I went into my review of Mafia The Old Country with pretty high expectations, as a long-time fan of the Mafia franchise who’s replayed Mafia 3 at least three times for its gritty, grounded take on 1960s organized crime. I spent 28 hours playing through the main campaign, side missions, and messing around in the open world to get a full picture of what the game offers, for both long-time franchise fans and players picking up a Mafia game for the first time. I didn’t just rush through the main story either; I took time to test side content, interact with NPCs, and see how well the open world holds up when you’re off the critical path.
Core Gameplay Breakdown in Our Review of Mafia The Old Country
One of the first things you’ll notice when you boot up the game is how smooth the core gameplay feels compared to earlier entries in the franchise. The cover-based shooting mechanics are responsive, with different weapons having distinct recoil and damage profiles that make each fight feel unique, instead of just being a generic point-and-shoot affair. You don’t have to worry about bullet sponge enemies either; most go down with one or two well-placed shots, which keeps combat fast-paced and satisfying, especially when you’re ambushed during a smuggling run. One thing that stood out to me during this part of the playthrough is how well the difficulty scales as you progress, so you never feel like missions are too easy or unfairly hard.
Driving is another highlight for me. The period-accurate vehicle physics feel weighty but fun, so you won’t go flying off the road if you take a corner a little too fast, but you also can’t treat a 1920s sedan like a modern sports car. I did run into a few small bugs with driving AI during my playthrough, though; sometimes civilian cars would stop dead in the middle of the road for no reason, or swerve into me even when I had the right of way. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it can be annoying when you’re trying to outrun the cops after a bank heist.
The notoriety system works really well too, and adds a nice layer of strategy to every mission. If you get caught committing a crime by a witness, they’ll run to the nearest cop, and you’ll have a small window to stop them before they report you. If you do get a wanted level, the cops will respond with appropriate force for the crime you committed: a fistfight will only get a few beat cops on your tail, while a shootout in the middle of downtown will bring in swarms of armed officers and even roadblocks. Stealth options are also surprisingly robust, so you can sneak through most missions without firing a single shot if that’s your playstyle.
- Pros: Responsive combat, realistic driving, flexible playstyle options for all missions
- Cons: Occasional AI bugs, limited side content variety, smaller open world than other crime titles
- Best for: Players who prioritize tight, well-written story over endless open world filler content
Storyline and Character Depth Analysis
Let’s be real, most people play Mafia games for the story, and Mafia The Old Country does not disappoint here. The game is set in 1920s Sicily, following a young man named Salvatore who moves back to his family’s home village after his father is murdered by a local crime boss. The story doesn’t pull any punches; it shows the brutal reality of organized crime in rural Sicily, without glorifying the violence or the power that comes with being part of the mafia. I appreciated that the writers didn’t make Salvatore a generic “good guy” either; he makes selfish, cruel choices as he rises through the ranks, and you feel the weight of those choices as the story goes on.
The character writing is easily the strongest part of the game. Every main character feels like a real person, with their own motivations, flaws, and loyalties that don’t always align with yours. Salvatore’s arc from a naive kid who just wants to avenge his dad to a hardened mob boss who has to make impossible choices feels earned, and none of the plot twists feel forced or out of left field. I was genuinely surprised by a few of the big reveals in the third act, and I’ve played enough crime games to see most twists coming from a mile away.
The side character storylines are just as well written as the main plot, too. You can build relationships with different villagers, mob associates, and even local cops, and your choices with them will change how the story plays out in small but noticeable ways. For example, if you help a local farmer protect his land from a rival gang, he’ll give you free supplies during the final mission, which makes the end fight a lot easier. I did wish there were a few more side character arcs, though; the ones that are there are great, but there’s only around 10 of them total, and I finished all of them halfway through my playthrough.
Open World and Environmental Design Details
The open world of rural 1920s Sicily is absolutely stunning, and it’s clear the dev team spent a lot of time making it feel authentic. Every village, vineyard, and mountain road feels lived-in, with little details like kids playing in the street, old women hanging laundry outside their houses, and farmers tending to their crops that make the world feel alive, even when you’re not doing missions. The day-night cycle and weather effects are also really well done; there’s nothing quite like driving down a dirt road at sunset, with the orange light hitting the vineyards on either side of you. I found myself stopping randomly during drives just to take screenshots of the landscape more than once during my playthrough.
That said, the open world is a lot smaller than what you might be used to if you play games like Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row. It only takes around 10 minutes to drive from one end of the map to the other, and there’s not a lot of random stuff to do when you’re not on a mission. There are a few side activities like smuggling runs, street races, and collectible hunting, but none of them are deep enough to keep you occupied for more than a few hours after you finish the main story. Some players might see that as a negative, but I actually prefer it to bloated maps full of repetitive tasks that don’t add anything to the experience.
I don’t see the small map as a negative, personally. A lot of open world games fill their maps with meaningless filler content just to make the world feel bigger, and I’d much rather have a smaller, well-crafted map that’s fun to explore than a huge empty one with nothing to do. The environmental storytelling here is top notch too; you can find little notes and artifacts around the map that tell the stories of the people who live in the villages, which adds a lot of depth to the world even if you never interact with those characters directly.
Is Mafia The Old Country Worth Buying?
This is the question I get asked the most by friends who are thinking about picking up the game, and the answer depends on what you’re looking for in a crime game. If you want a huge open world with hundreds of hours of side content, endless customization options, and chaotic multiplayer modes, this probably isn’t the game for you. But if you care about well-written stories, memorable characters, and solid core gameplay, you’ll almost certainly love it. As I mentioned earlier in this review of Mafia The Old Country, the game’s biggest strength is its writing, and that’s more than enough to make up for its smaller flaws.
The main campaign takes around 15-20 hours to finish, depending on how much side content you do, and it’s a consistently fun, engaging experience from start to finish. I didn’t hit a single boring mission during my playthrough; every mission advances the story in a meaningful way, and there’s very little filler content to slog through. Even the fetch quests feel purposeful, because they’re tied to the side character arcs you’re working on. I never found myself skipping cutscenes either, which is rare for me these days, since a lot of game cutscenes feel like unnecessary padding.
The game is also pretty well optimized, even on mid-range PCs. I played it on a PC with a RTX 3060 and 16GB of RAM, and I got a consistent 60 FPS on high settings, with almost no frame drops or crashes during my entire playthrough. The console versions run well too, from what I’ve heard from other players, with the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions running at 4K 60 FPS with no performance issues. There’s also free post-launch content planned for the next year, including new side missions and a short story expansion, so you’ll get more value for your money down the line.
At the end of the day, this review of Mafia The Old Country makes it clear that the game is a love letter to long-time Mafia fans, and a great entry point for new players who want to see what the franchise is all about. It’s not perfect, and it has a few small flaws that keep it from being a 10/10, but it’s still one of the best narrative-driven crime games to come out in the last few years. If you’re a fan of crime stories, well-written characters, and solid gameplay, you should absolutely pick it up the next time it goes on sale, or even pay full price if you don’t want to wait.
