The Godfather II Hands-on
Taking over the streets of New York, one racket at a time.
Taking over the streets of New York, one racket at a time.
US, November 20, 2008 - In August, I had a chance to check out The Godfather II, EA's upcoming title that promises to let you create your own crime empire with a mix of action and strategy. With the design philosophy of "Act like a mobster, think like a Don," EA wants to give players significant control over how they establish crime rings, extort businesses and eliminate rival families. While I got a basic sense of what the game would entail, I didn't have a chance to hop onto the controller and lead my crew into battle. Fortunately, I recently had a chance to run through the earliest tutorial section of an alpha build of the game to get a better sense of what players will experience in February.
The game starts in 1959 Cuba with Michael Corleone and other made men going down for Hyman Roth's birthday where he divides up his empire amongst the families represented. Players are cast as Dominic, a young man working for Aldo Trapani, the protagonist of the first Godfather game. Since you're a low level guy, you're tasked with menial chores such as checking up on members of the family at the party and paying your respects. However, this allows you to gain a little insight into the conversational aspects of the game, which feature some branching mechanics during key moments. Players are allowed to select one of four different responses, all of which will impact how that person reacts to you and what they'll do in response.
Watch or download the trailer here (HD available).
Shortly after the party gets underway, guerillas manage to invade and bring down the government, forcing the families to flee for their lives. During the action, you attempt to escape with Michael, Fredo and Aldo to a plane that's waiting nearby. It's here that you're introduced to the basics of the combat system as you try to fight your way towards the plane, which includes an interesting combo mechanic – the left and right triggers act as your left and right arms, respectively. By pulling both triggers, you're able to grab an enemy, and when combined with the right analog stick, you're able to rough up an opponent in a number of ways. For instance, you can headbutt someone in your grasp, run his head into a wall or appliance, or then toss the thug into something.
You're not restricted to physical violence either – shooting is governed by a free aim system (although you can target lock nearby threats) that allows you to focus on segments of an enemies such as their kneecaps to make them fall or their arms to force them to drop their weapons. This is particularly effective if you want to cripple an enemy before running up and performing an execution on him. By nearing the opponent and pressing in on the right analog stick, you are given the opportunity to perform a killing blow, which is dictated by whether or not a target is standing or kneeling as well as what weapon you happen to have in your hands. For example, if you have a shotgun, you may blast your enemy a few times before you blow his head off, while having a tommy gun can result in you shoving the barrel into an enemy's mouth before ventilating the back of his head.
Prepare to meet your maker.
There will be a large number of weapons available to you as well, which you'll be able to access via a radial menu at any point by holding down the left bumper (or L1 on the PS3). For instance, I observed that you could pick up magnums, rifles and machine guns, all of which had their own specific level and statistics. Obviously, finding a Level 2 pistol would do much more damage than a Level 1, but I was also told that a player could spend money to improve his or her personal stats, gaining access to weapons licenses to carry better firearms, which would make the player much more effective in using a particular weapon, minimizing recoil and improving damage amongst other facets.
As everyone comes close to making it to freedom, Aldo is shot and killed at the airport, and as you fly back to New York with Michael and Fredo, you receive a promotion to head up a family and control your own organization. Now, if you're a Godfather purist, I can already hear the complaints flying in. Hyman Roth's party and the New Year's Revolution weren't on the same day! Michael and Fredo didn't leave together! EA is well aware of the continuity issues, but are taking some "creative liberties" with the story to focus more on your actions. As a result, it's not a direct retelling of the movie, but the game intentionally places your character at all of the key moments. What's more, the designers wanted to make sure that Fredo had a larger role in your character's evolution that simply an early blip in the plot.
With the fiery Cuban revolution left behind and my character safely ensconced back in New York, I started getting to work on building my empire from the ground up. Frank Pentangeli, who wanted to eliminate the Rosato Brothers, took me under wing and instructed me on the best way to start striking back at the rival family, including gaining associates. While I had a choice between two men that Frank had brought with him to the Corleone compound, I was told that eventually I'd be able to employ seven men, each with their own specific skills and abilities as well as personality traits. What's more, just as I was able to augment my own stats, I would be able to improve their stats as well along with promoting the loyal members to more important roles in the family, allowing me to purchase additional skills for them. For example, one of the guys was an experienced medic only because he'd been shot as a young kid. The other was a demolitions expert that loved blowing things up. If I was going to the mattresses with the Rosatos, I definitely wanted someone with an explosive kick, so I chose the demo man and off we went into the city.
