Mafia: The Old Country is set in the 1900s in Sicily. Players take the role of Enzo, who's a down-on-his-luck orphan working in a dangerous mine shaft because he's enslaved by the huge debt that he owes to its owners. When a tragic accident leaves his only family dead, he lashes out at the owners and is forced to go on the run. His desperate flight brings him to the villa of Don Torrisi, a "wine maker" and secret mafia crime lord who takes him under his wing in exchange for his loyalty. This begins Enzo's rise from penniless runaway to future made man, something made all the more complex by the slowly building romance between him and the Don's daughter.

The Old Country is a compelling, interesting and engaging story of crime and consequences. It has a likable and interesting cast of characters who manage to nicely thread the line between being compelling and being a cliché. Fans of the genre will be able to figure out where the plot is going pretty early on, but there's still genuine excitement in watching the inevitable unfold. Being predictable isn't the same thing as being bad, especially when you're watching drama and tragedy unfold. My biggest complaint is that Enzo is a touch bland as a protagonist, and I'd like to have seen him have more genuine flaws or character traits besides being a yes-man.

To begin with, The Old Country is not an open-world Grand Theft Auto-style crime game. It's a largely linear, plot-driven shooter with little to nothing in the way of free roaming or nonlinearity. Yes, you can get into cars and drive around, but it's usually only from one area to another. There's no life or interaction with the world in between. It's genuinely important to understand this going into the game, so you don't expect it to be something it isn't. The pacing of the game is extremely slow, so you'll spend several hours just building up the atmosphere and tension before you can even fire a gun.

Gameplay tends to revolve around a handful of play styles: stealth, gunplay, or driving. Stealth gameplay probably dominates most of the game, and it's fine but not exceptional. It contains all of the standard tropes of modern stealth games. You can sneak up on enemies to knock them out, hide bodies, throw coins and objects to distract foes, and so on. It isn't bad stealth, but it's entirely by the book and rarely very stressful. Enemy AI usually doesn't notice you unless you're directly in front of them, and sometimes even then, I was able to grab and knock out a foe. I used the ability to hide bodies perhaps twice in the entire game.

The gunplay in The Old Country is pretty repetitive and predictable. It isn't bad, but it's also not particularly exciting or engaging. You can equip a shotgun, pistol or rifle, several of which have different kinds of stats, and you can throw objects like grenades. You'll spend most of your time hiding behind a wall and popping out to shoot enemies with a gun. The enemies have pretty bad AI, so they're frequently running out into the open for no reason or wandering up to you slowly, as if they're wearing bulletproof vests. The shine of the gunplay comes from the set pieces, which usually have enough flair to be interesting while you're just going through the motions.

The above goes double for the game's horse riding and driving segments. They're extremely bare-bones and serviceable, largely tied to either casual driving through locations while people chat at you or on-rails driving segments where you can't really make a wrong turn. The controls are fine, and it's easy to pick up and play, but it feels very shallow from a gameplay perspective. The set pieces are pretty cool, and it's difficult to not feel excited as you chase a fleeing bandit in a rapidly degenerating car, but the gameplay mostly consists of holding down the drive button.

Probably the most exciting thing the game offers are the one-on-one knife fights, where Enzo draws his blade and takes on a foe. These are probably the most involved elements of the game, where the player can dodge, parry, guard break, and more. The segments can be a tad silly at times, such as when a bad guy willingly throws down his shotgun to have a knife fight with you, but they feel nicely climactic and have more solid mechanics.

The Old Country's biggest flaw is that it's a story-driven experience first and foremost. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it means that most of the gameplay feels like it is in service toward creating an interactive experience rather than something fun to play on its own merits. The gunplay is perfectly fine but mostly serves as a way to add some action elements to a scene, and it often ends up feeling very scripted. This is doubly true for things like the racing/driving sequences, which feel less like you're playing them and more like you're pressing buttons while a predetermined outcome occurs. It doesn't help that the game spends a lot of time yelling at you if you don't play along with it. NPCs will start complaining that you're not moving if you spend a few moments in a menu trying to select a different gun. Trying to subvert any of the set pieces will lead quickly to the game telling you to get back on track.

I don't think this is necessarily a design problem. The Old Country is about telling an interactive Mafia story first and foremost, and it leans into that hard and does it well, but it sometimes makes the gameplay feel perfunctory, especially when it introduces mechanics. The game might introduce a tutorial for upgrades, and then it's several hours before you can interact with it. It might suggest that you buy a new car and then force you into a specific car for missions. If anything, it might have been better off just leaning into the playable movie concept instead of adding what feels like obligatory gameplay elements.

There are some optional elements, like equippable and upgradable charms that alter your character's stats, optional collectibles and notes, and the occasional safe that you can crack for extra resources to upgrade, but they all feel rather halfhearted. The notes are probably the most interesting, since they offer more insight into the world and the characters, which remain the game's strong points.

The Old Country is a beautiful game for the most part. The character models sometimes look a little off, but the environments are drop-dead gorgeous, and the cinematography is excellent. I frequently enjoyed the busy and well-crafted surroundings, and the ability to wander around the lush countryside was a delight. Unfortunately, the game did run into some performance issues, even in Performance mode, with noticeable frame drops especially during the cut scenes. It wasn't enough to sour the experience, but it felt like it could've used more polish. The voice acting is excellent and does a fantastic job of conveying tone and mood. It sometimes leans a touch too much on exaggerated accents, but it fits the atmosphere of the game, and the similarly period-appropriate music does a great job of setting the time and place. There are some masterful performances, particularly the excellent Don Torrisi, who effortlessly straddles the line between likable and intimidating.

Mafia: The Old Country is a playable movie first and a game second. It's a well-crafted, engaging, if sometimes overly predictable narrative of Mafia intrigue. If that sort of thing appeals to you, then there's a whole lot to like, and it's probably worth playing for that on its own merits. As a game, it feels somewhat lackluster, with most of the actual gameplay feeling like the bare minimum before one can return to the story, and it's supported by some great set pieces. If you want a cool period crime drama, then The Old Country has you covered, but don't expect much more beyond that.

Score: 7.5/10