The first model new Mafia sport in almost 20 years is ready to launch not lengthy earlier than GTA 6, however developer Hangar 13 doesn’t appear notably anxious.
Aside from Borderlands 4, the opposite 2K revealed sport anticipated to indicate up at The Game Awards 2024 was Mafia: The Old Country, the latest entry within the Mafia collection that was teased at Gamescom in August.
Some of the anticipation was diluted considerably when a brief trailer leaked yesterday, which additionally gave away the sport’s launch window, even when it didn’t actually supply any information on what Mafia: The Old Country is about.
While the complete model of the trailer isn’t for much longer, clocking in at lower than two minutes – most of which is reduce scenes – the builders at Hangar 13 have offered additional particulars about its story and what followers can count on from the gameplay.
Set in Sicily in the course of the early 1900s (one thing that was precisely rumoured in 2022), Mafia: The Old Country sees you play as Enzo, a brand new provoke within the Torrisi crime household, who will little doubt go on to rise by way of the ranks as he makes a reputation for himself in organised crime.
The sport doubles as a prequel to the remainder of the collection and as an origin story for a way the precise mafia got here to be, with sport director Alex Cox and Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes explaining in an IGN interview that going again to an earlier time interval was much more releasing and handy for telling a brand new story.
Baynes provides that it additionally makes Mafia: The Old Country an excellent leaping on level for brand spanking new gamers, though he thinks returning followers will discover a lot to like: ‘It is the start of issues that lead into the unique trilogy, nevertheless it additionally units up a complete new story, entire new tales within the Mafia universe. So I feel for individuals who have beloved Mafia video games up to now, it is a actually satisfying sport for them, taking them to an space that they’ve by no means been to earlier than.’
Surprisingly, Hangar 13 has opted to not make Mafia: The Old Country one other open world journey, prefer it did with Mafia 3, describing it as a ‘linear, narrative pushed’ expertise, extra akin to the primary two Mafia video games.
This determination could also be for the most effective. Mafia 3 was simply the weakest entry of the bunch, even when it did have the most effective script. Hopefully, the identical writing group has been introduced again for Mafia: The Old Country.
One factor Cox and Baynes are wanting to stress, is that their sport is nothing like GTA 6. The Mafia video games have all the time been a transparent try and ape GTA’s success and with each collection set to obtain new entries in the identical 12 months, comparisons are naturally going to run rampant.
‘When GTA 3 and Mafia got here out, they have been mechanically very related video games,’ argues Cox. ‘But Mafia’s all the time had a bit extra deal with its linear narrative versus the sandbox experiences, which Rockstar does trade tremendous highest quality [sic].’
Baynes, in the meantime, isn’t making an attempt to assume too laborious about how the brand new Mafia will stand as much as GTA 6, saying, ‘We simply make the most effective sport we are able to. We’re making it for Mafia followers, it’s the story we wish to inform within the Mafia universe.’
‘Honestly, outdoors of, I don’t know, the chat down the pub about how we really feel in regards to the market typically or what’s popping out subsequent, it’s not one thing that we ever discuss. We simply wish to make the most effective Mafia sport attainable,’ he provides.
When will Mafia: The Old Country be launched?
Mafia: The Old Country is presently slated for the summer time of 2025, that means it’s fortunately avoiding GTA 6’s autumn launch window.
Both Hangar 13 and GTA 6 developer Rockstar are owned by Take-Two Interactive, so the corporate is properly guaranteeing the 2 don’t launch too shut to at least one one other.
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