Mafia: The Old Country Review

Mafia: The Old Country Review: The game made it’s launch on August 7, 2025 and I got a chance to play the game on the launch day. We once again thank developers for sending us the key and developing this incredible game. Now, let’s get into the review.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This review might contain some spoilers.

Mafia: The Old Country Review: Offering Great Story

After Mafia 3, we have been waiting for new Mafia game since Mafia 3 was not a successful game because of certain reasons. After 9 years, we got new Mafia game and I can say Mafia: The Old Country is a game which worths the wait.

Mafia: The Old Country’s story evolves around character named Enzo. Enzo works in mines because his father sold him to the company many years ago. He got no chance but to work here because he needs money and one day, an accident happens in mines and Enzo’s executives sent them in mines, search for coworkers since no sound came from them for a while. When Enzo and his friend get in mines, they learn that gas leak is happening in mines and all the other miners died because of gas leak. Later the same gas leak keeps going and Enzo barely makes out of mines but his friend cannot.

Later on surface, things went south, IL Merlo and Enzo makes a knife fight, ending up gas leak keeps going and whole place starts to exploding. Enzo barely makes out of there alive, he doesn’t want to work there anymore because he is tired of being acted as slave, he wants to make difference. He runs there with horse and hid somewhere. Later, IL Merlo and his men finds him and corner. The moment he thinks he cannot escape, Don Torrisi, one of famous Italian mob leader makes appearance and took Enzo protection in his villa. At that time, Enzo’s life changes into something different. He is not the old miner anymore, his life changes into something different. Now, he is working for Don Torrisi.

With faith and hard work, Enzo became part of this family. Just like Don Torrisi says, in this family, loyalty is everything. You have to do what needs to be done and you cannot disobey the order. Now, Enzo is not the same miner before, he raised from this hell, but now he has to murder, steal and follow every order made by this family. This family comes with difference. Enzo found new home, new job and new lover, Isabella. Isabella is Don Torrisi’s daughter and obviously, he won’t except this relationship. That’s why they need to hide this relationship, also, Don Torrisi has other plans to make arrangement, he has been controlling Isabella since she born. He wants her to marry someone else.

The relationship between Enzo and Isabella affects the whole story. Mafia: The Old Country’s story splits apart two sides. One side is that Don Torrisi wants more money and he wants to keep his place. There are other mobs, they want to have what he has. The other side is that Enzo wants a future with Isabella. But Don Torrisi wouldn’t just allow that and this life is too much for them to have a future.

More Action, Races and Knife Fights

Mafia: The Old Country follows linear gameplay where you take mission and follow the mission requirement. Sometimes there are some side missions which you want to do as well but not too long side missions since the game wants you to follow main storyline, not dug into multiple side quests and actually forgot the main storyline. Mafia games were always like this, half linear gameplay, not many chance to freeroam, instead explore the world with multiple quests. One thing we can say is that maybe it would be better if we had a more chance to go into stores, talk with other characters. That way player would interact with more things during gameplay but that’s not so important, at least for me.

If you played old Mafia games, you are definitely familiar with driving mechanics of the franchise. Driving car is always difficult in Mafia games. This doesn’t changed in Mafia: The Old Country. We can also ride horse, which feels much better but there are some race missions and you are obligated to drive a car no matter what. What’s where things go south because controlling cars will give you hard time in Mafia. Yes you can avoid some driving sequences thanks to Skip Drive option, but going through race missions are necessary. At least it’s not too much so we don’t have to worry about it too much, we can just skip drive in the other parts or use horse for entire game if no other character is with us.

On the other hand, knife fights are my favorite thing in Mafia: The Old Country. I really loved the dodge, parry mechanics. Moves that you have to dodge resembles with big X symbol, that way you can dodge and take advantage against your enemy. I’m so glad developers added this sequence and make it frequent and the amount is just right. Not too much, not too low but very decent scattered among the gameplay.

Successfull Character Development

There are multiple lessons Mafia: The Old Country wants to teach players. The most important one is that “an enemy can’t hurt you like a friend” that one messages makes sense once you finish the whole game. You actually have to remember that line Don Torrisi said in the game. For me, I wasn’t aware of that until I watched the finale. That’s the thing affected me in the Mafia’s storyline. Well written story, narrative and deserved ending to the game. But I wish there were more endings in the game, I would love to see other sides for the story. They don’t need to be canon, just to show players how this story could end if things were going differently.

