The Godfather II - Xbox 360

true Name: The Godfather II Genre: Action, Adventure Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (Reviewed on Xbox 360) <object height="380" width="425"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <param name="src" value="/video.swf?video=/videos/converted/1240869762IWaCL0jW4b.flv" /> <param name="name" value="video" /> <param name="align" value="middle" /><embed src="/video.swf?video=/videos/converted/1240869762IWaCL0jW4b.flv" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="380" width="425"></embed> </object>                                            Watch the Video Review. The Godfather film franchise is considered one of the greatest cinematic stories ever told. When EA released their video game based on the events in the first movie three years ago, I was skeptical of how it would translate. While the first entry in the series wasn’t groundbreaking, it provided gamers with about a dozen hours of entertainment. As soon as I heard about this sequel, I thought of all the possibilities a game like The Godfather II could present. Sadly, this game does so little right it’s a wonder it got accepted into the family.  In Godfather II you play as Dominic, one of Aldo Trapani’s soldiers, who is thrust to the head of the family when Aldo is gunned down while escaping a rebellion in Cuba. From there you’ll learn it’s up to you to reestablish your hold on New York by eliminating the rival family in town. You’ll be responsible for taking families down in Miami and Cuba as well, and the game does a nice enough job differentiating the three locales so that there’s a bit of variety in the scenery. It’s a good thing too because that’s about all the variety you’re going to get. While the plot of the game doesn’t follow the movie exactly, they do a pretty decent job keeping the narrative basically the same despite some head scratching changes like moving the big betrayal scene to a different location thus lessening the emotional effect. The story didn’t have to be as emotionally involving as the Coppola adaptations, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have to try. <a href="/contributed/1240946592jrdRcIjFZ3.jpg"><img src="/contributed/1240946592jrdRcIjFZ3.jpg" height="336" alt="" width="599" /></a> Sandbox games can provide endless hours of entertainment… when done properly. Godfather II does many of the things we’ve seen in countless sandbox games before, but each and every one of the traits the game mimics are done with less panache and polish, and create a feeling that this game is seriously lacking something. The shooting and driving mechanics aren’t really anything to write home about. The hand-to-hand combat in the game is solid, providing you with plenty of different ways to punish those who would stand against you.  There are some interesting combat mechanics tied to the R-stick, like strangling and arm breaking, but those elements don’t stand out enough to make a dent in the otherwise mediocre gameplay. Godfather II’s identity comes from the film, and when you remove those elements you’re left with a very generic and bland gameplay experience. That’s not to say the developers didn’t try some different things. Each city you arrive in requires you to take out your competition by taking over their businesses. Certain business groups like brothels or drug running open up bonuses for your family like brass knuckles or armored cars when you control the whole operation. Whether or not those bonuses actually make a difference in how you play the game is debatable, but at least there is some reason to keep protecting your investments. <a href="/contributed/1240946616OSeng8NUUG.jpg"><img src="/contributed/1240946616OSeng8NUUG.jpg" height="338" alt="" width="600" /></a> Keeping track of your empire is made easy thanks to the Don’s View. A detailed 3-D map of whichever city you’re in provides detailed information on all your assets, as well as reports on your enemies. From here you can assign more guards to an important business, upgrade your own made men with new weapons or stat bonuses, and even track how many enemies are guarding specific locations. Don’s View is also where you’ll find out how and where to pick off rival family members. By doing odd jobs around town for NPCs, you’ll find out how to send a message by taking out an enemy. Certain made men need to be run over, or executed by pistol, or thrown off a building in order to stay dead. Taking out a man the wrong way only puts them into the hospital, so you’ll have to try again later. There are two main issues I have with this concept. First, if I’m the current Don of a city, why am I asking people on the street if they need help? Really, all it would have taken is a slight dialogue rewrite so that when I went up to talk to someone, they asked me for help instead of my saying, “Hey, you look like you need some help.” Secondly, many times the favors people ask of you require you to retaliate in some way against the person who wronged the NPC asking for help. You’ll wind up stealing from businesses, or going into a store and damaging merchandise, and that makes sense. Until you realize that many of the places you’ll have to exact this revenge are already under your control. I don’t