Poll: A Sith Reviews: The Godfather 2

[darth jacen]

[HEADING=1]The Godfather 2[/HEADING]​

This week on A Sith Reviews, I turn my gaze upon EA Redwood Shores' final game under that moniker [footnote](Renamed Visceral Games, maker of games like The Sims 3, and Dante's Inferno)[/footnote], 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.

Don's View seen here​

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.

Why do I always park in the bad section of town?​

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.

With the Don watching me I come to my Conclusion​

[HEADING=2]Verdict[/HEADING]​

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.

-Thanks for reading
-A special thanks to Full Metal [http://www.steamgamers.com/forum/member.php?u=3046] for the banner
-Also a special thanks to Elle for helping with the editing
-P.S. Good way to reach number 600 eh? (I know it's nothing special round here, but damn it I planned it out so I am mentioning it).

Feedback is not only appreciated but encouraged, think of it as a chance to tear me a new one, except I'm literally asking for it.

Spoiler: My other reviews and things of the sort

A Sith Reviews:
Infamous [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.186434-A-Sith-Reviews-Infamous]
Other Reviews:
Fable 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.175302-When-Promised-the-World-This-is-What-we-Got-The-Fable-II-Review]

Spoiler: Possible Future Reviews (No promises)

Resident Evil 5 (PS3)
Call Of Duty 4 (PS3)
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (PS3)
MLB 10: The Show (PS3)
The Godfather (PS2)
Knights of the old Republic (Xbox)
The Sims 3 (PC)
God of War 1, 2, and 3 (PS3)
Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360)
Dragon Age Origins (PS3)
Fallout 3 (PS3)
Dante's Inferno (Xbox 360)
Assassin's Creed 1, and 2 (Xbox 360)
Mercenaries 2 (Xbox 360)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy (Xbox)
Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
Forzda Motor Sports 2 (Xbox)
Borderlands (PS3)
BioShock 1, and 2 (PS3)

 

[Darth Rahu]

Heh, hope we don't bump into problems with your Sith reviews and my Rahu Reviews. Not too bad for starting out, not bad at all.

 

[SonicKoala]

Well done - I liked how you focused a lot of your attention on the gameplay, which is ultimately the factor which will make or break a game. I'd definitely read another one your reviews - honestly, of the many user reviews that you see all the freaking time on this site, this is definitely one of the better ones.

 

[Stranger of Sorts]

You have a border already, very nice. On the review front, I felt you could have told us just a [small]tiny[/small] bit about the story so we know if there's anything behind this running round and destroying people's lives business, you say that it's bad but you should give us an example. Otherwise very well done to you with the focus on combat, something I am seldom able to achieve. It's a good read too.

- Keep 'em coming.

 

[darth jacen]

Heh, hope we don't bump into problems with your Sith reviews and my Rahu Reviews. Not too bad for starting out, not bad at all.

At least its not called darth reviews, then we would be in deep shit. Thank you as well, always means a lot when a fellow reviewer comments.

Well done - I liked how you focused a lot of your attention on the gameplay, which is ultimately the factor which will make or break a game. I'd definitely read another one your reviews - honestly, of the many user reviews that you see all the freaking time on this site, this is definitely one of the better ones.

Thank you, I find that story is important but if you are going to invest 10-12 hours playing the game, the actual game play is more important. Though I do love a good BioWare story.

You have a border already, very nice. On the review front, I felt you could have told us just a [small]tiny[/small] bit about the story so we know if there's anything behind this running round and destroying people's lives business, you say that it's bad but you should give us an example. Otherwise very well done to you with the focus on combat, something I am seldom able to achieve. It's a good read too.

- Keep 'em coming.

I think that because it is such a well known story that anything I would have said would have felt unnecessary. The story is mostly still there, what they did was stretch it out and change the order of some events. They did the same thing in the original game but somehow the pacing just felt better.

Thanks a lot for the feed back Stranger. Since I had it edited and done around like 10 last night (east coast standard) I was seeing if you were on to read it before I posted, but you weren't on before midnight. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

[Matt-Sama]

I loved this game, I'm going to start another play-through of it soon!

