MAFIA 3 SOUNDTRACK TV

“We wanted the highlights from 1965 to 1968, roughly, but we also wanted to make sure we had signature songs that people strongly associate with the late ‘60s. “The number one goal was to capture the feel of the era,” explains Haden Blackman, Mafia III’s creative director, and the head of the game studio Hangar 13.

MAFIA 3 SOUNDTRACK TV

It’s as thorough a survey of the pop music of the day as you’re likely to find in any soundtrack, whether it’s for a movie, TV show or videogame. Patsy Cline commiserates with Mercy Dee Walton and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding make multiple appearances, and rock royalty like Elvis and the Rolling Stones rub shoulders with the garage grunts in Count Five and ? and the Mysterians. Heavy on classic rock appropriate to its 1968 setting, it dips further back throughout the ‘60s to highlight the blues, country, soul and R&B that all shared its breath with rock ‘n’ roll.

Mafia III’s soundtrack doesn’t just feed our connection to the game-it also neatly explains how the popular music of 1968 came to sound the way it did. It can be a tough balance to strike, and few games ever make it work, but the designers of Mafia III understand the formula. And yes, maybe they can introduce us to a forgotten old gem that becomes a new favorite song. They’re not just a bunch of great songs, but great songs that help us understand the game’s world, characters and themes. The best soundtracks deepen a game’s atmosphere and sense of place while also giving us hours of great music to listen to. Soundtracks maybe can’t surprise me with obscurity or originality anymore, but they can impress me with sheer quality. Until then I fully expect to eventually hear every band I’ve ever liked or even just heard of in a videogame at some point. Pretty much the only thing that would shock me at this point is if I heard something from one of the twenty-year-old four-track tapes buried down in my basement coming through my speakers as I fiddled my way through the latest AAA crime epic. With GTA radio stations playing Terry Riley, Hasil Adkins and Nobunny, and Rock Band featuring songs by Lightning Bolt and Big Dipper, there’s clearly nothing too obscure, too lo-fi or too abrasive to wind up in a big budget videogame these days. Game soundtracks can’t really surprise me anymore.

Mafia 3 soundtrack