If you’ve been scrolling through your Epic Games library looking for a gritty, story-driven open world experience, you’ve probably stumbled across Mafia: The Old Country on Epic Games already. This prequel to the beloved Mafia franchise takes players back to 1900s Sicily, following the rise of the Salieri crime family long before their operations moved to Lost Heaven. I’ve put 40 hours into the game since its launch on the platform, so I’m breaking down everything you need to know to have a smooth, immersive playthrough without missing any hidden content or exclusive perks.
What Makes Mafia: The Old Country on Epic Games Different From Other Platform Versions?
First off, if you’re still deciding which platform to buy the game on, the Epic Games release has a few small but meaningful perks you won’t find on Steam or console versions right now. For starters, all purchases through the platform come with the Sicilian Wanderer cosmetic pack for free, which adds three period-accurate outfits for your protagonist and four unique vehicle skins that aren’t sold as separate DLC anywhere else. You also get access to the exclusive Epic Games community challenge, where all players on the platform work together to unlock a free bonus side mission once the global kill count for rival gang members hits 10 million. I unlocked the side mission last week, and it’s a fun 90-minute detour that adds extra backstory for Don Salieri’s first enforcer, so it’s well worth grabbing if you care about lore.
You also get access to cloud saves that sync across all your devices logged into your Epic Games account, which is a huge plus if you play on both a desktop and a laptop. I often play for an hour on my work laptop during my lunch break, then pick up right where I left off on my gaming PC at home, and I’ve never had a cloud save fail on me yet. The only downside of the Epic Games version right now is that there’s no Steam workshop support for mods, but the devs have announced that official mod support will be added to the platform in the next six months, so that’s something to look forward to if you like modding your games.
Beginner Play Tips to Avoid Frustration in Your First 10 Hours
The game’s early hours don’t hold your hand nearly as much as modern open world titles, so it’s easy to get stuck in a loop of getting arrested by the Carabinieri or gunned down by rival gangs before you even get to the first major story beat. I made a ton of mistakes my first playthrough, so these tips will save you a lot of reloads:
- Always carry a concealable pocket knife instead of a shotgun or rifle when you’re exploring public areas. The police in 1900s Sicily are way more strict about visible weapons than the cops in later Mafia games, and you’ll get a 3-star wanted level instantly if someone spots you carrying a large firearm.
- Don’t skip the olive farm side missions in Chapter 2. They only take 20 minutes total, and they reward you with a permanent 20% discount on all weapons from the local black market for the rest of the game. That discount adds up fast once you start taking on high-risk hit jobs.
- Save your money for a horse and cart before you buy any new weapons. Fast travel points are locked until Chapter 4, so having your own transport cuts down travel time across the Sicilian countryside by almost 60%.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your reputation with each village on the map matters a lot more than you might think. If you help villagers with small requests like retrieving stolen livestock or chasing off petty thieves, they’ll start hiding you from the police when you have a wanted level, and they’ll even give you free food and ammo when you stop by their homes. If you steal from them or hurt innocent people, they’ll call the police on you the second you step foot in their village, which makes exploring way more difficult. I learned that the hard way when I stole a chicken from a farmer in Chapter 2, and I couldn’t go back to that village for three hours without getting chased by cops.
One mistake I see a lot of new players make is trying to fight every gang member that insults them on the street. Most of these random encounters are designed to drain your ammo and health, so unless they attack first, it’s always better to walk away. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to take out rival gang members during story missions, so there’s no need to waste resources on random fights.
Hidden Lore Details You Might Miss On Your First Playthrough
The Mafia franchise is famous for its tight, interconnected storytelling, and Mafia: The Old Country is packed with little Easter eggs that tie back to the original Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and Mafia 3. I only caught half of these my first time through, so I went back for a second playthrough to track down the best ones. One of my favorite finds is a crumpled letter in Don Salieri’s office that references a young boy named Tommy Angelo moving to the United States with his family – that’s the protagonist of the first Mafia game, and the letter confirms that the Salieri family helped pay for their boat tickets. Another easy-to-miss detail is the gravestone in the small village cemetery that marks the resting place of Lincoln Clay’s great-grandfather, a nice nod to the protagonist of Mafia 3.
You can unlock a secret ending cutscene if you collect all 30 of the hidden family photo collectibles scattered across the map, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to pick them up whenever you spot one. The cutscene reveals that Don Salieri had a daughter he sent to live in the US to keep her safe from gang violence, a plot point that was never mentioned in any of the later games. There’s also a small bar in the port town that has photos on the wall of every major character from the entire Mafia franchise, from Paulie and Sam from the first game to Vito Scaletta from Mafia 2. It’s a small touch, but it’s really cool to see how all the storylines connect across decades. If you talk to the bartender after you beat the main story, he’ll tell you stories about how different members of the Salieri family visited the bar over the years, which adds even more depth to the world. I spent almost an hour talking to every NPC in that bar after I beat the game, and I learned so many little details that I never would have found otherwise.
How to Fix Common Performance Issues With the Epic Games Version
While the game runs pretty smoothly for most players, there are a few common glitches that only pop up in the Epic Games release, and I’ve tested every fix I could find to see which ones actually work. The most common issue is the game crashing during the Chapter 3 wedding mission, which happens when the Epic Games overlay is running in the background. To fix this, just go to your Epic Games library settings, find Mafia: The Old Country, and toggle off the “enable overlay” option for the game. That fixed the crash for me and 90% of the players I’ve talked to in the community forums.
Another common issue is slow download speeds for the game, which happens when you have automatic updates enabled for other titles in your library. Pause all other downloads before you start installing the game, and you’ll cut your download time by half at least. Make sure you verify your game files if you notice textures loading slowly or audio cutting out during cutscenes. This is a quick fix that only takes 2 minutes, and it fixes 99% of texture and audio glitches without you having to reinstall the entire 75GB game.
If you’re playing on a lower-end PC, you can also turn down the “vegetation draw distance” setting to medium to boost your FPS by 15-20% without noticing a big difference in visuals. Most of the game’s map is countryside, so vegetation is one of the biggest drains on performance, and lowering that setting makes the game run way smoother on older hardware. I tested this on my 5-year-old gaming laptop, and it went from running at 28 FPS on high settings to 45 FPS on medium vegetation settings, which is more than enough for a smooth playthrough. Just don’t turn the draw distance down too low, or you’ll end up driving straight into roadblocks that you can’t see until you’re right on top of them.
At the end of the day, Mafia: The Old Country on Epic Games is one of the best open world crime releases of the last few years, and the platform-exclusive perks make it the best version to pick up if you haven’t bought it already. Whether you’re a long-time fan of the Mafia franchise or you’re just looking for a story-driven game to sink 30+ hours into, it delivers exactly what it promises: a gritty, immersive look at the origins of the Salieri crime family with tight gameplay and a story that will stick with you long after you roll the credits. Just follow the tips we laid out above, and you’ll have a way smoother playthrough than I did my first time around.
