Mafia III Definitive Edition files contain map of Berlin from Hangar 13 canceled project Rapsody

[dex3108]

About project Rapsody

This new IP would become Rhapsody, a game about subterfuge in 1980s Berlin. You'd play as a Russian Jew whose parents had been murdered in a Soviet labor camp. He'd be rescued by Americans, then recruited to join a spy organization called Rhapsody. "It was hitting a lot of the beats we were good at," said one person on the project. Like Mafia III, this game would put you in the shoes of someone who was treated as subhuman by the people around him and thought largely in terms of vengeance. "He's doing missions, trying to save the world and get revenge on whoever killed his parents, trying to decide between the personal good and the public good."

One source compared it to the spy movie Kingsman, "without the really goofy shit." You'd equip a variety of gadgets and sneak around Berlin, spying on enemies and doing all sorts of missions for your organization. Hangar 13 prototyped mechanics like a spy car, which you'd use to cross the border checkpoint between East and West Germany. Your inventory of items for any given mission might be limited to what you could smuggle in the car

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How The Makers Of Mafia III Lost Their Way

In mid-2016, a few months before the release of their first game, Mafia III, the developers at Hangar 13 in Novato, California gathered for an all-hands meeting. There, according to two people in attendance, Christoph Hartmann, president of the game’s publisher, 2K, told employees that their...

kotaku.com

 

[Budi]

Read about the game before and it seems like something I'd really want to play. Bummer it didn't come through.

 

[jakomocha]

Daaaamn that sounds so cool. Also as a Jewish person it'd be pretty cool to see that type of representation in a AAA game

 

[Zaubrer]

That sounds exceptional. The kind of stuff that would bring the media of video games a whole lot forward.

 

[dex3108]

It was sad to read how kinda serious pitch became some silly superhero game.

 

[Tovarisc]

That is a lot geometry data just to drop into unrelated title, I guess someone really wanted this out there.

 

[nachum00]

That sucks. I'm Jewish and it would've been nice to have more Jewish representation in games.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

Sounded really cool! Too bad it didn't went on

 

[Richter1887]

That sounded really cool. A shame it did not go through.

 

[OozeMan]

Sounds a bit like The Saboteur. Would've been interesting to see more.

 

[dreamfall]

Really fucking wild! Look at that massive map, I wonder whoever found it - how long it would take to traverse from one side to the other. I hope Mafia 1 is a success for Hangar 13 and then they have the funding and the support to create their new IP, even if Rhapsody got cancelled. Their atmosphere and sound design are phenomenal, really loved so much about Mafia III.

 

[dex3108]

Really fucking wild! Look at that massive map, I wonder whoever found it - how long it would take to traverse from one side to the other. I hope Mafia 1 is a success for Hangar 13 and then they have the funding and the support to create their new IP, even if Rhapsody got cancelled. Their atmosphere and sound design are phenomenal, really loved so much about Mafia III.

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They are working on new IP but it is less serious than their other projects.

 

[Sloane]

Oh, wow, I had never heard about Rhapsody, sounded interesting.

Shame spy games aren't more of a thing for some reason.

 

[Tygerjaw]

This had the potential to be amazing. It's a shame it got canceled.
I really like Hangar 13 creative direction, they always come up with cool and exciting concepts (except the superhero thing).

 

[catswaller]

More jewish representation sounds cool, Murdered By The Evil Soviets [a stereotype of the east that has its own antisemitic baggage] (as if there weren't other more likely causes of death for somebody's jewish family at the time) kinda takes the wind out of it though.

 

[Quad Lasers]

Damn that sounds kickass.

 

[Tygerjaw]

They are working on new IP but it is less serious than their other projects.

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Are we sure it's "less serious"?

Also, I hope they working on that Mafia IV concept, it sounds sooo good.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

How did this end up in the files of another game of theirs? The map is pretty big so it might take a lot of disk space and be an unnecessary download.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Like Mafia III, this game would put you in the shoes of someone who was treated as subhuman by the people around him and thought largely in terms of vengeance.

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Hangar 13 is a dev after my own heart

 

[dex3108]

Are we sure it's "less serious"?

Also, I hope they working on that Mafia IV concept, it sounds sooo good.

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Read that Jason article.

 

[Nerun]

I just want an open-world Berlin game ;)

 

[Tygerjaw]

Read that Jason article.

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I read it back in the day, it doesn't really confirm what they have been working on.The Mafia remake was a nice surprise for example.

I just hope they don't deviate too much from their expertise. Less serious doesn't really interest me.

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

x

 

[dex3108]

Eurogamer Cezch says that they returned to Mafia IV development after Rapsody

V Mafia 3 objevena mapa Berlína ze zrušené špionážní hry

Český dataminer a YouTuber Sliderv2 se pohrabal v souborech Mafia 3: Definitive Edition a našel tam dost nečekanou věc.…

www.eurogamer.cz

Can someone who speaks cezch confirm it? I used google translate.

 

[LordBaztion]

an AAA spy game during the cold war, it's, of course, too good to exist.

 

[Neilg]

For everyone saying the map is big - it's a 1:1 recreation with simple masses over a satellite photo. The first thing that gets made before figuring out how to compress it into something fun to move around, and at the detail level shown might be around 10mb in size total.
It would not have stayed like that.

 

[Aangster]

Just wondering, Hanger 13's 2K Czech team is working on the Mafia I remake, with Hanger 13 UK on Mafia IV?

There's also cut content from the game, including Empire Bay and a Donovan mission:

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Nice, always interesting to see cut content and plans.

 

[Deleted member 43]

More jewish representation sounds cool, Murdered By The Evil Soviets [a stereotype of the east that has its own antisemitic baggage] (as if there weren't other more likely causes of death for somebody's jewish family at the time) kinda takes the wind out of it though.

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You say that as if Soviet purges and deadly state-sponsored antisematisim weren't a fact of life when this character would have been growing up.

 

[Kotze282]

I didn't know I wanted an open world spy game set it 1980s Berlin, but now I do.

 

[dex3108]

Just wondering, Hanger 13's 2K Czech team is working on the Mafia I remake, with Hanger 13 UK on Mafia IV?



Nice, always interesting to see cut content and plans.

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According to Jason they are not working on Mafia IV but there is too much buzz around Mafia IV that it's not in some kind of development.

 

[catswaller]

You say that as if Soviet purges and deadly state-sponsored antisematisim weren't a fact of life when this character would have been growing up.

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Of course, but it seems contrived for the timeline (it's in the 80s, right? Who was dying in the gulags when he was a kid? And stalin had been dead for 30+ years, the most vicious and directed antisemitism was long over) and propping up a jewish hero to fight for the usa against a (bad example of a) ideology that was founded by jewish people and the target of a ton of western antisemitism feels kinda off to me.

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

x

 

[Vic20]

The pitch sounds exactly like rockstar's agent.