If there’s one thing the Mafia series has done consistently right, it’s the setting and narrative. Story and location go hand-in-hand for the series. After all, the prohibition-era locales of previous Mafia titles boldly informed the crime-riddled plots. But with Mafia: The Old Country, setting and narrative are even more intertwined than usual. The prequel gives us a deep dive into Sicily at the turn of the 20th Century. Guns and cars are around, sure, but so are knives and horse-drawn-carriages. This mixture of tradition and innovation kind of seeps into other areas of The Old Country’s design ethos too, and many of those elements find their way onto this list. Here are 15 things we can’t wait to do in Mafia: The Old Country.
Admiring San Celeste Architecture
If there’s one notable difference between the Mafia trilogy and The Old Country, it’s, as the name suggests, the setting. The fictional city of San Celeste sits at the heart of Italy’s Sicily region and forms the origins of the Italian mafia families that would migrate to the locations of previous games. There’s a keen attention to detail regarding San Celeste in particular. Sun-baked weathering is visible on the ancient buildings and there’s a concerted effort to go full authenticity mode regarding the architecture of the region. The studio did their homework, taking in-depth trips to Sicily with a team of photographers to capture the rich variety the region has to offer. To me, The Old Country feels somewhat nostalgic, reminding me of all the historical landmarks within the Assassin’s Creed Ezio trilogy.
Exploring Rural Sicily
But there’s more to admire than the architecture within the towns. Sicily is famous for its beatific hillsides and rich vineyard landscapes – something we get to explore in The Old Country. I know it’s a graphical thing and not an environmental detail per se, but the lighting in particular really appeals to me; it’s just spot-on with its sun-speckled depiction of the Mediterranean coast. The game will make use of this landscape with generous amounts of horse and vehicle segments in-between and during missions. Imagine having all that Unreal Engine 5 open-world tech but fully focused on bespoke areas the protagonist visits. What a concept, huh?
Grabbing Those Collectibles
And it’s because of the greater focus on quality environments that the prospect of collectibles has me interested this time around. If the studio’s portrayal of 1900s Sicily is indeed as good as it looks, I’ll want to seek out excuses to stay in it. We know there are some form of collectibles within the game, but I’m hoping for ones that add to gameplay in some way. Vehicle parts could be one such collectible, rewarding the player with a classic car upon completing a set. Previous collectibles such as magazines are also on the table here, providing less in terms of gameplay, but still rewarding exploration.
Soaking in the Soundtrack
The team applied their goal of historical authenticity to the soundscape of Sicily too, especially with regards to the ambient folk tunes sung by NPCs. San Celeste is bustling with people whistling, humming, and performing in-universe musical performances on the streets. This aspect of the game’s music was heavily researched and pulled from real Sicilian tradition. Meanwhile, the non-diagetic music follows the series’ more cinematic traditions. The music within the Mafia trilogy has a surprising amount of fans, and The Old Country is sure to bring in even more with it’s orchestral, and at times operatic, score.
Getting Our Ears Blown Out by Muffler-Less Vehicles
Like the music, careful attention to detail was put into key aspects of the sound effects. The period-specific vehicles in particular got the royal treatment from the sound crew. The game’s vehicles were recorded from the studio’s real-life test drives of early 20th Century automobiles. These classic cars are shockingly loud in real life due to their lack of exhaust mufflers, allowing us to hear the boldness of each engine in the game more clearly.
Driving Early 20th Century Automobiles
Of course, it’ll be fun just to drive these cars around the Sicilian landscape in general. Alongside the more mission-based driving segments, there’s going to be some freeroam driving too, allowing the player to experiment with the handling of these early vehicles. I’m not expecting any sim-like driving mechanics here, but with the cars sounding and looking as authentic as they do, I can’t help be intrigued to see how they accelerate and corner too.
Seeing the Original Events of Mafia 1 Begin to Form
Fans of the original Mafia trilogy get to piece together the origin story of the crime families featured in Mafia 1, 2, and 3. Mafia 1 starred a character that ended up joining the Salieri crime family and it’s highly likely Enzo will run into the Salieris within the narrative of The Old Country. For those who’ve played Mafia 2, it’ll be a touch nostalgic to re-visit San Celeste in greater detail, as the Sicilian city was first briefly featured within Mafia 2’s opening.
Witnessing Enzo’s Personal Journey
Character development is clearly a big focus of The Old Country. And it’s the main protagonist, Enzo Favara, who’s journey we follow very closely. Enzo was fated to a life of hard labor from an early age. Well, he’s a little more optimistic (naively so) than others, since his growth into an established crime family forms the framework of the story.
Joining the Family
The game is shaping up to be a quintessential coming-of-age story, flavored with mob drama, of course. As Enzo gets initiated into the Torissi mob family, he undergoes a wide range of realizations. There’s no doubt this is a heavily character-driven game, and with the central themes being family and revenge, we can expect lots of twists and turns throughout.
Enacting Revenge
Will Enzo have to betray his blood family for his new crime family? Will he end up backstabbed by someone he trusted most? Well, knowing the media the team took inspiration from, probably. And that has us pretty excited considering the quality of the cinematics and general polish of the presentation.
Engaging in Life or Death Knife Fights
One twist we’re going to get a lot of is the twist of a knife. Knives are arguably the core weapon of choice in the game, which fits the setting considering Sicily’s history of knife-making. The team went to local machine shops to see how craftsmen made knives of the region, and while most won’t really notice, the authenticity is felt in how unique and detailed the weaponry is. You can stab, throw, sharpen, and collect numerous knives throughout the adventure. It’s the ‘realistic’ knife duels that have me particularly intrigued. Hopefully, they have a deflection and counter system in place because it would add to the “life or death” feeling of combat that much more.
Being a Stealth Assassin
Knives inform a major aspect of gameplay: stealth. While we have our reservations about NPC intelligence and whatnot, the stealth kill animations are satisfying. What’s more, distracting enemies with a thrown knife a couple feet behind them is a viable strategy for getting past or jumping them from the shadows.
Being Forced to Improvise
And while it’s possible to go in guns blazing, it’s not exactly viable most of the time. There’s probably going to be too many NPCs given the limited ammo in a level, forcing some amount of stealth or knife gameplay. But it’s the split-second decision-making that I’m especially eager to experience. Every great survival game lives and breathes by its nail-biting improvisation. And The Old Country seems poised to provide enough of a toolkit to improvise fairly and cleverly. The knives provide melee combat for those not looking to sneak through situations, while the reverse is also true for the silent assassin types.
Engaging in Tense Horse-Riding Shootouts
As alluded to before, you won’t just be driving vehicles or riding horses, but fighting off pursuers using an arsenal of firearms atop them too. Some of the most exciting gameplay shown has been of car chase sequences. We can expect a number of terrain difficulties to present themselves during these, but I’m especially looking forward to the shootouts. I’m looking forward to popping an opponent’s tires while dodging oncoming bullets. I just hope the checkpoints are generous because chase sequences have a history of being bad about that aspect.
Sitting Back and Enjoying the Cutscenes
Finally, there’s the absolutely dialed-in cutscenes to look forward to. Even if the gunplay or stealth ends up disappointing us in some regard, it’s highly unlikely the narrative presentation will. Actors are fully voiced and motion captured here, and the supporting orchestra score ties a bow on it all.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.