TITLE
I made Mafia: The Old Country’s pork spezzatino
AUTHOR
Giovanni Colantonio
PUBLICATION
Polygon
YEAR
2025
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Before I’m allowed to start gunning down rival family members in Mafia: The Old Country, I’m asked to help with a more important task: dinner. An early sequence has me picking up a butchered pig carcass and hauling it over to a kitchen where cooks prepare a meal for the powerful Torrisi family. What’s on the menu? Pork spezzatino, of course.That’s an Italian dish befitting of The Old Country’s early 1900s setting, but developer Hangar 13 doesn’t just name-drop the meal for set dressing. Instead, there’s a full-on recipe for it on a kitchen counter – complete with a wine glass stain on the paper. It’s one of many small details meant to give the latest Mafia game some cultural authenticity. There was only one way to know just how well it accomplishes that task, though.
Could Mafia pass an all-important taste test? I’d have to put on my apron and get to work in the kitchen to know for sure.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Hangar 13
GAMES MENTIONED
Mafia: The Old Country