Ever wondered about the origins of the OG (original gangsters)? It all started in old Sicily, where powerful families ruled and deadly vendettas were a way to resolve conflicts. The latest game from the Mafia franchise, Mafia: The Old Country, goes back to the roots of the mafia in Sicily at the start of the 20th century, way before the mobsters in the 1940s as portrayed in The Godfather, and the OG Mafia games in the 1930s.
The Old Country continues the tradition of the Mafia franchise as a third-person shoot-and-stealth game with narrative-driven, limited open world gameplay, focusing on a story of loyalty, betrayal, love and revenge.
Like the 2020 Mafia: Definitive Edition, which is a remake of the original Mafia, The Old Country plays like an action movie with plenty of cinematic cutscenes without side quests and extra activities. For those with a stronger appetite for criminal activities, racketeering and mischief, be warned that Mafia: The Old Country does not offer such frivolous distractions.
Rags to riches
You play Enzo, a young man working as a miner in the harsh sulphur mines owned by the Spadaro family where he is constantly being bullied and oppressed. When he almost loses his life in a collapsing mine, he has an altercation with one of Spadaro’s henchmen and runs away. He gets saved by a rival mafia family under Don Torrisi, and works his way up to be a made man in the Torrisi family.
Mafia: The Old Country is a rather serious game with constant fear and danger in Enzo’s life made more complicated by a forbidden love affair, and punctuated with plenty of violence. The game’s linear gameplay offers a good variety of missions that involve shooting, car and horse racing and rooftop chases.
Besides gunfights, Enzo also has to fight one-on-one with certain “boss-type” enemies in a traditional Sicilian knife fighting duel. This adds some variety in the gameplay, where timing the right slashing and stabbing actions as well as parrying or dodging are essential to win.
Some missions require avoiding detection, so stealth is a must. Enzo can detect enemies behind obstacles and distract them by tossing bottles or coins, then choke or assassinate them.
Once they are out cold or dead, he can pick up the bodies and conceal them in conveniently located, human-sized boxes. There is even a chance to play as another character briefly in the last chapter, which adds an interesting perspective, albeit too late in the game.
By looting bodies and opening chests, Enzo can earn dinari which can be used to purchase firearms like pistols, shotguns and rifles, or better knives for duelling, as well as horses and cars for transportation.
There is no skill tree for Enzo nor upgrades for weapons although there are some cosmetic items to be unlocked such as different attire and beard styles for Enzo and customisable colour for his cars.
Enzo is also equipped with a necklace with charms that can endow him with some perks, such as dealing more melee damage, faster healing or increasing inventory slots for ammo or bandages. Charms can be found while playing the story missions or purchased from a merchant, but their limited perks do not offer much variation in gameplay.
When in roam
Unlike previous Mafia games set in bustling cities, The Old Country’s rural setting is relatively peaceful albeit a little dull. Despite being an open-world game, there are no side quests or activities to partake in. Exploration is limited during most of the main story missions — most chapters have predetermined routes and will warn you if you venture too far from the mission area.
For Enzo to fully and freely explore The Old Country, you need to get out of the main game and select “Explore” under Chapter Replay to claim the collectibles.
Collectibles include Saint’s cards, photographs taken at certain scenic points, beautifully illustrated newspapers, occasionally well-hidden trinacria (a triangular coin) and mystic fox statues.
However, not all areas are open for exploration. Certain mission areas with collectibles may not be accessible in the Explore mode, and one will have to replay that chapter to claim the collectibles.
It is difficult to remember to search and collect while gunning down enemies, so only the most dogged completists will likely replay certain chapters to “collect ’em all” just for a trophy and bragging rights.
Enzo can drive cars from the garage and ride horses from his stable to get around, but there is no breaking into cars or stealing horses, so no Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption type of high jinks here.
Exploration isn’t very exciting with NPCs (non-playable characters) who offer no dialogue nor reactions to Enzo. Even with my deliberate attempts at harassment or provocative actions, most NPCs will just completely ignore Enzo although a few will exclaim “watch out!” or “scuzi” (“excuse me” in Italian). In addition, Enzo can’t swim and will respawn if he falls into deep water, so there isn’t a chance to explore anywhere off the mainland.
Without progression in skills or gear, zero side quests and no activities, the main story is relatively short and can be finished in less than 12 hours. Mafia: The Old Country’s linear gameplay offers limited replayability, although gameplay can be extended if you want to score all the collectibles either in the separate “Explore” mode or by replaying story missions, which can occupy you for a few more hours.
Speak softly, love
The Old Country’s generous and lengthy cinematic cutscenes add an element of movie magic to the game. The facial motion captures are excellent, and the acting for Don Torrisi by Johnny Santiago was especially commendable, whose depiction of the complex character of the head of the family is both menacing and charismatic at the same time.
The game captures the rural scenery beautifully, with pretty lavender farms, vineyards and olive groves, old towns and coastal areas. Some missions also take Enzo into the ancient creepy tunnels under the city, which offers a nice variety to the scenery.
The game looks magnificent with fine details of lighting, shadows, fire and smoke. It runs relatively well on my PC with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card and OLED monitor.
The charming soundtrack includes elements of Sicilian folk music, which makes the exploration mode feel like a nice virtual vacation. A treat for the ears are the stellar ambient audio effects that are subtle yet detailed, with the horses’ hoofbeats sounding different on roads as opposed to dirt, or rustling through grass.
I can hear the buzzing of flies in the stables, the crackling of flames in a burning building and cascading waters around me through my surround speakers, which adds to the immersiveness of the game.
I felt that the Italian accent is a bit overdone in the English voiceovers, and sounded a bit too deliberate, with overemphasis on the vowels, with plenty of “I’m-a gonna kill you!”. There are also plenty of swearing and derogatory terms in Italian, which are a nice refresher for fans of mafia movies!
I did encounter some instances of the game stuttering and severe drops in framerates in my PC, as well as visual glitches, like being able to walk through NPCs, objects floating off the ground, and some shadow and lighting jitters, but nothing terribly game breaking.
TL;DR
Mafia: The Old Country might have played it too safe sticking so closely to its tried and tested tradition. It focuses on a predictable arc of Enzo’s rags-to-riches rise in a mafia family as well as the usual themes of loyalty, fear and forbidden love. What is different from the other Mafia games is the knife duelling, which adds a bit of variety to an otherwise very linear shoot-and-stealth game.
The game is technically strong with its eye-pleasing visuals of the Sicilian landscape and remarkable audio effects. Its rural setting is peaceful and scenic but rather dull, and the lack of side quests and activities makes the game feel rather average. The story is cinematic and well-paced but predictable, and apart from the magnificent Don Torrisi, most characters are not very endearing or memorable.
Although the beautiful scenery makes exploration enjoyable for virtual tourism, I felt that it is a real pity that a world that is so painstakingly detailed with so many scenic spots does little more than hide a collectible or feature as a photo spot for the off-game exploration mode.
Mafia: The Old Country is available for the PC on Steam and for the Xbox Series X|S at S$69.99 and for the PlayStation 5 at S$70.
