Hanger 13 goes back to the very beginning with the prequel to the fan-favourite Mafia series. Mafia: The Old Country swaps out the US gangster setting of the last three games, going back to the beginning on the sun-kissed Italian island of Sicily, 1904.
Mafia: The Old Country feels like an HBO period movie, a made-for-TV prequel to the Mafia blockbuster movies. The game still boasts high production values, and, away from the necessities of a AAA blockbuster, is given the time to showcase its attention to detail, rich locations, and storytelling.
Players fill the shoes of Enzo, a young Sicilian miner with dreams of bigger things. When an accident in the mine forces Enzo into a confrontation with his employer, the underboss of Don Spadaro, he finds himself running for his life. The hapless youth stumbles onto the plantation of a rival family, that of Don Torrisi. Impressed by the wound Enzo inflicted on his former boss, Don Torrisi offers him work in his wine business.
It’s not long before Enzo is helping with the Don’s protection racket and catching the forbidden eye of the Don’s daughter, Isabella. What follows is a tale that sees Enzo rise through the ranks from a hired hand to a made man.
The third-person gameplay follows a similar pattern to the previous Mafia games, with a few exceptions. Being mindful that this is the 1900s, don’t expect machine guns.
Many of the missions are best handled by stealth, with Enzo carefully picking off the enemy one by one, placing the unconscious (or dead) bodies in conveniently located crates so they are not discovered. Bottles and coins can be thrown to create distractions, splitting up groups.
Most of the time, things end up in a shootout with pistols, rifles, and shotguns. The combat mainly relies on taking cover, but the enemy will try and flank you.
There is a melee knife-fight sub-game, usually reserved for boss fights. Players must use a mixture of slashing, dodging and parrying to defeat opponents one-on-one.
In keeping with previous games, driving plays a big part in the game. But this time with old 1900s jalopies, that handle surprisingly well for such unrefined machines traversing the island’s gravel roads, and horses. The game features street racing and car chases.
The Sicilian scenery is breathtaking. The broad vistas and distant landmarks are not only stunning but also often reachable, if only as dictated by the mission parameters.
The game’s open world is restricted by a rigid mission structure that allows for little in the way of digression. You are to drive to the location, as indicated. There’s even an option to skip the driving, making proceedings even more linear.
At several points, the gameplay seemed like it almost got in the way of the drama, with long cut-scenes punctuated by interactive sequences that seemed to exist only to give the player some agency in the proceedings.
On PC, players are treated to adept visuals with all the upscaling tech required to run the game with a reasonable framerate. The animations are excellent, as are the character models, with whom you may recognise a few of the faces from TV and other video games. The acting is superb and, as you’d expect, draws you into the origin tale, as the fragile peace between Sicily’s mafia families breaks down and the game foreshadows the franchise’s future in Empire City.
Mafia: The Old Country is a bit of a slow burn compared to its predecessors and holds players by a tighter leash. The upside is that this has enabled Hanger 13 to tell a more structured and nuanced tale than the usual throwaway game narrative. It’s a great period piece that will likely be more of interest to fans of the series than casual newcomers.
Rating: Good