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It’s not straightforward being a Mafia fan. As somebody who’s skilled the dazzling highs of the ground-breaking 2002 authentic and its robust sequel, the devastating lows of the extremely rocky Mafia 3, and subsequent return to kind within the sensible Mafia: Definitive Edition remake, I do know higher than anybody that it’s not a franchise with out its ups and downs.
Overview information
Platform reviewed: PC, PS5
Out there on: PC, PS5, Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S
Launch date: August 8, 2025
Despite any flaws, nonetheless, every entry has all the time been elevated by sensible storytelling and robust cinematography that make them really feel similar to watching a traditional mob film. That is very true within the case of Mafia: The Previous Nation, a brand new prequel from developer Hangar 13.
It delivers some serious narrative goods with a story that’s compelling right from the get-go, thanks to consistently excellent voice acting and well-shot cutscenes that ooze style and flair.
Unfortunately, there are some rough edges that hold the overall experience back – be that the many janky stealth segments or the noticeable lack of opportunities to explore its massive world. The result is an instalment that, while nowhere near the worst, falls short of some of the series’ best.
The old world
Set in 1900s Sicily, Mafia: The Old Country is centered around the fictional town of San Celeste – a setting that first appeared in the brief flashback scene at the start of Mafia 2. It’s a great location, with the small handful of areas seen in that older game lovingly recreated. It’s been significantly expanded, too, with a large surrounding countryside, detailed coastline, and a number of small nearby villages.
It all looks incredibly beautiful, with impressively realistic texture work, lifelike lighting, and numerous little details to help sell the period setting. Unfortunately, it’s quite underutilized due to the game’s incredibly linear structure. Don’t get me wrong, the best Mafia titles have never truly been open-world experiences, but the inability to soak in the sights at your own pace is a letdown and a step back.
I loved wandering around Lost Heaven and Empire Bay, either on foot or in a car while travelling between missions, but here you’re forced to turn around if you move even slightly outside the area of your current objective.
Best bit
Enzo is one fashionable fella. You can unlock loads of customizable outfits and headwear throughout the game, which presents an enjoyable way to change up your look.
It’s a bit baffling when you consider that there are plenty of collectibles out there to discover, from world-building notes to collectible photographs of key landmarks that you can take with an old-timey camera. There’s even a small store that sells upgrades for your gear, but you’re given few opportunities to actually visit it.
There is still a dedicated free-roam mode at least, where you can sight-see or shop to your heart’s content, but accessing it requires you to exit back to the main menu and choose it from the chapter select screen – a cumbersome and annoying thing to have to do if you just want to buy a new vehicle paint job.
Mafia: Definitive Edition nailed the structure of a modern Mafia game, offering just the right amount of freedom without ever overloading you with pointless busywork, and it’s a huge shame that the same kind of design wasn’t implemented here.
A little too familiar
On the plus side, the tightly controlled structure does help the breakneck pacing of the story shine. The main thrust is that it follows new protagonist, Enzo, a young boy sold by his parents to work in a dangerous, mob-operated sulphur mine.
After a dramatic opening that sees you cast out of the mine and become the sworn enemies of the gangsters that control it, you’re put under the wing of the powerful Torissi family.
In classic Mafia fashion, you soon rise through the ranks, gradually transforming from a scrappy laborer into a skilled mafioso. Missions are nicely varied, with plenty of enjoyable third-person shooting segments that have you experimenting with a good selection of ranged weapons, though there are some sore spots.
Chief among these are the mandatory stealth segments, which are incredibly basic and quickly become grating. There’s nothing particularly exciting about crouching behind cover waiting for guards to move, or tossing coins or bottles into corners to lure them out of your path.
Being detected results in an instant game over, which is especially annoying on the odd occasion when it all bugs out and a guard manages to impossibly spot you.
There’s a knife-fighting minigame that is frankly overused, too. Blocking and parrying incoming blows is perfectly responsive, and helps break up some of the longer periods of shooting, but it happens so frequently that it verges on ridiculous. Almost every mission culminates in a knife fight, even in moments when its inclusion doesn’t make any real sense.
There are also multiple race sequences, including two major ones that take place on horseback and in a car. They’re well designed but play out in an extremely similar way to the iconic race scene from the original Mafia (albeit significantly less difficult this time around). This is clearly an intentional homage, but it comes across more like an uninspired attempt to capitalize on nostalgia.
In fact, the whole of Enzo’s story arc feels incredibly reminiscent of Tommy’s in the first game. It’s hard to complain too much when it’s still thrilling to experience, but some more adventurous twists would have made some of its rather predictable emotional beats hit that much harder.
It’s a quibble that epitomizes my biggest issues with Mafia: The Old Country. There are the fundamentals of a fantastic Mafia game here, but it lacks the level of fine-tuning and polish needed to live up to the lofty heights of some of its predecessors.
Should I play Mafia: The Old Country?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility features
Mafia: The Old Country has a dedicated accessibility menu containing options to adjust the size, color, and background opacity of subtitles. The scale of the HUD can also be adjusted, and there are three colorblind modes: deuteranope, protanope, and tritanope.
The game also features multiple difficult levels, the option to enable aim assist on PC, and a feature that allows you to skip driving between objective markers.
How I reviewed Mafia: The Old Country
I played Mafia: The Old Country on both PC and PlayStation 5. I performed the PC model for greater than sixteen hours, hitting the tip credit and spending a little bit little bit of time within the free roam mode.
I relied on my Lenovo Q24i-10 monitor, along with a Razer DeathAdder V4 Professional gaming mouse and Endgame Gear KB65HE Corridor Impact Gaming Keyboard. For audio, I used a pair of Final VR500 earbuds.
I then spent roughly two hours within the PS5 model, evaluating the efficiency my PC construct which encompasses a 12GB RTX 3060, an I5-11400F CPU, and 32GB of RAM. I discovered it passable, however not distinctive, on each platforms.
All through my time with the sport, I instantly in contrast it to different entries within the Mafia sequence as a long-time fan. I additionally stacked it up extra typically with different single-player story-based titles, together with the likes of The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2, and extra.
First reviewed August 2025