Mafia: The Old Country

[HipsterTrash]

Beat the game last night.

Tied with Mafia Definitive Edition for me as best in the series.

Love the story and the characters. Traditional and simplistic yet I still found charm and the setting is just so damn vibrant. I hope other companies pay attention to this. People want stories and characters that are intriguing and things we can't experience. All that and for a good price at day one.

[Derb]

I haven’t had any complaints about the game’s main story. Am around CH 6. Everything looks good to me here.

If you want a bland boring experience with a lifeless world you only need to check out the “Open World” option from the main menu.

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by Derb

If you want a bland boring experience with a lifeless world you only need to check out the “Open World” option from the main menu.

[Zivouhr]

Good story so far, having completed the driving race on the first try even after flipping the race car sideways for a few seconds. A forgiving race that was compared to past games. The story structure is similar to past games, where you earn your way up with each mission in the Mob. This is probably the earliest days of how it got started. I guess it's still going but not like it used to in the 1900s through 1980s.

I like the missions that let you go Rambo style or stealth. No forced approach.

The forced stealth is okay, but a little too much of it so far in the story.

I noticed in Explore mode, I can't fire the gun to shoot down the Tri-Leg Symbols from the walls of the buildings to be able to collect them when near a town or village. Only in story mode it seems, which is odd. They want you to collect them, but then they prevent you from being able to knock them down in explore mode...

[Derb]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Uh oh,

I think you looked at the open world.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by Derb

Uh oh,

I think you looked at the open world.

The explore mode desperately needs many randomly placed enemies wandering around on foot or by vehicle AND police or something to have some exciting gameplay for. Stealing vehicles and horses should be allowed too. This guy is in the Mafia after all.

As of now, they forgot to make it a fun playground, like all the prior Mafia games which are really fun to explore with all the details added in between missions. The cops are half the fun as they chase and fire at the player. Nothing here like that sadly.

The missions are good when there are gun shoot outs.
A few too many knife and stealth missions IMO.

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by Derb

Uh oh,

I think you looked at the open world.

I understand people's dissatisfaction with the "open world" element of the game. But if you went into this with the notion that it's that, you're wrong. The franchise is built on it's narrative and gameplay elements with chapter to chapter (or in more game terms, levels).

I think the explore mode is quaint. It's nice to explore the lands and appreciate what the devs gave us. I know outside of that there's nothing else but I went into this game for the narrative fire.

[Zivouhr]

Hangar 13 is pretty good at updating their games with DLC, so I'm going to bet they'll offer some fun things to do in Explore mode in 2026.

As of now, replaying missions is the only way to get into gun battles.
Free roam explore mode refuses to let the player cause trouble. It'll actually block the player from firing. They should rate the game E for everyone if it only had the Explore mode. For the main game, it's mostly tame but for violence. And some language.

I liked the story, but can't see myself replaying it as often as Mafia 2 and 1 and 3.

[QuasidodoJr]

Just started playing. I’m enjoying it so far. Good story. Great visuals. Fun gameplay. My only minor complaint is the map isn’t very good. Everything else is fantastic, though.

[Nunab18]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Beat the game last night.

Tied with Mafia Definitive Edition for me as best in the series.

Love the story and the characters. Traditional and simplistic yet I still found charm and the setting is just so damn vibrant. I hope other companies pay attention to this. People want stories and characters that are intriguing and things we can't experience. All that and for a good price at day one.

Also beat the game recently and I really liked it a lot.

If I rank the series so far.

1. Mafia 1 DE
2. Mafia 2
3. Mafia TOC
4. Mafia 3

I'd like to say Mafia TOC ties with 2 for second place, but due to recency bias I'm not 100% on it yet. Regardless, I think 1DE/2/TOC are all very strong games.

I may be in for a second playthrough in the future though, I didn't realize there was a full Sicilian language track, which I'm very interested in.

[Zivouhr]

That's cool there is a native dialog track, thanks.

I'm progressing through the story and so far, wondering when Enzo will be confronted about his girlfriend by the main boss Don.

The story got much more interesting when Enzo became part of the family at that ceremony. I can imagine if there was an option to say "No", how that would turn out with all the members there to invite him into the Mafia.


EDIT: Completed the story, which was mostly good. The Don, going with everyone to the SPOILER

[Show spoiler]enemy sit down, was not prepared for a set up. I was surprised by that lack of skepticism.

The cinematic faces and animations, photo realism and expressions too. Really great job there. Although Isabella seemed to wear that green dress with the doilies vest every day for awhile.

The loading was surprisingly slower than expected for a PS5 game. 20 seconds to 30 seconds at times. Only a couple crashes total, which is not bad.

Game controls well on foot and in car.
The horse won't jump with a button, so unless you're running, it'll bump into a log and not jump over it. I almost lost a chase because of that, had to back up, get a running start and auto jump over the closed in barrier.
I think this was the first Mafia game where the player gasps for air everytime he jogs, which I wish they didn't do in games. All you hear while jogging is "Huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh..."
Small issues aside, overall, a very good Mafia game. I liked it.

Mafia 2
Mafia 1 Remake
Mafia 3
Mafia 4

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by Nunab18

[Show spoiler]Also beat the game recently and I really liked it a lot.

If I rank the series so far.

1. Mafia 1 DE
2. Mafia 2
3. Mafia TOC
4. Mafia 3

I'd like to say Mafia TOC ties with 2 for second place, but due to recency bias I'm not 100% on it yet. Regardless, I think 1DE/2/TOC are all very strong games.

I may be in for a second playthrough in the future though, I didn't realize there was a full Sicilian language track, which I'm very interested in.

My rankings:
TOC = DE > II

Never played III nor the original first game.

I know The Old Country is new and maybe it's recency bias for me. But I love the idea of a game set in the very early 1900s. And this one just hit the right points for me to make it a game I plan on playing again for the story in the near future.

That's what made Definitive Edition so weird to me. people go on how it's amazing. Yes it's fun and I like the story but people acted like it's Last of Us levels of depth and acting. I found the voice acting to be slightly comical. But I think that's the charm I had with it. same goes for II but that's an older game so it can use that excuse at least.

TOC on the other hand has unbelievable levels of acting and brevity.

I beat Hard yesterday, which wasn't very hard. Now it's just get all these damn collectibles and I can earn my plat trophy. Then it's time for Clair Obscur.

[Nunab18]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

[/SPOILER]

My rankings:
TOC = DE > II

Never played III nor the original first game.

I know The Old Country is new and maybe it's recency bias for me. But I love the idea of a game set in the very early 1900s. And this one just hit the right points for me to make it a game I plan on playing again for the story in the near future.

That's what made Definitive Edition so weird to me. people go on how it's amazing. Yes it's fun and I like the story but people acted like it's Last of Us levels of depth and acting. I found the voice acting to be slightly comical. But I think that's the charm I had with it. same goes for II but that's an older game so it can use that excuse at least.

TOC on the other hand has unbelievable levels of acting and brevity.

I beat Hard yesterday, which wasn't very hard. Now it's just get all these damn collectibles and I can earn my plat trophy. Then it's time for Clair Obscur.

I agree, TOC has wonderful acting. I'm definitely looking forward to whenever I do a second run. I just finished up Death Stranding 2 last night, so I'm probably gonna play a shorter game as a palate cleanser. E33 is also on by back log, but I think I'll save that one a little more.