The Mafia franchise has held a special place in the hearts of many gamers. Known for their strong storytelling, memorable casts of characters, and being one of the main series that brings a movie-like crime story to the gaming world, there’s a good deal of anticipation each time anyone is announced.

Mafia: The Old Country, the newest entry, serves as a narrative prequel to the entire franchise and continues many of the series’ traditions. The story is as top-notch as ever, and it features some of my favorite characters in a game this year. It’s good, but it can perhaps feel like it’s treading familiar ground at times, and some of its gameplay may feel a bit dated for some.

Story

The game sees you play as Enzo Favara, a young man known as a carusu, a term used for boys who were sold to work in the mines during that time. After escaping the mines, Enzo unwittingly stumbles into the territory of Don Torrisi. The Don decides to protect Enzo as the mines he escaped from were under the rule of his rival, Don Spadaro. The story follows Enzo’s transformation from a near-slave to a rising member of the Mafia, eventually becoming one of its most powerful figures.

Pros

As with any Mafia game, the story takes center stage, and much like the other games in the series, the story is well done. The game hits the emotional points very early as we learn that the protagonist Enzo was sold into indentured servitude by his father at a young age and is trying to save up to buy his way out. The game makes you both care about and hate certain characters within a short time. As opposed to chasing the almighty dollar or revenge, which were common things in the old games, themes of loyalty, poverty, freedom, and family are the main themes here (although they were present in past entries too, they really take center stage in the old country).

Enzo is a great protagonist, much like the other characters in the series, but he’s portrayed a bit differently as he’s not immediately portrayed as a dangerous character like others were. Vito Scaletta and Lincoln Clay were both criminals as well as being soldiers in the second and third games, respectively, and while Tommy Angelo in the first game started as a Taxi driver, he showed to have a knack for being a mobster pretty quickly, and there was always an aura of toughness around him.

Enzo didn’t have any ambitions about rising as a criminal or escaping a rough life at first, as he was content just helping around the Don’s estate as a stable boy, but he learns and rises up as the Torissi and other primary characters call on him more. Enzo is a fairly kindhearted man who was thrown into hell at an early age and is willing to help the man who saved him, more than wanting to rise in the ranks at first. Even the,n with each act he performs, you can always sense a bit of conflict within him whenever something major happens.

While Enzo is a great protagonist, I think Don Torissi might be the best character (which is saying a lot in a game full of good characters). From the moment he first appears, the man just exudes pure intimidation, and every time he’s in a scene, he commands it. There’s an aura about him that’s more present than the other mob bosses in past games, such as Sal Marcano or Don Falcone, and while a very intimidating character, the Don often comes off as a very caring character as well as his fury shows when someone comes after his family. Johnny Santiago, the Don’s voice actor, had better be up for some awards at TGA because he managed to portray a sense of calm and quiet, yet at the same time, explosive anger within Don Torissi.

Other strong characters within the game include Isabella, the Don’s daughter, who starts a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance with Enzo. Her story is one of wanting freedom, as after the death of her mother, the Don became more controlling of her. Luca and Cesare are two other very good characters. Luca serves as a mentor figure to Enzo, while Cesare over time becomes a partner in crime and the one who will accompany you on most missions. If a future DLC is planned, I wouldn’t mind seeing it star either of them. There are also throwbacks for fans of the franchise. Leo Galante, a character many know from Mafia 2 and also appeared in Mafia 3, appears in the game, and there are various cameos from other characters people will recognize as well.

While not as strong as its story, the game’s gameplay isn’t bad. The game plays as well as Mafia: Definitive Edition did, and also avoids the focus on open-world gameplay that held Mafia 3 back. Although the game’s locale, San Celeste, is technically an open world, Mafia: The Old Country is a far more linear game. Although there is still exploration and collectables to find for those who do enjoy that, it’s not the focus here and probably for the best, as while Mafia 3 may have had my favorite story in the franchise and introduced one of my favorite protagonists in Lincoln Clay, traversing the repetitive open world definitely detracted from it’s great story. Overall, the old country is a functional 3rd person shooter that does a good job of moving the story along.

If you do take some time to explore it, San Celeste isn’t a badly designed world, and it’s nice seeing a turn-of-the-century type thing where people still live in castle-like buildings, but technology such as cars are now being introduced into the world. At times it can actually feel just like one big well designed level as certain missions will take you all over the level during things like racing missions (nothing nearly as bad as the racing mission in the og Mafia game or DE thankfully) or missions where you have to chase someone down or are just riding to different locales with another character.

Cons

So while Mafia: The Old Country’s gameplay isn’t bad, it can feel a bit dated at times, and one part of it I didn’t like in particular was the knife fights.  The game’s bosses come in the form of knife fights, but they’re all pretty easy and kind of boring overall. None of the enemies really fight any differently, and they seem to come up more often than they need to. It’s less enjoyable than Lincoln brutally taking someone down or the boxing Vito occasionally did in Mafia 2 during melee encounters.

While not badly designed, the number of times you’re forced into stealth also feels a bit out of place in the game. Stealth isn’t unfamiliar in the franchise, but it feels as used here as it was in Mafia 3. The difference is that it felt like it made sense in Mafia 3 since Lincoln was a special forces marine with a mastery of infiltration and guerrilla warfare, but Enzo isn’t anything like that. Stealth occasionally happened in Mafia 1 and 2, but not to this degree. I personally love stealth games, and it functions just fine. Maybe don’t rely on it so much for the next game unless it feels more fitting.

A couple of other complaints are that you’re given numerous unlockable weapons but, you often don’t actually get to use them. The game will often not let you grab a weapon, even if you’re near one of the stashes before you start a mission, and will stick you with a default one, which isn’t nearly as good, especially the pistols.

Lastly, while the story is very good, it does feel a little too familiar. While Enzo is a different character with different motivations than the others and a great protagonist in his own right, it’s still very much a story of someone falling into the Mafia, rising through then becoming disillusioned with it as things go on. Mafia 3 changed things up a bit by having you trying to tear the Mafia down early in the game. Perhaps for a 5th main entry, a different road could be travelled rather than following that same trope.

Final Thoughts

Although the gameplay isn’t going to win any awards, Mafia: The Old Country still delivers what people love about the franchise. It’s a great crime story featuring a new protagonist that holds up with the others in the series and is a nice story-driven experience overall.

Reviewed on Xbox Series S. Thank you to 2K and Hangar 13 for providing a review code.