Mafia: The Old Country is due to arrive on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on August 8, 2025, and in the lead up to its launch, developer Hangar 13 is doing everything it can to showcase how improved this prequel entry to the series is since we last checked in with the Mafia franchise.
The latest of those efforts is a new developer diary video, "Art Meets Technology," which digs into how much better looking Mafia: The Old Country is compared to the rest of the series thanks to the new technologies available in Unreal Engine 5.
"It allows us to tell that story in a way that we just wouldn't be able to, with other technologies," said art director Steve Noake. He continued, "From Metahuman, to Nanite, to Lumen. These are all different technologies which we are pushing to the max, to be honest. It's allowing us to grasp the intricacies of a performance, it's allowing us to automate some parts of the process, to be able to get to a point where we can really start to put our human thumbprints on some of these assets."
Lead character artist Ivan Rylka added that there's a "notable improvement" in what's possible with Unreal Engine 5 versus what Hangar 13 was capable of doing prior to UE5, and confidently claimed "I have no hesitation that this will be the best looking Mafia game in the franchise."
It's clear that Hangar 13 is putting in every effort to make Mafia: The Old Country look and feel as good as possible. It'll be interesting to see if it's more than just looks by the time it arrives this coming August.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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