After Shadow Warrior devs have recently shouted into the world how virtuous they are it seems something is brewing at the developers of Mafia: Definitive edition as well.
At first glance it doesn't seem as bad, but this is worrying:
Then, when we started looking at the next layer, that’s where we said we needed to take things up to modern standards. The way in which we tell the story, the quality of the cinematics, the representation of certain characters.
When a developer talks about "representation" or "inclusion" we can be sure they have the bug, and it's not the bearbug, but the wokebug.
They didn't reveal much detail about how they are going to change the narrative, apart from. Giving Tommy's wife Sarah a bigger role.
But looking at the extended gameplay trailer it already goes deeper than that. Paulie was one of the coolest characters in the original game, now he acts and speaks like a whiny coward. Plus he looks nothing like the original character. It makes no sense why they needed to make him so weak. And I wonder if any of the other male characters are getting the same treatment.
Plus there are other, uneccessary changes to the narrative. Like in the original game Tommy walks into the cafe and the detective is already waiting for him at the beginning of the game. In the remake it's the other way around. What's the point of that change? How does that add anything? It just reinforces my feeling that they are trying to subvert the original game, and not doing a faithful remake of it.
And then there is the driving model, which was the most awesome part of the original. When you played the game with a force feedback wheel and pedals, it was better than actual sims of the day. Will they implement wheel support in this? I doubt it when they make statements like this:
The driving model has also been updated to give players a lot more freedom – literally, as speed limits were enforced by the in-game police.
Translation: We dumbed it down for casuals. They do mention that the original driving model can be turned on optionally, but whether that includes wheel support remains to be seen, without that the driving model is worthless. Which was Mafia2's gravest mistake also. It had a good driving model, but no wheel support, and playing a game with accurate driving physics on a keyboard is near impossible.