In a lot of ways, Mafia: The Old Country is the antithesis of Mafia 3 and the modern triple-A scene. It’s tighter and leaner, clocking in at around 12 hours, with no superfluous content and a budget-friendly $50 price tag. This might be exactly the kind of game the industry needs to look at if it wants to avoid collapsing like a Jenga tower constructed by toddlers in dire need of a nap. It’s also a strong example of a game with major flaws, but one that I love anyway. So come, join this review family. Swear your fealty to the words. Become a reader of honour and join me on this review of Mafia: The Old Country.

Available On: Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, PCReviewed On: PS5Developed By: Hangar 13Published By: 2K Games

This newest game in the Mafia series goes back in time to the early 1900s, Sicily. Amidst the chaos of a cave-in, that claims the life of his only friend, young Enzo Favara escapes the mine he was essentially enslaved in and is pursued by his former boss until eventually he crosses into the territory of Don Torrisi. Don Torrisi is angered by the invasion of his land by the other Don’s men and runs them off, opting to spare Enzo’s life in the process. Thus begins Enzo’s journey into the world of the Mafioso, guided by a mentor named Luca and often accompanied by the Don’s nephew, Cesare. As Enzo makes himself useful and rises through the ranks, he finds himself in a world that is no less grimy and suffocating than the mines. He believes himself free to live the life he wants, but can he truly do that when he owes his loyalty to Don Torrisi and his family?

The plotting follows the standard mafia template seen in movies and even this very series, so you’ll quickly clock every twist and character archetype. You could probably glance at the image at the top of this review and accurately guess what role each character will play and their ultimate fates.

But it’s hard to care, because the execution is excellent, and the characters will draw you in and never let go. Folks, I was genuinely invested in these people and their relationships thanks to the strong character writing and equally terrific performances. There are shootouts, betrayals, forbidden love, friendships formed, political drama and the inevitable problems that come for organisations like the mafia. I was engaged in Enzo’s longing for the beautiful Isabelle, his sense of loyalty to the Don and his family for rescuing him, and the antagonistic relationship between him and the cocksure Cesare.

To put it simply, the story and storytelling are why you should play Mafia: The Old Country. Dress up in your Sunday finery, grab a glass of wine, soak up the impeccable sunsets and enjoy a horse ride across the country. It’s a slow burn sometimes, but one that is very much worth it. Well, at least until the end, which felt surprisingly rushed and is already causing some division among the fans. Personally, it felt right given the story the game was telling, but it did feel like it needed perhaps one more chapter of build.

Story also happens to be most of what you’ll actually be doing in Mafia: The Old Country. There’s over 3 hours of cutscenes in the game, and when you aren’t watching those, you’re probably walking around an area while chatting with other characters or driving/riding to a location. But that might be for the best because when it comes to the game, The Old Country is…well, kinda from the old country. By which I mean the Xbox 360.

Gameplay breaks down to shooting, sneaking, stabbing and…damn, I can’t think of a word for riding a horse or driving a car that starts with S. Steering? Whatever.

Gunfights. As a member of a crime family you’ll handle a gun fairly often and that involves the usual cover-based nonsense, but with the benefit of getting to admire some ancient ruins or lovely architecture. Unfortunately, Enzo moves and shoots like a man 60 years older, giving the action a stiffness which, when coupled with the less-than-stellar accuracy of guns in that day, makes the combat floaty and cumbersome. Enemy AI is not going to win any awards, either, unless that award is given out for having an IQ that manages a minimum of double digits. Despite their sense of age, though, gunfights are enjoyable enough, largely because none of them drag on for too long.

Enzo is often dispatched on stealth missions, perhaps because his hero is Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed 2. Unlike the iconic ladies’ man, though, Enzo does not have much in the way of moves, or a fancy hidden blade. The stealth mechanics are bare-bones, the enemy layouts making it very obvious what you need to do. There are no complex or tricky patrol routes to avoid, which also makes the ability to hide bodies completely pointless because nobody ever finds them. Seriously, I left a trail of corpses behind like the world’s worst litterer and never had a problem. Strangling or stabbing are your main options for dealing with people, and a coin you can toss lets you get them in position.

The knife has a strange mechanic where stabbing enemies (or using it to open locks) takes away its sharpness, so it needs to be resharpened using whetstones that can be found in the world or by looting bodies. The concept is obviously meant to stop you from going on a stabbing spree, but it’s pointless because there’s no need to kill everyone anyway, and whetstones are plentiful enough that it was only occasionally something I had to think about.

Knife fights pop up whenever Enzo crosses paths with anyone who so much as looks at him funny. They’re simple affairs built around dodging, parrying, and stabbing, but the stiffness of the animations and predictable setup drag them down. Every fight follows the same pattern, complete with forced button-mash struggles that pretend you’re losing even if the other guy already looks like a pincushion. After a while, I could call them before they happened—“we haven’t had the knife fight yet”—and sure enough, blades were drawn.

That leaves us with the driving portion of the gameplay. The Mafia games have a long history of tricky races, largely due to the handling of the cars. Well, Mafia: The Old Country features not one but two races! Admittedly, one of them is on horseback and both seem heavily rigged in the player’s favour. This time around the handling model is a lot better, balancing out the weighty nature of these older machines with the need to still be drivable on a controller.

A few bigger set pieces are sprinkled throughout the game too, aiming to add some explosive drama to the action. Much like the rest of the gameplay, Mafia: The Old Country can feel a little old and stiff during these sequences, but they are generally decent fun.

Sicily looks gorgeous, but it’s a façade. The open world exists, yet the game keeps you on such a tight leash that you’ll only see it by digging through the menu for an “exploration mode” the game never even mentions. And if you do? There’s nothing out there—no side-quests, no enemies, barely even NPCs outside story missions. You can collect trinkets or buy new cars, but the systems tied to money and upgrades feel pointless when you’re never free to use them naturally. I wish the developers had either gone all-in on a linear story or built a semi-open world with meaningful content, rather than wasting effort and money on an empty map – effort that could have been used on the gameplay. By building an open world into the game, I feel obligated to criticise it for being a crappy open world. Damn you, Hangar 13.

Note: While I was writing this review, the developers announced that they are planning free content called Ride Mode which will add “new activities and gameplay.” If it’s anything like previous Mafia games, the new content will focus on driving missions in the open world. This should make the open world feel a bit less useless. Hopefully.

Mafia: The Old Country is a tough one. It’s strong storytelling chops are why I’m ultimately giving this the recommendation sticker, despite the obvious flaws. Mafia: The Old Country is a great example of how you can love a heavily flawed game, and sometimes love it even deeper because of those flaws. When I put on my logical hat, the clunky gameplay drags the score down. But when I think about Enzo, Isabelle, Cesare, and Don Torrisi, I don’t care. Mafia: The Old Country isn’t just a flawed game I enjoyed—it’s a flawed game I’ll remember. And on top of that, I love what Mafia: The Old Country represents: a leaner game, free of the bloat and stupidity of the modern triple-A scene, all for a reasonable price.

Mafia: The Old Country fits in perfectly with the previous 3 games – all deeply flawed in their ways, while all being deeply memorable.