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Game vs game · side by side

Mafia II (Classic) vs Mafia III

Mafia II (Classic) is an open-world racing game from 2K Czech (2011) while Mafia III is an action-adventure FPS game from Aspyr (2016).

Mafia II (Classic)

2011 · 2K Czech

8.1GamingPickz Score

$29.99

Steam: Very Positive

Mafia III

2016 · Aspyr

5.5GamingPickz Score

$29.99

Steam: Mixed

What each one is

Steam files Mafia II (Classic) under Open-World and Racing. In contrast, it files Mafia III under Action-Adventure and FPS.

Mafia II (Classic)

Vito Scaletta has started to make a name for himself on the streets of Empire Bay as someone who can be trusted to get a job done. Together with his buddy Joe, he is working to prove himself to the Mafia, quickly escalating up the family ladder with crimes of larger reward, status and consequence… the life as a wise guy isn’t quite as...

Description from its Steam store page

Mafia III

After Lincoln Clay's surrogate family, the black mob, is betrayed and killed by the Italian Mafia, Lincoln builds a new family and blazes a path of revenge through the Mafioso responsible.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Mafia II (Classic)Mafia III
GamingPickz Score8.1/105.5/10
Steam ratingVery Positive (94%, 58,640)Mixed (57%, 64,036)
Critic aggregate77/100No aggregate
Price$29.99$29.99
Install size8 GB50 GB
Steam Deckunsupportedunsupported
Released20112016
Developer2K CzechAspyr

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Mafia II (Classic) vs Mafia III, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Mafia II (Classic)Open-world racing game
    Mafia IIIAction-adventure FPS game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Mafia II (Classic)Action, Open World, Crime
    Mafia IIICrime, Open World, Action

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Mafia II (Classic)Score 8.1 · 94% on Steam · 77 critic
    Mafia IIIScore 5.5 · 57% on Steam

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Mafia II (Classic)58,640 reviews · 8 GB
    Mafia III64,036 reviews · 50 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Mafia II (Classic)$29.99
    Mafia III$29.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Mafia II (Classic)Unsupported
    Mafia IIIUnsupported

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Mafia II (Classic) takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Mafia II (Classic) and Mafia III on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • Multi-platform
  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Mafia II (Classic) (GamingPickz Score 8.1)
  • Lighter on storage: Mafia II (Classic) (8 GB)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ActionOpen WorldCrimeStory RichAtmosphericSingleplayerThird PersonThird-Person Shooter

Where they differ

Mafia II (Classic) is also

Automobile SimDrivingAmericaMusic3D Vision

Mafia III is also

ViolentStealthMatureGoreFPS

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Mafia II (Classic) is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Mafia III is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Mafia II (Classic) and 1 for Mafia III. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Mafia II (Classic) and Mafia III in scope?

Mafia II (Classic) has drawn 58,640 Steam reviews and installs in 8 GB. Mafia III has drawn 64,036 Steam reviews and installs in 50 GB.

Is Mafia II (Classic) or Mafia III better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Mafia II (Classic) rates higher (8.1 to 5.5). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Mafia II (Classic) or Mafia III?

Mafia II (Classic) is cheaper right now at $29.99, against $29.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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