I’ve loved some of the releases in the Mafia franchise so I was really looking forward to this one, unfortunately I was disappointed.
Anyway, here’s my review of ‘Mafia: The Old Country‘, as usual, be warned, there will be spoilers and annoying detail obsessed nagging.
First the trailer:
The game is gorgeous, these days that’s not much of an achievement because computers can handle so much these days, but it’s of course not just about making everything look pretty, it’s also about style and atmosphere, just look at the intro page alone:
So we get to play young Enzo, a poor kid working in the mines in Sicily in 1904.
We get to do some dirty work in dark claustrophobic mineshafts:
The mine scene looks good and authentic, yay child labour:
Unfortunately things go badly wrong, we get in serious trouble, barely escape the mine, almost get killed by thugs but they try this on some gangster’s land and he doesn’t like that, so we’re saved and given a job at the gangster’s lovely villa:
The work is dirty and unpleasant but better than what we did at the mine:
Oh and there’s a pretty lady there… of course we fall in love and of course she’s the boss his daughter… rather predictable:
Of course the cars look great:
We slowly start to feel more at home with the family, especially when we have these typical Italian outside feasts like we know from the commercials:
We ride around delivering messages while we enjoy the wonderful countryside:
And I pause to appreciate some wonderful ceramic drainpipe:
We have a great time at the town fair:
And win a horse race:
We get to deliver some bottles, which gives us an excuse to be alone with the lovely Isabella who doesn’t seem to own many dresses:
As we deliver bottles somehow the crate we carry remains full, which would be fine for a game made years ago but in 2026 you can’t help but notice this immersion breaking detail and know that in many other games they do this right:
Of course some thugs bother us and I fight them, defending Isabella, giving me some credit with the family:
Just look at the view:
A lot of effort was put into creating this world and it’s truly nice to ride through a town:
Rather enjoyed this little mini game, getting a car started:
And there’s something for the history addicts of 1905, we get to see Roman and medieval ruins!
Isabella teaches us how to use a box camera and the instructions are correct, unlike in some other games… yes I’m looking at you Red Dead Redemption II…
We get to make a few photos now and then:
And we’re doomed…
Besides working my way up the crime family ladder, I also stop my buddy from bothering poor ladies trying to do the laundry, as any gentleman would:
Such a lovely kitchen:
Just enjoying the wonderful view of these people working in the field:
The missions are okay, you usually get in gunfights that aren’t much to write home about, they’re not bad but also not that exciting or original.
If you’re a gamer, you’ve been here before, you’ve done the take cover, flank and shoot 3422 billion henchmen before, but the sneaking into a gorgeous villa was fun, so much to see:
But here I noticed a few absolutely unacceptable things for an 2025 game.
You shoot at windows and they don’t break… come on, we’ve had those in games for decades, it’s what we expect and it totally ruins the immersion if it doesn’t work:
The same goes for lights, here the glass does break but the light doesn’t go out, again something you expect in games these days:
Maybe I’m just a violent, soulless, psychopath, but the missions didn’t really touch me emotionally, just once was I ordered to shoot a man who was begging for his life, who mentioned his family, but as a proud soldier for the family I didn’t even let him finish his sentence.
It would have made the game so much more interesting if there were scenes where you actually felt bad about what you just did, I’ve known a few criminals (don’t ask) and they all had PTSD from some of the things they did.
If I had written this game there would have been missions where you have to kill someone who is at home with his family, having a wife and kids begging you, standing in front of their dad, you having to drag them away.
Or maybe a shoot out where innocent bystanders get shot, you know, the missions that actually stay in your mind for a while, I didn’t have that with this game:
Talking of being a bloodthirsty mad woman, I also think that it’s silly that we can’t shoot innocent civilians, come on game, I’m a criminal, mobster, evil guy, I should be able to do what I can do in real life, think of the immersion, the realism:
Anyway, being a good soldier means that we’re soon made part of the family, watching that ceremony was fun and fascinating:
Of course I also kept an eye out for historical inaccuracies.
