Mafia: The Old Country [Review]

Getting back to basics is not always as easy as it sounds. When I'm playing something that sticks to a clear formula, it gets easier to spot what could've been better. Mafia: The Old Country is videogame indulgence: absurdly predictable and obvious but often delicious to look at, even if vapid.

There are a several mafia stories around there, and The Old Country is definitely one of them. The game positions itself as a narrative and "cinematic" experience first, and that requires a strong storytelling. But man... Enzo is a poor orphan that finds himself rising in the ranks of the local mafia after being saved by them, only to become tangled in a forbidden romance and in danger of being corrupted by power.

It is the basic mob story.

The lush vistas, mountains, and paths in Sicily are a delight to travel on antique cars and snappy horses, the whole world and color feels both authentic and dreamlike. All and every cutscene is superbly animated and everything ends up being believable to the eyes, even with the spotty voice acting that sometimes tries too much in the English version.

Although it is linear with chapters and fixed objectives for the main scenario, the world itself is always there, and it is nice to travel around this quaint place, but there's no activities to do in it. It is just for looks.

Still, the focus is on the generic story and characters, and no amount of great animations or beautiful illumination can really save the game from its dialogues and plot. Everything that I thought it would happen, happened. There's no room for real reflection or interpretation in the story, and while sometimes it can look like something really good or unique, it is just an appearance.

One good aspect of the story, though, is its pacing, as the chapters often have time jumps between them, so it feels that these people really know each other for a long time. That's where my compliments end, though. Being generic implies being overly simplistic as well, so the female characters are just plot devices while the man "do the work". It is not a game that treats women harshly, and I ended up liking Isabella, but the amount of important female characters is negligible while there's a dozen of generic man with the same "Americanized" traits.

Although it is a game that takes place in Italy, it is not much a game about Italy, nor Sicily, for all that matters. From the beginning to the very end, the whole ghost of the "New World" (read: the USA) is a hidden 'bright' horizon, now, clouded. The story excludes many interesting and difficult real world points that the game could've used. It doesn't even dare to question what being an Italian would be like in the early 20th century USA – it is just a ghost that permeates the whole story and it felt like propaganda. This is the problem of overly simplistic narratives – they strip meaning of things that were meaningful.

Apart from that myopic perspective of world events, the game delivers good visuals that represent that era well, with antique cars, guns, and knifes. The car doesn't play like an old car would, nor the guns, because gameplay is pretty modern and easy to deal with – something that wasn't common to the cars and guns of the time. The action is very similar to Uncharted 1~3, that is, over the shoulder third person shooter with simple spots to crouch behind while shooting waves of enemies. It is way simpler than those games, though, with smaller arenas and easy stealth missions (in any difficulty).

That's the vapidness of it all: the story is anemic and without any relevance whatsoever, the characters are superbly animated but still feel like empty bags. The world is pretty and traveling around it is nice, but only that, nice. The game ran well for me, and I haven't experienced bugs, so the polish was appreciated and made me want to finish this game.

Beyond that, it is nothing much. Just an excuse to test high end graphic cards or new consoles and have a quick, 15 hours vapid fun. It has its place and it works well while being pretty. But it isn't that remarkable.

6/10