Mafia: The Old Country is just around the corner, with fans preparing to enter the title’s immersive historic world. As the earliest-set Mafia title, The Old Country is taking things back to the early 1900s, exploring the origins of the organized crime institutions that dominate the narratives of every entry in the franchise. Crucially, the upcoming game is doing away with the usual United States setting of previous games, instead taking place in the Mediterranean sun of Sicily.
Hangar 13 has already revealed a lot of information regarding Mafia: The Old Country, with fans having a good overview of the core mechanics and characters that will be central to the game. Looking back through previous Mafia games, the protagonist of The Old Country has some high expectations to meet, with Enzo Favara being the title’s leading man. Fans currently know more about Enzo than any other The Old Country character, with some striking parallels already being noted between the figure and Mafia 2‘s iconic protagonist, Vito Scaletta.
The scale and core gameplay of Mafia: The Old Country is reportedly quite toned down compared to Mafia 3, but that’s a welcome change.
Mafia’s Enzo Favara and Vito Scaletta Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
While players will have to wait to see how Enzo carries himself throughout The Old Country‘s story, a lot is already known about the protagonist’s early life and general personality. Enzo’s childhood was extremely harsh, for example, being orphaned and forced to work in hazardous and unforgiving sulfur mines. This hard upbringing has seemingly defined Enzo’s outlook on life, with the figure finding an escape by entering the world of organized crime.
Enzo quickly proves himself as a loyal soldier of the Torissi family, rising through the ranks of the organization through his tenacity and efficiency. Hangar 13 has already described Enzo as an anti-hero, with the figure likely having to blur the lines of his own morality as his criminal career inevitably becomes more complex and consequential. Enzo’s good track record and loyalty are likely to be a blessing and a curse for the character, potentially cropping up many of the same issues that Vito Scaletta faced throughout 2010’s Mafia 2.
Many of the characters featured in Mafia and Mafia 2 have Sicilian origins, with certain characters like Frank Vinci potentially even making an appearance in The Old Country.
At face value, both Enzo and Vito live extremely similar lives, with both protagonists being born in Sicily and entering organized crime fairly early on in life. This entry into criminality can also be seen as quite reluctant, with Enzo’s desire to escape hard labor and Vito’s need to repay family debt being major influencing factors for both protagonists. Of course, Vito also played a kind of anti-hero role quite well, and a mixture of personal and professional relationships could be a big factor of Enzo’s story as well as Vito’s.
Vito’s Tests of Loyalty and Family Will Likely Be Repeated By Enzo
Vito’s work alongside his best friend Joe Barbaro inevitably caused tension as the two rose higher through the criminal underworld. While not much has been revealed about Enzo’s best friend, Cesare Massaro, one potentially volatile major relationship for the character has already been made clear. It seems that Enzo will become quite close with Isabella Torrisi over the course of The Old Country‘s story, with Isabella being the daughter of the Torrisi family patriarch.
A romantic connection between Enzo and Isabella might have some explosive implications for the game’s narrative, similarly to how Joe and Vito’s friendship created some of the most nail-biting moments that the Mafia franchise has ever seen. Beyond their origins, it can be expected that many key differences will end up defining both Enzo and Vito, yet fans of Mafia2‘s main character are seemingly in for a similar framework with Enzo Favara when Mafia: The Old Country launches on August 8.
