Ever since the original Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven came out back in 2002, the franchise has drawn quite a few comparisons with Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, especially since the franchise started hitting a critical mass of popularity with the 2001 release of Grand Theft Auto 3. In an interview with IGN, however, Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes said that these comparisons never come up during development.
“I think that genuinely, at the studio, we’ve got our own path,” he said about the comparisons between GTA and Mafia. As for whether there is any merit to these comparisons or not, however, Baynes believes that “it’s an Internet thing” and not something that Hangar 13 itself really looks at.
“It genuinely never ever comes up in conversation as a touchpoint or steering our strategy or anything like that. I think obviously there’s a lot of stories about that game out there right now because something’s coming out later this year! But yeah, genuinely, I think it’s an internet thing. It’s not something the studio looks at. So, I think I’m afraid there’s not a rich vein of answers to give you for that.”
Interestingly, IGN also noted that Baynes was “keen” to not really discuss comparisons between Mafia and Grand Theft Auto, and would even go as far as to not mention the name of Rockstar’s upcoming release, Grand Theft Auto 6.
However, these comparisons can be quite strange at times, since Mafia as a franchise has always revolved more around its stories, while the GTA franchise is more well-known for the gameplay sandbox the various titles offer. The Mafia games have also focused on telling more serious stories about life in the mob, while Grand Theft Auto games tend to include elements of parody throughout their worlds and characters.
Hangar 13 is fresh off the release of the Man of Honor DLC for Mafia: The Old Country. The expansion takes place in the winter of 1905 in Sicily, after Enzo Favara has gained the confidence and trust of the Torrisi crime family. The story revolves around a delicate assignment given to Enzo – to help Ennio Salieri after his recent release from prison. This leads Enzo deeper into the Valle Dorata’s underworld.
In our review, we gave Man of Honor a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its excellent cutscenes and voice acting, and worthwhile Free Ride content. Our major complaints revolved around the predictability of the story and the DLC’s instant-fail stealth segments.
Mafia: The Old Country was released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S back in August 2025. Rather than following up on the events of Mafia 3, it instead goes back in time to 1900s Sicily, focusing on the birth of organized crime in the region. Enzo has lived a difficult and brutal life full of forced labor during his childhood. Now, with the goal of creating a better life for himself at all costs, he has decided to join the Torrisi crime family and become a man of honor.
For more details, check out our review.
