The Godfather II Review (Xbox 360)
Imagine someone decided to make a video game based on Apocalypse Now. Cool idea, right? It’s set in Vietnam so there’s plenty of shooting; you’re on a boat bristling with guns going up the river; there’s the potentially cool set pieces like the helicopter attack set to Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkryies. Great idea, right? Oh, but wait, the movie is kind of a downer and really more about the psychological journey we all take to the darkness in our own hearts. That doesn’t sound like video-game material that would appeal to the 18-34 demo. I know, let’s make Colonel Kurtz a bad-ass end boss with dual rocket launchers! “Terminate…with extreme prejudice,” what an awesome tag line. Marketing will love it!
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if something very close to this conversation has taken place behind closed doors at a major game publisher. Something similar must have happened at EA when they decided to buy the rights to the Godfather trilogy—a moving story about family and loyalty and the American Dream—and turn it into a silly mobsters-themed game that has very little to do with the original story. The most irritating thing, though, has to be the fact that, underneath it all, there’s a really decent game in here.
Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, because The Godfather Part II is one of my favorite movies of all time. Seeing someone “re-imagine” it by building off major scenes from the movie, but totally changing entire plot points and story arcs for no discernible reason other than vanity makes the cannoli stick in one’s throat. The complete excising of the early 20th century-set scenes starring Robert De Niro is a problem, but maybe also a blessing. I would hate to see what they would have done to that part of the movie.
But even the portrayal of the late ’50s set story—about newly crowned head of the family, Michael, and the Corleone’s association with Hyman Roth and a burgeoning deal in pre-revolution Havana—is flawed beyond repair. You’re supposed to be the Don of your own family now, but still an underling to Michael Corleone, yet you still look like just another goombah roaming the streets with a gang of toughs. The look seems wrong, too, with anachronistic cars and other poorly researched art. Havana looks cool, but the levels just feel like toy sets you’re running around on with little resemblance to the locations or eras they are supposed to represent.
The big twist here in the story is that there’s an underlying game at work here that can be quite satisfying at moments, even if it is basically a sexed-up management sim. The Don’s View functionality that shows you what businesses you are controlling, what crime rings you own and, most importantly, how many men you have protecting them. It’s a big 3D board game about controlling groups to multiply the bonuses you receive, and to ultimately control all of the properties. Hi, Monopoly called…
When the game finally lets you really dig into the strategy part of the game, it makes the action parts seem a lot more enjoyable. The shooting isn’t too bad in its own right, though it doesn’t bring anything new to the third-person shooter genre…but gunning down enemies while raiding a warehouse is more fun when there’s a purpose. When I stand to make money or give my crew a new power-up, it just makes the whole thing more exciting. Some of the execution animations are a bit much, though, especially the Tommygun in the mouth one, which isn’t as much shocking as it is just another thing that’s completely incongruous with the original property.
The problem here is that there are two games. There’s the bastardization of the movie storyline that may be easy to dismiss for you, but it wasn’t for me. Then there’s this sorta decent open-world action game with a really interesting strategy angle that maybe deserves some serious attention from gamers.
This game without the Godfather license could have been great, and they wouldn’t have had to have changed too much either to the core gameplay. But with the awkward-fitting pelt of Coppola’s murdered masterpiece on its shoulders, it will be hard for people to discover the really well-designed hybrid-type game underneath. Let’s hope that EA doesn’t make a sequel based on the third movie, because that would be…you know what, go ahead. That movie sucks anyway.
