Mafia: The Old Country Review

It’s been a while since we had a brand new mainline entry in the long-running Mafia series. Not counting the definitive editions released back in 2020, fans have been wanting another game for the longest time. It turns out, the devs were working hard in the background, and during the 2024 Game Awards, Mafia: The Old Country was revealed to the world.

Instead of moving up the timeline, Mafia: The Old Country goes back in time to Sicily in the early 1900s, which is a time and place rarely explored. The game follows Enzo Favara, a carusu (basically a “mine-boy” or someone who works in the mines), as he finds himself in a situation that gets him tied up with one of the most powerful families in San Celeste.

All in the Family

Mafia: The Old Country is a deeply narrative-driven experience, so we’ll steer clear of plot specifics and major story beats to avoid spoilers. Instead, we’ll explore the broader strokes that shape the game’s atmosphere and storytelling.

Visually, Mafia: The Old Country is stunning. Hangar 13 has masterfully recreated early 1900s Sicily, delivering a rich and immersive setting that feels both authentic and cinematic. Playing on a capable PC, the game shines with greenery, rustic stone architecture, sweeping countryside vistas, and cobblestone roads. The art team did their research, successfully transporting players to an era of dons and signorinas over 100 years ago.

However, the visual fidelity comes with typical Unreal Engine 5 drawbacks. Despite maintaining a steady 80–90fps for most of our playthrough, occasional frame stuttering and frequent texture pop-ins, especially while driving, slightly detract from the experience. These issues aren’t deal-breakers, but they do remind us that the game’s visual triumph has some flaws in between.

Where Mafia: The Old Country truly excels is in its voice performances. The cast delivers standout work across the board, from lead Enzo Favara to Don Torrisi and even minor characters. The writing is solid, but it’s the delivery that elevates the narrative, reinforcing the game’s mafia tone and setting. Don Torrisi, in particular, steals the spotlight with a raspy performance that feels straight out of a classic mob film.

Narratively, the game walks a fine line between compelling and predictable. While the story is gripping enough to keep players invested, it does not hold any surprises at all. There’s absolutely nothing in the whole playthrough of the game where things went the opposite way of where I thought they would go, and it’s not because I watched one too many mafia movies in the past. Still, the journey remains worthwhile as Enzo Favara is a protagonist worth rooting for, and watching his rise through Don Torrisi’s ranks is engaging, even if the outcome can be seen from a mile away.

Whether this is the strongest story in the Mafia franchise is up for debate, but what’s clear is that the narrative carries much of the weight in The Old Country, compensating for gameplay that’s often simplistic and linear.

The Weakest Link

Mafia: The Old Country is as linear as you can get, with the game divided up into 14 story chapters and a prologue. The first three chapters do set up the story, showing Enzo’s humble beginnings and how he eventually ends up with Don Torrisi, but these first three chapters do move at a snail’s pace, and are easily the “longest” chapters in terms of moving the narrative forward.

Once past the initial setup, the narrative gains momentum, introducing classic mafia-style missions that inject intrigue into the experience. Unfortunately, the gameplay mechanics fail to match the story’s rising intensity. The core gameplay revolves around traversal, stealth, and combat, all of which are a tad bit too simplistic.

Traversal is straightforward, often involving horseback or car rides from one location to another. Given the game’s linear design, these segments are largely straightforward, but Hangar 13 deserves credit for its clever use of in-world navigation cues (arrow markers disguised as street signs) that guide players without cluttering the UI or resorting to handholding.

Exploration is virtually nonexistent, as players who stray too far from the mission path will be shown a prompt to return to the mission area, which may feel restrictive to players seeking more freedom. While there are occasional collectibles tucked away in corners, the incentive to explore is pretty limited.

Stealth mechanics are similarly barebones. Players can hide behind objects, perform takedowns, and stash bodies, but the system lacks depth, compounded by Weak enemy AI and simplistic level design.

Enemy AI seems like it only has a couple of programmed patterns, and encounters usually boil down to Enzo hearing a couple of guards talking before both go their own separate ways, leaving the player free to take on them one by one. I don’t recall an encounter when I was ever in danger of being spotted because other enemies are stationed far enough from each other, and they don’t really do patrols, hardly ever roam around to show some semblance of patrolling the area, meaning hiding bodies is made moot because they’re hardly ever found anyway.

The levels don’t quite help either, and since this isn’t an “open” game by any stretch, players are confined to small sets that have limitations on how they can be designed, mostly sprinkling cover here and there, with very little to no verticality involved. There are distraction elements like bottles and coins you can throw, but for the most part, hiding behind cover and waiting for enemies to split up will suffice.

Combat in Mafia: The Old Country is equally as simplistic, with only a few weapon choices to choose from (Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun). It is the early 1900s after all, so this is a choice based on the time period, so don’t expect any automatic weapons or rocket launchers. Compounding this is the enemy AI once again, mostly just hiding with hardly any flanking maneuvers, which you can probably attribute to the limited level design as well.

In some instances, enemies will charge at the player or throw the occasional grenade to flush them out, but running in a straight line while firing until they reload is just begging for players to peek out when they start reloading. As a result, gunfights don’t feel satisfying or fulfilling, and simply serve as a distraction before getting to the next story beat.

Boss encounters offer slight variation, typically culminating in one-on-one knife fights reminiscent of Uncharted 4. Players can dodge, parry, and strike, but these mechanics are shallow and repetitive. While not particularly challenging, these moments do provide a satisfying narrative payoff, especially when key characters meet their end in dramatic fashion.

PC Performance

Here’s the system we used to play Mafia: The Old Country:

• Ryzen 5 5600x, 16 GB DDR4 3600 RAM, NVIDIA 4070 Super, 1TB NVMe SSD

And here are the System Requirements for Mafia: The Old Country:

All things considered, Mafia: The Old Country performed quite well on a capable PC. Even without frame generation, 60fps and above is within reach, even with DLSS set to balanced. With our PC, we averaged anywhere from 80-90fps at high settings, but there are noticeable transitions from gameplay to cutscenes as these are limited to 30fps.

Apart from the aforementioned texture-pop ins and stuttering, there’s nothing in our playthrough that surfaced any game-breaking bugs or crashes that hampered our enjoyment.

Mafia: The Old Country will take anywhere from 12-14 hours to finish, and at a lowered price point compared to other full-priced releases, it’s certainly worth considering depending on how much players value a well-told yet predictable story over gameplay.

Verdict: Wait for it.

Mafia: The Old Country delivers a concise experience anchored by a well-crafted, albeit highly predictable, storyline that can be finished in a weekend. While the narrative doesn’t break new ground, it remains engaging enough to carry players through to the end, thanks in large part to strong performances.

Unfortunately, the gameplay struggles to keep pace. Its simplicity isn’t inherently a flaw, but when paired with repetitive design and underwhelming enemy AI, it becomes clear that the story is doing most of the heavy lifting. The result is a game that feels narratively rich but mechanically underdeveloped.

For fans of the Mafia series or narrative-driven adventures, The Old Country may still be worth a look, but it would be wise to temper expectations when it comes to gameplay. With a story as strong as this, one can only imagine how good the overall package would be if its gameplay could also stand on its own.

*Mafia: The Old Country was reviewed on a PC with a review copy provided by the publisher.