Mafia: The Old Country Went Back to Sicily, and Back to What Made the Series Work

The Mafia series has always been about one thing: telling a crime story like a film. The first Mafia, made by the Czech studio Illusion Softworks in 2002, followed a taxi driver drawn into a 1930s crime family, and it earned its fans through characters and atmosphere rather than freedom to cause chaos. When Hangar 13 and 2K released Mafia: The Old Country on August 8, 2025, they went back to that idea, and back further in time than the series had ever gone.

A prequel in the sulfur mines

The Old Country is set in Sicily in the early 1900s, around the fictional town of San Celeste, decades before the events of the first game. You play Enzo Favara, a carusu, a young laborer worked to exhaustion in the island's sulfur mines. Escaping that life, he is taken in by the Torrisi family, a crime family that offers him loyalty, purpose and danger in equal measure.

It is a story about where the Mafia came from, told through one man's rise inside a family. Horses, early cars, vineyards, knife fights and old-fashioned firearms replace the tommy guns and big-city streets of the earlier games.

Smaller on purpose

Hangar 13, the studio behind Mafia III and the 2020 Definitive Edition remake of the first game, chose a linear, chapter-based structure instead of a giant open world. Director Alex Cox said building on Unreal Engine 5 "allowed for an even higher level of visual fidelity than previous Mafia titles", and the studio spent that budget on dense, handcrafted scenes rather than map size.

The price reflected the scale: about $50 at launch, lower than the $70 that most big releases now ask. For a game you can finish in a few weekends, that choice was widely welcomed.

What critics said

Reviews were mixed to positive. The game holds a Metacritic score of 73, and 66% of critics on OpenCritic recommend it. Opinions split sharply: IGN gave it an 8 out of 10, while PC Gamer gave it 45.

The setting is the clear star: Sicily's dusty hills and stone towns are among the best-looking places in any 2025 game. The weak spot is the gameplay between story scenes. Its stealth sections and cover shooting follow familiar steps and feel safe rather than surprising, and the linear structure that keeps the story tight also leaves little room to explore.

Commercially, the smaller bet paid off. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the game "sold better than expected".

The Man of Honor expansion

On August 14, 2026, almost a year after launch, Hangar 13 released Man of Honor, a story expansion that adds two new chapters set during the middle of the main campaign. Its biggest draw for long-time fans is the return of Don Salieri, the crime boss at the heart of the original Mafia and a familiar name to anyone who played the 2002 game.

The reception was cooler than for the base game. On OpenCritic, Man of Honor holds a top-critic average of 72, but only 29% of its 17 critics recommend it. In other words, critics scored it close to the base game but were far less likely to call it a must-buy.

Should you play it?

If you like story-driven crime games and want something you can finish, yes. The Old Country is a handsome, focused game that knows what it wants to be, even if its missions rarely take risks. Treat Man of Honor as a bonus for fans rather than a reason to buy.

Newcomers do not need to have played the earlier games. But if The Old Country hooks you, the Mafia Definitive Edition remake is the natural next step, since it tells the story of the family Enzo's world eventually leads to.

Want another 2025 game that took a big series in a new direction? Read our feature on Silent Hill f.