Mafia: The Old Country — Journey to Sicily to Rediscover the Roots of Organized Crime

Nearly a decade after their last original story, the developers at Hangar 13 are taking a bold new step with Mafia: The Old Country. Set in early 20th century Sicily, the game rewinds the clock to explore the birth of organized crime, far from the familiar streets of Lost Heaven or Empire Bay. We sat down with Roman Hladík, General Manager of Hangar 13 in Brno, and Devin Hitch, Executive Producer, to discuss the studio’s ambitious vision, the challenges of leaving behind the iconic Mafia tropes, and how this historical prequel aims to welcome both veteran fans and new players into the world of Mafia.

Why did you decide to move the story all the way back to early 20th century Sicily? Was it an attempt to explore the roots of the Mafia, or more of a bold reinvention of the brand?

DH: Well, I think after Mafia: Definitive Edition, we did a lot of thinking about what we wanted to explore next. And one of the guiding pillars for the whole franchise is we want you to play a classic mob movie. That’s what we see in all of the Mafia games. One of the areas that we found really interesting was some of the depictions of what it was like in Sicily. You’ve got those classic scenes from Godfather Part II where they go back to Sicily, and it’s really interesting and evocative. So we started to look at some different concepts and ideas. We ultimately settled on going to Sicily at the turn of the century to explore the Sicilian Mafia and where some of the roots of the Mafia started, that would ultimately become a jumping-off point for characters that we see in future Mafia games, like the ones in Lost Heaven and Empire Bay.

The other thing that we thought was really cool was having a new and interesting setting. All of the Mafia games are in an urban American setting, and this is quite different and unique. We wanted to have some new, unique elements — new characters, new story, new setting — but also lots of familiar things that Mafia fans will enjoy.

We also felt like it would be a very nice entry point for new players. It's been almost 10 years since we told an original Mafia story, since Mafia III came out in 2016, and we’re really excited to tell a new Mafia story in the franchise. Having it set in Sicily, having it be a prequel, allows new players to come experience this and have a great onboarding to playing some of the other games that occur in chronological order after.

RH: And maybe just to add, when we were working on the previous Mafia games, we obviously studied the history of the Mafia and how it was at the beginning. But maybe not all players know that. So I think it might be attractive to players as well to learn about it — where the Mafia as an organization and the roots of organized crime come from. So that was quite an easy choice, I would say. After showing players how the Mafia organization works in US cities and so on, to also show its beginnings was quite a natural choice, I would say.

What challenges does this time period bring, especially without the iconic cars, weapons, and soundtrack of the previous Mafia games? How did you compensate for the absence of typical “mafia tropes”?

RH: I think you named the challenges. Like with cars — it was an era when cars were developing. But the early years don’t mean there weren’t interesting and even fast cars. I know the general perception is that at the time there were almost no cars. Yes, it was the beginning. Yes, some of them were slow. But there were also people trying to push the boundaries of machines, and they actually made some quite fast cars at that time. So we still have a chance to have cars — and not even slow cars — in Mafia: The Old Country. The challenge was to implement the horse feature, because that was very typical for that era. So we had to have it, and we have it.

DH: But with that said, we do have really cool cars in the game. And we’ve got a great soundtrack that we recorded with an orchestra. We don’t have the 60s soundtrack from Mafia III, or the Django Reinhardt stuff from Mafia I, but I think we’ve got all the elements that are going to make a really memorable Mafia game as well.

In Mafia I, we followed Tommy’s rise and fall. What kind of emotional or moral journey can players expect from Enzo Favara? Is there a philosophical or human layer you want to convey through his story?

DH: I think the Enzo story is going to be very familiar to players. In the same way that a lot of the Mafia games, like you mentioned Mafia 1 and Tommy's journey, have this question about what Tommy is willing to do for himself versus the family, and the push and pull between those things. This is a really common theme in all the Mafia games, and we'll definitely see that here with Enzo as he tries to find his place in the world. He's coming from essentially being like a slave in the sulfur mines to actually experiencing life for the first time.

I really like in our story how the player's chance to experience Sicily and get a first look at it is very similar to Enzo's. He's been really restricted in his childhood, and he hasn't had a lot of these experiences. So as a player, you get to experience those as Enzo does, and I think that's really nice and unique.

But in terms of the story, this of all the Mafia stories is the one that I'm most excited for players to experience. Enzo has a really incredible story arc, and we've got some great characters and moments, especially the ending. But like any good crime drama, we don't want to give away the ending. So players will absolutely have to fight themselves to experience it. But I think we've got some really great themes again, around family and what that means — your family or the Mafia family.

