HardwareGeeks.com - The Godfather II Impressions

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Posted by: Allen & Sri on Mon, Aug 18th, 2008

There are times where you have to act like a mobster, but think like a Don. That’s the theme behind the sequel to the 2006 game based on the movie The Godfather. We got a chance to preview The Godfather II at EA’s 2008 Studio Showcase. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us play the game. Instead, Creative Director Mike Olsen walked us through a thirty minute demo of a very early version of the game. Here’s the scoop.

In The Godfather II, you take on the role of Dominic Corleone. Instead of starting out as a nobody off the street like in the first Godfather game, you actually start off this time as a Don. As the Don, you have control over every aspect of your family, from taking over small business to completely destroying others. It is your job to secure and maintain control of crucial rackets. According to Mike, the way you go about doing that is really up to you. The ultimate goal for any family is to have complete control over the cities, and that is done by building and destroying relationships with rival families. True to the movie, The Godfather II will feature three cities; Miami, Havana, and New York City.

The game features a standard open-ended sandbox world, in which you can drive around through the cites, kill innocent bystanders, as well as go on main missions and side missions. Great, so it’s another game with a free-roaming world that attempts to mimic Grand Theft Auto right? Well, not exactly. Thankfully, the team at EA Redwood Shores decided it’s time to change the game up a bit. The twist here, is that the game will feature RTS-like strategy elements. Included is a world map view, appropriately titled the Don’s View. This map gives you an overview of the city and shows you which families are in control of which rackets. It will be in your best interest to use the Don’s View since it will give you an overview of what your rivals are up to, and help you plan your next move.

One element of the strategy in this game is that you’ll have the ability to recruit people to join your family. People interested in joining your family will often spend time around your hideout. Different candidates have different specialties and different personalities. For example, recruit somebody who is sneaky and you’ll be able to use him to assassinate people from behind. If you recruit somebody who is good at escaping, he’ll have a better chance of getting away if caught by the police. With the ability to pick and choose the members of your family, it’s up to you to build the best one however you see fit.

True to the powers of a Don, aside from being able to recruit the members of your family in the game, you’ll also be able to direct the members of your family. This was shown to us during a mission where they infiltrated an oil refinery to seize control of a racket currently owned by another family. With multiple ways to enter the facility, it’s up to you to decide how you want to proceed. In this situation, they directed the crew to perform a flank. With options to direct your squad like this, you’ll be able to play the game as strategically (or unstrategically) as you wish. If you’re not a strategic person, you’ll still have the option of running in with guns blazing.

Aside from missions, you’ll also be able to perform favors for people in exchange for their support. One such scenario was shown to us by Mike. As Dominic, he drove to a porn shoot to meet with the crooked District Attorney. When he arrived there, the DA asked Dominic to do him a favor and if successful, the DA would return the favor. The DA asked Dominic to create a crime scene at the local diner so that when the cops arrive, they would find planted evidence. In exchange for this favor, Dominic asked the DA to put a sting on a local rival gang. That way, Dominic’s family could weaken gang territory and recover it for himself. Once Dominic arrived at the diner and trashed the place, he went up to the owner of the diner and fried his face on a grill to get him to listen. This showed off the pressure gauge system, which was also featured in the first game. Different people in the game have different breaking points, and if you pressure them the right way, you can get them to cooperate.

Besides having guns at your disposal, you’ll also be able to engage in good old fashioned fist fights. We were particularly impressed with the fighting controls. To grab hold of a person, you hold down the shoulder buttons. After you’ve got someone in a lock, you can use the joysticks to throw punches and beat them to a pulp. If you want to finish someone off, just click both joysticks in and you’ll perform a choke. We felt the fighting controls were good representations of what they actually did respectively.

When we asked about multiplayer, the developers weren’t ready to divulge many details. They did however, mention that you would be able to bring along the family you put together from single player into multiplayer.

Also back in the sequel is MobFace, the system that lets you customize your character’s physique and apparel, effectively allowing you to put yourself in the game. There’s no need to become a real mobster, you can just live out your fantasy in this game!

There’s still a good amount of time before we’ll see The Godfather II on store shelves. The game is currently set for a February 2009 release. Although this was a very early build of the game we saw, it appeared to be coming along nicely. We were especially impressed with the strategy elements of this game. We love how the game is very non-linear, allowing you to do things your way and truly play the role of a Don. Few games based on movies usually turn out to be successful, but this is one that seems to have the formula right. This is a game we’ll definitely be looking forward to next year.