Did I acquire this game with somewhat high hopes? Yes, I did, naively so. Although Mafia III wasn't by any stretch as good as the first two entries, I still enjoyed that one despite the repetitive take-over-the-city-bit-by-bit-mechanics. I liked the setting, loved the music, and profoundly enjoyed the cars. But it became too repetitive rather quickly. And here I thought that Mafia: The Old Country would be a game more true to the roots. And in a way it is: There's no more of the afforementioned taking-over-the-town mechanics, thankfully. Instead the game is very liniar despite being disguised as an open-world-game. Don't get me wrong. You can explore pretty much the whole map at your own whim. But there's absolutely no reason to do so unless you want to get all the collectibles. Frankly, I couldn't be bothered to do so as the world just doesn't feel "alive" enough. So if you're looking for another GTA-lookalike where you explore the map in order to initiate missions, look again. This is not it. But then again; the other games weren't exactly like that either, but you still felt that there was a reason to roam, and that feeling just isn't there this time around IMO. You are simply left with progressing in the main story. So is the main story good? Kinda'... But It's way too predictable and filled with clichés, and not the good kind where there's some mobster-fan service. Instead those clichés just make the story somewhat boring despite the very cinematic feel and great graphics. And the grapics are good I might say. Beautiful even. On the upside the combat mechanics are very smooth and entertaining, at least when it comes to shooting, as you can almost feel the recoil of the guns. And the sound of those guns.... my my.... But inbetween all the shooting there's the cut scenes, if which there is a buttload. And pretty much every fight goes like this: 1. Drive car This is fun. Sometimes you use a horse. Not so fun. 2. Arrive at destination. 3. Cut scene. 4. Stealth to get to your goal. 5. Cut scene, where the enemy finds out you're there. 6. A couple of minutes of fun A.K.A gunfight. 7. Cut scene. 8. Boss fight using knives. Not fun. 8. Fast forward in the story, and then new mission following the same pattern. And on and on and on it goes. You pretty much know what's going to happen when each mission starts, with few deviations. Sure, you don't necessarily have to use stealth. You can choose to go all gung-ho as well in most but not all cases, althoug that also feels like it goes against the narrative and immersion. But in retrospect, having spent 25 hours on the game, maybe you should just go guns-a-blazin as much as you can. Because that's what the game has got going for it. The gunfights are a blast (pun intended). It's just a shame that you will spend most of the time not doing that, which would have been fine if the story wasn't so predictable and thus making the cut scenes just feel like a drag, or if the stealth was actually just a little challenging (at normal difficulty). Instead the stealth parts just feel like a speed bump, messing up the flow, as it's just something you need to get overwith by again following the same strategy as the last time: 1. Hide behind cover. 2. Use your senses (yes, that's actually an ability in the game that you can use from the get-go, which allows you to see the enemies through walls). 3. Wait for the two (always two) men to finish speaking whereas one of them will walk away in a predetermined and predictable pattern, and the other one will stand still with his back turned to you. 4. Kill that SOB. 5. Kill the next SOB. 6. Proceed to the next one or two guys. Kill. 7. Repeat. 8. Done. In short: + The gunfights + The sound + The graphics - The story - Repetitive - The stealth 5/10 Of all the five games (counting Mafia I: Definitive Edition as a separate game from the first installment) I would say this is the one at the bottom. Should you buy it? Not at full price. But at a discount it might actually be worth it for the gunfights alone. But only just.... Oh and one more thing: It doesn't really have that many connections to the other games and the grander narrative, so you are not missing out by not playing this one.