A moody, $50, story‑first mob drama with gorgeous period detail and knife‑duel showpieces—even if stealth and AI feel a touch old‑school.
Short version: Mafia: The Old Country is a lean, cinematic mob drama that swaps modern open‑world sprawl for a tightly cut narrative set in early‑1900s Sicily. The setting sings, the characters smolder, and the score aches; the gunplay and stealth, less so. At $50 and ~11–13 hours, it’s the rare game that respects your time—though on PC it may not always respect your GPU.
Back to the roots (and the old country)
After years of rumors, Hangar 13 didn’t deliver “Mafia 4” in the modern sense so much as a prequel with purpose. The studio takes the series back to where the mythology started: Sicily in the early 1900s, decades before Tommy Angelo ever slid behind a taxi wheel. You play as Enzo Favara, an exploited sulfur‑mine carusu who’s pulled into the gravitational field of Don Torrisi’s crime family. That premise isn’t just set dressing; the game is built around it—linear, narrative‑driven, and not an open world in the Mafia III mold. Hangar 13 and 2K said as much before launch, and they priced it accordingly.
That structural choice pays dividends. Rather than padding the runtime with errands and map‑mopping, The Old Country focuses on scenes—the kind you can imagine spliced into a 1970s crime epic. One hour you’re threading hairpin roads in a wheezing jalopy to outrun an ambush; the next you’re creeping across terracotta rooftops toward a backroom “conversation.” The cadence feels curated, not algorithmic.
The family business: story & characters
Enzo’s arc is classical gangster tragedy: the boy who swears he’ll never be like them, becoming exactly like them—only sharper, sadder. What distinguishes it isn’t surprise so much as texture. Don Torrisi is equal parts mentor and poison, a man whose warmth is always one applause short of a threat. Rival Don Spadaro—whose mines grind up men and boys—renders the game’s opening chapters especially grim. Reviews have praised how the game uses dialect, custom, and daily ritual to make 1900s Sicily feel lived‑in rather than postcard‑pretty, and they’re right: it’s the little things—how a prayer lingers at a graveside, how a greeting curdles—to make it feel like more than cosplay.
That attention to place steadies a story that, if we’re honest, sometimes plays the hits. You’ll tick through familiar rites: the initiation, the vendetta, the protection run that’s anything but. It’s executed with conviction—shot reverse‑shot cutscenes with measured performances, and several knife‑duel showpieces that land like stage fights, all parry and posture until the hot rush. Not every twist lands, but the point isn’t novelty; it’s inevitability.
Blood, dust, and stubble: how it plays
Moment to moment, The Old Country is a third‑person cover shooter with stealth, broken up by knife duels, driving, and the occasional horseback pursuit. The combat language is familiar—pop out, line up a center‑mass shot, reposition. Stealth works, sometimes too well; routes can be abused when AI pathing gets predictable. The knife system splits encounters into both free‑form scrapping and scripted duels where timing, feints, and spacing matter. Early on, those knife fights are electric; over time, the choreography can start to repeat its tells. Several outlets clocked that same pattern—solid bones, some dated cartilage.
Traversal fares better. Driving is intentionally twitchy in period cars (you feel every cobble), and horseback chases through hill paths are a neat wrinkle that fits the setting rather than fighting it. The studio highlighted those “vehicles & villas” sequences before launch, and in practice they add welcome variety—particularly when a cavalry sprint interrupts the expected alleyway shootout.
A postcard you can bleed on: art & audio
Visually, this is Hangar 13 flexing Unreal Engine 5: sun‑baked vineyards, chalk‑white cliffs, a sea horizon that looks almost too clean to be 1905. Interiors are cluttered with the right kind of period lies—oil lamps, chipped crockery, hand‑me‑down suits. The engine switch paid off in pure cinematic presentation, even if it also upped the tech bar (more on that below).
The standout, though, is the score. Composer BT (Brian Transeau) turns in a mournful suite—strings like a knife being wiped on a tablecloth, drums that sound like bad news coming up a gravel drive. It’s a striking tilt for a composer best known in electronica; the orchestration (via the Czech National Symphony Orchestra) gives the story a kind of sepia grandeur without ever going full Hollywood swell.
It’s also worth noting the language choice that stirred debate pre‑release: the game skips a standard Italian dub in favor of a Sicilian voice track (with Italian available for UI/subtitles). In a story this rooted in place and class, that’s a defensible call artistically—even if some Italian players still bristle at the absence.
