The night before the big event all the journalists that could make it to dinner sat down to play a Godfather II card game. The big bunch of dorks we are, we fought for businesses, purchased soldiers, and had a helluva lot of fun trying to eliminate our opponents. I did pretty horribly, mostly because I thought I didn’t need guards. Big mistake. This isn’t a real tabletop game, unfortunately (cause it really is fun!), it’s simply a tool that the developers created to fine-tune the strategy aspect of the game.
It didn’t make sense to us either at first, but play the videogame a little and it’ll start to become clear. The biggest change this time around is the new “Don’s View”. Go to the menu and you can get a look at both your empire and your enemies’. The goal of course is to turn everything over to your side, and much like the real mob it’s all about money here. Every day you’ll get a certain amount of cash depending on how many businesses you own. If you want to keep them, you’ll place guards at each one so your opponent can’t easily grab it back. Each guard costs a couple hundred bucks a day in upkeep though, so you have to figure out how badly you want something protected. You can always run somewhere to back it up if it’s under attack, or even simply send one of your own soldiers to take care of it for you. Made men are a helluva lot stronger than guards, but the same applies to your opponents. You can have your soldiers guard a place and it’ll be that much more secure, and from the Don’s view you can see what your opponent is up to- how many guards and soldiers he might have at a location.
The first area in Queens doesn’t allow for much strategizing but it’s supposed to ramp up in the later levels (Florida and Cuba), where you’ve got multiple families to contend with at once. One big thing you’ll want to go after when you’re taking over rackets is a monopoly. For example, take over all the nightclubs and whorehouses in the first area and you’ll gain a bonus- in this case brass knuckles for you and all your men. Later on in the game if you take over all the drug suppliers in an area (or labor unions, gambling dens, etc.) you’ll get bonuses for each one as well. One will give you bulletproof vests, another armored cars. This of course works for your opponents as well, so you’ll have to play your cards right to take them down in order and make them weaker. Besides taking over a racket you can also bomb or burn down a building, which will put it out of commission for a few days- hurting your opponent’s cash flow and removing any bonuses he might have. It’s an interesting twist that we unfortunately weren’t shown enough of in the first area of the game.
Another strategy is to take out the other family trees, whittling away at their soldiers and capos. If you kill them during a front takeover they’ll just be put out of commission for a few days in a hospital (as will your own soldiers). To take these super soldiers down for good you’ll need to order a hit on them and perform it in a specific way. The first guy you take out you’ll find hanging out in a parking lot, and have to choke him out. It’s harsh, but it gets the job done and you won’t have to worry about running into him ever again. These guys take a ton of bullets to go down so it’s important to find out each made man’s weakness- which you can do by performing favors for various senators and other individuals found around the world.
Speaking of kills, there are execution kills in this game that are absolutely brutal. They’re weapon specific- and just wait till you see your character knock an opponent to his knees, jam your tommy gun in his mouth and just fire away. Sick and satisfying stuff. There are only so many animations though, and they do get a little repetitive.
Thankfully the graphics are pretty decent. Your character will show damage, and it’s pretty funny to walk out of a firefight with bloody holes in your clothes. The game will definitely earn its M rating, not only because of the violence but also the (topless) nudity on display in the strip clubs, a pretty ballsy move on the developer’s part.
I walked away from the Godfather II community day not completely sold on the game, but happy that things have improved the way they have. I’m almost wishing they went the full strategy game route here- it would have been much more interesting simply taking over businesses, working with your money and generally handling things from a desk like the Don you are- but at least this is a step in the right direction.
Next week an embargo lifts on the multiplayer side of things, so expect another article letting you know what to expect when you go online. Questions on anything else about the game? Ask away in the comments or in this messageboard thread.
This week a group of online journalists was invited to EA Redwood Studios to be the first to check out The Godfather II. I went into it a little pessimistic on how things would turn out- not only is the movie one of my favorites, but I already felt that they had failed with the first game, completely ignoring what made the movie classic and just churning out a substandard GTA clone that played like an Asylum Pictures ripoff of the real thing. A couple of trailers and producer interviews went a long way towards giving me hope that they had learned from their previous mistakes and were on their way towards making a unique game this time, and thankfully, it happened to be the case.
Having played the game for quite a few hours I can safely tell you that it’s leaps and bounds above the first Godfather. But is that enough in a day that has GTA IV on one side of the spectrum, Saints Row 2 on the other, and a superior mob game with a sequel on the way (Mafia 2)? We won’t know till the full game is in our hands… but for those looking to live the mob life, you’ll definitely find plenty to love here.
If you’ve played the first game you’ll immediately note that a lot of things are similar. It’s still all about extorting businesses and taking them over from your rivals, but things are different, in many ways…
Godfather purists- you might want to turn away now. The studio has made some significant changes with the story, and it’s probably better for you if you go into this thinking of it as a separate game about the mafia, rather than an adaptation of the film. They’ve included a lot of the major scenes from The Godfather Part II but there’s a whole lot missing from here that some people won’t be able to get past.
