Picture it: Sicily, 1904. A young man, sold into slavery by his father, slaves away in a sulfur mine, with nothing to his name besides the long-held dream of freedom. After saving and scrounging, this young man and his only friend are mere months away from having enough lire to buy their freedom. Shortly afterwards, tragedy strikes, and the young man, now alone, finds himself embroiled in the affairs of La Cosa Nostra: the Mafia. That young man was not me, but Enzo Favara, and this tale is not history, but the setting for Hangar 13’s latest game: Mafia: The Old Country.
Published by 2K and developed by Hangar 13, Mafia: The Old Country is a prequel to the Mafia trilogy of games: Mafia, Mafia II, and Mafia III. Originally created by Daniel Vavra (of recent Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 fame) and developed by Illusion Softworks and its successor, the now defunct 2K Czech, in 2002 and 2010, respectively, to mostly positive reviews. Sometime after the release of Mafia II, publisher 2K shifted development from 2K to newly created Hangar 13, and Mafia III released in 2016 to mixed reviews. Now, nine years on, can Hangar 13 redeem the Mafia franchise by going back in time? Let’s find out.
An Offer He Can’t Refuse
The Mafia franchise always follows one man and his gradual descent into the world of organized crime, along with the trials and tribulations that go along with that kind of life, and Mafia: The Old Country is no different. You play as 17-year-old Enzo Favara, who, after a tragic incident and a violent outburst, flees from the mine where he had been enslaved to pay for his unnamed father’s debts for 12 years. In his desperate flight for freedom, he crosses over from the territory of the Spadaros, a Mafia family and the owners of the mine, into the lands of Don Torrisi and the Torrisi Family, the main rival of the Spadaro Family. Without spoiling any more specific details, Enzo ends up working for the Torrisi Family.
Enzo’s journey involves a lot of horseback riding, car driving, sneaking, and fighting, and there are systems in the game to support each of these activities. Enzo is free to purchase new horses, cars, and guns from a vendor in the employ of the Torrisi Family using a currency called “dinari,” which he acquires from corpses and lootable items during missions. Enzo also has equippable gear besides weapons and clothes, a first for the franchise, in the form of “charms.” Charms are either a bead or a medallion for Enzo’s rosary, and he can have one medallion and one bead (to start), each with specific buffing effects, such as moving more silently, providing easier takedowns, and acquiring more loot from enemies, to name a few. Each activity in the game is quite common, so let’s take them one-by-one.
The Horses, the Cars, the Money
Horseback riding in Mafia: The Old Country feels surprisingly good. The horses handle well, quite capable of making sharp turns and traveling very fast as each horse has a certain number of times Enzo can “spur” them onward to increase speed, and each charge of “spur” reloads after a few seconds. Enzo can acquire new, different horses using the dinari looted during missions. In an unusual twist for this sort of game, there’s never a reason while riding a horse to shoot a gun. Most of the time, Enzo’s just traveling on the horse, and there are occasional races in the game, but no combat. Even still, riding a horse, the tack of which can be customized after the species is chosen from a handful of different looking horses with more or fewer “spur” charges, is fun.
Similarly, car driving in Mafia: The Old Country is relatively common, though more common later in the game when horses are used less often. The game offers a variety of modes for driving, including manual shift, classic Mafia, and some other tweaks to suit each player’s playstyle. For this review, the game was played on the default setting, which was automatic shift and a more arcade-y style of driving, and it handles about as well as any modern game’s driving. So, on this mode, there was nothing noteworthy about the act of driving in Mafia: The Old Country, but the game does offer a lot of cars to purchase for dinari, along with the ability to change their color scheme.
The Business He’s Chosen
Now, we get to stealth, and there sure is a lot of sneaking in Mafia: The Old Country. There’s a good balance between missions that require sneaking and missions that allow for sneaking, so the player is never going to get bored of the stealth mechanics if they don’t enjoy that style of play. Thankfully, Enzo also has a Witcher Sense-style “Instinct” mode to aid the stealth section. Enzo is in possession of a knife, selected early in the game, and this knife can be used for takedowns of enemies from behind, or Enzo can choose to choke the enemy with his bare hands. Choking takedowns require the player to smash the square button (if on PS5) by default, but that can be adjusted in the settings. Once down, Enzo can carry bodies and hide them to ensure patrolling guards don’t see them.
