4/5 ★ – Aliliane's review of Mafia: The Old Country.

Date beaten: 9/8/2025 Time taken: 13 hours in one day Good. If that’s the direction the series is taking then I’m pretty satisfied. This one presents a completely new experience, taking place in Sicily where the Mafia was born. Pros: -Pleasant cast of characters, you feel like you know them from early on -You get to use both cars and horses -You could beat it in a weekend -It’s not too different nor simply another Mafia game either. The suits and crime are still there, with new additions while still keeping the Mafia title. Cons: -As good as it is, not worth 50$ -Too punishing when it comes to knives… might be a skill issue but my pride couldn’t allow me to lower the difficulty Gameplay: 7/10 Decent. The usual Mafia gameplay experience (I still miss having multiple weapons like in Mafia 2 but I understand why it can’t happen) The knife combat including parry, break and dodge sounded odd to me but I got used to it quickly and I’m okay with them I guess, along with other new stuff never seen in the past installments of the series. I’m not sure how the charms were needed, though. I liked the stealth and how you can approach some missions differently. I appreciate the level design. I enjoyed most of the chapters I didn’t feel the time passing and never got bored. One question: why two races? Soundtrack: 8/10 Lovely! My only complaint is that it’s too small for the game. Could’ve used more tracks. Story: 8/10 Nice, like the previous Mafia games. Aside from being set in the past, this one is more focused on romance, making it even more unique. You can say it’s a little predictable (if you’re used to the games like I am) but I’ve always loved how the franchise continues to present the mafia life as gruesome instead of romanticizing it. Without spoilers, this game in particular is most tragic in the franchise. Its biggest flaw is the message not being clear, if there is even one? We were already aware of “Crime is bad”, so it doesn’t count. I guess it could be like Mafia 1 (importance of family) but it didn’t seem that way to me. Visuals/Design: 10/10 THE BEST. The aesthetic, graphics and environment, all perfect! It’s so beautiful, left me speechless most of the time. Mafia finally took advantage of the driving simulator aspects and made its world worth going around. I didn’t skip anything just to enjoy the scenery. The art direction was genius here. The colors of the environment constantly captures the feelings of characters perfectly well and invokes the exact emotions needed. The colorfulness of peaceful days and the grimness of hard ones… The transformation of the vineyard alone tells the story of the game. This has never been done in the series before, you couldn’t feel a betrayal or a heist occurring through the environment alone. Overall: 8/10 I liked it but should’ve been 35$ at most. [Spoilers] This game having Leo Galante probably made me biased. He’s my favorite character, seeing him in his younger days was so great. I wish we could have more of him but that’s just me being greedy.