‘Mafia: The Old Country’ Review
Developer: Hangar 13 | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 13:55
Following a 10 year hiatus, Mafia is back and returning to basics in a spin off prequel set in 1904 Sicily. Releasing at a lower price, the game was advertised was to be more of a linear, story driven experience. For the most part, it achieves its goals but there’s a couple things that hold it back from true greatness.
The Old Country follows Enzo, a slave in a sulphur mine run by the Scadaro family. A series of chance encounters lead to Enzo escaping the mine and ending up under the protection of rival mafioso family, the Torrisi. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it is – the original Mafia title had taxi driver Tommy get caught up with the mob and saved by rival group. The story then follows Enzo’s rise through the ranks of the Torrisi family and his developing relationships with rival and friend Chech, mentor Luca and love interest Sofia. The overall plot plays on beats established in the Mafia franchise as well as crime dramas across media but while it doesn’t change the playbook, it’s well written, well directed and very well voice acted. The game perhaps could stand to be a little longer or perhaps letter bigger moments play out more but that’s another article entirely. The ending has proven quite controversial but personally, I love it. It fits with the games theming and while predictable, caps off the journey quite well.
Apart from the series staple racing missions (this time on a horse and in a car), the gameplay is standard third person shooter affair with some good old mandatory stealth sections to boot. Even playing on Hard (for which I didn’t get the trophy for hence no Platinum time) I found the game to be quite easy. Sure there was a handful of deaths from reckless play but I never failed a stealth section and the gun fights never proved to be any challenge at all. AI is sometimes good with enemies taking strategic positions and flanking but other times they look at walls or just stand on grenades like nothings the matter. Combat and stealth never really change, there are charms you can equip on a rosary bead necklace but the changes are minimal, think I had the first ones I found equipped for the entire game and I can’t imagine anything I found would have drastically changed the general loop.
There’s a handful or more boss fights in the game which take the form of Knife fights. The camera is locked into a boxing/Tekken like way as you and your opponent strafe around each other. You can swipe, stab, dodge and block but the fights never get any more complicated. Your opponent will occasionally try to throw dirt in your eyes but beyond that, most follow the same structure. Every fight is interrupted directly in the middle for a short animation that does take you out of it a little. Your choice of knife also doesn’t matter (as far as I can tell) which seems like a missed opportunity.
Missions flow into each other, perhaps in part due to the storyline jumping days and weeks at a time. Because of this, there’s not really any downtime between missions. Certain missions feel like they’re introducing mechanics to be used in the open world (My main example being the early debt collection/shakedown tutorial) but it’s purely narrative and never brought up again. Pasquale’s dealership is visited a couple times throughout the story, a place to buy new cars and weapons but in reality each mission will give you a car or make you lose whatever weapon you have anyways. This leads to a very big complaint I’ve seen levied at the game which is the complete lack of reason to explore the open world.
The open world is accessible through two menus and its sole purpose (beyond marvelling at the wonderful Sicilian countryside) is to collect the various collectibles – Newspapers, Saint Cards and Fox statues throughout the world. I realise this game was marketed as a linear experience but I think the backlash from Mafia 3 being busywork has Hangar13 to the opposite extreme. The game doesn’t need GTA levels of open world stuff to do but even Mafia 2 allowed you to steal and sell cars and whatnot. The aforementioned issue with Pasquale comes in here – now you can make use of your own custom car and weapon but there’s absolutely nothing to do with them. When I think about it, there’s not a single minigame or side activity. Just on foot combat/stealth or using vehicles. There’s supposedly an update coming to improve the open world but its going have to be fairly sizeable. At the minute it doesn’t justify its own existence.
For those wanting more Mafia, it’s definitely that – more the first two titles than the third but doesn’t do much to establish an identity. Sicily is beautiful as a setting but is more a museum than a playground. If you’re yearning for a game that feels like a PS3/360 era title, you’ll not be left wanting. Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that the game has the bones to be something better than it ended up being, and that’s a shame.
