When it comes to open-world games, I’m not ashamed to say that most of my time with the game is just mindlessly wondering its world and seeing what’s available for me. While I did play the original 2002 version of Mafia, I was too young to actually know how to play the story or what was being asked of me. What I do remember is just driving around. The streets were busy and driving from the city to the countryside blew my mind. I didn’t care about the objectives or killing my enemies. I only played it to explore and see something new. The OG game had a couple of free ride modes that would allow players to explore the world at their own pace. I’m happy to say that Mafia Definitive Edition will include these modes in one fully-realized one.

Lead Designer at Hangar 13, Ondřej Vévoda says "Free Ride is a bonus mode that we included as a nod to the original game," and "The basic idea is that Free Ride allows players to explore Lost Heaven freely without any mission objectives. It’s an opportunity to check out the beautiful vistas around the city, test drives the vehicles in your garage, find collectibles out in the world, and maybe uncover a few secrets."

What’s cool is the fact that you can unlock this mode upon completing the game’s first mission. Most titles don’t show all of their cards until you play a big portion of the story. I love seeing games being remade with the love and care that they truly deserve. We’ve seen lackluster remakes and those always disappear into the crowd compared to the ones made by people that have a passion and love for them.

Another aspect we may see in free ride mode is the implementation of the supernatural and weird stories that made their way into the original game. Vévoda stated that "After all the serious Mafia business of the main story, surreal challenges like shooting a sea monster or tailing an invisible man were a lot of fun and a great way to spend extra hours in the world once the story was complete." when asked if those would make their way into this version of the game he said, "All I can say is: The truth is out there, you'll have to see what secrets you can uncover for yourself in Free Ride when Mafia: Definitive Edition launches later this week”.

Touching on the PC specs for the game, they don’t seem too crazy. I have them below here and they can also be viewed on the game’s Steam page.

Minimum Specs

• OS – Windows 10 64-bit

• DirectX: Version 11

• Processor – Intel Core-i5 2550K 3.4GHz / AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz

• Memory – 6GB RAM

• Graphics card – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 / AMD Radeon HD 7870

• HDD – 50 GB

Recommended Specs

• OS – Windows 10 64-bit

• DirectX: Version 11

• Processor – Intel Core-i7 3770 3.4GHz / AMD FX-8350 4.2GHz

• Memory – 16GB RAM

• Graphics card – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 / AMD Radeon RX 5700

• HDD – 50 GB

Mafia Definitive Edition releases this week on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on September 25th.