Beaten: Mafia The Old Country (PS5)

Like many other gamers, the news of Grand Theft Auto VI being delayed until next year was not unexpected but still disappointing. Many of us surely looked at other upcoming releases for comfort, and I found the release of Mafia: The Old Country as a definite substitute for that kind of fun.

However, Mafia: The Old Country is like Mafia: The Definitive Edition, a linear game taking place in an open world. Completing each mission starts the next one, rather than the player having a list of quests or missions to do in the meantime. Sure, you can veer off the main path sometimes, but the story was so good I only touched on that part once, to make a side trip to the vendor of cars and horses.

Taking place in early 1900s Sicily, which is The Old Country, the player escapes slavery in a copper mine owned by one family and is taken in by their another family. Working your way up from stable hand to enforcer, the third-person action and gunplay is pretty standard. Boss fights, though, are always knife fights for some reason. The knife-fighting is fun enough, but grew tiresome by the game's end. The last two boss fights I tried button mashing, and it worked. 

Since it is the early 1900s, vehicles come in two types: horses and cars. I have to say that these cars are the oldest I've driven in a videogame, and they were classy, long autos with challenging handling. Both horses and cars can be purchased and upgraded, I think, from that one vendor down the road.

Getting back to the story, it was a pretty good adventure. However, knowing it's a Mafia story, I was expecting a tragic ending all along, and was not disappointed in that regard. All the characters are well-written and even the minor ones show unique personalities, adding to the depth of the story. I knew not to get attached to them, though, as life in that time and era were tough.

The graphics are gorgeous, as expected, and a version of Mt. Etna is in the background, sometimes rumbling, but for the final boss fight, it put on a nice, historically-inaccurate eruption. I've loved all the Mafia games so far, but this one is the best. A future patch promises to do more with the open world, but the main game, with its setting and story, was enough for me.