First off, you won’t see Sicily or the early days in NYC. The game completely ignores Vito Corleone’s origins in the interests of telling a more straightforward story with Michael. You will start off in NYC, head down to Florida and then Cuba with Jewish gangster Hyman Roth, and then come back to NYC on a mission of revenge (that we were not allowed to hear about).
One of the many complaints leveled at the first Godfather game was that you played a character that was completely on the sidelines of the story. You were there sometimes literally outside looking in while all the important and iconic scenes from the movie took place. Here they’ve changed lines around so that your character (a new guy, Dominic) is a more active participant, but in some cases it just feels tacked-on.
For example, the scene where Pentangeli gets a c-note before the attempt on his life in Richie’s Bar. Instead of Pentangeli talking about how he took the bill as an insult, your character says it, right before you’re both grabbed and pulled into the back (and not even by Danny Aiello!). Later on in the game more famous scenes take place with the addition of your character, such as when Pat Geary finds himself with the dead hooker. No more is it just Tom Hagen talking to him, you’re in on it too.
Besides Robert Duvall, none of the real actors did the voices, and the new ones are somewhat jarring. Pentangeli doesn’t sound like an Italian immigrant at all now, and whoever did Hyman Roth sounds like the lovechild of Lee Strasberg and Christopher Walken. “You know? It’s stupid? People behaving? Like that with guns?” Pacino once again refused to lend his likeness to the game so Michael Corleone looks and sounds completely different.
The game begins in Cuba, with the scene from the film where Hyman Roth is cutting up his birthday cake and doling it out to his business partners. Included here are a few new families that were made simply to act as your enemies in the game. After this cutscene ends the first level begins and acts as a tutorial of sorts. As underboss Dominic you’ll have to fight your way out of Cuba and get to the plane, learning all about hand to hand combat and gunplay on the way. They’ve strengthened both systems- now the left and right triggers throw left and right punches, and holding both will grab a person by the lapels, allowing you to pummel him with the right stick or throw him around with the left. The gunplay doesn’t rely on an auto-aim anymore- like every other current GTA clone it allows for free aiming. Hitting the left trigger with a gun drawn will aim at the character nearest your sights, allowing you to target various parts of the body with the right stick. You’ll pick up most of the guns right away, from shotguns and tommy guns to sniper rifles and magnums. You’ll start off finding Level 1 versions of each but better ones (up to Level 3) can be found at key points in the game.
But in any case, once you’ve blasted and beaten your way through dozens of Cubans and escaped you meet with Michael Corleone at his former house in Queens. He’s pleased with your work and needs a new boss in Queens, since your Don was killed during the fight in Cuba. You’re then given the task of choosing your first soldier.
This is where the game begins to differ from the first. Instead of starting on the bottom and working your way up in the family, you start off on top, and build your family from the ground up. Each soldier is different, with a different personality, background and speciality. You’ll want to pick a guy you like, since you’ll have to listen to them yap throughout the game, as they follow you around and help you with your work (you can have up to 3 made men with you at a time). The specialities are very important as well. The specialities are as follows- Pyro (who can burn down buildings), Demolition expert (who can also demolish buildings, or blow holes in certain walls), safe cracker (for bank jobs), medic (who will revive your soldiers for you) and a bruiser, who can break down specific doors. Each one has specific stats, but you can also upgrade them in a dozen different ways in an RPG leveling system. Every upgrade costs money but you’ll want to do it, not only so they can specialize in more areas and handle a weapon better, but also because you’ll have to rely on these guys to protect your businesses.
Much like the original game, it’s all about extorting businesses and taking over rackets. Course, a real Don might not be personally handling all of this, but that’s where the most of the gameplay is. You’ll once again go to various businesses and try to take them over from the rival families, by eliminating their guards and scaring the owner by finding his or her weakness- whether it just be physical abuse, property destruction, or a fear of firearms.
The first area of the game (set in Queens) is pretty small and compact, apparently in response to complaints that it took forever to drive anywhere in the first game. This was a smart decision. I actually fell asleep playing the first Godfather and sideswiped every car on the way back to my home, just so I could save the damn game. (There’s an autosave feature in place now as well, so you won’t have to worry about that anymore). Everything is close by and easily accessible, at least in the beginning areas of the game.
This whole first section is extremely linear, and almost like another tutorial. There isn’t a time when you aren’t told what to do, and there’s very little in the amount of choice you have. To win and advance you’ve got to take over all of the local mob’s businesses and get them working for you, and then blow up the family’s compound to take them out for good. But there’s some new twists with how this plays out…
Things blow up real nice here.
Head to the second page to find out the more strategic elements of the game!
