Mafia 3, like its predecessors, has the potential to be among the heads of the open-world family. The series has always nailed story, setting, and time period -- the very things that many other open-world games come up short on. But it’s never been able to fill out its period-perfect places with enough to do. If my two hours with Mafia III

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You play Lincoln Clay, an orphan whose only family has ever been of the organized crime variety. The year is 1968, and Lincoln is a Vietnam vet -- a convenient explanation for his otherworldly combat skills. Seriously, if you don’t recoil at least once at Mafia 3’s brutal takedowns (in a good way; they’re pretty damn fun to execute), then you’re truly desensitized to just about anything. Lincoln wages war against the Italian mob in New Bordeaux -- read: New Orleans -- by hitting them where it hurts: in the wallet. Also the face.Sneak up on an unsuspecting bad guy and a B-button press will score you a violent takedown. Pull off a B-B-B-A combo with the proper timing in a face-to-face battle and you’ll be rewarded with a brutal takedown. Lincoln clearly learned not only how to shoot in Vietnam, but also how to mash faces into concrete. He doesn’t mess around.Back to the “hurting the wallet” part. Mafia 3 lets you chip away at the influence of your rivals, block by block, by taking out their supply trucks. This takes money straight out of the pockets of your enemy mafiosos, and if they can’t kick upstairs, that means the upstairs guy can’t kick up to HIS upstairs guy, which sets off a chain reaction that results in things like, say...neighborhood shopkeepers like poor Joe getting offed for not making his protection payments to the mob on time.Therefore, if you take money from the mob they’ll be weakened, eventually enabling you to go after the top guys. Remember how high and mighty Tony was a second ago while whacking Joe and telling Dominic to go collect the neighborhood’s debts? Well, after you pound enough skulls and torch enough trucks, you’ll get a shot at Tony himself.I could’ve gone in the front door, guns blazing, but I chose to steal Dominic’s car so I could cruise undisturbed into the underground parking garage at the Hotel Royal, where Tony had fortified himself up in the penthouse. I stealth-whacked the first few guys I encountered, and then headed up the elevator to the top floor. Shotgunning, blind firing, and a total lack of fear will open the door to Tony where...well, I don’t want to spoil what you can do to him.Between shootouts with capos, you can do things like wiretap targeted areas, which will allow you to see enemies through walls -- as well as other items or points of interest -- in the Intel View. You can also upgrade your car so that car chases get even more fun -- I love how the turn-by-turn directions are organically placed in the game world as virtual road signs, by the way -- call in favors for things like cutting the phone lines so that the bad guys can’t call in reinforcements, and much more. It should give the open world some of the life that Mafia II lacked.My hands-on ended with a key gameplay element that I sadly wasn’t provided footage of: deciding what to do with the district after you’ve whacked Tony and taken over his slice of town. You have three capos in your growing little gang (think of it like the Joker’s rise to power in The Dark Knight), and you’ll award it to one of them. Each will make their case -- some angrier than others based on how much turf you’ve given them previously -- and each will offer you specific rewards, be it a unique weapon, an extra favor, or a skill bonus like a health recovery upgrade. Neither the Irishman Burke nor Mafia II’s Vito (yes, he’s here and of course about a decade older now) were particularly happy that I handed Tony’s old stomping grounds to Cassandra, who had already been showered with real estate in this build. Eventually, the developers say, your decisions can boil over, with multiple ending possibilities being hinted at.With six months to go before release, Mafia 3 already has a lot going for it. The geographical setting, the chronological setting (wait until you hear the soundtrack!) and the promise of loading the game with open-world activities that matter have me very optimistic that this will finally be the first Mafia to fulfill its immense potential.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.