hillbillies, to the 'old mob,' all who are convinced they need to combat change to keep abreast of all these equal rights. Such presentation places Lincoln as a force of change - not for African-American rights, but rather a host of different groups allowing for equality of all races, as well as equality for those with different sexuality, or nationality. Although definitely taking a back seat to the murder and mayhem approach of Lincolns revenge narrative the fact that such motivation exists at all is reassuring - if a bit safe from the developers. Considering the proliferation of Black Panther movement, segregation being forcibly disbanded, and the move against conscription more could be done to position Lincoln, the player-character as a motivator for change.
Instead such talk is regulated to the back-channels of talk-back radio (between the hard right position of Remy Duvall and the left of WNBX radio hosts), through conversations between NPCs (natural order being disrupted because of equal rights), or racial slurs leveled at Lincoln. The quest arc does portray this as a central issue in the construction of Lincoln's revenge narrative (the kindly mob boss, Sal Marcano, turns out to be somewhat racially motivated), or in the takeover of a KKK-esque area (the racket sells racist material, and African Americans for sadistic sport). However Lincoln as a character doesn't respond to this in any particular way, except to state that this type of stuff is racist (with a few more expletives) and that he'd like to continue his revenge narrative. Other characters such as Father James, Lincoln's adoptive father Sammy Robinson, to the Haitian under-boss Cassandra, all do more for civil rights than the player-character does. Lincoln aids them somewhat, but always under the pretense that it will serve as fuel for his revenge. This engagement works within the overall presentation of Mafia III, but feels strangely safe in a game that's already positioning itself as reflecting on change.
What's important to note here is that the reasons for why such racism exists, as well as the response from the player-character, doesn't seem to involve more than a one word action of violence. Player choice is more or less limited to choosing to save or kill informants and the occasional mob boss, but beyond this the response approaching towards anything regarding a civil issue seems to not exist at all. (Potentially the player could heavily side with providing the Haitian subgroup with the most territory, this does not seem to enable civil engagement so much as increase your financial abilities. Ironically the other subgroups will get annoyed for not having territory of their own and turn on you). Then again most games tend to present themselves in a progressive light - Bioshock: Infinite with it's presentation of Columbia as a heavily racist fictional town only uses it as a backdrop to gun fights - Mafia III is no different. It introduces some of these ideas and figures as something which players can follow up on. Although not quite as limiting as 'the press x to lay respects' of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, an opportunity for the player to do more or at least engage more with the discourse would be appreciated.
In this Mafia III does break away from the traditional presentation of the Mafia series, it doesn't appear to do much more for civil rights. Through referencing the location, time period, and characters of a tumultuous time Mafia III can make use of the progressive themes of that period to simultaneously appeal to an idea of civil progress, whilst at the same time not pushing the envelope of what should occur.
