Mafia: The Old Country Will Bring The Series’ Gameplay Back To Basics
Straying too far resulted in the open-world franchise's only blemish.
Mafia, the narrative-focused open-world crime series, is set to make a long-overdue return to consoles and PC in 2025. Early comments from developer Hanger 13 suggest that the fourth game in the franchise will wisely recommit to what the series is best known for: well-written stories and presentation.
The world premiere of Mafia: The Old Country closed out Gamescom’s Opening Day Live Tuesday, revealing that the series will head to Italy for the first time. Taking clear inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s classic sequel The Godfather Part II, the game will likely tell the story of how one of the franchise’s many crime families operated overseas.
“A thrilling story set in 1900s Sicily, during the origins of the Mafia,” Hanger 13 President Nick Baynes said after the reveal. “We’re going back to the roots of what fans love about the Mafia franchise, crafting a deep linear narrative, with that classic mob movie feeling.”
Mafia: The Old Country reveal trailer
Sicily is an inspired choice for the next game’s setting, as it will mark a big change from the American concrete jungles of the first three games in the series. But it won’t be the first time Sicily’s been featured in the Mafia series. In fact, “The Old Country” is the namesake of Mafia 2’s first chapter. During this introductory mission, protagonist Vito Scaletta, a Sicilian-born U.S. immigrant drafted into the second world conflict, fights alongside Italian resistance fighters.
During the deadly battle, Vito witnesses the power of the mafia firsthand. Just moments before he’s shot dead, a Sicilian mob boss named Don Calo convinces an entire garrison of Mussolini’s army to cease fighting. Calo’s show of power convinces Vito to fall into a life of crime once he returns to America two years later.
The trailer tells us little about what Mafia: The Old Country game is about. But knowing the game will be a return to form is a huge relief. The last game in the series, 2016’s Mafia 3, made some pretty big departures from the series formula, resulting in the only misstep in the 22-year-old franchise.
Players briefly visit Sicily in Mafia 2’s introduction.
After Grand Theft Auto 3 changed the industry, the Mafia series was one of the first open-world franchises to follow-up and it has forever been compared to its contemporaries. In reality, however, Mafia has always represented a completely different interpretation of the genre, one focused almost entirely on telling a great story. Its open worlds are always gorgeously realized but function more like a giant immersive level than a playground for players.
With Mafia 3, Hanger 13 decided to address those criticisms head-on. They replaced Mafia’s carefully crafted story missions and setpieces with a small pool of extremely repetitive missions players could tackle at their leisure. The result was a game that retained all of the franchise’s best elements and trapped them behind dull progression, all in a futile effort to provide players with more variety.
Mafia 3’s stumbles are heartbreaking even eight years later. Its fictional version of 1968 New Orleans is easily one of the most interesting and believable settings not just for the series, but in all of gaming. Getting to explore 1960s Louisiana as a Black man was one of the few examples of a game daring to broach a subject as serious as America’s racist history. The fact that the game managed to do so with tact and teeth, plainly presenting the systemic realities that affected Black Americans both then and now, is a milestone in the medium that should never be forgotten.
Despite its incredible sense of place, mature themes, and excellent story, Mafia 3’s gameplay is the low point of the series.
Mafia 3 also featured excellent voice performances from its cast, the best story in the series, and one of gaming’s best-licensed soundtracks of all time. It’s an exquisite game ruined by a desire to chase industry trends.
While it's a shame the next Mafia game won’t be as subversive as Mafia 3, it's comforting to know that Hanger 13 is looking to avoid the same mistakes the gameplay department. Its recreation of 1900s Italy will also set it apart from most other open-world games set for next year, including Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6.
For players new to Mafia, there’s never been a better time to jump into the franchise. Earlier this month, Xbox Game Pass added the superb 2021 remake of the first game in the series.