know if you’re supposed to help everyone in every city before you try taking over your rivals business, which is just dumb, or whether the developers actually thought it would be fun to go into your own fronts to rough up the customers. It doesn’t really make any sense, and it seems like this was just a way to make the game last longer, but I’ll give them credit for trying to implement that part of mafia life, even if it doesn’t work all that well. <a href="/contributed/12409465763empKAHYsm.jpg"><img src="/contributed/12409465763empKAHYsm.jpg" height="338" alt="" width="600" /></a> Godfather II doesn’t really take any chances in the presentation. In fact, the game plays it so safe that it looks like a really good game from last generation. There’s not exactly a ton of polish, and despite the cities being fairly large and varied, I don’t see what makes this game a next-gen experience. Male NPC character models all either look like Roy Orbison or Roy Orbison without sunglasses, and women all have the same body with a different hair style. Right down to the same size breasts. What? You see them all the time, and it’s hard not to notice that every woman in the 60s all went to the same plastic surgeon. Voice acting for any of the main characters like Dominic or Michael or Fredo is pretty good, but every other character’s line delivery is so bad that many lines are unintentionally hilarious. When extorting money from people, their panic never sounds sincere. It’s almost like they’re aware that this is just an act, and they don’t know how to lend any realism to their performances. It may seem nitpicky, but once you see how many people you’ll have to terrorize in the game, you’ll understand my lament. The game runs at a pretty smooth clip, and since all the cutscenes are rendered in game, there’s hardly any load screens. The sad part is that if this game had come out a few years ago, the way it looks and sounds probably would have seemed impressive, but compared to current games, much of the presentation falls flat. <a href="/contributed/1240946601XjCsjEBlS5.jpg"><img src="/contributed/1240946601XjCsjEBlS5.jpg" height="338" alt="" width="600" /></a> While I won’t go so far as to say multiplayer was an afterthought, they did include a variety of gameplay modes outside of the standard Deathmatch like Safecracker, which is basically king of the hill by way of capturing safes, Fire Starter, where you have to set points on the map ablaze, and Demolition Assault, where you have to blow shit up, none of the multiplayer options are all that fun. Playing online will unlock some features for use in games, like upgraded weapon licenses, but honestly there’s not a lot here that would cause you to keep coming back. Seriously, the online is so lacking fun and polish that a few rounds of multiplayer is more like punishment than pleasure. Godfather II is almost a solid game. There are some interesting concepts put forth this time around, but most of them are overshadowed by the lack of attention paid to the gameplay. I really wanted to enjoy playing this, but the longer I played, the more it felt like a chore instead of fun. While there isn’t much here that gamers haven’t seen before, the Godfather II at least attempted some new things. Sure they misfire more than they hit, but at least they did something different. A sequel is no place for trial and error though, and I’m afraid the complete experience is one that belongs at the bottom of the Hudson with cement around its ankles. <img src="/contributed/1239819851iBsjJiAdPn.jpg" height="125" alt="" width="245" /> <a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/"><img src="/contributed/12049090913D6uenyIJz.jpg" height="42" alt="" width="111" /></a><a href="http://www.metacritic.com/games"><img src="/contributed/1204909164Gepk74pXtB.jpg" height="51" alt="" width="154" /></a> review

2009-04-28T15:26:06-04:00

Name: The Godfather II Genre: Action, Adventure Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (Reviewed on Xbox 360) <object height="380" width="425"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <param name="src" value="/video.swf?video=/videos/converted/1240869762IWaCL0jW4b.flv" /> <param name="name" value="video" /> <param name="align" value="middle" /> <embed src="/video.swf?video=/videos/converted/1240869762IWaCL0jW4b.flv" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="380" width="425" /></object>                                            Watch the Video Review. The Godfather film franchise is considered one of the greatest cinematic stories ever told. When EA released their video game based on the events in the first movie three years ago, I was skeptical of how it would translate. While the first entry in the series wasn’t groundbreaking, it provided gamers with about a dozen hours of entertainment. As soon as I heard about this sequel, I thought of all the possibilities a game like The Godfather II could present. Sadly, this game does so little right it’s a wonder it got accepted into the family.

8902

8438

2009-05-03T21:28:11-04:00

2009-04-28T15:26:06-04:00

11761

5.5

the_godfather_ii_xbox_360 published Video Review: You Broke My Heart. You Broke My Heart! The Godfather II - Xbox 360

2009-05-03T21:28:11-04:00

825