Performance & options (and the UE5 tax)
On consoles, you get Quality and Performance modes, with the latter aiming for a steady 60fps and the former pushing resolution and visual bells. It’s also PS5 Pro‑enhanced, with VRR and 120Hz support adding welcome headroom if your display can take it.
On PC, the picture’s more mixed. This is a demanding UE5 game. Even burly rigs report stutters, swollen load times, and the usual “Why is frame‑time spiking in this courtyard?” head‑scratching. Third‑party analyses point to Epic‑preset burdens and advise stepping down to High, where the game behaves more like other UE5 titles. If you’re trying to push 4K with all the trimmings, be ready to tweak—or to lean on DLSS/FSR settings to keep your frame‑time graph from looking like an EKG.
How long is it, really?
If Mafia III felt like a part‑time job, The Old Country is a long weekend. Critics consistently clocked the story at ~10–13 hours, depending on difficulty and how much you savor the scenery (and how often you lose duels because you got cute). This compactness is, frankly, refreshing—and a deliberate design goal signaled months before release.
Value, editions, and post‑launch plans
Hangar 13 and 2K priced the game at $49.99 (with a pricier Deluxe if you want the artbook/score and cosmetics). That’s a smart peg for what this is: a premium, single‑player, finite crime story that doesn’t attempt “forever game” antics. And while the launch experience is resolutely linear, the studio has already confirmed a free “Free Ride” mode is on the way, adding new activities for anyone who wants to chew more of Sicily between story beats. It’s not a pivot to an open world so much as a pressure‑release valve for people who want time in the countryside after the credits roll.
The rough edges
Where does the omertà crack?
- Combat repetition. As noted above, the knife duels are initially thrilling but can overstay their welcome, and general gunplay lacks the crunchy feedback of the genre’s best. Stealth is serviceable but exploitable if you test the AI’s blind spots.
- Mission design déjà vu. You’ll get the occasional standout setup—a chase through hill paths, an underground infiltration—but several missions boil down to “arrive, clear, cutscene, repeat.” Traditionalists will call that “classic”; others will call it “safe.”
- PC optimization. If you’re on a mid‑range build, budget time for settings tinkering. The game’s gorgeous, yes, but UE5 giveth and taketh away.
The highs that stick
- A sense of place. Very few games make place the protagonist; The Old Country comes close. From the mines’ sulfur glow to vineyard twilight, you can practically taste the dust in your teeth. Reviews across the spectrum singled out Sicily itself as the reason this entry works.
- A story sized to fit. At ~11–13 hours and priced at $50, it feels like a self‑respecting miniseries, not a balloon animal.
- Presentation. The UE5 lighting, the costume work, the framing—and BT’s score—conspire to make even in‑engine moments feel well-authored.
Where it lands in the series
If you’re keeping scorecards, The Old Country has reviewed respectably—for some outlets, the second‑best in the series after the Mafia: Definitive Edition remake—while drawing criticism for old‑school design. It’s not a reinvention; it’s a recommitment. If you adored Mafia’s original tone and wished III had been half as long, this is your huckleberry. If you want the open‑ended systemic mayhem of a GTA‑style sandbox, you’ll find it austere.
Buy if…
- You want a compact, cinematic crime story that values mood over mechanical novelty.
- The idea of knife duel set‑pieces, horseback pursuits, and vintage car races through ruins makes you smile.
- You loved the tone of Mafia I/II and wish more games felt like a tightly edited mob film.
Wait for a sale/patch if…
- You’re on PC with a mid‑range rig and value a locked frame rate above all else.
- You’re allergic to linear games and want systemic chaos or emergent sandbox stories.
- You need combat to feel state‑of‑the‑art rather than serviceable.
Verdict
Mafia: The Old Country is a beautifully framed crime fable: confident, concise, and classy—even when it’s standing ankle‑deep in blood. It won’t convert players who wanted a sandbox or cutting‑edge gunfeel, but it absolutely scratches the itch for a certain kind of game we rarely get anymore: one with a clear beginning, middle, and end, built to be finished and remembered. In an era of endless games, that almost feels rebellious.
Score: Recommended (especially on console)
Key facts at a glance
- Developer/Publisher: Hangar 13 / 2K — Engine: Unreal Engine 5. Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC. Release: August 8, 2025.
- Structure: Linear, narrative‑driven (not open world). Price: $49.99 (Standard).
- Typical runtime: ~10–13 hours.
- Post‑launch: Free Free Ride mode update “in the coming months.”
- Console performance modes: 60fps Performance mode; PS5 Pro‑enhanced with VRR/120Hz support.
