Pluses:
- Don's View adds a bit of strategy to the game
Minuses:
- Graphics are still the same from a game made 3 years ago
- Voice acting takes out any of the drama
- Lots of repetition
Out of nowhere, EA released one of the most awkward movie-to-games with The Godfather: The Game. Something about taking one of the greatest movies ever made and making a game out of it seemed wrong in many people's eyes, including yours truly. Far from being perfect, the game did prove to be worthy of a playthrough especially on the Wii where the controls helped differentiate the game from being a total GTA/Mafia rip-off. Featuring some of the highest production values within the game, going so far as to get Marlon Brando's likeness and voice done just right, The Godfather game proved to work just enough to warrant a sequel. With no surprise, the sequel is all about the movie sequel in an attempt to reproduce the same results of the first game.
There are two facets to the Godfather 2 storyline. Taking its cues from the movie, the game starts off with Michael Corleone, now the Godfather, attempting to make his family a legitimate organization leaving behind the crime and death that the Corleone family had been known for. Beckoned to Cuba by the leader of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, they are planning to invest their vast fortunes into the country of Cuba. While in Cuba, a revolt occurs lead by communist leader Fidel Castro. In the mayhem, the hero of original game, Aldo, is taken out by a sniper. Finding the original plan not going as hoped, Michael Corleone heads back to New York in hopes to continue with goal of making the family legit.
Our hero, Dominic, has climbed the rankings in the Corleone family becoming next in line to take over the family business. Michael Corleone, in hopes to step away from crime and focus on being a legitimate businessman, has decided to hand over the family business to Dominic. It'll be up to you to keep the Corleone's in power among the criminal underworld. This time, the action is not just restricted to New York City but also Miami and Havana. The future of the family is dependent on you.
As in the first Godfather game, you're essentially playing a GTA-esque clone. You can roam the streets committing a variety of crime from stealing cars to killing strippers. Crimes you commit will increase your "heat" meaning cops are after you and more will follow. Running away from the cops will usually get ride of your wanted level. However, with the use of the whole witness system, you can have people keep their mouth shut by going up to the witness (they'll have an icon over their head) and offering some money. Or kill them if you like but then that will leave more witnesses. Later on, you can call in favors that will keep the cops off your back.
Cars, weapons, and clothing are all appropriate for the era that you're playing in. With that being the case, cars are not that incredibly fast nor handle that well, but the firearms are more than adequate to take down enemies. Gun fighting is made very easy with an auto-aim that not only gets the right enemies, but with the use of the analog stick, you can press up while using the auto-aim giving you an almost automatic headshot. If needed, you can do some free aiming to pick off enemies in whatever way you see fit. This becomes essential in the extortion scenarios that I'll talk about later. One of the most satisfying aspects of the action in the game is the executions. Each weapon you have, including your own fists, can be used to create an absolutely brutal death for whoever comes in your way. To pull off the executions, you'll have to cause a certain amount of damage to an enemy that will bring them to their knees. Once on their knees, you have to get close to pull off the execution. Funny thing is that the execution move with just your fists looking incredibly painful especially when done to a female character.
Extortion has returned to the game offering a fun way to get money. Throughout the game, there are stores and rackets around town that are available to be taken by you. Head to a place of business or racket, rough up the boss with your fists, weapons, or other threats including being thrown off a roof, and that boss will give in, promising to pay you a certain amount each week. Every boss has a bar indicating just how far they can be pushed. Not pushing them enough will have the boss talk back and not pay you a dime, but if you push them too far, they'll fight back giving you nothing as well. If you find the right way to intimidate a boss, say a gun pointed to their head or a bullet to the let, you will be rewarded a cash bonus. Taking over other families' places of business will mean mo' money and mo' problems (tribute to Notorious B.I.G. there). Your weekly take will grow but the other families will seek some sort of retribution. They'll come after your rackets, and it's up to you to fend them off. Fail to defend the business and you lose it. By keeping all the rackets in town for yourself,
You're probably asking, "What the fuck I got to do to keep these other bitches in check?" and the answer is take out the officers of the other families. This can't be done right away. Instead, you'll have to do some "favors". Like the movie, being the Godfather means that you can help individuals with their problems and in turn, they'll help with yours. Up and down street will be regular pedestrians that seemingly have people that need to be taken out or businesses that need to be destroyed. Consider these little side missions that help you progress through the game. All the missions are fairly simple with pretty good rewards if you complete them. Rewards include cash, favors such as having a business repaired or keeping the cops off of you, and most importantly, a clue on where a lieutenant or boss is. These special figures require specific ways to be killed like choking, toss them from a building rooftop, or just throw them in the damn river. Killing lieutenants will let you find the capos and then eventually the boss. By taking out the boss and the boss' compound, you will have wiped out the group taking you one step closer from total control of the city.
