Last week, 2K Games and Hangar 13 finally admitted that they were working on a new installment of the Mafia series. Of course, the first trailer for Mafia: The Old Country delighted gamers — and served as a great reason to remember the classics.
Internet bloodhounds have noticed that the Steam indicators of the first three parts of the crime drama have grown noticeably over the past week. Since August 21, there has been an increase in activity in Mafia: Definitive Edition (5.5 thousand people played the remake on the 25th), Mafia II: Definitive Edition (which is regularly visited by 1300 to 2300 gamers) and Mafia III: Definitive Edition (it is launched by 1500-2500 users daily). It is worth considering that the publisher arranged a sale of the series in honor of the announcement, and this also spurred the interest of the public.
Though the Grand Theft Auto series is alive and well, it would be a mistake to forget similar series. One of those older franchises, Mafia, is getting a new lease on life. 2K Games has officially announced the franchise’s next major title, Mafia: The Old Country.
While the previous titles in the original trilogy took players chronologically through the years, Mafia: The Old Country will take players to the very beginning. The short teaser doesn’t reveal much of the gameplay, but it confirms that the game will take place in 1900s Sicily.
Because the trailer is purely cinematic, we don’t have a lot to go on regarding gameplay, and it’s likely a lot more will be revealed in the upcoming December showcase, but we can piece together a few nuggets of information from it.
The blurb under the YouTube trailer and in the announcement post on X says: “Uncover the origins of organized crime in Mafia: The Old Country, a gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily,” so we can take a few things from this.
The use of the word “brutal” and the presence of several weapons in the trailer (knives and guns) tell us that this will not be a peaceful game – expect there to be some fighting. This has been a staple of the series too of course. The Steam page doubles down on this with a warning the game will contain “intense violence or gore”.
It seems that rather than being set in a fictionalized version of an American city, it will be set in Italy, Sicily to be precise. Hangar 13 seems to be taking this seriously, with a nod to authenticity on the game’s Steam page which says, “Authenticity is at the heart of the Mafia franchise, and It will have fully localized voice acting in Sicilian to match the setting and time period.”
This won’t have a ton of gameplay implications, but it will set the mood and vibe of the game, which is important for the overall experience.
At Gamescom, the president of Hangar 13, Nick Baynes, took to the stage to offer a scrap of additional information, stating that Mafia: The Old Country is going “back to the roots of what fans love about the Mafia franchise” with a “deep linear narrative.” This suggests that there will be less of a focus on a large open world in the new Mafia game, and much more focus on interconnected missions that come together to form a solid plot where the focus is the story of the game.
Mafia games of the past have always had compelling characters, and while we haven’t been introduced to any that will be in Mafia: The Old Country yet, there’s no reason to think they won’t be engaging and interesting when we are.
Let us remind you that very little is known about Mafia: The Old Country. The setting will be Sicily in the 1900s, and the release on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series will take place in 2025.
