Mafia: The Old Country Review

Kai Taylor
Aug 28
5 min read

Gaming Australia's review of Mafia: The Old Country on PS5, featuring the promotional art and front cover of Mafia: The Old Country by Hangar 13 and 2K

Genre: Action/Adventure

Developer: Hangar 13

Publisher: 2K

Release Date: August 8th, 2025

Available On: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Reviewed On: PlayStation 5

Mafia: The Old Country is the first brand-new Mafia game since 2016's Mafia III. Mafia III received mixed reviews upon its release; the main criticisms centred on the game's open-world design and repetitive mission structure. I always think of Mafia III as the dark horse of the series, because it represented a drastic change from the linear, semi-open-world mission structure of the previous games. Mafia III has its fans, but I didn't like the game. Mafia: The Old Country is a return to form in terms of its structure. It abandons the open-world design and reverts to linear missions within a large map, similar to Mafia and Mafia II. This change makes Mafia: The Old Country a nice welcome back for the series and is now one of my favourite games in the series. The tale of the Torrisi crime family is so well-written, and the performances are stellar. Top that off with beautiful visuals and fantastic music, and you have a fun return to one of gaming's most underrated franchises.

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

Mafia: The Old Country takes place more than 30 years before the original Mafia, and it has no connection to any subsequent games. You play as Enzo Favara, a carusu (a Sicilian term for 'boy') who works in the Spadaro crime family's sulphur mines in Sicily. After narrowly escaping the mines after an incident, Enzo finds himself on the property of Don Bernardo Torrisi, head of the Torrisi crime family. The Don takes Enzo under his wing, and over the course of several years, he works his way up the ranks of the family, participating in their activities and battles.

I cannot say anymore about Mafia: The Old Country's plot without spoiling it. To put it simply, the story is by far the best part of the game and is one of the best-written video game narratives I have seen this year. The way the plot unfolds keeps you on edge from start to finish, and it did not disappoint in any way. The story is not overly long; it took me just under 12 hours to complete the game's story, but it's beautifully paced and never overstays its welcome. The performances of the actors are also incredible, particularly those of Enzo (Riccardo Frascari), Don Torrisi (Johnny Santiago), and Luca Trapani (Alberto Frezza). It sometimes goes over your head when actors give performances in motion capture suits, but this is certainly not one of those occasions. These three actors in particular are fantastic and deserve to get recognition at the end of the year for Best Performance at The Game Awards.

Cutscene from Mafia: The Old Country developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K, featuring Don Torrisi inducting Enzo into the Torrisi crime family.

Mafia: The Old Country really lets the performances shine, thanks to the orchestral soundtrack. It's one of the most cinematic soundtracks I have heard this year. It's not the best soundtrack I have ever heard, but the beautiful strings, combined with the soft piano, make the soundtrack worth a listen outside of the game. The soundtrack is available to stream on Spotify.

NOT JUST A CARUSU

If you have played Mafia or Mafia II, this game will be immediately familiar to you. The game takes place over a series of chapters, each with a distinct objective. Some later missions in the game extend over multiple chapters. The missions involve driving or riding your horse to a location and then completing the assigned objective. This style is what the original Mafia excelled at, and what Mafia III fell short of. The missions may not have the same variety as other games in this style, but they certainly showcase the game's beautiful visuals to the players. Sicily is already a very picturesque region in Europe, but Mafia: The Old Country shows off how beautiful the area was more than 100 years ago. The lush green fields, dusty roads, ancient cities, and even the underground cellars of the Torrisi household are beautiful. Mafia: The Old Country is a visually stunning game, especially when played in 4K on the PS5, as I did.

Gameplay footage of Mafia: The Old Country on PS5 featuring one of the many vehicles in the game and the stunning visuals

Throughout missions, you will mainly be taking down enemies with shooting or stealth. The shooting mechanics are just as you would expect from any modern third-person shooter; work your way through an area, taking cover when you can, aiming your shot and taking down enemies whenever you have an opportunity. The shooting is similar to Uncharted in terms of the balance of enemies, cover opportunities, and especially the weapon system. You can only hold two weapons at once: a handgun and a larger weapon like a rifle or a shotgun. If you run out of ammo for a gun, you will have to pay attention to where enemies have fallen and take their weapons to use for the next area. Uncharted nails this balance; Mafia: The Old Country does not do it as well, because ammo is absolutely everywhere, and you never feel like you're in danger during any encounter. However, it still does its job decently enough.

A SMALL STEPBACK

While I appreciate the lengths that Hangar 13 has gone to bring Mafia back into the gaming limelight, there are several areas where Mafia: The Old Country takes a step back. The most annoying flaw in the game is its performance on the PS5. You have the option to play in Fidelity mode (30fps with ray tracing) or Performance mode (60fps). Whenever this option appears, I always prefer Performance mode because I am willing to sacrifice some graphical details in favour of a smooth frame rate. However, playing Mafia: The Old Country in Performance mode is bitterly disappointing. Whenever you are engaged in an intense combat scenario or riding a horse at high speed, the frame rate often drops, which can be very frustrating. After four hours of playing the game, I had to switch to Fidelity mode because the frame rate kept dropping. Fidelity mode ran significantly better, and I eventually grew accustomed to the 30 fps performance (I am not a frame rate snob, I do prefer 60 fps, but I don't mind playing a game at 30 fps); however, it was still disappointing that the game couldn't maintain a consistent frame rate.

Gameplay footage of Mafia: The Old Country on PS5, featuring Enzo shooting down Spadaro soldiers who are in his way.

Another flaw in the game is the stealth sections. They are not bad by any stretch, but the game is overflowing with them, and there's little to no difference in how you do each one. Some stealth sections also drag on for so long that it feels like there are more stealth scenarios than actual shooting sections in the game. I am not 100% confident in confirming that, but it certainly feels like it.

My final critique of Mafia: The Old Country is the collectibles. These collectibles are fine on their own, and they give gamers a decent amount of replayability if you are going for 100% completion. The collectibles I am referring to are the Charms, which you can equip to make Enzo better in different areas of the gameplay. The problem is that whenever I would go to the merchant to exchange the charms to upgrade Enzo, the mission I was on would not let me enter the store. I understand that this may be a subjective criticism. Still, it made me disregard many of the collectibles in the game, and I continued without them until I finally had the opportunity a few hours later.