The Mafia franchise is one of gaming’s unsung greats. While each game in this franchise has its praises sung with out-of-the-park reviews, it also tends to go dormant for nearly a decade at a time. Because of that, it can be easy to forget how fantastic each individual game in the series is and why people love them.
With each game in the franchise being a debatable ten out of ten title, an obvious question arises: which Mafia game is the best? While this question can be difficult to answer, if one were to analyze each title based on their gameplay, world and how they affected the franchise, then the following list of the best Mafia games can be formed.
The Very Original
Kicking off this list is the game that started it all: Mafia (2002). This game, and the series as a whole, have always stood out among other GTA-likes for having a dedicated sense of realism. Police in this game will pull you over for speeding, running red lights and other misdemeanors while you simply pay them off as a member of the mafia. It’s a small-yet-unique enough trait that makes the game extremely memorable.
Aside from the police mechanics, Mafia 1’s gameplay is similar to games of its time, as you often have to shoot your way through crowds of enemies in segmented chapters. The original version of Mafia 1 ranks low on this list, not because it is a badly made game, but simply because it has aged. It can be intimidating to come back to this game after playing the others. Having an incredibly difficult racing mission that has little else to do with the rest of the game doesn’t help its case either.
And by playing this you will learn first-hand why the racing mission is so infamous.
Defined the Franchise
Next up on the list is 2010’s Mafia 2. This sequel, which was released long after the first game, took the basic framework of Mafia 1, keeping all the aspects that the series was known for such as its police and applying it to a much more dramatic story which has gone down as one of the best in gaming history. The game even tied itself into Mafia 1’s ending in a very interesting way that cannot be spoiled.
While Mafia 2 is a fantastic game and its placement among the greatest games ever is well deserved, it does unfortunately lose points on this list due to its definitive edition. This version of the game is notoriously buggy, often softlocking the player in situations where they can’t progress or crash entirely. When one remembers that this version of the game is also the only one available on modern platforms, it can be difficult to rank it higher.
Wonderfully Crafted
Placing halfway through the list is Mafia 3. This game is controversial due to how different it is from the rest of the franchise, but those who have taken a chance and played it will be met with a beautiful narrative about the racism of the mafia and how it has always affected various communities. Combine this tale of revenge with one of the best uses of licensed music in gaming and you have a recipe for a modern classic.
The only thing keeping Mafia 3 from topping this list is its gameplay loop, which unfortunately falls into a lot of pitfalls of otheropen-world gamesthat bloat themselves out with content that doesn’t stand out too much. If Mafia 3 was composed solely of its main missions and didn’t have you manually conquer each territory, then it could have been one of the best games of all time.
2Mafia: The Old Country
A Grand Return
Mafia: The Old Country
Taking the silver medal slot on this list is the newest entry in the Mafia franchise: Mafia: The Old Country. This title brings the franchise back to its roots, almost completely disregarding the gameplay changes that Mafia 2 and 3 made to the series in order to deliver a compact and linear experience like Mafia 1. While the description may turn some gamers off of the title, rest assured that this is one of the best-crafted games of 2025.
While the story of Enzo may not be as engaging as some other protagonists in the series, it’s still greatly enjoyable to see this man constantly be sent out into gunfights as a lone pawn simply because the Mafia will always see him as a lower-class citizen. It’s an incredible bit of gameplay-story integration that makes the game worth playing just to see in action. The incrediblyimmersive worldof Sicily is also a nice bonus. Mafia The Old Country is a fantastic experience, beat only by the title it is a successor to.
1Mafia Definitive Edition
A Flawless Remake
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Placing first on this list is the remake of the very first game in the series: Mafia Definitive Edition. Unlike the Definitive Editions of the other games in the series, which were merely remasters that broke aspects of the game, Mafia Definitive Edition is a full remake of the first game. Despite fears that this remake would make major changes to the game, it actually turned out to be loyal to the original linear experience of Mafia 1.
Mafia Definitive Edition is one of thebest remakesof all time, allowing a new generation of gamers to experience the story of Mafia 1 with updated graphics and gameplay but without sacrificing the original’s charm. If you wish to get into the Mafia franchise, there’s no better title to start with than this one, and for that reason it takes the number one slot on this list.
