fitbabits
12-23-2008, 02:41 PM
Title: The Godfather II (http://www.ea.com/godfather2/agegate.action)
Platform: Xbox 360 (version previewed), PlayStation 3, PC
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: Electronic Arts (http://www.ea.com)
ESRB Rating: RP (Rating Pending) (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp)
Editor: James A. Young
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/GFII_Primary_Logo_RGB.gif
"Act like a mobster, think like a Don."
The above statement neatly sums up the design philosophy behind EA's upcoming The Godfather II. As the title suggests, The Godfather II is a sequel to the well-received Godfather video game (in all its varying flavors). Seen by some as a cynical cash-in by EA on the open world/sandbox genre, The Godfather had the distinct advantage of being inspired by one of the greatest movies ever filmed. It was perhaps a shame, then, that the game itself fell a little short in terms of what it offered the player.
Recognizing the shortcomings of the original, the team at EA Redwood Shores set out with a very specific and far-reaching design philosophy – to retool the game from the ground up and in doing so make what they believe to be the definitive game in the genre.
The competition they face, both from Rockstar's GTA series and the upcoming Remedy title Mafia II, is formidable. Sensing this, it's no surprise that EA is going all out to make sure that The Godfather II is the only game you'll need to quell your mafia Jones.
So whats the story behind The Godfather II?
On the eve of the Cuban Revolution a major mob meeting in Havana takes a bloody turn. The Don of your family is killed in Cuba, leaving it to you to take the reigns and lead your battered organization and reestablish the Corleone power base in Queens.
Success breeds opportunity: after you’ve proven you have the chops to run a top-tier crime organization, Hyman Roth invites you to expand and support him in South Florida. Do you accept his offer or do you remain loyal to the Corleones?
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/outside_richies.jpg
And so begins your ruthless and bloody campaign to establish yourself as a force to be reckoned with. To assist you in your hopeful ascent on the crime ladder, you have many and varied tools at your disposal. You have several different flavors of henchmen to choose from, soldier and guard among them. Also available are those who specialize in areas like bomb making or safe cracking. How you staff your crew is entirely up to you – just one of the many choices you'll face throughout your career.
Speaking of choices, procrastinators need not apply to The Godfather II family. While no single choice will make or break the game, each and every one will have an impact. I won't spoil things by going into too much detail, but suffice it to say taking a bomb-making expert on a mission if you're otherwise shorthanded would be a good plan.
One interesting addition to The Godfather II is the hugely enhanced map system called “The Don's View.” Hitting the back button on the 360 controller brings up a map of the territory you are working in. Aside from looking rather swish, this map will serve as a staging ground for any takeovers or attacks you wish your family to implement. You can also use the map to assign guards, etc. to the properties you already have control over.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/dons_view_a.jpg
The Don's View in Action
All the above is well and good (very well and good, actually), but I still haven't touched on how it all works in terms of gameplay. While not the best looking game out there (this will likely change, though, given the age of the build I played) The Godfather II plays as well as you would expect. There's nothing Earth-shatteringly original in the way you control Dominic, but that's not a bad thing when you consider what Eden Games attempted with Alone in the Dark's needlessly awkward and frustrating control scheme. You'll feel right at home the first time you fire up the game, enabling you to sink your teeth into the game without having to relearn how to walk. There was one aspect of the control scheme that I believe should be addressed before the game is released and that is the X and Y -axis sensitivity. For some inexplicable reason this was set to the slowest possible speed which made reacting to things a chore. Still, once I was able to adjust the settings to my liking, all was peachy.
As with any myriad of 'GTA-style' games, you're able to commandeer most any vehicle in the game and use it however you see fit. I say most any because some of the vehicles have to be earned – like the armor-plated cruiser, for example. Earning these types of perks comes with the natural progression of the game. Handling of the vehicles is firmly in the make-believe category, though. Bouncy suspension, stop-on-a-dime handbrake turns, big air – it's all very spectacular, in keeping with the outrageous nature of the game as a whole.
141592b3
It's worth mentioning here is that The Godfather II is assuredly and proudly an M-rated experience. Aside from the usual run-and-gun gameplay, this is even more evident in the Blackhand "executes" your character is able to perform at any point in the game. You likely saw a little of this system in the predecessor, but in The Godfather II it's now an integral part of the game. These "executes" are weapon-specific, and some of the missions you will take part in will require that you finish off your target with an "execute." As I said, it's brutal, it's hardcore, and it may well be a little too extreme for some people's tastes. It's not Tom & Jerry cartoon violence, that's for sure.
Unlike the first game, The Godfather II includes a very robust and interesting multiplayer component. The interesting part lies in the fact that your stats transfer between each mode. While it may make for an unbalanced experience at first, the developers assured me that it won't spoil either mode.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/sunset.jpg
I was able to play a variety of multiplayer modes, deathmatch, team deathmatch, etc. and all in all I had a great time. While it's not likely to replace Modern Warfare as what many view as the pinnacle of multiplayer, it's still a very welcome addition to the package.
I did want to take some time to talk about the one multiplayer mode I loved – Firestarter. As the name implies, the goal is to destroy the opposing team's property by setting it alight. It's not quite that simple, though, as whomever is set the task of being the eponymous Firestarter is pretty much easy meat for the opposing team. It's up to the rest of the team to protect you while you go about your nefarious business. The winning team will be that which works as a team and not as a bunch of disparate individuals.
And that about wraps things up. Safe to say The Godfather II isn't likely to be at the top of many people's wish lists come Spring 2009, but you may well be surprised by it if you give it a shot.
