Mafia: The Old Country - Game Review

Mafia: The Old Country – “I will make him an offer he cannot refuse.” (“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” – original) – immortal line of the character “The Godfather” Don Vito Corleone in the classic film The Godfather not only portrays the power of the mafia world, but also is a guideline for the spirit of the game series Mafia for more than two decades. First launched in 2002 by Illusion Softworks (later 2K Czech), this series has been associated with the childhood of many 8X generation gamers, including the writer.

Contemporaneous with Grand Theft Auto (GTA), Mafia quickly asserted its position as “The Godfather” of the third-person shooter action game industry. But different from GTA prone to chaos, free and liberal play, Mafia stands out thanks to its meticulously recreated historical context, rich script and cinematic storytelling rhythm.

But after the success of the first two parts, when given Hangar 13 to develop, Mafia III became a big “stumble”. Following the “open world” trend causes the game to have a large map but the gameplay is repetitive, lacks depth, and loses the sophistication that is the soul of the series. Many fans are even worried that this game series will gradually fall into oblivion.

But at Gamescom in 2024, Mafia: The Old Country suddenly appeared as “an offer that cannot be refused” from Hangar 13 sent to fans, a promise to bring the brand back to the core values of the game series, promising to fully recreate the oppressive, tense and magical atmosphere of mafia organizations, where every decision comes with a corresponding price.

As the name suggests, Mafia: The Old Country will take players back to the “cradle” of the mafia: the island of Sicily, Italy in the 1900s, the time when shadowy families began to spread their shadow of power throughout Europe and across the ocean.

So can Hangar 13 really regain trust from longtime fans of the game series? Let’s find out with Vietgame.asia through the following article.

Table of Contents

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A cinematic “party”.

Mafia: The Old Country opens with the story chapter “Tremori” – which means “tremor” in Italian, both making a strong impression and recalling the immortal starting point of the story. Mafia first part.

Instead of noisy and bustling street corners, players will step into the oppressive darkness of a sulfur mine, where Enzo Favara, a poor miner, and his friend Gaetano work hard to make a living every day. But in just a fateful moment, a violent shaking caused the tunnel to collapse, and from that moment of life and death, Enzo’s fate took a turn, drawing him into a whirlwind of bloody disputes between mafia clans on the island of Sicily.

From an anonymous person entering the underworld, with his reckless and ambitious personality, Enzo gradually becomes the right-hand man of the organization, but is also caught up in a cold and cruel machine, from the purges of opposing gangs to the money printing mission that extends its “octopus tentacle” to the US empire. The whole journey appears like a classic mafia movie, with a storytelling style imbued with “slow but penetrating” art, the deeper you go, the more difficult it is for the player to stop. out.

Seamless experience, unchanging spirit

One interesting thing is the more you play Mafia: The Old Countrythe writer recalls his childhood in the early 2000s, when games were still purely single-play experiences, solitary adventures in front of the screen, and concepts like “live service”, “microtransaction” or “season pass” did not exist.

The experience here also carries that spirit, like watching a time-stained VHS tape, a testament that just by maintaining core values, without having to follow the times, you can still create an experience strong enough to hold players back. If each mechanism is separated, there really is nothing new in the game, even many features that the writer has “bored” in other games, but when blended, they suddenly become a complete chord, to Mafia: The Old Country ringing like a nostalgic song, bringing players back to the golden age of “offline games”.

For example, the once “obsessive” racing scene of Mr Mafia 1 Now recreated, it’s still stressful enough to make your heart beat and your hands tremble, but the game company has cleverly added a few checkpoints so that players no longer have to “suffer” from racing from the beginning like in the past.

On the other hand, the way the game is built, despite having a large map, is reminiscent of the game The Last of Us Part II with linear gameplay divided into chapters, allowing you to return to collect collectibles.

The shooting mechanism also feels heavy and weighty: the viewfinder never stays still but swings with the character’s breathing, forcing you to hold your breath and calculate every moment to pull the trigger. Each shot has a unique bounce depending on the type of gun, as if the player can feel the weight of metal and gunpowder right in the palm of their hand.

But the game doesn’t stop at firepower, most boss battles turn into intense… knife fights! Players can flexibly use the skills of “parry”, slashing, dodging and counterattacking in dramatic confrontations, creating a fighting rhythm that is both fierce and cinematic. Interspersed with these are dramatic “set pieces” (pre-made segments), giving Enzo the right to choose: silently kill in the dark, or explode with “bloody” gunfights.

