Mafia: The Old Country - Man of Honor - An Extra Slice of Mob Life
When Mafia: The Old Country launched this time last year, it seemed to split the critic community. Some didn’t gel with the more simplistic gameplay that it offered, while some, including myself, had a blast with what is basically an interactive Mob movie. For me, its story-first focus, along with solid, if unoriginal gameplay, was a winning combination, and I thoroughly enjoyed stepping into Enzo’s shoes. So when I heard DLC was coming, I was understandably interested. That very DLC is now here, titled Man of Honor, and once again, I am glad to have spent some time in the Old Country.
Man of Honor is a nice 2-3 hour expansion of the main game. It sits in the story around chapter 5, just after Enzo becomes a “made man.” If, like me, you have already finished the main game, there is the option to just jump into the new chapters, but if you are starting afresh, the new content will slip seamlessly into the existing narrative. As I am covering the DLC, I jumped straight to the new stuff, but after finishing it, I kind of wished I didn’t. I think, if you have the time, playing through the whole game would be the smarter way to go. In fact, once I have a spare weekend, I intend to do just that.
In the expansion, Enzo is asked to help Ennio Salieri, an associate of the Don who has just been released from prison and is looking for revenge on some underlings who robbed him while he was incarcerated. It is a simple tale, with just enough undercurrent of intrigue to keep players on their toes. There are a few little bits and pieces in the story that seem to lead to something down the track, should there be more story content in the pipeline, but otherwise the tale wraps in a nice bow at the end of the two new chapters.
The gameplay is much the same as the main game; however, two outstanding sections really stand out. The first is a shootout in and around a mine. It is quite the tense bulletfest with a couple of nice new tricks on display and an excellent map to do battle in. The second is a stealth section that sees Enzo sneaking into a meeting of the Masons to rob them. It is easily the best stealth mission in the entire game and really makes use of this stunning location and its lush gardens and forest. These two sequences really show that the development team at Hangar 13 have polished what they brought in the main game to an ultimate shine and shows that even with the old-school feel, there can be outstanding gameplay sections.
As I said before, I fully intend to do a full replay of the whole game as soon as possible, and this DLC is the reason for that. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed Enzo’s journey the first time around, and now all I can do is think about starting all over again. If you missed it when it launched, please, at least consider giving it a go. This sort of production, small in scale, yet AAA in presentation, doesn’t come around often, and it is a model I sincerely hope more studios adopt to fight rising budgets and the seemingly endless drive by publishers towards “bigger is better.”
Along with the story content, the update comes with some new free additions for people who don’t own Man of Honor. The Free Ride update includes some new races, combat and stealth encounters, along with a host of new outfits, horses and cars. To round it all off, there have been optimisations made to the PS5 and Xbox Series versions of the game, which upgrades the gameplay to a smooth 60FPS. Owners of the PS4 or Xbox One versions will also have access to a free upgrade to the PS5 or Series X, which is also nice to see.
In all, Man of Honor won’t change your mind if you didn’t like The Old Country when it first arrived. If, like me, you loved your old world mob experience, then Man of Honor is a bit of a no-brainer. A good couple of hours of great new content, including some outstanding sections, along with a host of other goodies, make this an easy piece of DLC to recommend to anyone who feels like becoming a made man once again.
