New Mafia Is a 'Bitter Disappointment,' Says PC Gamer Review

Mafia: The Old Country promised a smaller, story-first approach to the long-running mob series. Instead of sprawling but empty open worlds, it aimed for a sharp 13-hour narrative set in early 1900s Sicily. On paper, it sounded like the series was finally playing to its strengths — no pointless collectibles, no filler side quests, just a straight hit of mob drama. But according to a new review, that plan has backfired. The story is too safe, the gameplay is stale, and the technical performance leaves even high-end PCs coughing.

In Joshua Wolens’ review for PC Gamer, the criticism lands quickly: cutting the open-world fluff only works if what’s left can stand on its own. Here, it can’t. Previous Mafia games may have had half-empty maps, but they still had a sense of place — those long drives through detailed cities, the period-accurate music, and the cinematic mood that made the world feel alive. Without that immersive backdrop, The Old Country has to rely entirely on its story, and that’s where it falters.

The setup is simple enough. You play as Enzo Favara, a miner’s son who was essentially sold into labor as a child to pay off his father’s debts. Fifteen minutes into the game, disaster strikes — a volcanic eruption collapses the mine, setting off a chain of events that puts Enzo in the orbit of Don Torrisi, a local boss who blends charm and menace in equal measure. Around him is a cast of familiar archetypes: Isabella, his daughter with a soft spot for Enzo; Cesare, his brash nephew who sees Enzo as a rival; and Luca, the steady lieutenant with a young family at home.

From the moment these characters are introduced, you can see where their arcs will go. Rivalries will boil over, love will complicate loyalties, and betrayals will hit exactly when you expect. Strong acting and solid dialogue help keep things watchable, but there’s nothing in the plot that breaks the mold or throws a curveball. It’s a mob story you’ve heard before — delivered competently, but without the grit or surprises that might have made it unforgettable.

In our previous post with another gaming influencer review that was more indulgent of Mafia: The Old Country, there was more patience for its slower pace and familiar beats. Here, the tone is far less forgiving. Wolens points out that the game flirts with richer themes — labor strikes, anarchist movements, and the political influence of the mob — but never follows through. These threads get mentioned and then dropped, as if the game is afraid to drift too far from its simple character drama. The missed potential is glaring.

The technical side is another sore spot. We’ve written Mafia: The Old Country system requirements, and even meeting them with a powerhouse rig like an RTX 4080, Wolens experienced stutters, hitches, and load times that felt more at home in a game from 15 years ago. Death in combat became annoying not because of the checkpoints, but because waiting for the game to reload took so long it broke momentum.

When it comes to gameplay, the variety is paper-thin. Every mission falls into one or more of four categories: stealth, shooting, driving or horse riding, and knife fights. Stealth is the easiest and most tolerable — enemies have terrible eyesight and can be distracted with minimal effort. Driving and horse riding are fine for getting between missions, with two mandatory races (one horse, one car) that feel like winks to long-time fans. They’re easy enough to win, likely even rigged in your favor, but they still manage to stir memories of Mafia 1’s infamous difficulty spike.

Combat, however, is dated. Gunfights feel like they were pulled straight from a mid-budget Xbox 360 shooter. Enemies are dumb but also strangely accurate, while aim assist can snap you next to a target instead of on it, leading to missed shots even at close range. The guns have wide spreads, and the result is a mix of frustration and boredom — you’re either mowing down enemies without challenge or getting chipped away by uncanny headshot accuracy.

Then there are the knife fights, which could have been a unique selling point but quickly turn into a running joke. They all follow the same pattern: parry, jab, parry, jab until half health, cutscene where the enemy briefly gets the upper hand, then parry, jab, parry, jab to finish. It happens eleven times, each fight indistinguishable from the last. What should have been an occasional, dramatic twist becomes a repetitive box to tick before the story moves on.

Even the moments that try to stand out are undermined by this repetition. In one mission, you’re told to break a strike at a quarry — a setup ripe for social commentary. But instead of exploring the mob’s role in suppressing workers, the mission ends quickly, and the game never revisits the topic. It’s emblematic of The Old Country’s approach: gesture toward something deeper, then retreat to safe, familiar ground.

Wolens closes the review with a broader reflection on the series. The earlier Mafia games, even when flawed, had ambition. They might have been clunky or janky, but they aimed high — recreating an era, telling a sweeping story, taking risks with structure and tone. The Old Country strips that ambition away, focusing on fundamentals but failing to improve them. The result is neither the atmospheric sprawl of earlier titles nor a sharp, focused narrative masterpiece. It’s just… smaller. And not in a good way.

Anyway, you can read new Mafia reviews on Steam by yourself to decide whether to buy it or not.

The only unqualified praise goes to the game’s depiction of Sicily itself. The landscapes are gorgeous, the towns feel alive, and the visual design is authentic and detailed. But as Wolens notes, beautiful scenery can only do so much when the rest of the experience feels hollow. For long-time fans, it’s a bitter disappointment — proof that trimming the fat doesn’t matter if you cut away the heart as well.