RH: When I play the game these days, I get a similar feeling as when I played Mafia 1. That means the story drags you through the game. It's a story-driven game. So the pacing — how the story develops and so on — is quite fast. You are not waiting and grinding for something. The story kind of dictates the missions and what kind of combat you're going to have. And it's not just about — well, there is a variety of gameplay mechanics. So it drags you through the environment, through the timeline, and so on. And it works quite nicely.

How did you approach depicting the Mafia world at a time before the structured American Cosa Nostra existed? Is it more about local family codes and traditions, or do we already see the early roots of global organized crime?

RH: I think we can see the roots of it there, but obviously it developed naturally from the environment and from the needs of society as well. So it's probably a combination of those things. I don't know if I should describe more — I don't want to spoil anything — but I think it's coming from both sides. On one hand, trying to get some extra profit or be encouraged to do so, and on the other hand, providing some safety.

DH: We did a lot of research once we settled on this direction for the next Mafia game, and there are a million interesting anecdotes and facts that we found in books or from talking to historians. One of the things we've shown in some gameplay videos is that one of our enemy factions are these bandits that live up in the hills. This was something I wasn’t aware of until we started researching for the game, but banditry was quite common at that time. You’d have these guys up in the hills who would come down and take things from farmers and local people.

One of the things that the Sicilian Mafia could offer was protection from those guys. And this was a way they both created safety for their local communities but also took money from the farmers and landowners in those areas. These are the kinds of things we found in early research that were really interesting. We were able to use those as a foundation for gameplay and in the characterization of some of the enemy factions. So, a lot of interesting stuff came out of our early research.

Why did you choose a linear structure instead of an open-world experience, which is the norm today? Did you ever consider a hybrid approach between open-world freedom and focused storytelling?

RH: I think Mafia games were always about linear stories, right? They are storytelling games. After we made Mafia: Definitive Edition, we saw the players' reactions — what they liked and what they really enjoyed in the game. So it was probably an easy choice.

We also want to tell a story — that’s one of our key motivators for making the game. I think we’re trying to go in a similar direction as we did with Mafia 1 and Mafia 2, and we are focused on that. We want the experience to be intense and rich. So, we feel there’s no need for activities that would drag you away from the story. That’s how we see it.

You're using Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman—how much did you have to adapt these tools to fit the Sicilian setting and characters? For instance, clothing, lighting, textures, animations?

RH: I would say the old engine was very good for what we did in the Mafia games, but keeping up with what Epic does in Unreal Engine 5 and some of the modern technologies is quite difficult. So we decided to use Unreal and have these features available. Yes, it allowed us to create, I would say, a richer world with many more details — environments that look believable, and you barely see triangles or anything like that.

And then, in terms of characters, using MetaHuman, the details we are able to display and how we can actually capture the performance of real actors and transfer it into the game is amazing. You can really read the emotions from the facial expressions, and that was not impossible with our old engine, but it would have required a lot of effort. I’m not sure if you would reach this quality. So it just provided us with better tools to better express the story and provide the experience to players.

DH: There’s always a learning curve when you change technology. Certainly, there were things for us to learn, but I completely agree with Roman. At the end of the day, an engine offers some benefits and some trade-offs. We had some advantages with the old engine, and we certainly have different advantages in Unreal. But I think what really comes through is the passion of our team — our artists, character artists, animators, and cutscene team. That really shows on screen in whichever engine we use.

The end result is very clear: everybody on our team is a big fan of the Mafia series. When the challenge came to learn a new engine and transition to Unreal, everybody was super excited and dove right into it. We just can’t wait for people to play it!

A full Sicilian voiceover is a rarity—what was the process like working with language experts, actors, and translators? Were there any expressions or cultural nuances that simply couldn’t be translated?

DH: I think one of the things that we had a great opportunity to do was to travel to Sicily, and we also partnered with a studio called Stormind. They are located in Sicily, so they’re an actual local game developer. They really helped us throughout the project—they provided references and connected us with some academic researchers at a local university. One of the employees there is even a local tour guide in Sicily. When we traveled there, he was able to give a tour to people on the team.

They helped us along the way by making sure that things were authentic. They assisted with identifying systems, some of the Sicilian voice actors, and then worked with our larger 2K localization team, which handles all of the recordings. They also helped us understand cultural sensitivities around discussing the Sicilian mafia.