The family hierarchy is a new feature added to the game. A true Godfather wouldn't run around protecting every single property. Instead, you have a family that can do the work for you. Throughout the game, there will be gangster willing to join the family. Each will have their own specialty such as arsonist, demolition, engineer, and even a healer. In some situations, it's required to have a certain member to be with you at the time, but in most cases, you'll be fine with whoever you pick. These members start off as simple soldiers with their own strengths and weaknesses in combat. You can upgrade their abilities, and your own, by using the money you've acquired through the rackets. Upgrades will improve skills such as use of certain weapons, accuracy, health, and so on. The biggest upgrade for your crew is promoting them to a higher ranking within the family. At certain points in the game, usually after you've taken over a city or knocked off another family, you'll be given the choice of who will be promoted. Bumping a guy up will boost their stats significantly making them very important to the Family.
Having a significant crew that can both grow in size and improve in strength leads to the biggest change in the game with the new feature call the Don's View. Pressing the Start button brings up the menu/Don's View where you get an interactive map of the city you're in. On the map will be important places such as the Family compound, the different businesses under your control or another Family's control, mission objectives, and where the other Family is holding up. Don's View adds a bit of strategy into the game, the kind of strategy needed for a Godfather. After awhile, you can sit back and let your crew handle the work of taking over or defending businesses. Depending on how tough the crew is and how many you sent, they will either fail or succeed. The important thing is that now, you do not have to run around the city doing everything yourself. Also available is the choice to adds or remove guards at certain businesses letting you keep your most profitable places safe, but it comes at a small weekly charge for the services. Finally, a game has realized that leading a criminal organization means that you get to choose who does what, rather than having to run around do every little bit yourself.
Even though there have been some enhancements to the gameplay, graphically it's a different story. Fact is, the game looks like the first one. This wouldn't be an issue if the first one pushed the graphics to the system's limits, but instead, it was pretty bland thus making this game even less attractive. It's like the developer forgot how lackluster the original game looked. Character models, buildings, vehicles, whatever it is, it simply doesn't look good.
Godfather 1 made video game history by including the audio of a dead actor, Marlon Brando (actually an imitator did most of Brando's dialogue but there was a bit used in the game that was recorded by Brando himself for the game before he died). On top of that, multiple actors from the movie were used to voice their video game counterpart adding to the quality voice acting. All that went out the window with this game. Granted, in the movie, Godfather 2, some characters didn't play as big of a role as they did in the first or where not there altogether because of storyline reasons. Be that as it may, the quality of voice acting still dropped significantly. By far the biggest letdown is the voice of Frankie Pentangeli, played by Michael Gazzo in the movie. For those who have seen the movie, he became a memorable character with his raspy Italian accent. In the game, the voice actor is nowhere near the voice of Frankie making it a real downer for fans of the movie. There's a score in the game making use of the memorable music from the movie, but in general, it's not going to help with the presentation of the game
Online multiplayer is typical yet unique. The typical game matches are there (Deathmatch, Sabotage, Escort) so there's no shocker. What's unique is that you can use some of your guys from your crew to play as in multiplayer matches, and the cash you get from the matches can be used during the single player campaign. So think of it as a secondary way of acquiring cash that will help improve the stats of your crew.
It can be easily said that this game is a disappointment on two levels. For fans of the original Godfather game, there's not much of an improvement on the presentation. In fact, it takes a step back with bad voice acting and similar graphics. Then, you have the damn repetition. It's just a lot of the same over and over and over again taking the fun right out of the game.
- O.G.
article id: 466 | poster: OG
