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Mafia: The Old Country:
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You’ll play the protagonist, Enzo Favara, who, after escaping a mine, finds refuge in a winery, the principal place of business of a major Sicilian mafia boss, Don Torrisi. A simple worker of the estate, Enzo will gradually find himself appreciated by Don Torrisi, gaining respect and being sworn into the family. The beautiful daughter of Don Torissi, Isabella, is the first to notice Enzo, but what good can come from falling in love with the only daughter of one of the most feared men in Sicily?

Mafia: The Old Country is a story-rich action-adventure stealth game with some racing elements, developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K on 8th August, 2025, on the Steam platform. The game is also available on the Microsoft and PlayStation stores.

This was one of the games I was excited to play in 2025, but I find myself in turmoil having finished the game, because I think it could have offered so much more.

The story itself is well done, with stunning cutscenes and graphics. However, it’s a bit slow. The voice acting, accents and dialogues are top notch, and the vast Sicilian scenery is beautiful and authentic-looking. Apart from two missions, which involve racing with a horse and a car respectively, the game includes stealth and gunfights.

I enjoyed the gun and knife fights, but the stealth element isn’t the greatest. First, there are only a couple of objects you can throw (coins and bottles) to lure the enemies to a location so you can follow them and strike them down. The second is that the takedown is far too easy, making the stealth kills unrewarding. Interestingly, in most missions, the enemies come in pairs, but as you move towards them, one retreats into the distance, leaving the second one exposed for you to make an easy takedown.

Although the story is good, it is far too short, and to be honest, I can’t see where they can go for any additional content based on the story’s ending, which I will let you discover. The lack of freedom for gamers to explore the world is an opportunity the developers missed to make Mafia: The Old Country a memorable game. I don’t get why they’d put collectibles around the world and not allow players to explore the world unrestricted. You can explore to a certain degree when Enzo is riding a horse and driving a car by himself, but forget about it (with an Italian accent) if he is not alone in the car; you’ll be summoned with only 15 seconds to return to the vehicle, or the mission will fail. Yes, when you finish the game, the world opens, but there is nothing else to do apart from finding collectibles.

There’s so much that could have been done to utilise the large map and use some NPCs at the vineyard to introduce secondary quests (that’s right – there are no secondary missions), especially after the introduction of rival families early on in the story. Things such as attacking rival businesses, intercepting deliveries, or eliminating the lieutenants of rival families would have added more juice. One thing that really bugged me is that some of the chapters jumped from one year to another. It would have been perfetto to include secondary missions as a sequence to the next chapter.

There is not much character progression; it comes in the form of charms that you find throughout the missions. That is, if Enzo is by himself and the gamer decides to do some exploring. But even then, the shop where you can buy upgrades is restricted (what’s that seven-letter word they use over and over in this game, starting with an M----- and ending with A?!)
In terms of bugs, I encountered a few, such as riding a horse without a horse! I also experienced a few screen frame drops, although that doesn’t really worry me as they’ll be fixed soon.

Yes, I did enjoy playing the game, but as soon as I finished it, I uninstalled it from my library, as I don’t think there is much replayability and can’t see how they would introduce a DLC based on the story ending. I finished this game in 11 hours, which is astonishing for the asking price. If you have a lazy $90 AUS to spare, why not get it? Otherwise, I strongly recommend waiting until the game is on sale or hits the $30 AUS mark!

Positives:
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+ Stunning graphics and cutscenes
+ Well-written story with good dialogues and excellent voice acting
+ Large map with beautiful and authentic Sicilian scenery
+ Cars and weapons from the 1900s
+ Fun combat sequences; I loved the knife fights!
+ Achievements

Negatives:
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- The world exploration lacks freedom while playing the story
- Unutilised large map with no secondary missions
- Far too short for the asking price (11 hours from start to finish!)
- Bugs and optimisation issues
- No trading cards as yet

Mafia: The Old Country is a mix of amazing elements and missed opportunities, but far too short for what it is worth!

6/10

Note: This game was not received for free; I purchased it through the Steam store. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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God of War Ragnarök:
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In this sequel, the bond between father (Kratos) and son (Atreus) will be tested to its limits. While Atreus is in search of answers regarding the "Loki" prophecy, the main protagonist is himself. On the other hand, Kratos fears losing his son and keeps training him to face any danger in the nine Realms. His fears become even more potent when the evil Odin appears at their modest hut to seek peace with them. Even worse, he offers to help Atreus reach his goal of understanding and fulfilling the Loki prophecy. The Evil God is in the house! Tensions are hitting sky-high at the start of God of War Ragnarök!