If we switch back to our main character, Enzo, he started the life from bottom. He were working as miner, his life was nothing until Don Torrisi took him into his work. Now he has to murder and steal but not a slave anymore but he need to follow orders given by him. If he doesn’t, then the world turns upside down, you can’t go against Italian Mafia leader, they can tear you apart that no other piece left from you. That threat gives the horror to all family members. Once you work with them for a while, you become part of this family and you cannot betray your family.

Enzo chooses to take the power in his hands and follows his desires: marry with Isabella and take care of their child. That’s why they decide to travel to America and start a new life there, but that plan never happens for this two. Don Torrisi knows everything and he prevents it from that happening. Like all Mafia players, we were aware that Mafia story cannot end with happy ending but developing such good character and then losing it in front of you is emotional action for us, gamers. Mafia developers are experienced with this action, this happened before with Vito and Tommy. Both were good characters and we seen them going up and then down.

Mafia: The Old Country also features well written support characters. The Mafia leader, Don Torrisi is intimidating character from the first time we see him. Cesare, Luca are characters we mostly spend our time together during our playthrough. Spadaro, IL Merlo, Fontanella and other enemy character we go against are all well created and acted characters. Voice actors made successful job to bring these characters into life. You don’t feel strange to them at the end of game, you learn your friends, who stood with you and against you. That’s the thing made this game successful regarding the story. Character development is well written for all characters, not just for Enzo. We empathize with Enzo, the same time we also feel the same for supporting characters as well.

Incredible Battle Sequences, Fighting with Enemies Feels Good

The most important thing in the games are shooting mechanics and the realistic effect weapon made in the player. I really liked the battles in Mafia: The Old Country, there are multiple weapons you can use. Stealth is good option too, if you want to avoid detection, you can follow stealth way and kill your enemies without making any sound. Game lets you do both. You can even dump bodies to alert other enemies, but I’m not very happy with enemy behaviors regarding stealth. I noticed few flaws in the AI, but it didn’t affect my gaming experience because I mostly prefered the noisy way, fight enemies with guns.

In Mafia: The Old Country, you can equip few updated to make Enzo more dangerous. These updates features things like looting faster, reloading faster or gain few seconds invisibility if you are almost dying. These updates just feels right and it’s good addition to the game.

Collectibles are one thing that we, players love to collect. That tradition didn’t change in the Mafia: The Old Country. There are few collectibles you can find, if you are achievement hunter, you are welcome to collect all of them and open the regarding achievements from it.

What About Performance?

During my gameplay, I haven’t experienced problems with performance in the game. Mafia: The Old Country meets the specs that written in the official page. I had smooth experience with my PC and never had any bug or performance issue and played the game in high quality. Some old specs PC’s might have performance issues, so it’s better to look into Minimum and Recommended PC Specs for the game.

Great Addition to Mafia Franchise, We want More

Mafia: The Old Country is offering great experience for us, +10 hours of gameplay with joy and tear. I personally enjoyed every moment of this game. I even wanted to game to last longer. If you are thinking the same way like I did, starting the game again is good option for us because personally, I will finish it again and taste this game more. I hope developers will also add Photo Mode to the game so we can take cool screenshots from the game as well. Because I personally enjoy using Photo Mode. Traveling in Sicilia, exploring this world and enjoying the sunset in this world while taking artistic screenshots is thing I like to do in the games.

Are We Recommending Mafia: The Old Country?

I spent 12 hours to beat the game once and enjoyed every second of it. After Mafia III, we were so hungry for new Mafia game and thanks to developers, we got this incredible game. I’m sure every Mafia player will enjoy this game and not regret any moment they spent in this game. If the sales are good, we are confident to get more Mafia games. Hangar 13 wanted to test how we react to this gameplay and story and they will evolve their upcoming game based on the reviews they received.

I personally want to thank developers for this game and giving us a chance to experience this journey. I’m looking forward to see more Mafia games and in the meantime, I will play Mafia: The Old Country just like I did for previous Mafia games.

You can buy the game from Steam page.

Read More: Mafia: The Old Country Made Decent Start