PX360: In the first Godfather game you had to work your way up from the lowest spot in the "family", is this how Godfather II will work, and how high can you go in this game?
Hunter Smith: As Dominic, you actually start out as the Underboss for Aldo Tripani, the Don of New York under Michael in Godfather 1, so we expect you know a bit about what you’re doing as a mobster. ( Of course, we do make sure your skills are up to expectations right from the start, in case you’re new to this thing of ours…) Due to some unforeseen events, you quickly need to start building your own Family by hiring your first Made Man and off you go. You’re now a boss, and you have to help reclaim New York as you deal with that ingrate Carmine Rosato and his crew. With success you progress to Florida and Cuba and eventually you encounter all 5 families battling and plotting across 3 open cities. From there you can see if you have what it takes to lead your Family and the Corleone’s to success as the most powerful mob family in America by taking over the all the Crime Rings and fronts and by defeating the other Families.
PX360: We know that team-play is very important in the GF2, why did the you guys decide to focus on that element over something more singular (i.e. GTA or Saints Row); also explain how the gang system works?
Hunter Smith: The franchise is called the Godfather and the heroes of the franchise are those who make the calls, who pull the strings, who are the Dons. In order to be a Don, you need to have a family and if you are going to have a family, you want to make sure they are adding value to your goals in this world of organized crime. While we don’t want you to lose the opportunity to have all the action fun you want as an individual, we feel that by providing you with the feeling of running a family and fighting alongside them in battle, we’d give you a better sensation of being in an organized crime family.
That said, we didn’t want to bog you down in tactical management, so we made the crew you are running with pretty autonomous in taking cover, finding & fighting targets, etc. but they follow your lead when they not currently targeted or engaged. If you pull out your weapon, they’ll pull out theirs; if you crouch, they’ll crouch. You also have the ability to direct them to locations in the world by simply pointing your piper and pressing a button or calling them back to you when you want them following again. This simple interface works really well to set up battle locations, to draw fire or to move them from potential confrontation without requiring a cumbersome interface that would pull you away from the action at hand. Our goal was more to create fun, active, mob inspired fights, not a tactical military experience.
Your family members have their unique special abilities to perform and will only do so on your direction. If you want a fire started, a door kicked in, power for lights & phones taken out, a threat assassinated, a safe or lock picked, all you need to do is point you piper at the opportunity, press a button and your appropriate crew member will do his duty, provided of course, you brought him along for the job. But if you find a surprise opportunity along the way and need to change out or add a crew member, the power of the Don’s View and your Family Tree make it simple enough to set yourself up for success any time, anywhere.
PX360: What is coming next from you, will their be future support for The Godfather II (DLC, etc.) and do you see a Godfather 3 coming down the pipeline at some point; is there any more of the story that you would like to tell?
Hunter Smith: There will some be DLC, in fact, with our additional time, we’ve been able to get a new multiplayer mode available at launch…details forth coming….after that, we’ll all take a much needed break and then see if the world is ready for some extended forays into the world of organized crime….
Thanks Hunter for taking the time to sit down and talk with us, make sure to check out The Godfather II when it hits stores in early April.
