If you’ve been waiting for a gangster game that feels equal parts cinematic, authentic, and genuinely emotional, our PS5 Mafia the Old Country review breaks down every part of Hangar 13’s latest franchise entry to help you decide if it’s worth adding to your PS5 library. I spent 32 hours playing through the full campaign, testing all the available side content, and poking around every hidden corner of the 1900s Sicilian open world to capture the most honest, unfiltered thoughts possible. This isn’t a sponsored take, so I’ll call out both the stand-out wins that make it one of the best story-driven games of the year, and the frustrating flaws that might make you hold off on a purchase until a sale rolls around. I’ve been a fan of the Mafia franchise since the first game launched back in 2002, so I went into this playthrough with high expectations, and I left with a lot of thoughts, both good and bad.
What Stands Out Most in Our PS5 Mafia the Old Country Review
Right off the bat, the setting is what makes this entry feel so different from every other Mafia game that came before it. Instead of 1930s New York or 1960s Louisiana, you’re dropped into a sun-scorched, fully realized version of 1904 Sicily, where small village feuds turn into bloody gang wars before you even realize what’s happening. Photorealistic Sicilian villages and countryside look so good on the PS5 that I found myself pausing mid-mission just to take screenshots of the sun setting over olive groves or the coastal cliffs at golden hour. Load times are almost non-existent too, even when fast traveling from one end of the map to the other, which is a huge step up from the long load screens that plagued Mafia 3 on older consoles. The gunplay feels weighty and intentional, too. You won’t be able to run into a room full of 10 enemies and take them all out without breaking a sweat, like you can in most arcadey open world shooters. Each weapon has realistic recoil, ammo is scarce, and taking cover is non-negotiable if you want to survive a firefight. The voice acting is another huge win: every single cast member is a native Italian speaker, so the dialogue feels authentic, no cringey fake accents or over-the-top stereotypes that a lot of other gangster games fall back on. Even small side NPCs have distinct personalities, which makes the world feel lived in, not just a set dressing for missions.
Story and Character Depth That Lives Up to the Mafia Legacy
A lot of open world gangster games lean hard on the same “underdog rises through the ranks to become kingpin” trope, but Mafia the Old Country avoids that entirely. The protagonist, Salvatore, is a poor sheep farmer whose family is displaced when local gangsters burn down their farm to seize the land for a new vineyard. He doesn’t join the mafia because he wants power or money, he joins because it’s the only way he can keep his younger sister and sick mother safe and get revenge for the home he lost. Side quests that tie directly to the main story are another huge highlight, because your choices actually have tangible consequences later in the campaign. For example, I chose to help a local widow get her stolen wedding ring back from a low-level gang member early in the game, and 10 hours later, she warned me that rival gang members were waiting to ambush me on my way to a critical mission. I’ve played so many open world games where side quests are just meaningless fetch tasks with no impact, so this was a really welcome change. The story also doesn’t glorify the mafia, which I appreciated. It shows the ugly side of the lifestyle: innocent bystanders getting caught in crossfires, friends betraying each other for small amounts of money, and the constant guilt Salvatore feels for the violent acts he has to commit to keep his family alive. I teared up at the third act twist, which I won’t spoil here, but it’s one of the most emotionally impactful moments I’ve experienced in a video game in the last few years.
Performance and Gameplay Flaws You Should Know About
For all its strengths, the game isn’t without its flaws, and some of them are noticeable enough to ruin the immersion for certain players. The biggest issue for me was the driving mechanics. All the vehicles in the game are authentic 1900s cars and horse-drawn carriages, which means they’re slow, clunky, and incredibly hard to steer. Even a small bump into a fence or a rock will send you spinning out across the road, which is incredibly frustrating when you’re on a timed mission to escape the police or get to a meeting before rival gang members show up. I get that it’s historically accurate, but there’s a line between accuracy and fun, and the driving crosses that line more often than not. There are also a handful of minor bugs I encountered during my 32-hour playthrough, though none of them were game-breaking. I ran into frequent texture pop-ins when entering new areas, especially when driving fast through the countryside. One mission required me to escort a village leader to a safe house, but the NPC glitched through the floor halfway through the trip, forcing me to restart the entire 20-minute mission from the last checkpoint. I’ve seen a lot of other PS5 Mafia the Old Country review takes online that gloss over these bugs, but they’re frequent enough that they’re worth mentioning, even if they don’t ruin the overall experience. The stealth mechanics also feel half-baked. Enemy detection is wildly inconsistent: sometimes they’ll spot you from 100 feet away even if you’re hidden behind a stone wall, and other times you can walk right past them in broad daylight as long as you’re crouching. The side content also gets repetitive after the 20-hour mark. Most of the late-game side quests are either “collect 10 of this item” or “take out this random gang member”, with none of the narrative depth that the early side quests have. It feels like the developers ran out of ideas for side content halfway through development and just added filler to make the game longer.
Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Buy This Game
At the end of the day, this game isn’t for everyone, even if you’re a huge fan of the previous Mafia franchise entries. It’s a slow, story-focused experience that prioritizes narrative pacing over nonstop action, so if you go in expecting something like GTA or Saints Row, you’re going to be disappointed. To make it easier for you to decide if it’s worth your money, we’ve broken down who should and shouldn’t pick it up at launch:
At the end of the day, this PS5 Mafia the Old Country review finds that the game is a strong, memorable entry in the long-running Mafia franchise, with a gripping, emotionally resonant story, stunning visuals, and a level of historical authenticity you won’t find in most other gangster games on the market right now. It’s not perfect, with clunky driving mechanics, inconsistent stealth, and some minor launch bugs holding it back from being a true classic, but if you care more about good storytelling and well-written characters than endless open world filler content, it’s absolutely worth your time. Just go in expecting a slow, methodical burn, not a nonstop action ride, and you’ll likely walk away very happy with the experience.
