Mafia: The Old Country is getting an open-world mode, which is weird because it already has one

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Open².

Knife fighting.
(Image credit: 2K)

Mafia: The Old Country isn't great, but you know what? Its rendition of 1900s Sicily is sun-drenched, citrus-scented, and very nice to look at. The problem is that the main game just treats it as a series of roads to cart you between dull missions and the game's exploration mode—squirrelled away in its chapter select—really only exists to let you go and collect old newspapers you forgot to grab in the main game. There's nothing to do in it.

So I suppose it's good news that the legitimate businessmen over at 2K have announced that—in return for fans' 'love and loyalty'—the game is soon to get a new Free Ride mode. So, um, another exploration mode. But this one's different: 2K promises "new activities and gameplay, arriving free for all players in the coming months."

Those of you trained in the art of textual analysis might notice there's not a lot of detail about what Mafia: The Old Country's Free Ride mode will actually entail in that post. Nevertheless, we can look at the Mafias of yore to figure out what it probably means. In Mafia: Definitive Edition, Free Ride mode lets you cruise around Lost Heaven and take on bonus missions, races, and ferry passengers around in a taxi.

I suspect that last one won't feature in The Old Country, but I'd be surprised if we didn't see the first two make a showing. Some of Mafia: Definitive Edition's Free Ride missions got pretty weird—up to and including rescuing citizens from alien abductions—and it'd be good to see Hangar 13 have a bit more fun with the lustrous version of Sicily it's created. As it is right now, there's just not much in there that makes it linger in your brain.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Free Ride won't fix my biggest problems with the game, though. Whatever the new mode brings, it'll still be lumbered with the same dull combat and bland stealth that made the main game so forgettable when I played it.

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Joshua Wolens
Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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