Mafia III Could Have Had An Even More Disturbing And Brutal Opening
The Mafia series is fairly well known for its openness on subjects such as racism and war. The game featured some fairly brutal cutscenes and animations which at times could have been perceived as overwhelming in its glory. However even with its mature rating and strong portrayal of 1968, the developers of Mafia III felt it necessary to not only scrap a scene from the game but to completely destroy it altogether.
The opening for the game features some pretty disturbing content however while in a recent interview, Executive Producer Andrew Wilson revealed that there was almost an even more messed up opening scene, one that was so shocking and controversial that it had to be completely destroyed.”
That whole cold-open has been burned from our servers. It literally does not exist. Because if ever that had come out without any context in any form it would have looked terrible, because disconnected from the game it’s obviously even more shocking. We went back at the eleventh hour and added a cold-open to the game that was a really violent prologue which basically shows Lincoln and a couple of his friends getting ambushed by the mob. It’s super-violent and Lincoln has to resort to violence to escape. This cold-open was going to explain why he left for Vietnam. He ends up killing a cop and has to flee to Vietnam.”
Leaving out many of the more telling details, Wilson explained that much of the issue with the destroyed opening sequence lay with it feeling isolated and removed from the rest of the game. Like the rest of the title, the developers didn’t want to show off this level of violence just for violence’s sake. Rather than exploiting the scene for it’s shock value alone, the team ultimately removed the scene entirely.
Lincoln never really talks about it. I think we added one scene where he has a conversation with this Priest, Father James, and they talk about it a little bit, but we never really paid off on it. There were characters involved in it who he encounters later but doesn’t really acknowledge. It felt exploitative instead of something that really grabbed you and put you in Lincoln’s shoes and made you afraid for him and want to help him, so we ended up cutting it because of the feedback.”
Now knowing that there was a scene like this out there at one point, it’s hard not to be curious.. Still, Mafia III provided fans with plenty of scenes that made the player feel uneasy or shocked.
Mafia III is available PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Let us know your thoughts on the lost, brutal opening scene from Mafia III and more in the comments section below. As always, don’t forget to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter 24/7 coverage of all things gaming and entertainment.
Chris Calles1560 Posts
Known as "Stash" or Yippee Calles. He's a student of everything, avid adrenaline junkie, and creator of random things. When he's not delving into a game, book, or movie - He's out teaching himself new things or taking part in some pretty epic adventures. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.