To strengthen my control over New York, I had to focus on the various crime rackets found within the city. Unlike the first game, which had establishments spread out across the city, just about every neighborhood had some kind of illicit activity going on. These ranged from construction and gun running to drug trafficking and more salacious activities like prostitution. By taking over a particular business, I would be able to gain a cut of the profits turned by these activities, but if I managed to take over an entire racket, I'd gain extra cash as well as bonuses for my crew based on that particular location. There are 11 bonuses in all that can be collected, ranging from brass knuckles that strengthen hand-to-hand combat to armored cars and even bulletproof vests.
Let's go check out the goods.
For example, the first location that I took over was the Sweet Life Bakery, which was near the compound and had a limited amount of protection. However, this bakery was serving up more than pastry – it was a cover for a prostitution ring. After moving in with my associate, I "convinced" the bouncer to let me in with some subtle persuasion from my fists before moving on to the owner of the establishment and "proposed" that I become a partner. Although he put up some resistance, I was able to make him come around to my point of view by pushing his buttons. The key people at an establishment will have these weak spots, and all of them will vary, such as being choked or roughed up to smashing the merchandise at a store. By exploiting these weaknesses, I could gain more money and help my cause without having to resort to violence. However, I had to be careful, because pushing too far could move that person to their breaking point, at which point I'd have to kill them. It wouldn't mean that I wouldn't take over, but it would hamper some of the progress from that location.
Crime rings weren't the only places that I could eventually add to my "business portfolio." I was also able to add extortable businesses and fronts as well to add to my cash flow and improve the chances of strengthening my empire. However, just because I managed to capture these locations from a rival didn't mean that I'd be able to retain the bonuses without some kind of retribution. Rival families will continually be on the lookout to eliminate any advantages you have by performing bombings or attacks on locations. To repel these attacks, I'd have to focus on placing guards at a location or sending made guys to protect these areas. If one business was taken out for any reason whatsoever, I'd immediately lose the bonus that I'd worked so hard to receive, as well as a portion of my income until the location was rebuilt. If things got really bad, a rival family might send a Mafioso or two to rough up my guys or potentially incapacitate them for a while, reducing the number of guys in my crew that I could use for particular jobs.
See, made men are handled a bit differently in Godfather II than common guys. While you can put out a hit on a rival at any time, to eliminate a Mafioso permanently, you'll need to find out the specific kill condition related to that person. You can do this by collecting favors from people on the streets, performing different tasks like beating up ex-boyfriends or other smaller jobs to gain the vital info you seek. Once you complete the task, the information and the location of your target is revealed to you, allowing you to go about planning that person's demise. For instance, the one Rosato family member that I was informed about was waxing a car in a parking lot, but I found out from a nearby pedestrian that he had a thing about being strangled. A minute of travel time later, and my victim had two hands wrapped securely around his neck, permanently placing a vacancy in their family that could never be repaired.
Under New Management.
It might seem a bit extreme, but it's vital as you start to weaken your rivals by capturing their turf for your own. Once you've taken enough property from a family, the bosses and their capos will retreat to the family compound, which will allow you to launch a final assault on their property to eliminate them once and for all. The more Mafioso that are killed before you start this assault with your crew, the easier it will be to go in and wipe out your opponents. As I moved into the Rosato compound, my crew had swollen to three guys: my demolitions expert, an arsonist for even more destruction and a safecracker (to take any last secrets that the Rosatos held in their house). To announce my presence, I directed my demolitions expert to rig a car bomb outside of the house, which detonated and alerted the guards, and the firefight was on. Eventually, after blasting through a number of guards and lieutenants, I eventually encountered the remaining Rosato brother on the second floor of the house. Needless to say, I roughed him up for a while before putting a few bullets into the back of his skull. But to make sure that everyone knew not to mess with me or my family, I also directed my demolitions expert to set a bomb on the gas pipes of the house (which is the only way to fully finish off a family). After escaping the house with seconds to spare, I watched as the mansion blew up in front of me, eliminating the Rosatos and solidifying New York under my control.
While I did wind up skipping over a number of sequences to eventually get to that last portion at the end of the demo, including gaining safehouses for myself and my crew to launder bank heist money or gain ammo, as well as a couple of story sequences and favors, I was definitely able to get a sense of how in-depth the gameplay was, even with this tutorial section being much more forgiving that some of the other families in the game will be. Considering that after you manage to conquer New York and move onto Miami, you'll still have to contend with rivals challenging your turf in New York, Godfather II definitely seems like it will put you in both the mindset of a soldier protecting your territory and a Don that's establishing a crime syndicate.