Mafia: The Old Country – Review
Reviewed by Karan Parmar | August 8, 2025
Mafia: The Old Country wants to take us back to the roots of the franchise, a time before the neon lights of Empire Bay or the chaos of Lost Heaven. Set in early 1900s Sicily, it paints a more grounded, traditional tale of organized crime. The premise is strong, the setting is fresh, and the narrative has potential. But in its current state, that potential is buried under clunky gameplay, underwhelming visuals, and a rough PC port that seriously hurts the experience.
Story – Familiar but Well-Delivered
The story follows Enzo Favara, a miner whose life is upended after personal tragedy forces him into the world of the Mafia. As he rises through the ranks under Don Torrisi, you’re taken through a linear tale of loyalty, revenge, power, and loss. It’s not exactly original; anyone familiar with mob films or previous Mafia titles will recognize many of the story beats, but it’s told with a steady hand.
Cutscenes are well-directed, characters speak with believable weight, and the slower, more personal pace gives the narrative a bit more room to breathe compared to more action-heavy entries. It’s a smaller story than what we’ve seen in past Mafia games, but it suits the quieter, more intimate world the developers are going for.
Characters – Solid, If Not Revolutionary
Enzo is a decent lead, not as memorable as Tommy Angelo, but grounded enough to carry the story. The supporting cast hits the usual archetypes: the cold yet calculated Don, the loyal friend who might not stay loyal, the corrupt priest, and the femme fatale. While no one breaks new ground here, performances are generally solid, and the writing keeps characters consistent and believable.
Where it really works is in the small character moments, the quiet conversations over dinner, the hesitations before pulling a trigger, and the tension between personal loyalty and Mafia duty. These little moments elevate otherwise predictable arcs.
World Design – Atmospheric But Shallow
The Sicilian countryside is rich with potential. The villages, vineyards, and worn-down ruins offer a refreshing change of pace from modern urban backdrops. Sunlight cuts through olive trees, distant bells ring out, and old stone buildings loom over dirt roads. There’s an undeniable atmosphere here; it feels authentic, lived-in, and historically grounded.
But once you move past the surface, the world starts to feel flat. NPCs don’t respond meaningfully to your actions. Streets feel empty even when populated. Interiors are mostly non-interactive, and exploration rarely rewards your curiosity. It looks like a world you want to get lost in, but it doesn’t offer much once you try to engage with it. Compared to the vibrant, responsive cities in previous Mafia titles, this is a noticeable step back in interactivity.
Gameplay and Mechanics – Clunky and Stiff
The core gameplay is simple: story missions blend driving (or horseback riding), light stealth, and shootouts. The problem is that none of these mechanics feel particularly polished.
Combat lacks weight. Gunplay is serviceable, but hit detection feels inconsistent, and enemy AI is laughably rigid. Stealth sections are frequent but shallow, often boiling down to trial-and-error due to limited mechanics and inconsistent detection. Knife combat feels especially stiff; it’s more about timing clunky animations than reading enemy behavior.
Movement is where the cracks really show. Enzo moves sluggishly, climbs awkwardly, and feels unresponsive in close quarters. NPC animations are robotic, and many transitions-getting in/out of cover, entering vehicles-lack the fluidity you’d expect from a modern release.
If you’ve played the Mafia: Definitive Edition, this will feel like a noticeable downgrade in terms of responsiveness and polish.
Visuals – Beautiful in Concept, But Underwhelming in Execution
For a game built on Unreal Engine 5, Mafia: The Old Country doesn’t impress the way you’d expect. Yes, the lighting system can create some beautiful moments-sunsets over the countryside, moonlight pouring through chapel windows, but textures often look flat, character models can appear stiff, and environmental details feel uneven.
The problem seems to be optimization for real-time rendering. Ray-traced reflections and lighting are present, but they come at a heavy performance cost and don’t add much that couldn’t be achieved with more traditional techniques.
It looks fine in motion but never truly breathtaking, and worse, it doesn’t justify the performance hit it brings.
Audio Design – Immersive, But Inconsistent
One of the game’s stronger elements is its audio. Voice acting is solid across the board, with well-delivered performances that give weight to the dialogue. The soundtrack is subtle and atmospheric, with string-heavy arrangements that fit the time and place well.
Environmental sounds, church bells in the distance, the creak of wooden wheels, and wind through the trees help build a believable world. That said, some effects are inconsistent, like uneven volume mixing in cutscenes or delayed ambient triggers. It’s a good foundation, but not quite polished enough to be called great.
PC Port – Frustrating and Poorly Optimized
This is where Mafia: The Old Country really stumbles. The PC version is in rough shape. Even on high-end hardware, the game struggles to maintain stable frame rates. Unreal Engine 5’s real-time lighting and ray tracing look fine on paper, but they destroy performance, and there’s no baked lighting fallback to keep things smooth.
Mouse and keyboard controls feel under-tuned, with noticeable input delay in menus and combat. There are occasional hitches during longer play sessions. No matter how immersive a game tries to be, performance issues like these constantly break the experience.
In short, this port needs serious work. Unless you’re playing on a very powerful machine or willing to lower settings well below what the visuals justify, expect headaches.
Conclusion – A Good Foundation That Needs More Work
Mafia: The Old Country has all the right ingredients. a unique setting, a grounded story, and a strong atmosphere, but it falls short in execution. The world feels empty despite its visual beauty. The gameplay is stiff, the mechanics feel dated, and the performance issues make it difficult to enjoy even the parts it gets right. If you’re a longtime Mafia fan, there’s something here to appreciate, especially in the quieter story beats and the historical setting. But right now, it feels like a promising concept dragged down by technical problems and underwhelming mechanics.
Rating: 6/10
Special thanks to 2K Games for providing the review code.
© Images and screenshots used in this review are courtesy of Hanger 13 / 2K Games.
Buy the Game
You can purchase Mafia: The Old Country from the following official platforms:
Support the developers and step into the brutal origins of the Mafia, where loyalty is tested and power comes at a price.
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