After a YouTube advert leaked the discharge window, Hangar 13 showcased Mafia: The Previous Nation throughout The Recreation Awards with some cinematics and gameplay. The clear elephant within the room is Grand Theft Auto 6, which launches in Fall 2025 and is the newest in a sequence that Mafia has invited comparisons to for the reason that first recreation.
Nevertheless, when chatting with IGN in a brand new interview, recreation director Alex Cox and Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes clarified that they’re completely different titles. Baynes described The Previous Nation as “comparable” to Mafia 1 and 2 as a substitute of Mafia 3.
“I believe the best way that we might describe Mafia 1 and 2, and I believe numerous followers would, is it’s a linear journey that’s set in a world round you which you can go off the crushed path and discover, however actually the sport’s taking you down that path of the story. So I believe in case you use Mafia 1 or 2 as contact factors of what it’s like, that’s actually nearer than Mafia 3.”
And sure, which means it’s not fairly an open-world title, at the very least not within the “strictest sense”, per Cox. Baynes added, “The best way I describe it’s you’re not going to be taking part in Mafia: The Previous Nation and going off and doing infinite aspect quests and doing actions on the earth.
“We wish gamers to undergo and expertise a narrative, however set on this lovely world. And if you’re going alongside a path and wish to go over right here and discover, in lots of circumstances, you are able to do that as a result of the world exists round you. However we’re encouraging you to undergo the story.
“One of many issues I like about these video games is folks have a tendency to finish them as a result of they wish to discover out what occurs. And once more, this can be a pattern with this recreation as nicely. We wish folks to undergo and expertise the entire story.”
It gained’t say the sport is “purely linear” because it sounds “too tight” or that it’s “open-world” which is “too broad,” therefore the comparability to the primary two Mafia video games. “Open-world is a really loaded time period, and it’s a dialog we have now had many occasions concerning, ‘Ought to we use this phrase or not?’ And the reply is form of sure and no. I hope that helps you!”
Mafia: The Previous Nation is out in Summer time 2025 for Xbox Sequence X/S, PS5, and PC. As a prequel set in 1900s Sicily, it focuses on Enzo Favara, an indentured laborer who joins the Don Torrisi household for a greater life. In fact, which means committing quite a lot of crimes. Keep tuned for extra particulars within the coming months.