Sorry game, but there’s no way you can have a gramophone playing in a driving car, even if the record isn’t even rotating…
The market square was rather nice and felt familiar, I had seen this before:
So I quickly downloaded ‘Mafia II’ from 2011 and yep, there it was, I liberated that place in 1944 in that game, I really enjoyed that little link between the two games:
There’s also a car race in the game, I’m not that keen on race missions, find them a bit dull, but it looked nice:
We won the race of course:
I was very annoyed about not being able to push this man into the water, I know, I’ve been playing Hitman too much…
Surprised to bump into a Roman:
It is very frustrating when a game has delicious looking food but you can’t eat it:
Very nice old light switch, yes I look for those details:
The entire game takes place on quite a small map, so it’s nice when we get to travel to the opera house in Palermo:
Murder in the opera:
Pretty much all missions end with gun fights, which makes them a bit boring and predictable, but at least I enjoyed looking around the place:
Going below the building was also fun:
Every storyline also ends the same, in a very silly way.
You go to a location, shoot a few billion bad guys and then eventually deal with the boss.
I hate boss-levels, especially when the bosses are somehow much stronger than everybody else, it’s so unrealistic.
In this game the last fight of the chapter is ALWAYS done with knives.
It’s ridiculous.
There you are, armed to the teeth, guns, grenades, you name it, you wipe out half a town and then somehow, mysteriously, you lose everything and have to deal with some bad guy in a knife-fight…
One knife fight is fun, two I can handle, but there’s a lot and they’re not that exciting.
Defeating your enemy isn’t that much of an achievement nor does it feel very rewarding:
That is a lovely Thonet chair though:
Although it’s predictable, I did enjoy the last part of the game taking place while a volcano erupts, it’s very atmospheric.
It would have been even more fun if this all took place in the town, with ash & rolling lava streams, but alas:
And of course we have to defeat the big bad guy with another stupid knife fight…
Yes, that was the Don, he was very angry, just because we knocked up his daughter and wanted to run away to the US with her.
I think it would have been a much more interesting finale if we cared more for our enemy and he more for us.
Of course he is angry, of course he wants to kill us, but I think it would have been more interesting if the Don thought of us as a son, if we loved him like a father, if he didn’t want to kill us because he hated us but because he had no choice and that we didn’t really want to kill him either.
It would have been a whole different fight if it wasn’t such a black and white story.
I won’t spoil how it ends… because I did like that bit.
I also have to say that the acting is pretty good and I liked the characters.
For the very last part of the game we get to play Isabella, escaping her house:
I love this bed behind a curtain:
Yeah that volcano is very upset:
She fights like a lion, which is nice as for much of the game she just needs saving:
Burn everything down, burn it all down and don’t look back:
So historically speaking the game is pretty decent, everything looks fine and the world is made with love and eye for detail.
But it’s a small world, compared to other similar games.
I know, we’re spoiled these days, but there’s no going back.
I finished this game in 13 hours, I had fun, but overall I’m disappointed because there’s practically zero replayability.
With other words, now that I’ve finished it, I won’t be returning to it.
Just to compare, I spend over 300 hours on Mafia 2, returning to it many times.
Because with that game, after you finish all the levels, you come back because it is just such a delight to race around the amazing world while causing havoc and listening to 1950s music.
That game is one of the best games I’ve ever played.
And this is why I’m so disappointed in this game, on it’s own its a decent game, but if you compare it to its predecessor… well it’s just not that good.
I spend over 320 hours on Kingdom Come Deliverance I and over 240 hours on Kingdom Come deliverance II, again because of the replayability.
Once you finish the story, you keep coming back because the world calls you back, you want to go explore some more, ride around, fight some bandits or just wander around the towns.
I do not have that desire at all with Mafia: the old world.
So, my advice is to wait for a very good sale, get it cheap, it’s not worth the full price.
If you enjoyed this review, check out my list of other films, tv shows and games I’ve reviewed before:
https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2022/11/14/my-reviews/
Fake History Hunter 