Interview
September 25, 2025
Mafia: The Old Country: Making the old feel new with Unreal Engine 5
Hangar 13 is an internal 2K development studio that creates influential AAA video game experiences across all major platforms. The studio is based in three locations around the world: Brighton (UK), Brno, and Prague (Czech Republic), working collaboratively as one team. Each of these locations provides the opportunity to work with some of the most talented developers in the industry, on creatively challenging and exciting projects, in a diverse and welcoming environment.
Set in sun-scorched Sicily during the early 1900s, Mafia: The Old Country is more than a figurative return to its origins. The game, which was developed by Hangar 13 using Unreal Engine 5, deviates from the open world experience of the most recent installment to bring the beloved franchise back to its story-focused roots.
In it, players take on the role of Enzo Favara, who seeks to prove his worth to The Family in an immersive third-person action-adventure set in a dangerous, unforgiving era. Built with Unreal Engine 5, Mafia: The Old Country brings its characters and world to life utilizing features such as Lumen, Niagara, MetaHuman and more.
We recently had the chance to connect with Alex Cox, Game Director at Hangar 13, to learn more about the goals for the project and how using Unreal Engine 5 helped the team achieve them.
In it, players take on the role of Enzo Favara, who seeks to prove his worth to The Family in an immersive third-person action-adventure set in a dangerous, unforgiving era. Built with Unreal Engine 5, Mafia: The Old Country brings its characters and world to life utilizing features such as Lumen, Niagara, MetaHuman and more.
We recently had the chance to connect with Alex Cox, Game Director at Hangar 13, to learn more about the goals for the project and how using Unreal Engine 5 helped the team achieve them.
Considering it’s been nearly 10 years since a main installment in the Mafia franchise, what were your core goals when developing Mafia: The Old Country?
Alex Cox, Game Director: With Mafia: The Old Country, we introduced a brand-new story and setting that lets players feel like they are playing through a classic mob movie. At the same time, we featured grounded and high-stakes stealth and gunplay mechanics that enhance the criminal narrative in the game.
What drove the decision to move away from an open world style and towards a more linear, story-focused experience?
Cox: We took a lot of inspiration from the structure of Mafia: Definitive Edition and Mafia II and how those games resonated with players. With Mafia: The Old Country, we want to deliver the kind of narrative experience that feels distinctly Mafia, and creating a more linear, story-focused game was how we could best accomplish that.
What made the concept of creating a prequel set in Sicily so appealing?
Cox: Going back to 1900s Sicily allowed us to create a game in a beautiful, unique environment for the series while telling a story grounded in the brutal origins of organized crime with a compelling new cast of characters.
Courtesy of Hangar 13 | 2K Games | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
What type of research went into creating an authentic representation of Sicily itself?
Cox: A group of us actually traveled to Sicily to take photos and gather reference material in order to make our version of Sicily in the game as authentic as possible. We also looked at rare photos and written accounts from the time period when the game takes place, along with consuming tons of media about the Sicilian Mafia.
From sprawling, rugged landscapes and vibrant vineyards to dank, dark crypts, the game’s environments are characters within themselves. How did UE5, and specifically Megascans, help you craft them at scale, yet with such detail?
Cox: The art team was able to use new tools with UE5 to refine the tiniest details within the game. Layering hyper-realistic lighting over these already incredible visuals makes our version of Sicily even more beautiful to look at and makes the world more immersive for players. We used the powerful material and texture tools and workflow in UE5 with resources like Megascans to help achieve an incredibly realistic final result. Megascans assets were especially useful for rocks, cliffs, and other aspects of the Sicilian terrain and landscape.
Courtesy of Hangar 13 | 2K Games | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
As players experience this cinematic tale through the eyes of Enzo Favara, they’ll encounter numerous compelling characters throughout the journey. How did you leverage UE5’s toolset, including MetaHuman, to make the game’s characters look so believable?
Cox: UE5 provides a lot of raw power and advanced systems for delivering realistic lighting and rendering human characters. Those features are immediately evident in the intricate facial details of every character in Mafia: The Old Country. These refined graphical details, along with stellar motion-capture performances, really help to drive the game’s cinematic storytelling. The new lighting technology also allows us to amplify the emotional beats of the story and reflect them in the atmosphere of the game’s environments.
Courtesy of Hangar 13 | 2K Games | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Players can traverse the environment in multiple ways, including horseback and authentic turn-of-the-century automobiles. How did you iterate on the game’s movement mechanics to make them feel just right?
Cox: The cars players drive and the horses they ride are part of what we wanted to make feel authentic and true to the time of the game’s story. We did our research into what kinds of cars Enzo and others would be driving in 1900s Sicily and designed our driving and riding mechanics to make traveling by car or horse feel fun while also providing a strong sense of time and place.
Players have a variety of options when it comes to combat. Were there any particular tools in UE5 that helped you refine these experiences?
Cox: We want the combat to immerse players in the world of Mafia: The Old Country, whether that is through stealth or gunplay and knife combat. Early in the project we took advantage of the ability to prototype quickly in UE5 to help experiment with different gameplay mechanics, like our new Knife Dueling mode as an example.
Courtesy of Hangar 13 | 2K Games | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
How were you able to take advantage of key UE5 features such as Lumen and Nanite?
Cox: Lumen and Nanite were used extensively on the project and with great success. We really enjoyed the power that these features provided to recreate 1900s Sicily, both incredible detailed interiors and vast, expansive vistas. These features were also scalable based on the various platforms, from consoles to very high-end gaming computers, we were able to realize our vision of the beautiful Sicilian countryside and share that with our players.
Was your team able to utilize Blueprint visual scripting and, if so, how?
Cox: We were able to leverage Blueprint visual scripting to help us prototype and implement a number of gameplay features and systems very quickly at the beginning of the project. Blueprint is really powerful and useful in that regard, but at the same time it’s possible to utilize it for final shippable systems. Our designers in particular extensively used Blueprint in their workflows.
Courtesy of Hangar 13 | 2K Games | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Which other UE5 features stood out to your team most during development?
Cox: It’s hard to pick out a single feature—that’s the great part about using Unreal: it’s a great package of tools and workflows that help our amazing team realize their vision! But one thing that was really powerful and exciting was the ability to do seamless transitions from cinematics to gameplay. We did some prototypes early on and it really gave the game a cinematic look and feel.
Considering the scope of the project, how were you able to leverage the Epic Developer Community and Epic Pro Support to achieve your goals?
Cox: We’ve always had great support from Epic and they’ve been fantastic partners. Of course we took advantage of discussing ideas, opportunities, and challenges with Epic via posting in Epic Pro Support portal, as well as meeting with the support team directly to discuss the game and development topics. One of the advantages of UE5 is the wealth of information available online and directly from the experts at Epic.
Courtesy of Hangar 13 | 2K Games | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
What was the biggest lesson you learned during the development of Mafia: The Old Country that you’ll take forward to future projects?
Cox: There are a lot of lessons we learned while making this game, so it’s hard to pick just one. The passion the team had for creating a story and gameplay experience that was true to our vision of what a Mafia game should be really shines through in the game we were able to create, and that’s something I would want to bring to any future projects.
Where can people go to learn more about Mafia: The Old Country?
Cox: You can visit mafia.2k.com/the-old-country/ to learn more about the game.
Want to explore the art of Mafia: The Old Country? Head here on ArtStation.