Hanger 13 and 2K have confirmed, to the surprise of many, thatMafia: The Old Countryis a linear narrative adventure andwon’t be taking place in a sprawling open worldlike many had assumed. Considering thatMafia 3and other previous entries allowed you to explore period settings to your heart’s content, this wasn’t an unreasonable assumption.
1900s Sicily would have been an incredibly compelling place to explore with full freedom, but I can also understand the desire to instead bring that time period to life with a better focus on characters and storytelling rather than letting a half-baked open world distract from and ultimately dilute everything else the game could do well. This was also the case when it came to Mafia 3, but that gamedidfeature an open world with the city of New Bordeaux.
Mafia: The Old Country Can Be Bigger And Better Without An Open World
I have a complicated relationship with Mafia 3. It is simultaneously one of the best games of the past generation but also one of its most disappointing. The first four hours or so are quite stunning in how they set up the story of protagonist Lincoln Clay as he returns from Vietnam to a society that is still drenched in racial inequality. He left one warzone for another, and in a community that should welcome him he is continually ostracised and viewed as an outsider.
It’s also been confirmed that Mafia: The Old Country will retail for $50.
Great acting, strong cinematography, and a stunning sense of atmosphere set the stage so well, not to mention that both the gunplay and driving mechanics are satisfying enough to keep players invested. But as Mafia 3 abandons its opening linear missions focused on small locations, it becomes clear its open world is beautifully hollow.
The activities you are forced to complete to progress the narrative are dull, the people you pass by in the streets are lifeless spectres, while Lincoln Clay’s journey of retribution is stopped dead in its tracks because 2K saw fit to make this game an open world so that it could stand toe-to-toe with other greats in the genre. But it already was before New Bordeaux came into play.
Other entries in the series, however, like Mafia 2,embraced smaller locations to explore and a sense of narrative linearity, and were better for it. The Old Country wants to follow in their footsteps, and it’s hard to blame Hanger 13 for taking this approach.
Standards For Open World Games Are Higher Than Ever
Besides, if Mafia: The Old Country did come out swinging with a massive open world, I have no doubt it would be compared directly - and unfairly - toGrand Theft Auto 6. The time and money required to create a photorealistic open world to explore on modern platforms is absurd, so it appears Hanger 13 decided to focus on portraying its period setting through a more nuanced narrative and curated locations. We’ll likely be free to explore on our own terms, but the size won’t be the focus.
I can picture zones similar to those found in MachineGames’Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, where the player is able to complete a number of side quests or other activities until they’re ready to move on and progress the narrative. The Old Country might focus more on gunfights and car chases instead of digging through old tombs in search of treasures, but its scale and intent remain the same.
People were so shocked when an open world was ruled out because surely a game that centres around crime, gangsters, and gun violence needs to be open-world to exist. But I’d argue it doesn’t, and incorporating open worlds just to tick a box - like Mafia 3 - is a surefire way to tank a game’s overall quality.
So my hope is that the game is smaller, more focused, more intimate, more violent, and able to tell a fantastic story without the awkward pacing issues that arise when having to fit it all in a massive open world. Yes, it’s a surprise few of us expected, but I don’t think it’s bad news.
