After a little under forty hours of play, countless extortions, assassinations, pummelings, car crashes and one horses head in a bed I am now officially the Don of NYC … what am I going to play now? It was interesting to rewatch the original film last night – the artists on the game did an extraordinary job of capturing the likenesses of the actors (with the exception of Al Pacino) and recreating some of the iconic scenes, notably the assassination in the restaurant and the murder of Sonny on the turnpike. I can see why Francis Ford Coppola is reportedly not happy with the game – it is infinitely more violent than the films and reduces the complex themes of corruption and betrayal to a blood splattered gang land war of attrition, but on the positive side it has compelling game play in spades.
Whilst the driving model is nothing to write home about, the third person controls really put the venerable Grand Theft Auto series in the shade. I particularly liked the use of walls to provide cover during gun fights, giving some of the tougher battles for compounds and ware houses an interesting tactical edge. The weaponry, when you have made enough money to purchase the upgrades, is similarly meaty and satisfying ranging from the corridor clearing power of the Street Sweeper shotgun, the precision fire of the Assassin pistol to the all round devastation of the Dillinger machine gun. Yum.
Best of all, was the game face creation technology that allowed me to create a pretty fair likeness of my own fizzog, complete with the same hair cut and specs, and then put me in the middle of some of the best scenes in movie history. It really is an offer you can’t refuse …
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