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« on: August 14, 2007, 01:57:16 PM »
So EA ports another multi-platform game to the Wii and adds motion controls and some extra content. How does it fare?
Story
You play as a street hoodlum trying to work his way up in the Corleone family in 1940s New York. As a child, your father was killed by the Don of the rival Tattaglia family, a murder which you witnessed. As an adult, your mother appeals to Don Corelone on the day of his daughter's wedding, asking for him to protect you, thus beginning your life of murder, robbery, extortion, and above all, vengeance.
You start as an Outsider performing simple tutorial missions like extorting a local business, beating up some goons, and target practice with your gun. As you complete missions, you work your way up the family, earning more money and gaining more responsibility. The overall goal is to become Don of NYC, controlling all five families from Little Italy, Midtown, Hell's Kitchen, Brooklyn, and New Jersey.
Even if you've never watched The Godfather or read the novel, you are probably familiar with the film franchise and some of its characters, such as Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone, Al Pacino's Michael Corleone, and James Caan's Sonny Corleone. The game takes several liberties with the Godfather saga, most notably changing the order in which several key events occur. However, the cut scenes and mission briefings do an excellent job of keeping you informed of what's going on in the family and what you're supposed to be doing. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is when you overhear fellow Corleones having conversations about events that act as a bridge between missions. For example, when Sonny gets a phone call and leaves in a hurry, you can overhear a conversation about the phone call being from Sonny's sister. Small touches like that really added to the depth of the story and the feeling that you really were involved with the events in the game.
Presentation
Upon starting The Godfather: Blackhand Edition, you get a message about connecting your Nunchuck, a copyright screen, then a 45-second voiceover from Don Vito that you cannot ever skip. When I turn on a game, I like to get right to the main menu, or have the option of skipping over an opening movie. Unfortunately, that's not the case, and it became increasingly annoying every time I played the game.
The menu system at first glance appears to be well-organized and informative, which it is. But going deeper into the menu, there is no continuity when it comes to navigation. Sometimes you need to use the Wii Remote's D-Pad to navigate. Other times, you'll use the Nunchuck's Control Stick. It confused me at first, because in one screen, the D-Pad left and right worked for scrolling, but up and down did nothing. It turns out that you need to utilize both navigation methods on the same screen, which is just messy and clunky.
Graphics
This a tough category for me, because I don't really have any technical knowledge about graphics. The Godfather: Blackhand Edition's graphics are not mind-blowing, but they're not awful.
The different parts of New York and New Jersey all look distinct, so you can actually tell what neighborhood you're in just by examining your surroundings. Little Italy has a very neighborhood-like feel, with a lot of shops and small buildings, and a lot of pedestrians wandering around. New Jersey looks just like the suburbs of North Jersey where my grandparents lived, with a lot of houses and a large park. Being familiar with New York and the surrounding area, I was very pleased to see how well the designers represented the different areas in the game. My only criticism would be regarding the Holland Tunnel: I would swear that the in-game Holland Tunnel is just as long as the real-life one. It takes forever to drive through it. That's initially the only way to reach New Jersey from Little Italy, and it just seems unnecessary considering other neighborhoods don't require long loading times or anything like that.
Inside each neighborhood, most of the buildings look very much alike. The textures are extremely repetitive, but it's somewhat mitigated by the fact that the overall design of the neighborhoods is so well done. The insides of the buildings also look very much alike, down to the same exact floorplan. Every florist in the game has the same exact design. Each hotel, and there are about 20, will have one of two designs. Realistically, I don't know how much variety is possible in this regard, but it was immediately noticeable and almost took away from the experience.
The nicest graphics in the game are probably the vehicles. There are about six different types of cars and trucks in the game, and they actually change as the game progresses and you go from the 1940s to the 1950s. Even the damage they sustain appears in a realistic way.
Most of the characters' faces look horrible, but there are some that were very well done. Don Vito Corleone truly resembles Marlon Brando and Tom Hagen is a reasonable representation of Robert Duvall, for example. Other characters just have that very flat, generic look to them, even the ones based on famous actors. Upon starting the game, you can create your character in a feature called Mobface that allows you to tweak just about every facial feature imaginable (provided you're a Caucasian male). The main character always looks the best in the game because of the smoothness of the features, and the fact that they probably didn't try to skin an actor's face onto a 3D model and fail miserably.
Sound
The voice acting in this game is absolutely incredible, due in large part to the fact that EA was able to secure much of the main cast to record their lines for the game. James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Abe Vigoda all reprise their original roles. Marlon Brando supposedly recorded some audio for the game before his death, but he was replaced with an excellent voice actor, nonetheless. The most noticeable absence is that of Al Pacino, who was replaced with a voice actor who sounds nothing like him. (His character also looks nothing like him.) This was due to legal issues, I'm assuming, but the character of Michael Corleone ended up as one of the best-voiced characters.
Other background characters sound very similar to each other. There's the tough guy voice, the nice guy voice, the old man voice, and the Irish voice. Sometimes the voices aren't consistent though, like when you talk to someone, he responds in a tough guy voice, then when you choke him, he says with a high-pitched brogue, "Son of a bitch!" I mean, it's funny, but not for the right reasons. There's also women in the game, but they're mostly whores who tell you that they like to be on top or they like guys with big guns or other such comments. (Yes, I'm being serious. There are a ton of whores in the game, and they also all dance the exact same way.)
The music is great. It's very orchestral and changes with the action in the game. That's all there is to that.