God of War Ragnarök is an action/adventure game with deep storytelling and stunning cinematographic sequences developed and self-published by PlayStation Publishing LLC on the 20th of September on the Steam platform. The game was initially released for PS4/PS5 on the 9th of November 2022. It has also been verified for Steam Deck users.

God of War Ragnarök was one of the titles on my must-play list for 2024, as its predecessor in 2022 blew me away. As I mentioned in my review back then, one of the fundamental elements for such a game is to find the right balance between the narration and the combat sequences to keep you entertained all the way through. Compared to the first game, I found the storytelling slightly more prominent and a bit too long in this game as it involves more. That said, it is a fantastic game.
As mentioned, the relationship between father and son is at its peak, and there are plenty of moments from both perspectives throughout the game that might strike a chord with you (especially if you are of a certain age). Each character will bring an extra layer, such as trickery, reconciliation, anger and more!

The different Realms you'll be exploring are visually magical, and each environment is distinct from the others. Apart from the main story, plenty of side quests are available in each realm, offering gamers excellent content all the way through. They will provide different environmental obstacles as well as enemies. Regarding goodies, chests of various sizes will be laid out throughout each realm, and some will be locked, requiring you to figure out the puzzle to unlock them. However, many of them will not be immediately accessible as you'll need to unlock a new ability or acquire Kratos' spear first. You'll also have a few Brok and Sindri dwarf camps scattered along the way, so you can upgrade the weapons, armour and other perks for whichever characters you control at the time, along with their companion. You can also sell goods or amour that you no longer need. With enough coins and resources, you can create new armour. But don't worry too much if you don’t have the resources, as you’ll always find yourself back at the tree house where the Brok and Sindri main forge is. All the characters that joined your party will be there, too.

Which brings me to the combat system; Kratos's favourite weapons - The Leviathan Axe, Blades of Chaos, and Guardian Shield - are part of his arsenal from the start of the journey. Both the axe and the blades have an excellent skill tree to unlock. Later in the game, Kratos will gain an extra weapon in his arsenal, the Draupnir Spear - a very cool weapon with a skill tree to unlock. While the shield only has one action, which is to block an attack, it also has one ability, and this ability is different with every shield you create at the forge. The weapons skills are divided into technique, range, and melee. This also applies to Atreus' weapon, which is the bow. You'll need specific experience points to unlock each skill, and it will take you some time to unlock all of them. After each combat phase, you gain experience points for both the character you control and their companion. I believe that Kratos will also be able to acquire another weapon through the DLC Valhalla.

The combat phases are challenging, rewarding and fun. Combat will occur sporadically throughout the realms, both in the main story and the additional quests, as well as when you face bosses. For the first time, I played this genre of game with a gamepad, and I must admit it is far better than with the mouse and keyboard. It took me a while to get used to the combat input, but after that, I was fine. The fluidity of the animations is exceptional, and the freedom combination of enemy attacks, as they come from all directions, not only elevates the difficulty but also gives you a burst of exhilaration, as every hit counts. Why, would you say? The obvious is that the more enemies that fall, the more chances there are to win the fight. But there’s more - each successful hit increases the rage gauge and, when complete, allows you to activate it for several seconds. An activated rage gauge provides double the damage to enemies, so yes, it does feel exhilarating. I also like that Kratos and Atreus have different companions throughout the game, which will influence your fighting approach and perhaps help you decide what perks to use for each character to maximise your winning chances!

With 50+ hours of gameplay, I finished the main story and a good number of side quests, but I still have plenty to complete, and that excludes the DLC, which I believe to be around 10 to 15 hours of extra content. My goodness, gracious, me, Ragnarök!

Splendid graphics, animations, voice-overs, sound effects, combat and cinematographic sequences! But I also encountered serious crashes throughout my playthrough, especially after each released patch. The last one, patch six, has been the ultimate devil for my system, recording a crash every couple of hours until I verified all the files. A big thank you to the community manager for posting on the Steam game discussion page to acknowledge the issue, and a huge thumbs down to the quality assurance team for pushing through these patches before verifying them!

Positives:
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+ Exceptional graphics
+ Fantastic story with excellent voice-overs and cinematographic sequences
+ Great combat system and animations
+ Challenging, rewarding and fun
+ Around 60+ hours of gameplay to complete, excluding the DLC (add an extra 10 hours)
+ A good variety of enemies and obstacles throughout each realm
+ Steam Deck Verified
+ Trading cards and achievements

Negatives:
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- Constant crashes after each released patch.

War Ragnarök is a fantastic game from start to finish! The only frustration was the crashes after each released patch. Apart from that, it’s a masterpiece.

9/10

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