Mafia: The Old Country Review—Mobsters, Horses, and Just Enough Grit

Mafia: The Old Country review: Here’s your obligatory SEO opener. But seriously—if your idea of fun is hoovering up collectibles like a Roomba with a checklist fetish, Mafia: The Old Country will make you weep into your minimap. If, however, you pine for a tightly managed, narrative-driven trip through 1904 Sicilian mob life—complete with bad dentistry and existential gloom—well, welcome home. Pull up a rickety wooden chair, pour yourself a glass of questionably sourced Chianti, and let’s break it down.

Mafia: The Old Country Review—Ditching the Bloat, Finding the Heart

1. The Return of the Linear, Story-Heavy Mafia Format

Let’s start here, because it’s the first thing you’ll notice: Mafia games were never supposed to be Ubisoft-style open-world bloat machines. The last thing anyone needs is to collect a hundred hats for a guy named Giuseppe. Mafia: The Old Country goes back to the roots—lean, mean, ridiculously story-centric. Missions have actual purpose. There’s narrative momentum. No checklists, no map vomiting icons at you, no side quests about growing tomatoes. The game flies in the face of modern design trends with the kind of anti-commitment you wish your ex had.

This isn’t Red Dead Redemption 2. Your horse won’t develop trust issues, and you won’t have to wipe mud off your boots every eight minutes. Expect a series of quick, sharp missions, clever cutscenes, and a laser focus on narrative delivery. Purists, those who value storytelling over pointless exploration, will find this an act of mercy. For completionists who need to empty every corner of a map? Sorry, you’ll have to go alphabetize your feathers elsewhere.

2. Early 1900s Vibes so Thick You Can Smell the Tomatoes (and Gun Oil)

If Mafia: The Old Country nails anything, it’s atmosphere. Sicilian countryside isn’t just a pretty postcard—it feels lived-in and raw. Old cars sputter and cough along dusty roads. People bicker on doorsteps, dogs bark, and someone’s nonna is always yelling at you to eat more. Audio design? Chef’s kiss. Stand on a hill and just listen: wind through olive trees, distant gunshots, and the kind of quiet paranoia you can only get in a mafia-infested farming village. The period detail is obsessive but never flashy. There’s no climbing towers to reveal half the map—just getting in your wheezing Fiat and cruising is plenty, letting the sense of place seep into your bones.

For the detail-obsessed, this level of environmental immersion is a treat. If you’re a glutton for oddities in world design, check out the strangest World of Warcraft Patch 11.2 bugs for a crash course in how game worlds go off the rails when the details don’t quite fit together—proof that sometimes less is more, especially when you’re not dealing with floating German banks.

3. Action That’s Comfortable—even When It’s a Knife Fight

Mafia: The Old Country won’t win awards for the world’s most innovative shooter mechanics, but what’s here works. Combat is rooted in cover-based shooting with period-appropriate firepower: heavy, awkward revolvers, lever-action rifles, and the very real possibility of your horse getting spooked mid-firefight. The gunplay is messy and tactile—which means you often feel like an actual human in a dangerous world, not Robocop starring in a Godfather remake.

There are stealth segments, too. No, you won’t become an invisible assassin ghosting entire compounds, but you can actually sneak up and shank a fool, which is plenty satisfying. And then there are knife fights—block, strike, hope for the best, try not to cry. It doesn’t revolutionize anything, but honestly, it’s nice to play a shooter that knows exactly what it is and nails the fundamentals. If you want the FPS equivalent of comfort food, Mafia: The Old Country gets the sauce just right.

4. Story: Not New, But Nostalgic in All the Right Ways

If you expect Mafia: The Old Country to light the world on fire with a tale you’ve never heard, lower your cap and reset your expectations. The script is as classic as a red-checkered tablecloth. You play Enzo Favara, a slightly-too-handsome ex-sulphur miner thrust helplessly into mob politics, forbidden romance, overbearing mentors, slimy rivals, and—naturally—lots of gunfire. Sound familiar? Good. This tropey, occasionally melodramatic plot works because the writing is sharp, the characters breathe, and the pacing is deliberate. Yes, you’ll see the twists coming, but sometimes knowing what’s for dinner just makes it all taste better. No cannolis spotted, but I wouldn’t put it past the DLC.

5. Set-Piece Missions with a Purpose (Including THAT Race)

The reason every Mafia fan’s hands still sweat at the word “race” is because of the original game’s legendary (horrible?) endurance test. This time, things are different. The Sicilian race here is fast, beautiful, and only a smidge traumatic—a loving nod to the Targa Florio, with seven minutes of roaring engines and questionable automotive physics. It’s adrenaline, not agony. No artificial game lengthening, no rage quits—just the sweet sting of losing control on a dirt curve. More missions follow this design philosophy: all killer, little filler, and absolutely zero tolerance for grindy nonsense. It’s a tightly orchestrated playlist of big set-pieces, sharp turns, and full-throttle moments. Take notes, every modern map-spewing game designer.

6. Unreal Engine 5: Solid, If Not Transformative

Hangar 13 made the smart move here by transitioning the Mafia series to Unreal Engine 5 for The Old Country. Is it technically astonishing? Not quite—you won’t mistake this for a generational leap. But from the finely textured dirt on Enzo’s boots to the sweat on his brow, it looks and runs damn well. Crashes are rare, and the lighting sells the rustic mood without hitting you over the head with bloom. On PC, performance is refreshingly stable. You will spend less time rebooting or trolling support forums than you would waiting through the legendary Battlefield 6 beta queue nightmare. In my book, that’s as big a technical accomplishment as ray tracing.

7. It’s a Love Letter to the Series—For Better and Worse

Mafia: The Old Country is basically a tribute concert—familiar riffs, comfortable vibes. It won’t out-ambition Rockstar’s sprawling epics, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in focus. The atmosphere oozes love for the source material. There are enough sly callbacks to previous Mafia games that longtime fans will be nudging each other, while newcomers can appreciate seeing Enzo bungle his way into legend (or a shallow grave). The writing sometimes veers into “old-school cheese” territory, but that’s the point—if you’re here, you’re here for that vibe. The result is a carefully built homage to a simpler era in gaming, unashamed and full of grizzled heart.

Final Thoughts: Should You Play Mafia: The Old Country?

If you crave Mafia drama with period flair—minus the mindless map chores—The Old Country will scratch the itch. It won’t rewrite history, but it’s sharp, confident, and alarmingly addictive. If you get bored halfway through, maybe you just don’t like good things.

Still hungry for more smart-mouthed opinions about linear gaming excellence? Check out our take on Guilty Gear Strive 2.00’s overhaul, where pacing meets punch in a completely different kind of classic revival.