All games in the franchise have been well received by critics, with praise for their complex narratives, open world design, and focus on realism, although Mafia III reviewed significantly worse than the others due to its repetitive gameplay structure.

Set in the fictional city of Lost Heaven, loosely based on Chicago, from 1930 to 1938, the game follows Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver-turned-mobster, and his rise and fall within the Salieri crime family.

It tells the story of Vito Scaletta, a young Sicilian-American criminal and World War II veteran, who becomes caught in a power struggle among Empire Bay's various Mafia families while attempting to pay back his late father's debts and secure a better lifestyle.

Set within the fictional city of New Bordeaux, based on New Orleans, in 1968, the game follows former criminal and Vietnam veteran Lincoln Clay, who is forced to return to a life of crime to help his adoptive family settle problems with the local branch of the Mafia.

The first, titled Faster, Baby!, was released in March 2017; it introduces the town of Sinclair Parish, located on the outskirts of New Bordeaux, and follows Lincoln's efforts to expose the corruption of its racist sheriff, Walter Beaumont, with the help of civil rights activist Charles Laveau and his daughter Roxy.

The final DLC, titled Sign of the Times, was released in July 2017, and follows Lincoln's investigation of a satanic cult called the Ensanglante.

[1] The remake builds upon the gameplay systems introduced in Mafia III while adding several new features, such as the introduction of motorcycles to the series, and closely follows the plot of the original, with several alterations, mainly to the dialogue and locations.

[3] On December 12, 2024, a full trailer debuted at the Game Awards, providing further details about the setting, narrative and gameplay, as well as a release date of Summer 2025.

The game is set to follow original protagonist Enzo Favara, who joins the Torrisi crime family to escape his indentured labor in Sicily's sulfur mines.

[7] Each game in the Mafia series allows the player to take on the role of a criminal in a large city, typically an individual who plans to rise through the ranks of organized crime.

The use of vehicles in an explorable urban environment provides a basic simulation of a working city, complete with pedestrians who generally obey traffic signals.

[9][10] Mafia II is set in the 1940s and early 1950s in Empire Bay, which is a fictional version of New York, with influences from Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit.

[31] Take-Two Interactive responded to the issue, stating that the game's depiction of the American Mafia was no different from organized crime films such as The Godfather.

They also responded to allegations of racism from Unico National, who claimed that the game portrayed Italian Americans unfairly and "indoctrinating" youth into violent stereotypes.