Mafia Definitive Edition is a pretty straightforward and (mostly) simple Trophy/Achievement list to complete. There is a single Trophy/Achievement that will stand in the way of gamers looking for that Platinum/100%. Classic Difficulty. Being that this game is a remake, it comes updated for today’s standards of gaming, but it also comes with the difficulty level of the original Mafia. For those who don’t know, Classic Difficulty is very difficult.
Enemies can take a lot of damage, you can’t take very much damage at all, cops will be after you for any driving infractions they may see as you’re driving, health packs do not restore as much health and your aim can be very inaccurate. Some combat areas can be annoying, but they’re not impossible to get through. However, the one thing that’s going to stop most gamers here is the race. The infamous race in the chapter “Fair Play.” We’ll come back to that in a bit. It’s important to note that this must be completed in a new play-through. You cannot get this completed via chapter select.
Tips For Classic Difficulty
Before starting, turn “Drive Skip” on. On Classic, cops will come after you for even the slightest of issues while driving. With “Drive Skip” on, the game will allow you to press Down on the D-Pad to automatically skip any unnecessary driving sections. If a car chase is part of a story mission, you’ll still need to do that, but once you’ve lost the cops and your wanted level goes away, you’ll be able to skip the rest of that drive.
Obviously, higher difficulties mean less health for you and more for the enemies. You’re going to want to stick to cover at every possible second of a firefight. The enemies have pretty good aim here, so you’re going to want to pick your shots carefully. Your accuracy is pretty bad at long range on Classic, so try to only shoot at what you know you can hit. If you need to move up, be sure to sprint to the next area of cover.
One more thing you can do is to use the angles of walls to your advantage. If you’re familiar with the Uncharted games, you should already know what this means. Basically, you can stand at such an angle behind a corner where you can turn the camera to see the enemy, but they can’t see you. You can actually hit enemies with shots like this. Finally, aim for the head. Put them down as quickly as you can.
Ammo is not scarce, but you can run out if you’re not careful. Defeated enemies will drop ammo. Always pick it up after a firefight. Reloading on this difficulty will actually eat whatever ammo you have loaded, so don’t manually reload. Let’s say you have 4/7 rounds in your pistol. If you manually reload, the 4 you have loaded will be gone. It’ll then be 7/0. Just let the game auto reload your weapons. Also, make sure you’re picking up and switching weapons that enemies drop. Shotguns are great for one hit kills on enemies that are close to you. I found that the Tommy Gun was very effective in dealing with enemies at medium range. Aim assist can be turned on the menu if you need a little extra help.
You can still count on checkpoints. The missions themselves are not very long, but there are plenty of checkpoints to help get you through.
Below is a video playlist with all 20 Chapters featured.
The Infamous Race
The absolute hardest part of the game on Classic Difficulty will take place in Chapter 5, “Fair Play.” You must place 1st in order to advance the story. The difficulty here really comes from the handling of your car. It’s terrible. There are a few things you can do to help your chances, but there’s going to be some luck involved in your winning run. When heading into corners, slow down. Take your finger off the gas and don’t brake too hard. If you take the turns too fast or brake too hard, you’ll spin out. If that happens, just reload the checkpoint and start over.
As you’re going through the turns, tap X/A. This is used for ramming other cars. But in this race, it’s a slight movement, but it really helps to cut a turn and stay straight. If you’re coming out of a turn too wide, tap X/A before hitting the walls to get you back straight as well. One or two taps is all that is needed depending on your position or angle in a turn.
The only turn you can accelerate through is the last one that leads to the straightaway where the finish line is. It’s a wide and very high turn. Accelerate through this and down the straightaway. The other cars like to suddenly pass you after this turn, so stay in front of them to block them. You can swing the camera around to see what side they’re trying to pass on.
There’s really not a whole you can do here other than to play it repeatably to get a feel for each turn, the handling and controls. It’s very hard, but not impossible. If you can get through this race, then you can get through the rest of the game. Goodluck!
