The Godfather II (PC)

I accidentally purchased this game the other day, while having what the girls at work might describe as a “blonde moment”. I had been listening to a (p)review of a game on PC Gamer Podcast ( uk ). They gave it rave reviews and went on and on about the best features and how this sequel was going to blow the first game out of the water. Trouble is, they were talking about Mafia 2, but for some reason I thought they’d said Godfather 2. Id played Mafia ...
...saying, this game got back the excitement for games that I thought I had lost. I’ve become a little complacent as of late. Bored perhaps. Playing the same games over and over. But this game rekindled the fire so to speak. I find myself thinking about my next “Hit” or take over when I’m not even playing the game. I go to sleep and I can still see shop owners cowering as I smash up their store or rival gang members dying spectacularly as I go on a ... more

I accidentally purchased this game the other day, while having what the girls at work might describe as a “blonde moment”. I had been listening to a (p)review of a game on PC Gamer Podcast ( uk ). They gave it rave reviews and went on and on about the best features and how this sequel was going to blow the first game out of the water. Trouble is, they were talking about Mafia 2, but for some reason I thought they’d said Godfather 2. Id played Mafia and thought it was pants but on their review I was excited by Mafia 2. This transferred over onto Godfather 2. By a stroke of luck though, it is actually quite a good game! Which is nice. Yes, it’s another GTA clone, but there are quite a few elements in it which I think give it an edge over most other GTA clones. There are some downsides though too, but ill start this review off by saying, this game got back the excitement for games that I thought I had lost. I’ve become a little complacent as of late. Bored perhaps. Playing the same games over and over. But this game rekindled the fire so to speak. I find myself thinking about my next “Hit” or take over when I’m not even playing the game. I go to sleep and I can still see shop owners cowering as I smash up their store or rival gang members dying spectacularly as I go on a rampage.

Right, that out of the way, ill start from the beginning. First off, in case you hadn’t guessed already Godfather 2 the game, is based (loosely) on Godfather 2 the film. As such you will find yourself re-enacting or watching scenes from the film replayed before your eyes by its original cast (mostly). The game designers have clearly gone to some length to render the faces of the original actors and as such you will spy the likes of Hyman Roth, Frank Pentangeli, Senator Pat Geary and even Tom Hagen among others. The actors were clearly doing the voices too, which is nice. Most disappointingly, Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) is not present (according to wikipedia he refused to allow his likeness/voice to be used), but it doesn’t take away from the game too much as the actor used to replace him plays the part well.

The game starts off in Cuba , as you watch that scene from the film with Hyman Roth being re-enacted. Its very well done, you (playing the character of “Dominic”) then have to protect Michael and escape from Cuba . While escaping you are told you will be boss of New York . As such you have to build your crew/family and go about earning money. To do this you shake down local businesses (or “rackets”) offering them protection. Usually you are taking them over from rival gangs and because of this you have to provide guards to protect the business in case the other gang tries to take it back. Guards cost money and cut into your take, so you have to balance the books making sure businesses are protected but still making money. Money which will allow you to upgrade yourself and members of your family. Slowly but surely the game lets you recruit more and more people. But you can only have three people running around with you at any one time. So you have to choose carefully. Made men are precious, they can defend (and attack) more efficiently than standard guards and can be a great help to you. Each made man has a different “speciality” demolitions, arson, locking picking/safe cracking, intimidation/bruiser and medic. It is important to choose wisely as they can make a great difference to your job. Some businesses are as small as shop, others as large as a factory. You might be taking on 20 or more rival family guards, so you need to choose your technique carefully. Using stealth with a bruiser for stealth kills or sneaking in the back door with a lock picker or you can just opt to blow up a building and put it out of action. Draining your enemy of funds (and later in the game – upgrades).

Alongside this revolves a storyline of family war. Taking out rival gangs made men will eventually unlock their “compound” and then you can take out their don and eliminate the threat from that family and make money too. But it takes time to get that far. Families vary in size and each made man (or capo – a soldier higher up in the ranks who has more skills) has to be eliminated in a certain way. So far, there’s been a very nice mix indeed. Ive had to strangle, push off roofs, bottle, shoot between the eyes, burn with a Molotov, blow up, pummel and shoot in the face a number of different made men. If you fail to do it in the correct way, the made man will be out of business for a while, as he recovers in hospital, but he will soon be out again and causing you trouble. The way to find out how to kill these soldiers is by helping out members of the public. Random pedestrians will have a sign above their head, you speak to them and they’ll have a quest for you, whether its robbing somewhere, smashing up a business, beating someone up or killing someone, once its done they will reward you with the technique to kill your sworn enemy. Kill your way up the family tree until you get to the boss. Its good fun and a nice element in the game.

