Interactive: “Mafia – The Old Country”, the game that also wants to be a good film

We are in 1900, somewhere in Sicily. At the bottom of a mine, solid fellows are outrageously exploited by a harsh direction. Accidents (collapses, asphyxiation, poisoning) are not uncommon. Enzo and his galley companion, Gaetano, are sent bluntly in search of missing minors. Exploration is perilous, Gaetano will not survive it.

Enzo is forced to flee and ends up finding refuge in an area, that of the Torrisi family, one of the most powerful in the region. The Big Boss, Don Bernardo Torrisi engages him as a man with everything and grants him a “protection” which he will have to deserve. In the distance, a volcano – most likely the Etna – rumbles … and the boss’s daughter does not lack charms.

New episode of the franchise “Mafia”, “The Old Country” is not hidden to belong to a genre that may seem to have a fashion. It is an action and infiltration game (with some horse -drawn hippic variants)) intensely narrative. In other words, the linear story told is as important, if not more, as its interactive portions. The exercise is perilous, the successes are rare (we think of the fabulous “Red Dead Redemption 2”) and this “mafia” begins by a favorable light.

We just have to accept the fact that we do not act in a world particularly open to exploration. Going from one yellow point to another (on foot, on horseback, by car) will be the only way to trigger a new part of the scenario. Too much turn away from it and it is the “game over” (with counting to go back on the right track) that threatens.

But be. We hadn’t told us about an ambitious story for a long time, so we embarked on it. Especially since the graphic realization is very good.

So, good game and good film this “mafia – the old country”? Not far, but ultimately no. We first let ourselves be embedded by this ascent of less than nothing in a mafia clan. Nothing new under the sun for those who master his little scorsese (that of the “freed”) and Coppola (that of the “godfather”) illustrated, but a case that rolls with a very properly written (and interpreted) story.

Only here, once the apotheosis (in an opera in Palermo, which is reminiscent of the final of the “godfather III”, it is a compliment), the few missions that remain are unbearably laborious. The twists are eyeing the tragic with the lightness of a panzer-division launched on a flower carrier. And the tchekhov rifle, the volcano that rumbles a little more every new year, it finally detonates, but we damn seen it coming.

On the gameplay side, it’s the same. At first, we adopt. We concede that it is not madly original, but at least effective. However, the repetitive side of duels with a knife, too numerous, too systematic, too long, began by annoying us before we get angry irreparably. Especially when they are accompanied by endless kinematics, because it is completely predictable.

Here, we came out of this “mafia” a bit disgusted and disappointed. We would almost forget that just before chapters XIII and XIV, “Mafia – The Old Country”, were certainly not exceptional, but at least enough qualities to be recommendable.

“Mafia – The Old Country”, a player, developed by Hangar 13, edited by Take 2. Available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Windows PC.