Mafia: The Old Country’s Free Ride update finally has a release date: November 20. It adds a number of new features, including challenges, a first-person driving camera, classic difficulty, and photo mode.
The major update to Hangar 13’s narrative adventure is a callback to the original Mafia’s Free Ride Extreme and the Free Ride mode in Mafia: Definitive Edition. As explained by Hangar 13 Associate Design Director Josh Zammit in a post on the PlayStation Blog, Mafia: The Old Country’s Free Ride update is a collection of challenges separate from the main story that give players chances to revisit the world in a “more self-guided way.” Veteran fans of the series will find that Mafia: The Old Country’s Free Ride mode will be slightly different from previous titles as a result.
The repeatable challenges include combat, stealth, and different race types. Completing them earns you the Dinari in-game currency to spend on the new outfits, charms, weapons, and vehicles unlocked by progressing through this content (as well as on items unlocked via the campaign).
“We want players to explore the world in a freeform way, and Free Ride turns it into an expansive hub where you’ll find and access various challenges by travelling around, unlocking Hitching Posts, and meeting contacts,” Zammit said. “Challenges are instanced and accessed via these contacts, and doing so will place you into a combat location or special world state.
“These combat encounters reuse mission locations, so once you’ve played the corresponding story chapter and unlocked a Challenge in Free Ride, you’ll get to re-experience areas in new ways. Races happen out in the world and we’ve placed them along less-traveled paths, so it should be fun seeing parts of the map you may have previously passed by.
“Of course, there may be new places to explore too, but that’s something you’ll have to discover for yourself…”
Elsewhere, there’s the Cinema Siciliano visual treatment, which Zammit said makes Mafia: The Old Country feel like playing “a genuine piece of classic Italian cinema.” “The visual treatment is stunning and it feels like you’re experiencing a black-and-white movie shot on an old-school sound stage, while the vintage-sounding audio convincingly brings the whole thing together,” Zammit explained.
All the new items earned by playing Free Ride are usable in the main story campaign. All the new elements are present from the start, so new players will have them as options going through the game for the first time.
The addition of first-person driving is a first for the Mafia franchise. And the Classic difficulty makes the game harder.
