If you’ve spent dozens of hours roaming the sunbaked Sicilian streets and foggy 1930s New York neighborhoods in Mafia: The Old Country, you’ve probably stumbled on a few fun little secrets by accident. But most players only scratch the surface of the hidden references, inside jokes, and cut content tucked into every corner of the game. We’ve put in 80+ hours of playtime, scoured developer interviews, and tested every rumored hiding spot to pull together the most complete list of mafia the old country easter eggs you can find on your next playthrough. Some of these unlock small bonus rewards, while others are just sweet nods to the classic gangster media that inspired the entire Mafia series.
Classic Gangster Film References You Might Have Skipped
The entire Mafia franchise is built on love for classic 20th century gangster cinema, so it’s no surprise The Old Country is packed with references to fan-favorite films. You don’t have to be a diehard Scorsese fan to spot the bigger nods, but the smaller ones are easy to miss if you’re rushing through missions.
First up is the Godfather Part I orange reference that pops up during the wedding mission at the start of the game. If you hang around the catering table for 30 seconds after the cutscene ends, you’ll see an older guest drop a bag of oranges right before a group of rival gang members pull up to the gate. Any Godfather fan knows oranges signal impending death in the film series, and this tiny detail foreshadows the hit that happens 10 minutes later in the story.
Another easy-to-miss reference is tied to the 1990 classic Goodfellas. During the mission where you have to retrieve a stolen shipment of liquor from a warehouse in Queens, look for a half-burnt red Cadillac parked behind the building. If you interact with the license plate, it reads “HENNY63”, a direct nod to Henry Hill, the real-life gangster the film is based on. You don’t get any reward for finding this one, but it’s a fun little touch for long-time genre fans.
We also found a deep cut reference to the 1987 film The Untouchables. During the train station shootout mission, if you take the stairs to the second floor instead of following the main mission path, you’ll find a discarded baby carriage tucked against a wall. It’s a clear callback to the iconic stairway shootout scene from the film, and you can even hear a faint snippet of the film’s score if you stand next to it for 10 seconds. These little touches are part of what makes mafia the old country easter eggs feel so much more thoughtful than the generic secrets you find in most open world games.
Under-the-Radar Mafia: The Old Country Easter Eggs Tied to Cut Story Content
A lot of content gets cut during game development, and the team behind Mafia: The Old Country left a ton of references to scrapped missions, cut characters, and abandoned story arcs hidden across the map. Most of these are never mentioned in main quest dialogue, so you have to actively hunt for them to piece together what the original version of the game might have looked like.
Some of our favorite cut content easter eggs include:
These little touches make the game world feel far more lived-in, even if you never get to play the cut content they reference. It’s also fun to compare these clues to early previews of the game to see how much the story changed during development.
Secret Developer Nods Hidden in Plain Sight
Game developers love hiding little nods to their team, their past projects, and their personal lives in their work, and Mafia: The Old Country is no exception. Most of these are extremely easy to miss, since they’re tucked into background details you’d never pay attention to during normal play.
One of the sweetest nods is to the game’s lead writer, who lost his grandfather to COVID during development. If you visit the graveyard in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York on the in-game date of November 14, you’ll find a fresh bouquet of flowers on a grave with the name “Giovanni Moretti” carved into it, which is the name of the writer’s grandfather. There’s no notification or pop-up for this one, but it’s a touching tribute that most players will never stumble on by accident.
You can also find nods to previous entries in the Mafia series scattered across the map. If you go to the barbershop in downtown New York, look for a faded poster on the wall advertising a race in Lost Heaven, the main setting for the first Mafia game. There’s also a copy of Vito Scaletta’s favorite boxing magazine on the counter of the diner in the Bronx, a clear nod to the protagonist of Mafia II.
Another fun developer nod is the hidden arcade machine in the back of the pool hall in Queens. If you interact with it, you can play a 2-minute demo of a 16-bit gangster game the development team made as a side project when they were waiting for game assets to be finalized. It’s a super simple top-down shooter, but it’s a fun little distraction that feels like a gift for players who take the time to explore every corner of the map.
You don’t get any rewards for finding most of these developer nods, but they make the game feel far more personal, like the team poured real care into every inch of the world they built.
Easter Eggs That Unlock Bonus In-Game Perks
Most easter eggs are just fun references, but a few of the hidden secrets in Mafia: The Old Country actually unlock tangible perks that make your playthrough easier or more fun. These are the ones you’ll definitely want to track down if you’re planning a 100% completion run, or if you just want to make tougher missions a little less stressful.
First up is the free custom shotgun you can unlock by finding all 12 of the hidden gangster trading cards scattered across Sicily and New York. Each card features a real-life famous gangster from the 1930s, and once you collect all of them, you can turn them in to the bartender at the main mafia hangout in Little Italy to get a gold-plated shotgun that does 20% more damage than regular shotguns, and never jams. It’s one of the best weapons in the game, and most players have no idea it exists.
Another useful perk unlocks when you find the hidden pet cat that roams around the protagonist’s apartment building in New York. If you feed it canned tuna every day for a week, it will start following you around the building, and eventually leave you a small safe key under your doormat. The key unlocks a safe in the building’s basement with $5,000 in cash and a set of lockpicks that never break, which saves you a ton of money on supplies during the early game.
The most valuable perk by far comes from the hidden lighthouse easter egg on the northern coast of Sicily. If you climb to the top of the lighthouse at exactly midnight on a full moon, you’ll trigger a short cutscene where a mysterious old sailor gives you a lucky medallion. The medallion reduces the amount of damage you take from gunshots by 15% for the rest of the playthrough, which is a total game-changer during the final shootout missions. Just make sure you don’t leave the lighthouse before the cutscene ends, or you’ll have to wait another in-game month for the next full moon to try again.
It’s rare for easter eggs to give actual gameplay benefits, so these are definitely worth prioritizing if you want to get the most out of your playthrough.
At the end of the day, half the fun of playing a game as detailed as Mafia: The Old Country is taking time away from the main missions to explore every hidden alley, abandoned building, and quiet corner of the map. You don’t have to hunt down every secret to enjoy the story, but taking the time to find these little touches makes the world feel far more real and immersive. We’re still finding new mafia the old country easter eggs every time we boot up the game, so don’t be surprised if you stumble on a few that aren’t on this list during your next playthrough. If you find a good one, make sure to share it with the community so other fans can enjoy it too.
