Mafia: The Old Country is a throwback with one perfect modern feature

Linear, narrative driven games can be some of the very best in the business, providing incredibly focused and detailed stories threaded together through great gameplay.

Top games that immediately come to mind in this bracket include Naughty Dog titles such as The Last of Us and Uncharted, Gears of War and Half-Life 2 to name a few.

These type of games seem to have increasingly fallen by the wayside in recent times in favour of games with more expansive open worlds, titles with increasingly complex mechanics, or both.

There's nothing wrong with that and it's great to have games that push the boundaries and/or offer hundreds of hours of content in one package.

But every so often, a linear, narrative driven game with a great story comes along and scratches an itch I didn't even know was there until I start playing it.

And Mafia: The Old Country is the latest to do just that.

Mafia: The Old Country is linear and short - but that's a good thing

Mafia: The Old Country is a great linear game / 2K

Developers at Hangar 13 have made it no secret that its Mafia prequel is linear (going back to the series' roots) and fairly short in comparison to other modern titles - it takes around 12 hours to get through and has been priced with that in mind.

But every single moment of those 12 hours offers a rich experience - because of the strong story focus the game has, everything moves along at a satisfying pace, I know exactly what's going on at all times without taking breaks from it to fulfil superfluous side content and the fun gameplay sections have me eager to find out what happens to Enzo, the main protagonist, next.

There is an element of exploration to be done away from the main story, as there frequently is with these kind of games to find hidden trinkets and information about the world, but it's not an open world in the slightest.

I often find linear games to be more immersive than having to navigate across an open world, usually in a fairly uninteresting way, to tick things off a checklist before going to where I should be, with some exceptions like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption or even Horizon: Forbidden West.

As someone who struggles to ignore the temptation of completing everything possible in an open world before actually advancing the next part of the story, having a tight experience that forces me to enjoy its story in the way it's supposed to be told always clicks with me.

It's refreshing, but not perfect...

Mafia: The Old Country's Sicilian setting is one of its true standouts / 2K

Yes there are some clichés Mafia: The Old Country falls back on, such as a rags to riches tale, the pauper chasing the princess, some of the characters themselves, and yes it's a third-person action game with cover shooter and stealth mechanics that aren't exactly groundbreaking.

But the engaging way it tells its story, with the 1900s Sicilian backdrop, brilliant atmosphere and superb voice cast the standouts, make this game a very strong title and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

The verdict

It scratched that unrealised itch of wanting to enjoy a tight story experience in a game without hordes of markers detracting from it.

And in a modern world where there's more competition than ever for our increasingly scarce time, Mafia: The Old Country refreshingly respects that and is all the better for it.

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