I tend to think of the Mafia series as a sleeping giant. Something akin to Max Payne – a critically revered, cult classic hit machine that just needs to be awoken, as it will be this year with The Old Country. But the numbers don’t point to that. The three Mafia games have very poor Metacritic scores, logging just 66, 74, and 68 respectively. The first Mafia did rise from 66 to a still not that impressive 78 with the Definitive Edition, but Mafia 2 dropped two points to 72, so there’s no way to spin this that looks like comfortable reading.
Compare that to Max Payne, which enjoyed scores of 89, 86, and 86. These things play in different leagues. But okay, Max Payne was just an example picked out of the air. What about Call of Juarez, another series that has been mostly forgotten and that taps into a specific cinematic frame of reference that has long since gone out of style? These series seem like kindred spirits, but Juarez can celebrate scores of 71, 77, and 76 for its three cowboy games, though the ill-advised modern day retelling The Cartel did sink to a near-unheard of 47. So what does this mean for Mafia?
Does Mafia’s Past Influence Its Future?
The obvious answer is ‘nothing’. The review scores of video games from 2004, 2010, and 2016 do not impact the fate of The Old Country one bit. If anything, the rise to 78 on the Definitive Edition suggests new developer Hangar 13 (original developer 2K Czech was credited with ‘supporting’ development on Mafia 3) has figured out how to smooth off the edges and this mesh of linear and open-world gameplay will be looked on more fondly today. Certainly, the fact The Old Country is rejecting Mafia 3’s sawdusted meatloaf approach of a massive, empty world to bore players to death in favour of building on the linearity of the first two games is a good sign.
Of course, even beyond that, the answer is ‘nothing’. You may not have heard this, but games journalists get things wrong sometimes. Whether that is ‘wrong’ as in ‘gave a review score not in-line with the public consensus or which does not reflect the game’s eventual legacy, but instead represents the reviewer’s true feelings delivered from an analytical perspective’ (otherwise known as ‘not wrong’), or ‘wrong’ as in ‘I probably should have scored that higher/lower’, which happens when you get a bit of distance from a game, doesn’t matter. What number somebody else gives a video game should not impact your enjoyment of said game, and we would all do well to remember that.
But while it might not mean anything to the finished product, or to the existing Mafias (I think the first two scores are too low, the third maybe even a mite high), it may mean something to the devs. Hangar 13’s first ever game was Mafia 3, generally regarded as the worst by a distance, despite its critical score landing in the middle. They may well have a point to prove, and that could make Mafia: The Old Country a bolder, riskier game chasing its own identity. It could also make it safer, retreating from the open-world change of pace that saw Mafia 3 fail. But going for an origin story suggests a desire from Hangar 13 to do things its own way, and that’s an attitude I can respect.
Some Games Just Don’t Review Well
It may also be that Mafia is simply fated to be middle of the road. While that initial 66 in 2004 looks harsh in retrospect and by modern standards, had any of the games matched Max Payne’s 89 I think we’d have all suggested that was a little high. Just this week, Dynasty Warriors: Origins also pushed the reset button after a low-scoring entry (DW9 scraped to 65), and was rewarded with a somewhat impressive 80 – which turned out to be the highest in the series’ history.
I’m a casual Dynasty Warriors fan, and found Origins to be enjoyable, scoring it a 3.5/5 myself. But the fact this fairly middling entry with a score that’s nothing to write home about in gaming is the highest ever suggests Dynasty Warriors has historically been both a little hard done to and a step behind the rest of the industry. Descriptors you could easily apply to the Mafia series.
I have no idea how The Old Country will do when it arrives this summer, but I find myself rooting hard for it. Maybe it’s because it’s an underdog. Maybe it’s just because I like Mafia. Maybe it’s because my job is generally more pleasant and easier to do when video games are great all the time. Who knows? The point is, if Hangar 13 feels it has a point to prove, it’s right. Now all that’s left is for the game to deliver.
- Released
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2025
- Developer(s)
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Hangar 13