Other sounds are realistic. The guns are loud and varied. The neck snaps are very satisfying if you like crunchy sounds.
Overall, it's very aurally pleasant.
Gameplay
Heh, if you thought the other sections were long...
Now, I'm not very familiar with the "sandbox" type of game. I tried playing GTA: Vice City on my PC a few years ago, but never really got into it. That was my only foray into this genre prior to The Godfather: Blackhand Edition.
First, the control. The control of your character takes some getting used to, but it is very responsive and, ultimately, a fulfilling experience. You move with the Nunchuck's control stick. Targeting enemies is done with the Z-button. If you want to engage in hand-to-hand combat, called Blackhand, the Wii Remote and Nunchuck act as your fists (or feet if your opponent is on the ground). Punch the air to punch in-game. Swing across your body to perform uppercuts. Hold down on the D-Pad then punch for a power attack. Then there are the secondary moves, like grabs, head butts, strangles, and other viscerally satisfying methods of hurting people. These involve various combinations of Wii Remote and Nunchuck movements, and sometimes they don't work exactly right. The head butt has the same general motion as another move, which I was never able to perform.
It's mostly straightforward, but, (and here's where everyone starts to hate me) what's so great about using motion control? Swinging my arms around doesn't immerse me in the game more than pressing a button does. It's clumsier and less responsive, making it less immersive, as a matter of fact. You could argue that I feel this way because EA did a poor job of "tacking on" motion control, but I don't think they did. Inherently, the concept of motion control just isn't better unless it's 1:1, or in the case of Wii Sports, significantly adds something to the experience. That's only my opinion, though.
Gun control (ha, not that way) is also straightforward. Hold the C-button to open up your choice of weapons in the bottom of the screen. Use the Control Stick to choose a gun, melee weapon, or garotte wire. The D-Pad allows you to choose explosives or to call in a Hit Squad, a group of four guys who will help you gun down strongholds like warehouses and compounds later in the game. Z-targeting is still used, and the B-trigger acts as your gun trigger. You can use the Wii remote while targeting to aim at certain points on the body, such as the knee to incapacitate your opponent, the shoulder to disarm him, or the head to, you know, kill him. Pressing the + button puts you into free-aim mode, which is almostbutnotquite first-person, and allows you to aim freely. This allows you to shoot strategic objects, like fireworks to cause an explosion, for example.
The meat of the gameplay is in the missions. These range from simple tutorials in the beginning of the game to a final mission which is actually quite spectacular in concept. At the end of each mission, you earn money and respect. Money is used to bribe cops, purchase upgraded weapons, buy safehouses, and to buy out rackets. Respect is what levels you up, so to speak. When your respect meter fills, you get to add a point to one of your skills. There are two categories of skills, Enforcer and Operator, each with four skill sets that you can upgrade. Enforcer skills are related to the physical aspects of the game, like Blackhand, Fitness, and Firearms, while Operator skills are related to the intellectual/defensive side of the game, like Health, Negotiation, and The Law. You can slightly change the way you play the game by upgrading certain skills over others. By choosing Enforcer skills, you'll be physically stronger and more intimidating, but you'll get into a lot more gunfights. With Operator skills, you'll be able to take over rackets more easily, but you'll be weaker in a gunfight. Or you can try to strike a balance to create a well-rounded character, who only occasionally engages in gratuitous gunfights.
The rest of the gameplay consists of a variety of side missions. Taking control of the protection of local businesses is your first way to make money outside of missions. Go up to the owner and ask them to pay you money every week. Chances are, they'll say no. So what you have to do is convince them that they need your protection. Maybe you should choke them for a few seconds? Or you could bang the cash register open with their head? How about shooting their customers? There are about 10 different ways to intimidate shop owners, one of them being a "weak spot" which will net you more cash on payday. If you push too far however, either by killing the shopkeeper or overflowing the negotiation meter, you'll have to wait a few game days to return and try again. A lot of business turn out to be fronts for illegal rackets. Most of these you'll be able to buy outright and receive a fee every week. Other times you'll have to convince the racket boss. Why don't you try destroying some gaming tables? Or you could kill one of those hookers dancing in the corner? You get the idea.
Then there are contract hits. Eventually, your reputation allows you to become a hitman for hire. People will ask you to off someone, mostly rival families' Capos and Soldiers. Just killing the target will only net you a small amount of money and respect, but if you fulfill the bonus requirements, you'll get considerably more money and respect. A few examples: throw someone off a bridge, set someone on fire, run someone over, beat someone with a baseball bat. These are just pure fun, while being extremely challenging. Most of your targets are surrounded by bodyguards, so these sometimes serve as stealth missions instead of a free-for-all.
You can also perform favors for various Family members. These are a little more varied, since you'll be asked to perform different types of jobs. These don't offer much in the way of respect or money, but they can help you with future missions by introducing you to new play methods.
While you're doing all this, you can also bomb a rival family's drug fronts, intimidate reporters who take your picture, hijack supply trucks, rob banks, blackmail police chiefs, and even start mob wars which can end peacefully (forcing them into hiding by bribing a federal official) or violently (bombing their businesses).
Lastability
Finishing the missions will take around 10 hours if you do nothing else. Doing all the contract hits, favors, and taking control of the other families pushes this game into the 40 hour mark. It's all very satisfying while it lasts. I don't think I'll be playing through this one again from the beginning, but I can always go back and see how many pedestrians I can run over before the police catch me.
Story: 8
Presentation: 6
Graphics: 8
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 9
Lastability: 7
Overall: 8/10
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