L.H. Noire
Mafia starts with protagonist Tommy Angelo spilling his guts to a detective in a diner. It feels so wonderfully 1930s that it’s almost a crime the scene has any color. Mafia has a mood about it, and sometimes vibrant hues aren’t in service of the overall vibe.
That changes today as developer Hangar 13 has pushed an update to Mafia: Definitive Edition that adds a noir mode. Switching to noir mode simply turns the gameplay and cutscenes black-and-white. Just as Ghost of Tsushima paid homage to Kurosawa, Mafia will pay tribute to the likes of White Heat and Double Indemnity. It’s important to look up to someone.
This first update brings about a few other quality of life changes. There are new HUD options where you can switch the objective marker off, turn enemy markers off on the mini-map, turn in-world and mini-map navigation features off. There’s also a Minimal HUD option that hides pretty much every piece of guidance. Lastly, Hangar 13 added some content to the Free Ride mode but declined to detail what’s different. It seems as though some cars have new hidden features.
This free update is available now on all platforms. It doesn’t, however, address the impossibility of the big chapter 5 race on classic difficulty. That’s by design though because it’s meant to be frustrating just like in the 2002 game. Throwing it into noir mode will probably switch things up as you fail time and time again. Variety is the spice of life.