The machine AI at Hard difficulty is generally formidable. Although they sometimes make silly positioning mistakes or react “bewilderedly” to explosives, they know how to “sneak in” and force you out of cover immediately after detection. Many times, players will hear the opponent scream things like “Flush him out!” – the translation is “Put him out!” right before they threw grenades or lured a few guys around behind to… “hook the tire” of Enzo.

Once revealed, it means you are forced to fight to the end or… reload the scene, rather than running around for a few moments and the enemy suddenly… forgetting about your presence (as is often the case in a certain “assassin theme” game – NV). But it is that harshness that makes Hard difficulty an option that the writer recommends that readers try to experience right from the beginning, both preserving the characteristic tense atmosphere and also being a mandatory condition to “unlock” the longest achievement (trophy/achievement) of the game.

And yet, the game also has a bit of a role-playing feel through the “Charm” system, a string of charms that allows you to fine-tune the “build” of your character. Each pendant attached to the chain will unlock several internal effects such as increasing items when “loot”, restoring health after each knife kill or supporting more accurate aiming.

In terms of graphics, the first appearance of Unreal Engine 5 is like putting on a “new coat” of the game, opening up many significant visual improvements. The character models are sharper and more soulful, the rocky land covered with faint yellow dust evokes desolation, and every mechanical detail on the old-looking motor vehicles appears vividly. The space is also enriched by the typical colors of Sicily, where the bustling ancient port and bustling markets contribute to creating a picture that is both classic and subtle with modern materials.

Not stopping at the scenery, the development team also took care of small details such as the character having to start the car’s engine, the knife blade having to be sharpened regularly with whetstone, to adjusting the focus and aperture on the classic camera, not only making the game world more realistic, but also preserving the identity of the game series.

Mafia: The Old Country ringing like a nostalgic song, bringing players back to the golden age of “offline games”

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There are still many limitations

As the writer mentioned, the game company’s choice of a classic gameplay with a slow rhythm is actually a “double-edged sword”, because it can make many gamers who are familiar with the “heavy” shooting action from the beginning feel disappointed and easily bored.

Different from the previous three games, in Mafia: The Old Countryplayers have to be patient until the end of chapter 3 to… touch a gun for the first time, and until the end of chapter 4 to try the feeling of driving. Do you still want to freely explore all over the map? You can only select Explore mode from the “Chapter Select” window. Luckily, the developer promises to update another mode soon Free Ride more freedom and more things to “dabble” with.

The construction of the scene on the island of Sicily in the early years of the 20th century also caused the bustling boulevards and crowded vehicles of the previous parts to be replaced only by a few small towns with sparse houses. The most unfortunate thing is that there is no longer the scene of speeding and then being chased by police sirens and making a record, nor is there the pleasure of driving while turning on the radio to listen to “chill chill” music, simply because at that time… those things did not exist.

Most of the time you sit behind the wheel or on horseback, you will hardly encounter any interesting surprises. Perhaps that’s why the game defaults to adding the “Skip Ride” feature so players can completely skip the trips in the plot, although if you’re willing to drive yourself, you can still hear a few more small conversations between the characters.

Not only that, besides the old and extremely sparse array of vehicles on the road, the arsenal in the game feels poor and lacking in appeal. Compared to the general level of current third-person shooter titles, players are easily disappointed when a series of familiar “spices” suddenly disappear: no silencer for stealthy action, no sniper gun to take down from a distance, no legendary Tommy submachine gun, no “bear hand” Brass Knuckles, even Molotov cocktails are absent, leaving only the strange option of… throwing a lantern to burn the enemy!

Finally, the language barrier can easily become an obstacle for many gamers as the game spends a lot of playing time on dialogue and cutscenes, in which characters often mix English and local dialects (even when choosing English dialogue). Many times the writer had to rely on “Google translate” to realize that the sentence “Tutto bene”, repeated throughout, actually simply means “everything is okay” or “All good” in English.

The game company’s choice of a classic gameplay style with a slow rhythm is actually a “double-edged sword”, because it can make many gamers who are familiar with the “bang” type of shooting action from the beginning feel disappointed and easily bored.