The Godfather II is a tale of two games, a blend of sandbox action and strategic resource management. The low-level mobster in you will want to parade around 1950s-era depictions of New York, Miami, and Havana causing as much wanton destruction as you possibly can, but you'll need to get in touch with your inner Mafia boss if you want to successfully progress through the story. Taking over and managing various rackets and crime rings is key, but so is keeping an eye on your own family and those of other organizations. We've had only a taste of what sort of strategic depth The Godfather II might offer in previous looks at the game, but we've recently been spending some time with a nearly complete version of this EA Redwood Shores-developed game to see how far we could dive into the Don lifestyle.
For a bit of background on the story told in The Godfather II, you'll want to have a look at the hands-on impressions that we posted yesterday based on a UK press event. It'll give you a good idea of what happens at the beginning of the game, including the myriad names and faces that are introduced during the course of the game's first act, set during the eve of the Cuban Revolution. Suffice it to say, things go sour and you quickly return to New York, where you're thrust into the position of building your own wing of the Corleone organized-crime family. The first item on the agenda is recruiting an associate, the bottom level on your family tree.
Each potential associate has a unique background and specialty, which determines his personality and class-based abilities. To give you an idea of a few specialties that exist out there, you can hire a medic who will revive you whenever you get taken out during combat, an arsonist who excels in making impromptu doorways in the sides of buildings, a safecracker who can get you some extra cash whenever you break into a business, and a bruiser who will reduce your odds of having the police called on you for random acts of violence on the street. You'll eventually be able to recruit more associates, and subsequently promote existing ones up the ranks from associate to capo to underboss. If you really want to get into the spirit of things, you can even customize each family member's clothing to give your group a signature look, like our collection of thugs clad in periwinkle leisure shirts.
Once you get your first associate, you'll need to take over your first racket, which are critical because they let you launder dirty money through a legitimate business. This usually entails finding a business controlled by another family, taking care of all of their guards, and then shaking down the owner. The last bit is especially fun because you need to rough them up to the point where they'll give in, but not quite fight back or die. Once you control a racket, you can seek out others like it for a crime-ring bonus. For example, if you control all of the prostitution rackets in New York, you'll get brass knuckles for all of your family members, and if you control all of the drug-smuggling rackets in Miami, you'll double your daily income. Each racket you own needs to be guarded against takeovers, but guards cost money that you might otherwise spend on upgrading the abilities of you and your crew, so there's a lot to consider.
For a bit of background on the story told in The Godfather II, you'll want to have a look at the hands-on impressions that we posted yesterday based on a UK press event. It'll give you a good idea of what happens at the beginning of the game, including the myriad names and faces that are introduced during the course of the game's first act, set during the eve of the Cuban Revolution. Suffice it to say, things go sour and you quickly return to New York, where you're thrust into the position of building your own wing of the Corleone organized-crime family. The first item on the agenda is recruiting an associate, the bottom level on your family tree.
Each potential associate has a unique background and specialty, which determines his personality and class-based abilities. To give you an idea of a few specialties that exist out there, you can hire a medic who will revive you whenever you get taken out during combat, an arsonist who excels in making impromptu doorways in the sides of buildings, a safecracker who can get you some extra cash whenever you break into a business, and a bruiser who will reduce your odds of having the police called on you for random acts of violence on the street. You'll eventually be able to recruit more associates, and subsequently promote existing ones up the ranks from associate to capo to underboss. If you really want to get into the spirit of things, you can even customize each family member's clothing to give your group a signature look, like our collection of thugs clad in periwinkle leisure shirts.
Once you get your first associate, you'll need to take over your first racket, which are critical because they let you launder dirty money through a legitimate business. This usually entails finding a business controlled by another family, taking care of all of their guards, and then shaking down the owner. The last bit is especially fun because you need to rough them up to the point where they'll give in, but not quite fight back or die. Once you control a racket, you can seek out others like it for a crime-ring bonus. For example, if you control all of the prostitution rackets in New York, you'll get brass knuckles for all of your family members, and if you control all of the drug-smuggling rackets in Miami, you'll double your daily income. Each racket you own needs to be guarded against takeovers, but guards cost money that you might otherwise spend on upgrading the abilities of you and your crew, so there's a lot to consider.
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