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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!
« on: September 15, 2025, 12:28:37 am »
51. Mafia Old Country [PS5] - finished Sep 13th, 2025

Mafia Old Country
Finally! Alas I did it. After almost 2 months. Im officially back in the beating games Saddle! With 51. Feels like 52 is going to happen.
Where as Mafia III is a GTA Open World atchetype that tackles a more race involved sort of internal mafia. Mafia Old Country speaks to it's own name by being 100 percent old fashioned mobster movie esque Scorcesse level storytelling. Trading in its long winding map for a sexy glimpse into tuscan rivers, italian flower beds and church steeples from the early 1900s. It is the video game version of godfather and it plays itself like a Huckleberry Finn, like a beautiful Mark Twain poem from front to back. It almost smells of grape colored orchids and red wine. It is elegant in it's presentation and feels like controlling a concise mob movie from the 70s.
Take on the role of Enzo. A former "carusu" which means boy in italian. But Carusu was used as a sort of nose up mockery of a certain type of man. Essentially endentured servants who worked the mines in italy. Volcano eruptions. Famine. Death and hunger. But you rise the ranks of the order of the Don Torrisi crime family. And are called to do many of his varying tasks all the while. Other complications in personal life, relationships, faith and especially love come to shake your oath to omerta and everything that you signed up for begins to feel shaky at the knees. It is a powerful story and one of the most somber ive played.
The gameplay mechanics are not flashy. Very simple and refined which I feel is a very good thing. It relies heavily on stealth. I find going in guns blazing to be very unrewarding and everything about the game lends itself to basically reward you for taking a more silent approach.
You become invested in indiviudal members of this family. And although your play is fairly linear in comparison to 3. It does a much better job at immersion. It eliminates the diversity of building a mob around yourself and employing roles. Which is a bit of a downgrade on customizing. But I find it is a much much more streamline experience and is much more quick and clean with its direction. 20 to 30 hours instead of 100+
Rating - 94/100

Mafia Old Country
Finally! Alas I did it. After almost 2 months. Im officially back in the beating games Saddle! With 51. Feels like 52 is going to happen.
Where as Mafia III is a GTA Open World atchetype that tackles a more race involved sort of internal mafia. Mafia Old Country speaks to it's own name by being 100 percent old fashioned mobster movie esque Scorcesse level storytelling. Trading in its long winding map for a sexy glimpse into tuscan rivers, italian flower beds and church steeples from the early 1900s. It is the video game version of godfather and it plays itself like a Huckleberry Finn, like a beautiful Mark Twain poem from front to back. It almost smells of grape colored orchids and red wine. It is elegant in it's presentation and feels like controlling a concise mob movie from the 70s.
Take on the role of Enzo. A former "carusu" which means boy in italian. But Carusu was used as a sort of nose up mockery of a certain type of man. Essentially endentured servants who worked the mines in italy. Volcano eruptions. Famine. Death and hunger. But you rise the ranks of the order of the Don Torrisi crime family. And are called to do many of his varying tasks all the while. Other complications in personal life, relationships, faith and especially love come to shake your oath to omerta and everything that you signed up for begins to feel shaky at the knees. It is a powerful story and one of the most somber ive played.
The gameplay mechanics are not flashy. Very simple and refined which I feel is a very good thing. It relies heavily on stealth. I find going in guns blazing to be very unrewarding and everything about the game lends itself to basically reward you for taking a more silent approach.
You become invested in indiviudal members of this family. And although your play is fairly linear in comparison to 3. It does a much better job at immersion. It eliminates the diversity of building a mob around yourself and employing roles. Which is a bit of a downgrade on customizing. But I find it is a much much more streamline experience and is much more quick and clean with its direction. 20 to 30 hours instead of 100+
Rating - 94/100