It is quite a sensitive topic because some terrible things happened in the not-too-distant past. They really helped us understand how we could present the story we wanted to tell in a respectful and authentic way, which was very important to us. All of the Mafia games take place in fictionalized cities, fictionalized worlds. We have Lost Heaven and Empire Bay, which have real-world equivalents they’re inspired by. In the same way, we’re doing that with Sicily. It’s Sicily in the same way those other cities are set in America in the other Mafia games.

Our city is San Celeste, a fictionalized version of a town you might find there. I think that helps create a buffer between some of the things that happened in reality and what happens in our game. Again, that was very important because we wanted to be sensitive to the local culture and the people there.

RH: And in terms of difficulties translating stuff, I’m not aware of anything that would be impossible to translate. You always find a way. If I look at it from the other side, even in the English version, the characters use Italian or Sicilian expressions. We cast actors who can speak Italian—American actors who got the accent—and you can feel from the language that they are from Italy or Sicily, which is great. It adds authenticity to the game, even if you play in English. So we paid attention to those details as well.

DH: There is a history of using curse words in Mafia games. I think Mafia 2 set the record for the most F-words at the time. While we don’t have a record-breaking amount of Sicilian curse words, even in the English version, there are quite a few. The team has really picked up on them and started using them around the hallways in the studio, so it’s quite fun. Like Roman said, you get that flavor injected. It’s nice.

So when talking about language, of course, very naturally comes to my mind Czech dubbing, which is supposedly in the game. It has, I would say, a cult following here in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And the roots of the game are also in Czechia. So how did you guys approach making a dubbed version of the game for the Czech audience?

DH: I think we have a really strong localization department within 2K. They help us in all of the regions. They were really helpful in finding the right actors and cast for the Czech dubbing of Mafia Definitive Edition. They’ve helped us out with this as well. So this is something that we help with, but we also lean heavily on 2K and their expertise here.

How did you capture the atmosphere of early 1900s Sicily—was historical accuracy a priority, or did you take dramatic liberties?

It was always the case in all the Mafias. We are inspired by reality, and then we curated it in a way that we feel will provide the right atmosphere, the right feelings, and experience for the player. So, we are not copy-pasting, let's say, locations from the real world, but we study the era, the architecture, the car design, cloth design, all the elements, weapons, pretty much everything that is in the game. We pay a lot of attention to the research, and then we try to recreate our version of the world of that era, which should be authentic.

When people look at it, when they play the game, they should feel like they are in that era, playing in the early 20th century, and so on. So, I think we pay a lot of attention to it, and in my opinion, we did it well. It feels like Sicily at that time. Well, I didn’t. I can’t know, but it feels to me like we made it.

DH: There's lots of research that we did in pre-production, and a lot of old photographs and things like that that the artists and animators reviewed. Many times, we create this kind of broad-stroke impression, as Roman said, that is historically accurate. But one of the things I found really interesting was when we started finalizing some of the visuals—the really small details that some of the artists and animators were putting into the game, pulled directly from some of these old photographs.

These are things you might not immediately think of, but when you go back and look at the references, they are true. I think the collection of all these small details, together with the story and setting that we’ve told, ultimately paints a very authentic picture of what Sicily was like at the time.

Was there some licensing that you had to go through when adapting this world, or maybe parts of it, the buildings, the clothing, and stuff like that? Was this somehow involved?

RH: I don't think we have any specific licensing for design, right? As I said, we study the design and stuff, and then we create our version of it. So we don't do licensing of real stuff.

DH: I think there's some fonts and things like that that we license to re-record performances and things like that for background music—stuff like authentic Sicilian songs. But a lot of the process is reviewing these things and understanding how we can use the real buildings and such as inspiration. So they’re not one-to-one copies. We take architectural elements and other features to create our own world, our own vision. But it is heavily drawn from real references, real places. This is just like we’ve done in New Bordeaux, which is based heavily on New Orleans, or Empire Bay on New York. It’s not the actual New York skyline, but when you see the skyline of Empire Bay, you know what it is.

RH: This might be quite a challenging task for all the artists working on the game because they have to really learn a lot about the era and design used at that time. If you want it to be authentic, then it must be almost like an architect of that era designed the building, the car, and so on. So, yeah, that’s a lot of effort on the artists’ side. And I think we do that for every Mafia game and so far quite successfully. It’s going to be the same and even better with Mafia: The Old Country.

Does Enzo play a passive role in the story, or can players make meaningful decisions that impact the narrative? If so, how are these choices reflected in the mission structure or story arcs?

