Mafia: The Old Country Review

After a nine-year hiatus in the Mafia game franchise, we finally see a return from developer Hangar 13 and publisher 2k Games. Mafia: The Old Country is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 5 and PC and takes a new direction after Mafia III in 2016. I’m a huge fan of the stories these games bring us, and I often label Mafia II in my top ten games of all time.

Naturally, I was immensely excited when Mafia: The Old Country was initially announced. Before we dive into my review, I can tell you that you don’t need to play the first three games to experience this. This is very much a prequel in an entirely different era. But how does this one stack up against the other games?

You’re Part Of The Mob Now

I’ll refrain from spoiling the story in my review, since this is the strongest part of the adventure in Mafia: The Old Country. The game takes you back to early 1900s Sicily, and you’re in control of Enzo Favara. A young miner trapped in slavery and entrapment, you end up freeing yourself from this life after an accident in the mines.

The head honchos of the mines are after your blood, and you seek and find sanctuary through the Torrisi family. Under the umbrella of this powerful mob, you start at the bottom of the ladder as a stable hand and gradually increase your worth in your new life, something you’re forever thankful for after a life of poverty and scraping by for your next meal. I’ll leave you to discover the rest of the cast and the potential for love and a great reputation.

Mediocre Gameplay

I did feel that some of the gameplay elements in the Mafia: The Old Country were lacklustre. Compared with all three previous Mafia titles, this is by far the most linear. Whilst the others had a semi-open-world feel where you could traverse at your leisure through the world map between missions, here it is very different.

You’ll only be able to explore the world map once you complete the prologue, and even then, it is disconnected from the main story. In “Exploration Mode”, you’ll be able to spawn vehicles and horses and can venture across the map. Great for sightseeing if you just want to absorb Sicily and its backdrops and snap photos with the camera, and hunt down collectables. But this soon gets stale as you’re not going about the world for any objectives.

Stealth Isn’t Great

The stealth aspects of the game are pretty terrible and basic. There are several missions where you’ll need to infiltrate an area, and the NPCs mostly just stand there. It’s easy to sneak behind and take them down with little to no challenge. For the ones that were patrolling, you can use bottles and coins to distract. Again, it is incredibly simple to take them down. These sections felt more like a chore than enjoyable to play, sadly. In most of these areas, I ended up making myself visible to make it more entertaining.

Clunky Combat, Gunplay Is OK

Combat isn’t much better than the stealth if I am being completely honest. The melee combat fights with knives and knuckle dusters were infuriating to me. I wasn’t sure if it was my lack of skill in timing the enemy attack, but it always felt clunky and again, not much of a challenge. If my health ever became low, I could easily replenish some by backing off or getting hands-on with the other guy, which always gave a boost of health.

When the opportunity arose for a good old-fashioned shootout, I did enjoy these moments. There are several weapons ranging from pistols, rifles and shotguns, along with grenades. Gunplay was far more satisfying than knife fights, and dipping and diving into cover to try and get headshots with a rifle or just blast them back with a shotgun was fun.

Giddy Up

A lot of gameplay segments involve traversing Sicily on horseback, and you can customise your horse and invest in different breeds. The story often carries you from one place to another via horse, whilst you engage in dialogue. But some of the best moments of gameplay are horse racing or chasing down bandits on horseback and trying to kill them from range, though these always featured as part of a mission.

You’ll have use of the old-fashioned early 1900s car, which you rev up from the front, then jump in. Driving feels OK, but can be a little stiff when approaching bends. That said, though, some of the greatest moments of the game were driving at speed, making big jumps and pursuing or evading the rival mobs.

Not Much Beyond The Meat & Potatoes

Unfortunately, once you have conquered the main story, there isn’t much encouragement for replayability unless you want to experience it all again or unlock the achievements you may have missed. Exploration mode is great if you want to try and find the unlockables and hidden items. This may add a few extra hours to the runtime, but I’d imagine once you finish everything on offer, then it’ll be a game done and dusted.

Visuals & Audio

The entirety of playing through Mafia: The Old Country feels like you’re playing through an interactive movie rather than the traditional open vibe of the other games in the series. That said, the presentation of the game’s visuals is the strongest point of the game. It does come across a little dated in polish and shine, but it never stops it from still appearing beautiful, though.

The environment accuracy and atmosphere are on point, and this shines through with the well-acted voice lines and character design. You feel the personality through the main cast of characters, and this is what made me want to keep playing. You get that mob family vibe from and it makes you want to be loyal to them; they took you in after all. Audio design blends well with the rest; weapons sound like they are from that era, and vehicles have the same roar and clatter as those early cars did. You can tinker between quality and performance modes at any time for personal preference or that 60fps goodness many crave.

Final Thoughts

It’s worth noting that Mafia: The Old Country won’t demand hundreds of hours of your time. I clocked it in just shy of 12 hours, doing so in about four short sessions. The game features an exceptional storyline that is well-told through its structure, with a strong emphasis on story over substance. If you’re after an open-world style experience like GTA or Saints Row, then sadly, this won’t be what you’re looking for.

However, if you’re after a well-executed and rich story with beautiful visuals, fantastic voice acting, and you aren’t overly bothered about a linear structure with fairly shallow mechanics, then you’ll love it. It is a good Mafia game, but I don’t feel it’s the best out of the bunch so far.