The motor carriage noisily trundles down a mud monitor within the Sicilian countryside. It’s a gorgeous night or morning. I’ve misplaced monitor of which, and I’m too busy pondering to double test whether or not the pale solar overhead is rising or retreating. How unusual it’s that one thing so new (a minimum of within the context it’s being offered) can really feel so inescapably historical. These ideas are concerning the impractical and inefficient curiosity Enzo Favara’s on the wheel of, however they’re additionally about Mafia: The Previous Nation itself.
When you get a relative or mate who’s unfamiliar with the Mafia collection to play Hangar 13’s newest work, I’m pretty satisfied that you simply’ll have a neater time convincing them that they’d simply sampled a remaster of a recreation from the 2000s than a brand new launch from 2025. That’s not a nasty factor in and of itself, however at a time when video games making an attempt to attract on nostalgia really feel extra unrepentantly nostalgic than ever, whereas new video games usually really feel more and more determined to convey their newness, it’s actually struck me.
The Previous Nation’s old skool, and intentionally so. In response to criticism Mafia 3 received when it got here out a few decade in the past, the builders have opted to not hold making an attempt to evolve what a Mafia recreation is with a revised method, however as a substitute to push again towards the inevitable onslaught of time.
The only-player story is the factor, the open world’s little greater than a backdrop for it to happen towards. You’ll discover none of on-line gubbins or microtransactions that’ve snaked their means into numerous collection right here, for higher or usually worse. You’ve nonetheless received to hyperlink your 2K account up to be able to entry the automotive with the perfect stats within the recreation, however hey, we will’t have all the things, proper?
The end result, nonetheless, is that the very linear major plot has to do the overwhelming majority of the heavy lifting in making the sport really feel price your time. It does a superbly common job. Residing as much as the tagline of the advert for the sport I’ve been served 10,000 occasions on YouTube over the previous two weeks, The Previous Nation is an opportunity to play by means of a traditional film. It’s a mob film you’ve seen earlier than, one whose twists are overtly choreographed or predictable, and whose characters, whereas carried out effectively, are pale imitations of deeper Dons or extra stimulating Sicilians.
Enzo, the protagonist, begins off having been offered into slavery in a Mafia-run sulphur mine. Now a younger grownup, he’s naturally determined to flee the treacherous tunnels beneath a literal volcano that’s Mount Etna in all however identify. Nonetheless, as soon as he does, his freedom comes with the caveat of being trapped within the service of one other mob clan, the Torrisi household. This being a traditional mafia film, the lad promptly falls head over heels in love with the Don of the household’s daughter, Isabella.
Thus begins a story instructed over chapters that happen throughout a number of in-game years, leaping months at a time from main occasion to main occasion between every mission. There’s a palio, a motor race, a christening, and a visit to the opera. There are not any weddings or funerals until you depend one which occurs off-screen, which is a minimum of one space during which it looks like Hangar 13 have exercised restraint of their need to emulate The Godfather movies. As issues progress at a breakneck tempo, among the themes or plot factors that might have helped set The Previous Nation’s story aside from the inspirations it breathlessly mimics don’t get the main target or examination they deserve.
The alienation Enzo would really feel upon out of the blue being forged from the dehumanising underground jail of life within the mine, to rubbing shoulders with the privileged amid the dream-like Mediterranean vibrance of the Dorata valley. Isabella’s strained relationship along with her controlling father, and the character of what his place calls for of an individual. There’s some good interrogation of the toll being locked into prison organisations takes on households, and the way the divide between poor working folks and nouveau riche landowners in post-feudal Italy led the mafia to turn into such a powerful establishment in locations like Sicily.
Nonetheless, the sport’s too determined to hurry you on to its subsequent little bit of mechanically unremarkable cover-shooting, stealthing, driving, or driving to gradual issues down a bit. A part of that is simply the character of what Hangar 13 had been going for, with The Previous Nation designed as a bitesize and highly-focused journey. Meaning there’s little or no of the bloat that plagues lots of open-world motion video games, but in addition means you solely get a tiny smidge of the slice of life the mafia media that impressed The Previous Nation excels in providing.
It doesn’t paint wherever close to as detailed an image of a tradition, of standard folks’s day-to-day lives shackled to the darkish and highly effective black gap that’s ‘our factor’ in the identical means that The Godfather or The Sopranos have achieved, as a result of it’s all the time desperately making an attempt to funnel you to the subsequent in a practice of one-on-one knife fights it’s received arrange. That fixed rush ensures the sport by no means drags, but in addition that it doesn’t spend practically sufficient time doing the one factor it does finest – letting you’re feeling such as you’re residing in rural early 1900s Sicily. When it does take a breather, you get beautiful moments. Stopping to take heed to a man on a stage recount native legends with audible relish. A automotive filled with drunken idiots blasting tunes from a gramophone because it meanders to city, then crawling to a cease so considered one of them can piss over the facet of a bridge whereas yelling what for on the native populace.
The open world itself is the lone star of the present, clearly designed with care and a pointy eye for capturing the fantastic thing about a fairytale panorama that alternates between serene and rugged. The issue is that of their need to be old skool and fake Mafia 3 by no means occurred, the devs have squirrelled away letting you overtly roam this beautiful locale right into a separate exploration mode that’s straightforward to overlook out of the gate. Positive, ditch the sandbox full of an pointless quantity of nagging map markers and pointless shite to handle, however it looks as if overkill to not let the participant discover a bit with out having to again out and cargo up a wholly totally different little bit of the sport.
On one hand, I get it. By trendy requirements, The Previous Nation’s open world is fairly static, with lots of interiors solely being accessible throughout their respective major story missions. The issues to do in it are additionally fairly restricted, with aimless roaming being the one different working round selecting up a handful of collectable objects that both assist flesh out the setting’s historic context or earn you extra cash to spend on gear, rides, or restricted customisation choices. On the opposite, not having the ability to interact with that in a extra pure trend is a disgrace. You don’t must really feel ashamed of your open world as a result of it’s not brimming with stuff, Mafia!
There’s additionally the matter of the unstable efficiency I had at sure factors, with just a few crashes and common stuttering, although most of this appeared linked squarely to the transitions between gameplay and cutscenes in story missions. Oh, and there was one level in exploration mode when a cart texture glitched out throughout the map.
All of this culminates in a paradoxical recreation that arguably feels extra like a 2006 launch popping out in 2025 than this yr’s precise re-release of a recreation from 2006. Regardless of it having a wholly new plot nestled in a world that you simply’ve by no means seen earlier than, the entire mechanics and packaging are dated in a way that feels suffocating to these recent bits as usually because it does a blessing for them.
I respect Hangar 13 for not feeling like they needed to take part as we speak’s arms race of ever-balooning open world/motion issues and sticking to their said ideas in doing so. Although, I believe the style during which they’ve executed that imaginative and prescient has its eyes too firmly glued to the rear view mirror. This is not a recreation that pulls the perfect bits from how issues had been achieved again within the day and melds that with optimistic improvements developed since that time to create a center floor that might signify a greater means forwards. The Previous Nation feels caught up to now.