DH: Well, when we released Mafia Definitive Edition in 2020, one of the things we did was really listen to the feedback from players and fans. We got a lot of really positive responses about the way the story was presented and the framework we used to tell it. In many ways, that was the inspiration for how we wanted to tell the story in Mafia: The Old Country. We are really passionate and focused on telling a strong, character-driven story where you are the main character in a classic mob movie, and we want to pull you through that story, as Roman said. So, this is the same tactic we’ve taken with Mafia: The Old Country.

Players who have played Mafia Definitive Edition can expect the same type of linear narrative story experience, and that’s because we’re really passionate about making those kinds of games—and we got really positive feedback from Mafia Definitive Edition.

The game includes stealth, melee combat, horseback riding… How did you test and balance the pacing to keep it engaging?

DH: You know, I think all of the Mafia games have always tried to give players a choice in how they play, whether they use a stealthy style or go in guns blazing. You can even equip your character accordingly. You can visit Valerio, our weaponsmith, who is similar to Vincenzo from Mafia Definitive Edition, and pick the type of weapons that suit your style. There are certain parts of the game where the story pushes you one way or another, but for the most part, we really want to leave that choice to the players.

And you're right, we have expanded the weapons a bit. For example, we have a knife you can throw—one of three knife archetypes—and each has a special ability. The throwing knife really lends itself to a more stealthy style. Ultimately, we want this game, like the previous Mafia games, to let you decide how you want to play. I actually enjoy going back and trying different approaches—if I do one mission stealthily, I’ll try again with shotguns and grenades to see how it plays out.

RH: I would just add that the game isn’t only about stealth and combat. You are experiencing Enzo’s life, his progression, and we offer more than just combat. There are other gameplay mechanics and parts that set the pacing. I think the pacing feels right—it’s not repetitive or boring. You keep approaching and learning new things, and the mixture of that feels balanced to me. Let’s see how players will appreciate it, but so far, it feels good.

Is there a particular detail or mechanic that you personally love? For example, could you tell us more about the knife you mentioned and how it adds to the gameplay experience?

DH: Yeah. I mean, one of the things that we have added to the game is a knife dueling mode. So, in a sense, this is combat, but it's different from the kind of on-foot classical combat that you've seen in the other Mafia games. This really came from some research we did into Sicilian knife making. We actually visited some artists and knife makers who have been practicing this craft for some time, and associated with those knives is this kind of Sicilian knife fighting, which almost looks like a flowing martial art.

We saw some practitioners doing it in Sicily when we visited. The more we started to think about this, the more we thought about whether there was an opportunity to have a bespoke game mode—we call them duels in the game—where periodically you get up close and personal with one of the key antagonists. There's someone in the story who you’re building up animosity against, and then suddenly you face them one-to-one in a close-up knife duel.

This is really interesting because in other Mafia games, sometimes when you get close to one of the main villains, their final demise is handled in a cutscene, or you shoot them from far away, or blow up the car they're in. You’re not really there face-to-face to have that moment with them. So, this has been something new and different to the gameplay that Roman was talking about. It’s new to this game, but in addition to being a gameplay element, it’s also a storytelling device. We’re really close to these guys, and as we prototyped this, some of our artists started coming up with cool ideas—like procedural blood. So, in these knife fights, you can get cut and sliced, and the blood stays on the characters, on their clothing and skin, and persists for a little while into cutscenes, providing a really immersive experience.

RH: I don’t think I have one specific feature I like the most—it’s the mixture of it all. I like that not only in Mafia games but in other games when gameplay is not just repetitive with one mechanic, but you experience more variety. Plus, the story is obviously the key driver in Mafia games, so when everything combines nicely, it works. I think that’s definitely the case for Mafia: The Old Country.

What surprised you most during the development of this Mafia compared to previous entries—especially in terms of player expectations?

RH: I don’t know if I have any example of a real surprise, you know, like, do we?

DH: I’m continually surprised by some of the affinity, especially that Czech gamers have for simulation and realism. We put a lot of effort into making the game very realistic and including some small details. But there’s always, I think, a craving for more. So we’re always looking at how we can expand that. Most of the surprises we had were in early pre-production, when we were doing research and coming up with ideas by looking at things that happened in history and stuff like that.

There are a lot of really unique anecdotes from our research. While we’re not pulling any one of those directly into the game, we’re using their inspiration to create the overall story framework. So I think it was a lot of the research we did in early pre-production where we had some cool surprises about stories of the Sicilian mafia and things like that.

RH: I agree with Devin that exploring what life was like in Sicily during this era was full of surprises, maybe, but that’s probably it. Not directly anything surprising during development itself, I would say. It was common challenges we went through.