The Game Awards nominations have always sparked the usual arguments, celebrations, and discussions about snubs. This year, I have had my fair share of complaints about games that deserved nominations and awards, but there's one absence that made absolute, perfect sense — Mafia: The Old Country. Sure, it's a gorgeous game with AAA backing, a beloved IP, and it even had an entire industry rooting for it, but four months later, it's already vanished from conversation. And truth be told, this disappearance was rather well-earned.
This game had the resources, the hype, and a rare chance to reposition the Mafia IP, and instead, it played things so painfully safe and shallow that even one nomination this year would've felt like charity. Mafia: The Old Country could've been great, but it chose not to.
The story was a trope salad with zero ambition
Not a single thing in the game I hadn't seen before
I say this as someone who loves mafia stories: this script was written with eyes closed and one hand hovering over the "copy" button. The Old Country's narrative is aggressively clichéd and unoriginal, with tropes that were already stale when The Sopranos was on. Are you taken in by a seemingly-benevolent Don? Yes. Is he controlling of his daughter's life? Yes. Do you fall in love with her in a forbidden-love arc? Check. Do you rise through the ranks while making the Don's family members jealous, making them pick fights with you? Double check. The "outsider joins the family" arc? The tragic romance beat? The slow growth of the protagonist's conscience against the family that took him in? Sigh. I'm tired just writing these, and playing through each and every single one of these tropes was nothing short of exhausting.
The pacing and performances were genuinely good, making the atrociously clichéd plot tolerable.
The frustrating thing about it all? The pacing was actually good here, and the performances were genuinely impressive. The plot, however, was completely automated. Hangar 13 treated this game and its story as if their promise of "delivering a classic Mafia story" meant that they could just pick elements from every single mafia story ever made and put to film, and they'd be shielded from criticism even if they didn't bother to write anything new.
That's why Mafia: The Old Country couldn't possibly be in the same building, let alone the same room, when discussing the narrative giants that have been nominated for so many appropriate awards this year in the story and direction department.
It was a technical headache, too
The Old Country's performance problems also tanked any hopes for recognition
Look, I'll be the first person to praise how breathtaking The Old Country is. The sunsets and the Global Illumination were stunning. The environments were pretty great to take in, but strip away the visual sheen, and you're left with a game that buckled under the weight of its own engine. The usual Unreal Engine 5 pitfalls were present here, and that too, in full force: shimmering hair, ghosting trails, inconsistent shadows, and the kind of pop-in that made me question if my GPU was dying or if the game was being dramatic.
Every GOTY contender this year looked and ran phenomenally on their respective platforms.
Even on the PS5, I saw frame rates dive into the 40s and low 50s while driving, and the cutscenes were stuck pretty hard at 30fps, with the occasional dip. Meanwhile, every other real GOTY contender this year ran phenomenally on their respective hardware.
Oh, and the absolute worst part? It's that there was simply no unique visual language that Mafia: The Old Country could call its own. It's certainly a UE5 showroom piece — there's no denying its gorgeousness — but it's also indistinguishable from a dozen other UE5 "next-gen visual stunners." A nomination in art direction or technical achievement would simply never have happened, because The Old Country had a few great sunsets, but no identity.
An action-adventure game that had neither
I played 20 hours, and not a single minute felt new
I think this is my biggest pain point with Mafia: The Old Country. For a studio with AAA resources to have delivered such lifeless gameplay was downright baffling for me. Across the game's entire runtime, The Old Country refused to try anything new. There wasn't a single mechanical innovation, not a single surprise. You crouch through the same stealth sections. You shot through the same cover arenas. You drove on predictable routes. Even the races, which were the most "exciting" part of the game, were scripted missions, and the game bent the world around me to guarantee a win, which is why I could get through them with half-closed eyes.
This year's Mafia was an action-adventure game that forgot to include either action, or adventure. Even the handful of knife duels — one-on-one combat encounters that were like mini-boss fights — quickly became repetitive and overstayed their welcome, while still having nothing new to give except parries, dodges, light attacks, and heavy attacks.
After the second or third hour, there was simply nothing new in the game. Everything you do in Mafia: The Old Country is something you've done a hundred times over across different games, in the same combinations. Speaking of which, there's even a "safe-cracking" mechanic, where you just have to find the combination for a safe lying in the same room. Why even bother?
Nothing in The Old Country's 20-hour runtime had the courage to surprise, innovate, or even remix old mechanics. At this point, I feel like I'm doing the upcoming award show a disservice by talking about it in the same breath as Hangar 13's game.
Its world is beautiful but hollow
Free roam means nothing when there's nothing worth doing
The Old Country's version Sicily is, visually, one of the most beautiful maps I've ever explored. But once the story ends, the world becomes a postcard gallery. It's pretty to look at, sure, but rather empty to live in. The collectibles do not matter. The free roam exists purely out of franchise obligation, and nothing you do there affects the main campaign in any meaningful way.
And that's why it never had a shot at even a single nomination. Every category that Mafia could've contended in — art direction, narrative, innovation, and performance — was dragged down by how paper-thin the actual substance was. It's lavish, but it's got nothing inside to show for it. A game that desperately wanted the reputation of a prestige narrative experience without putting in the work to build one.
If the map doesn't evolve, and the choices don't matter, and the collectibles are just chores, then all you've really got is an expensive vacation slideshow. Pretty, but forgettable. And award shows never honor the forgettable.
Mafia: The Old Country
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 74/100 Critics Rec: 66%
- Released
- August 8, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
- Hangar 13
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
WHERE TO PLAY
Uncover the origins of organized crime in Mafia: The Old Country, a gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily. Fight to survive as Enzo Favara and prove your worth to the Cosa Nostra in this immersive third-person action-adventure set during a dangerous, unforgiving era.
This thrilling narrative is brought to life by stunning visuals, cinematic storytelling, and the authentic realism that the critically acclaimed Mafia series is known for. Enzo's story unfolds in a time when skill with a stiletto blade was a deadly asset, a lupara sawed-off shotgun was a go-to firearm, murderous vendettas raged for decades, and mafiosi patrolled their protection rackets on foot, horseback, or behind the wheel of turn-of-the-century motorcars.
Through grit and determination, Enzo has survived a childhood of indentured labor in Sicily’s hellish sulfur mines. Now, through a twist of fate, he has the opportunity to join Don Torrisi's crime family, and will do whatever it takes to carve out a better life for himself.
By swearing an oath, Enzo has committed himself to the Torrisi family's code of honor, with all the power and hardship it entails. He must never forget this simple truth:
Family Takes Sacrifice.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Crime
Mafia: The Old Country doesn't belong in any award conversation
Mafia: The Old Country is like a set of covers of song we've been hearing for years.
The Old Country had the visuals, the budget, the legacy, and the stage set perfectly, but it still delivered something painfully safe, shallow, predictable, and technically uneven. We've seen 2025 be a fantastic year. Studios swung wildly, took risks, and gave players so much "new-ness", and yet, The Old Country played old song covers we've heard for years now. Until Hangar 13 stops relying on nostaliga and starts taking real swings again, obscurity is where this entry belongs.