 

[Darth Caelum]

Hmm.....I wonder how many Darths are in this Website.
Apparently, i'm the youngest Darth, but have the Biggest Post Count and the Mods haven't taken me down yet[sub]HAH![/sub]

Anyway back on topic. *reads review*
Well.....fair i guess. But i wouldn't buy the Game. I have GTA for mindless Violence. RPGs for....well RPGs. and i was never that "IN" to the Godfather world so i think i'll pass.
Anyway. Nice Review.

 

[Stranger of Sorts]

I think that because it is such a well known story that anything I would have said would have felt unnecessary. The story is mostly still there, what they did was stretch it out and change the order of some events. They did the same thing in the original game but somehow the pacing just felt better.

Thanks a lot for the feed back Stranger. Since I had it edited and done around like 10 last night (east coast standard) I was seeing if you were on to read it before I posted, but you weren't on before midnight. Oh well, maybe next time.

Yeh, do remember I live in the UK so midnight for you is early morning for me.

 

[darth jacen]

I think that because it is such a well known story that anything I would have said would have felt unnecessary. The story is mostly still there, what they did was stretch it out and change the order of some events. They did the same thing in the original game but somehow the pacing just felt better.

Thanks a lot for the feed back Stranger. Since I had it edited and done around like 10 last night (east coast standard) I was seeing if you were on to read it before I posted, but you weren't on before midnight. Oh well, maybe next time.

Yeh, do remember I live in the UK so midnight for you is early morning for me.

Wow..I had been working on the review for a while and I had been up for so long I actually completely forgot you were from the UK...I really need to sleep more sometimes

 

[Stranger of Sorts]

Wow..I had been working on the review for so long and I had been up for so long I actually completely forgot you were from the UK...I really need to sleep more sometimes

You should, sleep is gooood. How long do you spend on your reviews anyway? I've always wondered how much other reviewers take to write them.

 

[darth jacen]

Wow..I had been working on the review for so long and I had been up for so long I actually completely forgot you were from the UK...I really need to sleep more sometimes

You should, sleep is gooood. How long do you spend on your reviews anyway? I've always wondered how much other reviewers take to write them.

I take like an hour to get all my thoughts outlined and set up the day before I start to write [footnote](this after playing the game of course)[/footnote]. Then I take like 4 or 5 hours to write the review [footnote](I'm slow and often multi-tasking while doing it)[/footnote], then editing it, which takes another hour [footnote](by that I mean my sister edits it)[/footnote]. I'm slow...I think any way.

What about you? How long do you spend?

 

[Stranger of Sorts]

I take like an hour to get all my thoughts outlined and set up the day before I start to write [footnote](this after playing the game of course)[/footnote]. Then I take like 4 or 5 hours to write the review [footnote](I'm slow and often multi-tasking while doing it)[/footnote], then editing it, which takes another hour [footnote](by that I mean my sister edits it)[/footnote]. I'm slow...I think any way.

What about you? How long do you spend?

Oh I'm far less professional than that. If I get the urge to write a review sometimes I'll just sit down and do it in an hour (speed typing- that's where the typos come from), others I'll need to play the game first (the only ones so far being Fallout 3 and Cel Damage) so that takes another few hours. Editing wise I just look over it quickly to see if it all fits together properly.

Music reviews are different, I'll listen to the album pretty solidly (if I can) for 3 days and then write it up in half an hour.

But I rarely multi-task when writing, even with that I should probably spend more time on them.

 

[darth jacen]

Snip

Well then I envy you, seeing the quality to time for your reviews is quite a bit higher than mine. Though to each their own. It may take a lot longer but I know for the quality I want to write if I did it any differently my reviews would be worse off. Which seeing as they are still needing improvements would be counter productive

 

[corporate_gamer]

this game was a great concept but was let down by the story and the scope, the story is just so out of touch with the action and as well as that is ridiculous. All the city's are tiny, the problem with the first one was that all the building you had to take we're the same. the problem with this is there's only like 20 buildings in the first place.

Also, and this is a minor gripe, why would it let you send half you crew to takeover a building then turn up yourself with the other half in-tow it took all strategy and depth out of the strategy element.

I had a feeling when i was playing it that due to economic downturn EA decided to cut the development of the maps sort and throw this out; it felt unfinished.

p.s. nice reviews. keep at it.