Mafia: The Old Country Is the Mediocre Masterpiece You’ll Either Love or Hate
Hello everyone. Strap in, because today we’re talking about Mafia: The Old Country – the long-awaited return of Hangar 13’s gangster series. You remember the Mafia series, right? That franchise that’s always been just a hair away from greatness, like a surgeon operating with a butterknife. Well, after almost a decade in hiding, they’ve returned with a “more streamlined, linear” experience set in early 1900s Italy. Because nothing says innovation like rolling the clock back literally and figuratively.
An Expensive Postcard Simulator
The early buzz is… mixed. Some critics are lavishing praise on the world-building – Sicily has apparently never looked better digitally, to the point you might feel you should be sipping a Chianti and worrying about your olive oil business. Yes, there’s torrisi vineyards bustling with life, cooks gossiping in the kitchen, horse-drawn carriages clopping past. It’s a living diorama, and apparently strolling through it is more rewarding than actually sprinting to objectives. Which begs the question – is this a gangster drama or Microsoft Flight Simulator for pedestrians?
It certainly sounds convincing: impeccable vocal performances, small details, a deliberate pace. But lavish set dressing isn’t the same as compelling gameplay. You wouldn’t rate a hospital highly because the waiting room looked nice. As a doctor, I can confirm – sterile floors do not improve surgical precision.
Gameplay Mechanics Stuck in the Past (and Not in a Good Way)
The game’s shooting? Generic third-person cover mechanics you’ve done before… in your sleep… during the PS3 era. Stealth? Oh, you’ll love this – dated instant-fail segments with checkpointing so bad they’ll have you reliving the worst mission designs from 2007. One reviewer describes sneaking into a government facility to crack a safe, only to be punted right back to the start on one slip-up. It’s as if the devs thought, “How can we make the player’s blood pressure spike faster than a no-scope headshot in Counter-Strike?” Mission accomplished.
And yet, after all that tedious sneaking, you end up in a gunfight anyway. That’s like making a patient lie still for a spinal tap and then deciding to amputate. Completely pointless pain before inevitable chaos.
A Story That Knows Its Lane (For Better or Worse)
You play as Enzo Favara, an indentured laborer clawing his way out of sulfur mines into the warm, bloody embrace of a Sicilian crime family. It’s the earliest chronological entry in the entire series, and yes, it’s dripping with mob-genre stereotypes. It’s all there – loyalty, family, moral compromises, the tragic anti-hero arc. If you’ve seen The Godfather once or twice, none of this will shock you, though it might lull you into a satisfying familiarity. One reviewer calls it “safe and conventional,” which is polite shorthand for “we’ve done this dance before.”
However, there’s something to be said for a project that knows what it wants to do. Rather than bloat the game with a billion half-baked mechanics, Hangar 13 keeps it laser-focused: small-scale character moments, mood, and atmosphere. It’s a confident pivot from the sprawling mess that was Mafia III – but confidence doesn’t automatically translate into exhilaration. Sometimes it just means the developers double-downed on their own mediocrity with style.
Wasting a Perfectly Beautiful Map
This one really stings: the map of Sicily is gorgeous… and criminally underused. Imagine sinking years into building a beautifully detailed high-fantasy castle in Minecraft and then only letting the player explore the courtyard. This is the digital equivalent – a masterfully created backdrop locked away behind a linear story that refuses to let you stretch your legs. It’s a shooter wearing the skin of an open world but without the actual freedom.
The Verdict
Mafia: The Old Country is like a restaurant with a stunning interior, a charismatic waiter, and a plate of pasta that’s fine – just fine – but you’ve had better at a corner joint for half the price. It’s competent, beautifully staged, and blessedly restrained compared to modern overstuffed AAA releases. But the gameplay? A medical miracle in how it manages to survive despite showing symptoms of outdated design, chronic linearitis, and Acute Underutilization of Assets Syndrome.
If you’re here for atmosphere, you’ll love it. If you crave innovative gameplay, groundbreaking design, or even a mafia story that burns new ground – you’ll be left feeling like you’ve been sold a luxury train ticket only to find the thing runs in a perfect, tiny loop. A safe bet? Sure. But safe bets never win big.
Overall impression: Neither a catastrophe nor a revelation – just “good enough” wrapped in a package pretty enough to almost distract you from the mediocrity of the core.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: Mafia: The Old Country Reviews Say It’s Mostly Good Enough, https://kotaku.com/mafia-old-country-reviews-metacritic-roundup-ps5-2000616275
