A day and night cycle influencing the missions. Our Mafia III wishlist

A dynamic day and night cycle is nothing new to video games, but implementing one in Mafia could certainly enrich the gameplay. Apart from the changes in the looks of the city, and the traffic, we wish the system would influence certain missions. A robbery early in the afternoon? It’s doable, but we should take into account that dozens of people will be inside, amongst whom someone might contact the police. A murder at midday may not be easy to pull off, but when the sun sets, an accurate shot and a getaway are way easier. The activity of the police could also depend on the time of day – for instance, the darker it gets, the lesser amount of officers is patrolling the streets.

Police activity could decrease at nightfall, but that doesn’t mean we can stop obeying the law.

From a technical point of view, some of those elements seem hard to implement, but on modern consoles and PC’s that wouldn’t be impossible – it would require however a ‘bit’ more work on the developer’s side. On the other hand, it is absolutely worth it, especially taking into account how much the realism of the gameplay would gain from such an addition. A set time of day or night might make it easier to control the storytelling, but at the same time it takes away the freedom from the players – freedom that Mafia definitely needs in the next installment. Certainly missions of great importance to the plot can be at a set time, but in other cases, the time should be allowed to flow freely.