Personally, there was more enjoyment in smashing that square than hitting the instant knife kill, so that was the preferred approach throughout the game. The stealth is well-designed, and enemies’ detection capabilities are reasonable, as is Enzo’s movement speed while crouched down. The only real issue with stealth was the indicators for when Enzo was being detected are a little hard to read; they can be seen popping up, but there was difficulty in telling how close or far Enzo was to be spotted. Nevertheless, stealth was fun, though when stealth wasn’t an option, it was time to go loud.
For a game that emphasized knives in its marketing so heavily, Enzo shoots a gun way more often than he gets in a knife fight (though they exist, we’ll get there). There is a good dozen or so gun types in Mafia: The Old Country, and while they all have pros and cons, the strongest gun was, by far, the Praecisione, a single-shot sniper-like rifle, but without a scope. It had the best accuracy, killed almost all enemies in a single shot, reloaded relatively quickly, and was easy to come across/cheap to purchase. Enzo can carry one rifle and one sidearm, which is a pistol or a short shotgun, with limited ammo for each, in addition to his knife and some grenades.
The actual shooting feels great. Shotguns have this extreme power behind them, the rifles, especially Praecisione, drops enemies in an instant, and the pistols shoot quickly for emergencies, like when the enemies storm towards Enzo. It takes the quality shooting from Mafia III but adds more impact to it given the more limited weapon variety. However, this is Sicily, a place where honor rules, and real men do not settle their problems with guns, but with knives.
To be blunt, the knife duels are a mixed bag. Sometimes, it feels awesome, and Enzo is swinging and stabbing and dodging and parrying like he’s a pro. Then, other times, the enemy’s attack pattern is so inconsistent, Enzo’s health is dropping dangerously before he can attack again. Enzo’s knife is one selected from about a dozen knives with different stats and abilities, such as how durable it is, long-distance takedowns, or automatic looting after a knife takedown. The knife needs to be kept sharp with whetstones, which are found throughout the world, as each knife has a certain maximum number of durability points, and using it to unlock a chest or a door dulls it by one.
Overall, the knife duels are a great addition to the franchise; they really add intensity to the showdowns with big bad guys while providing a lot of emotional weight. Plus, it’s quite cinematic in nature, very close up, which allows the team to show off the great character models for the main cast. The knife fighting just needed a little bit more time in the oven to finish, and it needed to iron out some of the wrinkles that come from the cinematic camera angle, but Mafia: The Old Country is all the better for their inclusion.
In Sicily, Women Are More Dangerous Than Shotguns
Speaking of the character models, let’s talk about the visuals of this game. Mafia: The Old Country is absolutely gorgeous at times, especially when in one of the cinematic storytelling cutscenes or when Enzo is overlooking the Sicilian Island from atop a high vantage point. What Hangar 13 achieved is truly outstanding with these visuals. Not everything is perfect, however. There are some lower resolution characters who would be classified as side characters or extras, but interactions with them typically occur during gameplay, where Enzo is walking around and an icon pops up to prompt him to speak to them for some additional context.
On the technical side of things, Mafia: The Old Country is incredibly stable and performs well. Playing on a PS5 Pro, the framerate in Quality mode with a 120hz display and VRR turned on, the game was, as best as could be determined without counting frames, staying comfortably in the 40FPS range. There was no typical Unreal Engine 5 hitching or stuttering, either, which was a pleasant surprise. There was the odd occasional bug, like a horse getting stuck on top of a rock, but nothing worth mentioning more here.
Finally, saving the best part of the game for last, we come to the story and actors’ performances. The story of Mafia: The Old Country is excellent, truly an awesome tale, chock full of great characters, charming writing, heart pounding action, and quiet moments of seriousness. In the days since finishing the game, the story has stuck around the edges of daily life, thinking about Enzo’s journey and the friends, and enemies, made along the way. Not every twist is going to be a shocker, but none of it dampens the quality, pacing, and fascination with the story.
The game forgoes the in medias res storytelling trope of Mafia and Mafia III and is all the better for it. And, as a nice touch for those familiar with the prior entries, there are some familiar faces (or familiar moles on those faces) and ancestors of other Mafia trilogy characters throughout. Each actor really gives it their all in this story, with special nods to Enzo himself, played by Riccardo Frascari, Isabella Torrisi, played by Carina Conti, and Don Torrisi, played by Johnny Santiago.
Mafia: The Old Country is the best Mafia game yet. Despite some minor gripes mentioned above, its overall tighter gameplay, top tier story, and masterful performances, on top of the more general improvements to playing the game, really makes it stand above the others in its franchise. Mafia: The Old Country is simply superb.
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