A Sith Reviews: The Godfather 2
I turn my gaze upon EA Redwood Shores' final game under that moniker (Renamed Visceral Games, maker of games like The Sims 3, and Dante's Inferno), The Godfather 2. Released in Spring 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, The Godfather 2 is a third person sandbox shooter with real time strategy elements set in Havana, Cuba, New York City, New York, and Miami, Florida. The game is loosely based off of the movie donning the same name written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1974.
Balancing multiple game play styles and elements is one of the hardest things to do in game design. Where The Godfather shines is in the balancing between third person shooting, sandbox exploration, and RTS elements that mix seamlessly within game play.
The third person shooting mechanics work well together, with the R1 and L1 buttons being used for auto lock aiming and firing. The targeting system is responsive and allows for quick switching between enemies to maximize the damage done by one clip of a gun. When firing multiple times, usually with an automatic weapon, the target will recoil allowing for you to see the chances of missing increase if you don't take your time in a fight.
Along with the shooting mechanics, the melee and hand to hand combat system feels rewarding as each jab and head butt causes visible damage to your target. The main function of the hand to hand combat system is surprisingly not combat, but rather to intimidate and extort the local business owners. As you run around the town you can attempt to take over a racket, or front, by eliminating all the enemy guards. This is achieved by threatening, attacking, or vandalizing the owner, or his shop, until he agrees to give you a daily cut of the profit.
With each shop you control you gain the responsibility to pay guards to defend the store from the rival families trying to take the businesses back. This leads to the RTS elements in the game, which all revolve around the Don's view. The Don's view is the map of the cities. It shows all fronts, rackets, banks, hospitals and compounds, as well as who controls them and the amount of guards defending these places. Also from the Don's view you can manage your crew, which you recruit while running around. Your crew is made up of people with special skills such as medic, arsonist, demolitions expert, bruiser, or engineer. During the course of the narrative you will upgrade your crew and send them to defend and capture more fronts. This development of your crew and the capturing of crime rings earns money and bonuses. This is a major addition to the game from the original version.
Besides rackets and fronts there are compounds to capture. To take a compound you must eliminate the family that lives there. To do this you must take over all of that family's businesses to force them to retreat in to the compound. Next you will need to attack the compound and blow it up. This eliminates the family forever. These compound battles feel epic in comparison to the taking over of a front or racket because there are many more guards and crew members of the rival family there. These battles will take more strategy, ammo, and resolve to complete, giving a rewarding feel to putting a rival family to rest.
With all the fighting you do it isn't surprising that you will die, a lot. Now how much depends on your own use of cover, shooting, planning, and adjusting of your crew to suit your needs. Inevitably, like in real, life, you will end up dying. When you die you are placed outside the hospital with some money missing and a feeling of failure. Painful as it is to fail, there is no real penalty to dying. Another component that will lead to a death or two is the cover system. The cover system works, but feels a little out of place. The pacing of fighting moves rapidly and the cover system does nothing but slow the pace down.
Most of the combat works but does have its flaws. Some major issues arise with running and driving. The controls for running and driving feel loose, and the camera likes to swing wild making things hard to see at some points. Driving also has issues. The faster you drive, the closer the camera gets to the car. This causes many crashes from a lack of vision. Another issue is the mechanic for switching guns. You use the right analog stick to pick a weapon from the gun wheel, this feels very clunky and unintuitive.
Besides game play issues, one main problem area of The Godfather 2 is the story. This is surprising given what the developers had as a source. The pacing is too slow. It drags on and becomes nothing but doing the same things in different places. For a game with a great story to draw from, the changes in order and pacing make the narrative feel generic and disappointing. Finally, the “twist” used, which I will not spoil, lacks any shock value and falls flat. This puts the final nail in the coffin of the story.
The presentation for this game is also lacking luster, especially for a new generation game. The in-game cut scenes look sub par. While the graphics look fine during the standard game play, the cut scenes just don't seem to have the same sharp looking quality. Another small issue I had with the presentation of the game is that whenever you go into the pause menu (Don's view) you are treated to a bright white light that wears on your eyes if you play for any extended period of time. Though it is a petty complaint it can start to become an unneeded nuisance.
Besides the major issues, a small thing that bothered me was Michael Corleone. While they brought back Robert Duvall to voice Tom Hagen, Micheal is not played by Al Pacino but rather was voiced by Carlos Ferro (Dom from Gears). Granted Carlos gives a good performance, but it just didn't feel quite right without Pacino.
One final complaint about the game is the lack of replay value. The game becomes repetitive after a few hours and unless you really love The Godfather world, or just can't bring yourself to go play some Grand Theft Auto for the fifth time you most likely won't come back to this game after your first play through.
Even with all of its issues and hiccups, what The Godfather 2 does well it does very well. Repetition will come into effect but with a 10-12 hour play through most people will make it without too much boredom. Taking into account the fun factor that this game brings for at least the first five or six hours, I recommend The Godfather 2 as either a rent or a bargain bin buy.
