Mafia: The Old Country – Man of Honor will change its open world

Mafia: The Old Country’s upcoming Man of Honor expansion will add more depth to the game’s fairly empty-feeling open world. That should bring the story-driven adventure’s Free Ride more in line with the open worlds found in contemporaries like Grand Theft Auto 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2.

While Mafia: The Old Country’s Sicily made for an excellent backdrop to its linear single-player story, the open world Explore mode left a lot to be desired at launch because there was a lack of things to do. Hangar 13 overhauled that part of the game through the Free Ride update last November, and is now fleshing it out even more in Man of Honor.

In a gameplay overview trailer for the expansion, design director Josh Zammit breaks down how Salieri, a returning character who plays a major role in the DLC’s new story chapters, is also the catalyst for a lot of new open world content. Most notably, players can accept jobs from Salieri to access side quests that show off more of Sicily.

In addition to those jobs, Salieri also lets the player access standoff, assassination, circuit race, time trial, and road sprint challenges dotted around Sicily in the Free Ride mode. If you don’t want to engage with Salieri at all, you can still explore Sicily to hunt down outlaws, complete stunt jumps around the map, and earn Dinari to unlock new weapons, charms, vehicles, and outfits for Enzo.

I’ve always considered narrative Mafia: The Old Country’s greatest strength, not its open world. While I’m excited to check out the new story chapters that Man of Honor adds, it’s great to see just how much Hangar 13 has fleshed out the Free Ride side of the game over the past year. While it’s less ambitious than a game like Grand Theft Auto 6, these additions make it easier to recommend Mafia: The Old Country as something to tide GTA fans over until the next Grand Theft Auto comes out in November.

Mafia: The Old Country – Man of Honor launches on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Aug. 14.