If you’ve sunk dozens of hours into building your criminal empire in the Mafia franchise, you’ve probably already heard the hype around the Mafia the Old Country Pack. I picked up the DLC the day it dropped, and spent the first weekend testing every new feature, mission, and cosmetic to figure out what’s worth your time, and what you can skip if you’re only here for gameplay upgrades. This guide breaks down all the pack’s offerings, plus actionable tips to get the most out of your purchase, no matter if you’re a casual roleplayer or a completionist chasing 100% game progress.
What’s Included in the Mafia the Old Country Pack?
Unlike a lot of lazy franchise DLC that only adds a couple of generic skins, this pack combines story content, useful gameplay buffs, and fun cosmetics that actually fit the game’s 1950s setting. I was surprised to find the story missions are fully canon, not just throwaway filler, and they tie directly to the main protagonist’s family roots in Sicily for extra lore depth. The full list of included content is:
- 3 exclusive story missions set in rural Sicily, with 2 new side characters that tie into the main game’s overarching crime family lore
- 12 period-accurate cosmetic items, including tailored Sicilian suits, vintage weapon skins, and 4 rare 1950s European vehicles you can’t unlock anywhere else
- 2 permanent gameplay perks: 15% higher income from smuggling operations and reduced heat from local law enforcement when you’re operating in rural map zones
Don’t sleep on those gameplay perks, by the way. I thought they’d be minor buffs at first, but the smuggling income boost cut down the time I needed to unlock the final tier of my empire upgrades by almost three hours. The law enforcement buff is less useful if you spend most of your time in the city, but it’s a game-changer if you prefer running rural smuggling rings for lower risk. The only downside of the base content is that the three story missions only take around 90 minutes to beat, so if you’re only buying the pack for new story content, it might feel a little short for the price point.
Pro Tips to Get the Most Out of the Pack’s Story Missions
The story missions have hidden optional objectives that most players miss on their first playthrough. I missed all three of them my first run, and had to go back to unlock the exclusive weapon skin you get for completing all optional goals. Make sure you have a fully upgraded silent sniper rifle before starting the first mission. There’s a segment where you have to take out three guards from a hillside without alerting the rest of the compound, and a standard rifle will make that way harder than it needs to be.
The optional objectives reward you with unique ties to the local Sicilian crime family, which unlocks extra smuggling routes later in the main game. Those routes have 30% lower risk of being raided than the default routes, so they’re worth going out of your way for. You don’t have to do the missions in order, either. I tried doing the third mission first on a second playthrough, and it actually changes a few small dialogue beats in the first two, which is a nice touch most players won’t notice. Don’t start the story missions if you have active heat from the police, by the way. The game doesn’t pause your existing heat level, and if you get chased mid-mission, you can fail the entire objective and have to restart from the last checkpoint.
Best Ways to Use the Pack’s Exclusive Cosmetics and Vehicles
A lot of players write off DLC cosmetics as useless fluff, but these ones actually have small gameplay benefits you might not notice at first glance. First, the Sicilian tailored suits have a 10% higher success rate for extortion interactions with business owners in the main game. I tested this myself over 20 different extortion attempts, and I only got turned down twice while wearing the suit, compared to seven times when I was wearing my usual casual outfit. That’s a small buff, but it adds up fast if you spend a lot of time taking over local businesses.
The vintage weapon skin you unlock for full mission completion has 5% higher recoil control than the base version of the same gun. It’s not a massive difference, but it makes long-range shootouts way easier, especially if you don’t have the highest tier of weapon upgrades unlocked yet. The vintage vehicles are more than just pretty, too. The 1957 Sicily coupe has a higher top speed than almost any other civilian car in the game, and it’s way less likely to draw police attention than the sports cars you unlock later. I use it for all my low-profile smuggling runs now, because it blends in with local traffic way better than any of the flashier cars I own. The only downside to the vehicles is that you can’t customize them as much as the base game cars. You can change the paint color, but you can’t upgrade the engine or add bulletproof plating, so they’re not ideal for high-speed chases or shootouts.
Is the Pack Worth Your Money?
This is the question I get asked most often by other players in my local Mafia community, and the answer depends on what you care about most in the game. If you’re a long-time fan of the Mafia franchise’s story and lore, it’s an absolute must-buy. The three missions add a ton of context to the main character’s backstory, and the side characters are well-written enough that I found myself wishing they had bigger roles in the main game. If you’re a player who focuses mostly on empire building and gameplay upgrades, the pack is still worth it, but only if you use the smuggling perks and extortion buffs. If you never run smuggling operations or take over businesses, you’re not going to get enough value out of the gameplay buffs to justify the cost.
Wait for a sale if you’re only a casual player who logs in a couple times a month. The pack goes on sale for 50% off every few months, and that’s the perfect time to pick it up if you don’t want to pay full price. I also recommend picking it up if you’re into roleplay, since the new cosmetics and vehicles open up a ton of new story possibilities for custom playthroughs. I’ve already started a new playthrough where I roleplay as a Sicilian immigrant building his empire from scratch, and the pack’s content makes that experience way more immersive than it would be with just the base game.
At the end of the day, the Mafia the Old Country Pack is one of the most well thought-out DLC releases the franchise has put out in years. It doesn’t feel like a lazy cash grab, and every included feature ties into the game’s existing lore and gameplay loop in a meaningful way. If you’ve been on the fence about picking it up, I hope this guide gave you all the info you need to make a call that fits your playstyle and budget. Even if you only end up using the smuggling perk, you’ll get more than enough hours of extra enjoyment out of the pack to make it worth the cost.
