Mafia: The Old Country is an interesting attempt at creating a mid-budget entry in the Mafia series. Unlike its predecessors, which aimed to capture the open-world ambition and standards set by Rockstar Games, this game chooses a more linear and tightly focused narrative. The question is, does it succeed in pulling that off?
The story takes place in the early 1900s in the fictional Italian town of San Celeste. It explores the origins of the Sicilian mafia, a subject famously portrayed in The Godfather films. As someone who has long admired the Godfather series, especially the first film, I was eager to see this era brought to life and to experience it firsthand in a video game.
The narrative follows Enzo Favara, a young sulfur miner who runs away from his difficult life and eventually joins Don Torrisi’s crime family. While the game clearly leans into its story-driven design, the pacing is uneven. The opening hours are slow, which may put off some players, and it takes a while before the plot and gameplay truly find their rhythm. Until then, the experience can feel bland and repetitive, lacking the spark that made the earlier Mafia titles stand out.
For its budget price, the length of Mafia: The Old Country feels about right, with the main story wrapping up in under 15 hours. Unfortunately, it is hard to describe the experience as anything other than dull. While the game is meant to shine through its crime-driven narrative, much of the focus shifts to a romance between Enzo Favara and Don Torrisi’s daughter, Isabella. The supporting cast is fairly well written, with quirky and memorable personalities, but the overall story fails to leave a strong impression. The romance feels flat and unconvincing, making it difficult to connect with, while the predictable twists are likely to frustrate long-time fans of the franchise.
On the gameplay side, Mafia: The Old Country does little to innovate. To its credit, it delivers a polished presentation and beautiful visuals, but the mechanics themselves are uninspired. Much of the game involves traveling from point A to point B and completing repetitive tasks. It takes several hours before more variety is introduced, but until then, you are stuck performing low-level jobs for the Torrisi crime family.
Even when the gameplay opens up, the mission structure quickly becomes repetitive. Stealth, weapon crafting, knife combat, and the occasional driving sequence make up the bulk of the mechanics, but none of these elements truly stand out. Knife fights are initially engaging, yet they lose their impact due to overuse. Combat in general is serviceable, with nothing feeling outright broken, but compared to earlier Mafia entries, the experience feels stripped down and lacking in depth.
It is always difficult to create a polished, cinematic experience on the level of studios like Naughty Dog or Rockstar, so it is hard to fault Hangar 13 too much. That said, certain areas of Mafia: The Old Country would have benefited from tighter refinement, most notably the enemy AI. It feels outdated and overly simplistic, which is a real problem given how much of the gameplay relies on stealth. Enemies are too easy to outsmart, making stealth feel overpowered and stripping encounters of any real tension.
With no true open world, most of the driving or horse riding exists purely to get you from one mission area to another. Combat is also fairly basic, with standard third-person shooting mechanics layered over a modernized UI. The user interface itself is one of the stronger aspects of the game, offering clear weapon breakdowns and a clean, intuitive system. Crafting, while not very deep, is handled neatly as well. Unfortunately, combat suffers from the same weak AI issues. Aim assist helps, but firefights rarely feel rewarding, and there is little sense of accomplishment when facing off against such unchallenging enemies.
The biggest issue with Mafia: The Old Country is that in aiming for a middle ground, it ends up caught in between. It lacks the ambitious scope of Mafia 3, while also failing to match the sharp storytelling and memorable characters of the original Mafia. That first entry also featured linear gameplay, but it elevated the experience with a focused narrative. By comparison, The Old Country feels limited in scope and ambition. Fans will likely notice these shortcomings, yet the lower price point softens the blow, making the flaws easier to overlook for those who adjust their expectations.
On the performance side, the PC port worked out well for me. Running it on a 4070, I was able to play most of the story at 60 FPS, and with DLSS 4 Frame Generation, I could push the frame rate even higher. That said, maxing out the settings does take a toll, and performance drops become noticeable, which is understandable given that my hardware is not top of the line. As for consoles, reports suggest the game runs well enough, though I did not get the chance to test it there myself.
In the end, Mafia: The Old Country requires fans of the series to lower their expectations. It is not the big, ambitious sequel some may have hoped for, and the limitations and cutbacks are clear. Still, these compromises were likely necessary to release the game at a competitive price point. Considering 2K’s track record of discounting its titles over time, it is safe to expect the game will become more affordable down the line. Taken as a whole, it is a decent experience and works as a stopgap until the next major Mafia entry arrives—assuming one is even in development.
Mafia: The Old Country Game Information
- Price: $49.99
- Publisher: 2K
- Developer: Hangar 13
- Platform: PC (Reviewed)
- Disclaimer: A review code was given by the publisher