EA has made me an offer I'm going to find really hard to refuse!
Platform: Xbox 360 (version previewed), PlayStation 3, PC
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: Electronic Arts (http://www.ea.com)
ESRB Rating: RP (Rating Pending) (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp)
Editor: James A. Young
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/GFII_Primary_Logo_RGB.gif
"Act like a mobster, think like a Don."
The above statement neatly sums up the design philosophy behind EA's upcoming The Godfather II. As the title suggests, The Godfather II is a sequel to the well-received Godfather video game (in all its varying flavors). Seen by some as a cynical cash-in by EA on the open world/sandbox genre, The Godfather had the distinct advantage of being inspired by one of the greatest movies ever filmed. It was perhaps a shame, then, that the game itself fell a little short in terms of what it offered the player.
Recognizing the shortcomings of the original, the team at EA Redwood Shores set out with a very specific and far-reaching design philosophy – to retool the game from the ground up and in doing so make what they believe to be the definitive game in the genre.
The competition they face, both from Rockstar's GTA series and the upcoming Remedy title Mafia II, is formidable. Sensing this, it's no surprise that EA is going all out to make sure that The Godfather II is the only game you'll need to quell your mafia Jones.
So whats the story behind The Godfather II?
On the eve of the Cuban Revolution a major mob meeting in Havana takes a bloody turn. The Don of your family is killed in Cuba, leaving it to you to take the reigns and lead your battered organization and reestablish the Corleone power base in Queens.
Success breeds opportunity: after you’ve proven you have the chops to run a top-tier crime organization, Hyman Roth invites you to expand and support him in South Florida. Do you accept his offer or do you remain loyal to the Corleones?
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/outside_richies.jpg
And so begins your ruthless and bloody campaign to establish yourself as a force to be reckoned with. To assist you in your hopeful ascent on the crime ladder, you have many and varied tools at your disposal. You have several different flavors of henchmen to choose from, soldier and guard among them. Also available are those who specialize in areas like bomb making or safe cracking. How you staff your crew is entirely up to you – just one of the many choices you'll face throughout your career.
Speaking of choices, procrastinators need not apply to The Godfather II family. While no single choice will make or break the game, each and every one will have an impact. I won't spoil things by going into too much detail, but suffice it to say taking a bomb-making expert on a mission if you're otherwise shorthanded would be a good plan.
One interesting addition to The Godfather II is the hugely enhanced map system called “The Don's View.” Hitting the back button on the 360 controller brings up a map of the territory you are working in. Aside from looking rather swish, this map will serve as a staging ground for any takeovers or attacks you wish your family to implement. You can also use the map to assign guards, etc. to the properties you already have control over.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/dons_view_a.jpg
The Don's View in Action
All the above is well and good (very well and good, actually), but I still haven't touched on how it all works in terms of gameplay. While not the best looking game out there (this will likely change, though, given the age of the build I played) The Godfather II plays as well as you would expect. There's nothing Earth-shatteringly original in the way you control Dominic, but that's not a bad thing when you consider what Eden Games attempted with Alone in the Dark's needlessly awkward and frustrating control scheme. You'll feel right at home the first time you fire up the game, enabling you to sink your teeth into the game without having to relearn how to walk. There was one aspect of the control scheme that I believe should be addressed before the game is released and that is the X and Y -axis sensitivity. For some inexplicable reason this was set to the slowest possible speed which made reacting to things a chore. Still, once I was able to adjust the settings to my liking, all was peachy.
As with any myriad of 'GTA-style' games, you're able to commandeer most any vehicle in the game and use it however you see fit. I say most any because some of the vehicles have to be earned – like the armor-plated cruiser, for example. Earning these types of perks comes with the natural progression of the game. Handling of the vehicles is firmly in the make-believe category, though. Bouncy suspension, stop-on-a-dime handbrake turns, big air – it's all very spectacular, in keeping with the outrageous nature of the game as a whole.
141592b3
It's worth mentioning here is that The Godfather II is assuredly and proudly an M-rated experience. Aside from the usual run-and-gun gameplay, this is even more evident in the Blackhand "executes" your character is able to perform at any point in the game. You likely saw a little of this system in the predecessor, but in The Godfather II it's now an integral part of the game. These "executes" are weapon-specific, and some of the missions you will take part in will require that you finish off your target with an "execute." As I said, it's brutal, it's hardcore, and it may well be a little too extreme for some people's tastes. It's not Tom & Jerry cartoon violence, that's for sure.
Unlike the first game, The Godfather II includes a very robust and interesting multiplayer component. The interesting part lies in the fact that your stats transfer between each mode. While it may make for an unbalanced experience at first, the developers assured me that it won't spoil either mode.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/fitbabits/The%20Godfather%20II/sunset.jpg
I was able to play a variety of multiplayer modes, deathmatch, team deathmatch, etc. and all in all I had a great time. While it's not likely to replace Modern Warfare as what many view as the pinnacle of multiplayer, it's still a very welcome addition to the package.
I did want to take some time to talk about the one multiplayer mode I loved – Firestarter. As the name implies, the goal is to destroy the opposing team's property by setting it alight. It's not quite that simple, though, as whomever is set the task of being the eponymous Firestarter is pretty much easy meat for the opposing team. It's up to the rest of the team to protect you while you go about your nefarious business. The winning team will be that which works as a team and not as a bunch of disparate individuals.
And that about wraps things up. Safe to say The Godfather II isn't likely to be at the top of many people's wish lists come Spring 2009, but you may well be surprised by it if you give it a shot.
EA has made me an offer I'm going to find really hard to refuse!