Mafia: The Old Country - A Chat With Alex Cox and Devin Hitch of Hangar 13
The Mafia series has always been one to take its historical recreations seriously. While the games themselves are based in fictional versions of real-world locations, the accuracy to the customs, rituals and cultures of both the time period and the Mafia themselves has always been something that Hanger 13 has nailed. That looks set to continue in Mafia: The Old Country, a prequel to the previous titles set in early 1900s Scilly, the original home of the Mafia. Thanks to 2K Australia, I got the chance to talk to Alex Cox, Creative Director and Devin Hitch, Executive Producer at Hanger 13, to find out just how they are setting about to bring this location and period to life for gamers.
My first question that I just had to know was how they even started researching this setting, after all, it doesn’t seem like a topic you could just find in your local library. Alex agreed. “What most people may not realise is that the Sicilian Mafia, even to this day, is a very secretive thing. There is still a sort of unspoken acknowledgement that the events of the past are not mentioned. That is because the Mafia in Scilly included fully blooded members that weren’t just gangsters, people like Doctors, Politicians and Lawyers were all in the ranks, and that created a very secretive society. The Western Mafia has been well-documented in the media through movies and strong records regarding actual court cases and the like, but that doesn’t exist for the Sicilian Mafia. We brought experts in to help and some accomplished researchers to make it as accurate as we can, but at the same time, we have to keep things at a distance so as to not disrespect the the feelings of Sicily.”
I was also interested to find out how the team had included traditions and equipment of the era into the game, and not just guns. Devin jumped in with a great answer, and it came about because of their exhaustive research. “One of the things we came across in our research and made its way into the game is this idea of Sicilian knife fighting. On one of our research trips, we got to meet some craftsmen still creating these knives in the same way they have for a couple of hundred years. They have developed this kind of knife-fighting tradition that almost looks like martial arts in a way. So we got really interested in what gameplay implications something like this could have.” He went on to explain how the knife was implemented as a result of this research. “In Mafia: The Old Country, your knife serves as an additional sidearm; it’s always there, you don’t run out of ammo, though it can be thrown and will have to be collected. In addition to this more traditional approach, we have developed a duels mode which allows us to have bespoke gameplay, duelling one-on-one with knives. It allows us to get up close and personal, which is great from a story impact point of view. It is a really cool example of finding something in research and being able to fit it into the game in a wonderful way.”
This then led me to ask about the guns. After all,1900s firearms were probably not the best things to use in terms of things like recoil and accuracy. I was curious to find out what compromises were made when weighing up historical accuracy and enjoyable gameplay. “Look, I would say our guns are inspired by their historical counterparts.” Said Alex, ” They are an approximation of the real-life ammo capacity, recoil and general performance. Everything is modelled closely on weapons that would have been available in Italy at the time. It is a pre-Tommy gun era, so that is a big difference here; there are no automatic weapons, so that really influenced the whole approach to our combat design. It was important to us because the lack of automatic weapons really informed our combat experience quite a lot. We wanted the combat to feel more tactical than previous Mafia games, more dangerous, so it fit nicely with the pacing of the weapons themselves. They are a bit more deliberate, a bit more impactful”
Mafia 3 famously included a mechanic where the affluent, white neighbourhoods would receive police attention quicker than the poorer ones. It is such a period-accurate thing that really added to the game. I had to know if the team had another period-appropriate addition that is designed to immerse the players in the time period for The Old Country. Alex jumped in, “That mechanism was really a statement about the deep south of America at that time, and that was part of how we do immersion and authenticity. Our equivalent here is making sure the Sicilian setting really landed. The big difference in this game is that very setting. From an immersion perspective, the thing we really focused on was the Sicilian language in particular. The main game is obviously presented in accented English, but we also got a traditional Sicilian localisation, which is a distinct language from Italian. It is the language that the Sicilian people spoke at the time of the game, which, by the way, is very different to the Sicilian dialect of today. We really hope that this is the way people might choose to play a second playthrough, because a lot of effort was put into including this option.
To finish off my chat, I asked what about The Old Country is exciting them the most, and Devin couldn’t wait to tell me. “It is absolutely the story. I was floored by the narrative. It is all in service of this classic but different mob movie that we want players to experience. I have to say the ending of this game is amazing. I don’t think players are going to see the twist coming, and I hope it is the type of game you can play through over a week or two and then go Wow, that was amazing. I really hope that players are able to keep the secret, but tell their friends that they have to check this out. This is the feeling I have when I walk away from the game, and I have played it through five or six times now. The story, the setting, it all comes together. It is familiarly Mafia, but it’s also new and unique, and it has been amazing to see what the team have been able to do.
I have to say that while I was already excited for The Old Country, after my chat with Devin and Alex, that excitement has reached fever pitch. This is clearly a team that has a great passion for what they are doing, and I have no doubt that it will translate to the game. We don’t have long to wait to find out either, with Mafia: The Old Country hitting PC, Xbox Series and PS5 on August 8. Stay tuned to Player 2 for a full review ASAP.