You are quickly sent from New York to Florida , for more of the same action and its all fun packed. You soon find that there are “rings” of rackets. Having a collection will get you an upgrade. For example taking over 4 of the same kind of rackets bagged me body armour for me and my men, another got me extra ammo, another extra income. Enemy families will try to snatch one of those businesses back from you and take that advantage away from you. Or they’ll simply bomb it to do that temporarily. You will find crooked officials hiding on street corners and alleyways who will help you out with these situations. Do a job for them and get the cops off your back or your bombed businesses rebuilt quickly.

Look after your men, injured or arrested made men will be useless for a short while, the default is 12 minutes, which might not sound like much, but when you’ve got a safe to rob, it feels like an eternity. This can be reduced by “upgrading” them. Money allows you to give them extra talents or improve on their skills in an RPG style. Make them a better shot with the pistol and equip them with a deadly one, you’ll soon find yourself at an advantage. There are plenty of skills to choose from. You can also choose their (and your) clothes, and facial style. Which is a nice customisation to keep things fresh.

One of my favourite parts of the game is probably its most brutal (in case you hadn’t guessed already, its quite violent). Enemies take quite a few bullets to go down. But you soon find that filling them with Thompson shells will drop them to their knees. If you don’t finish them off (by continuing to shoot) they will get back up and keep firing at you, but run up and press “f” (Default) to perform an execution and you can sit back and watch Dominic deal a painful death. There are more than one animation and they vary from gun to gun. For the Thompson he sticks the muzzle in their mouth and pulls the trigger, blowing blood out of the back of their head or he knocks them to the floor, stamps on them and fills their body with bullets. It’s gruesome, but rewarding. Perhaps that’s just me being twisted?

This element of the game is one of the key things in the fighting and shooting. There are a lot of things you can do and it is encouraged. For example, when taking over a racket, you have to intimidate the owner. To do this you clearly have to threaten them in some way. A meter shows how threatened they feel, there are two levels, a point at which they will break and another point where they either fight back or die. You want to get your intimidation just right so you can extort but not kill them. You soon find that there is a set “weak point” to which they will break more quickly. Find it and you will be rewarded with 25% more money. For example, some people don’t take kindly to being threatened with fire arms, others don’t like being strangled, or grabbed and tossed about. Smashing up their property or actually shooting them (in the knee’s for example) might work, but its different for each person so you have to carefully try each until you find the right one. Its not essential, but it gets you more reward. You could just go in there, knock ten bells out of them until they gave, then hit E (default) to extort them. Once that’s done though, don’t forget to put some guards on the property.

Another nice touch is unarmed; the right mouse buttons swings a right punch, the left button a left punch, both together, a grab. Grab someone and pull the mouse towards you and you will threaten them (which is enough to break some people), hit and hold space to strangle them. Hit another key to pummel their face.

Police are a nightmare. And if a pedestrian see’s you committing a crime they will report you. They have a Red Eye appear above their head, so quickly grab them and threaten them (much the same as you would a shop owner) and break them so they don’t say anything. Then make your escape scot free. A nice touch is, a made man with a bruiser speciality will do this job for you. Which saves time.

The one downside to the game, is the draw distance. Things will suddenly appear out of nowhere before your eyes if you are travelling at speed in a car. Cars, people, tree’s. It can be quite frustrating at times and makes the game feel dated, but not so much so to put you off.

The map interface (“Don’s View”) is useful and intuitive. Showing properties that are being attacked or ones that you need to take over. Showing up people to talk to and enemy families that need to be killed. Check your own family and switch the made men following you around at your whim/need.

There seems to be a multiplayer element, but its not being used much, which is disappointing, so this review is based mostly on the single player. I’d recommend it for sure. At least until Mafia 2 comes out! *sniggers* 

...less