Movie games, whether you love em or hate em everyone agrees that if done right they can provide one fun gaming experience. Well that is exactly what EA's The Godfather II is aiming to do when it releases on the Xbox 360 in a couple weeks. We had the chance to talk with Executive Producer on the game, Hunter Smith, about what it means to be the Don and what exactly fans have to anticipate with this latest release. We will have our full review on the upcoming mobster title real soon, for now check out the fantastic interview below:
PX360: Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your position on the Godfather II development team?
Hunter Smith: My name is Hunter Smith and I’m the Executive Producer on Godfather 2. Essentially that means I work with an amazing group of talented people and orient and edit our collective work towards a fun game experience that we hope you will all enjoy.
PX360: What is a brief outline of the story in GF2 and when does it take place in the overall Godfather storyline?
Hunter Smith: We made a decision early on to not focus on trying to simply retell the film, since that story was so well crafted towards a movie watching experience. Instead our goal was to make a game world to play in that empowers you to create your own story of building an organized crime family under the auspices of Michael Corleone and his regime. Of course it was still critical that you feel well connected with the Corleone family, with Michael, Fredo, Tom Hagen and that you follow the core arc defined by the “modern” half of the film when Michael ruled the family... As a key player you get to participate in events and outcomes surrounding such key threads as Hyman Roth bringing the Don’s together in Cuba, the blackmailing of Senator Geary with the dead prostitute, Michael and the Senate investigation into organized crime, etc...In fact, as the game starts out, you are working as an Underboss for Aldo Tripani, the default character from Godfather 1 who became Michael’s appointed Don in NYC. It is New Year’s Eve, and you are in Cuba with Michael, Fredo, and Aldo attending a mob meeting led by Hyman Roth, who is putting a mob deal together with the Cuban government. The Rebels unfortunately have other ideas….
PX360: Obviously the upcoming sequel is a lot different than the original Godfather game for the Xbox 360, tell us about those changes and what are some of your personal favorites?
Hunter Smith: As a sequel we retained and improved on many of the key aspects fans told us they really liked about the game. Our BlackHand combat got a very robust upgrade that moved hand to hand combat controls from the analog stick to the right and left triggers. This move provides you greater connection to your avatar by controlling his right and left punches by pulling the right and left triggers. Now you can perform combos more effectively, access pummels and executes quickly, and then when you weaken a character enough, you can grab him by his collar with both hands, pulling the L & R triggers simultaneously, and manhandle the character with the sticks – tossing him side to side, shoving him into a wall, head slamming him on a table, throwing him over a railing – all the mobster moves you need to ensure you’ll get the outcome you’re after.
Beyond being a mobster, we also wanted to fulfill the fantasy of being the Don, of building and running your own crime family. So we built a world where you define your family by recruiting Made Men with unique specialties off the streets, by determining which of their RPG skills to invest in and what weapons to equip them with, by deciding where and when to send them to do the family business, and by defining what crime assets you and your family are going after and how you are going to beat the opposing families who are also competing in this crime world. You can send your family members on the offensive or defensive through the Don’s View or you can take them with you as you direct and fight alongside them in battle.
While fighting against and outsmarting the 5 families in New York, Florida and Cuba will provide you hours of fun and challenge, every self respecting mobster wants to see what it takes as he competes against other mobsters online. When you go into competition online, you play as your family members and use their specialties (Arsonist, Bruiser, Demolitionist, Engineer, Medic, and Safecracker) to create scoring opportunities in each of the online modes and maps. When you score you earn cash and Honors, both of which you can bring back into your single player game. As you accumulate Honors with a particular character, you can increase his weapon license so he can carry higher level weapons. With higher level weapons, he will now be more powerful in single player when he fights by your side or when you, as his Don, send him out on a mission, and you will be more powerful when you return to play as him in another multiplayer session with a leveled up weapon. Additionally all the RPG skills you upgrade for your family members will impact their performance not only in single player, but when you play as that character in multiplayer, it will effect your abilities as well. So your decision as a Don will impact you and your Families success in both your single player and multiplayer games.
PX360: What genre does The Godfather II fall into, action or strategy and why?
Hunter Smith: At its heart, Godfather 2 is an action game – but one in which leading a family with your brains and your brawn are equally important. When we set out to fulfill the fantasy of “Acting like a mobster, but Thinking like a Don” we really wanted to design and leverage game mechanics, interfaces and systems that allow the player to easily achieve both aspects of that fantasy. If you play an open world game, you frequently move to a map view in order to orient and plan your next mission, but you’re always coming back to the action world to progress the game. We really leverage that experience, but went further by transforming that process into a game mode we call the Don’s View, where you “see the world through the eyes of the Don” and where you can “manage” and direct your family. The goal of the strategy aspect is to provide you motivation, information and tools to direct your family, and then you can jump into the action world with your decisions in mind, your family by your side and test out your mobster skills as you race, maneuver, shoot, punch, kick, intimidate, break and generally extort your way to success. In terms of time progress, in the early portions of the game you’re definitely very action focused, but as you learn and master the Don’s View, you start to think and act more strategically in your approach to winning the game of organized crime. From there it’s up to you how to balance “making the calls” vs “kicking the ass".
