March 16, 2009

EA’s John Salera Gives Us a Godfather II Interview We Couldn’t Refuse
By: Steven Hopper

"Lots of options. Lots of ways to play. Lots of ways to be the Don."

A few years ago, EA’s Godfather: The Game launched and put gamers in the universe of the classic film franchise for the first time. The result was a commercial smash hit, selling huge numbers and giving gamers an alternate take on the open-world gameplay formula. Now, EA is looking to replicate the success of that title with their upcoming entry to the franchise, The Godfather II.

The Godfather II takes the elements that were successful in the original title and adds some great new features, including a new Don’s View element that allows you to manage your business and your crime empire in a sim-like fashion, as well as interact with other crime families in the area. The game promises to be not only a much deeper overall experience than its predecessor, but also will be pretty easy to grasp as well.

GameZone was recently given the chance to talk to John Salera, Senior Development Director of the game, and ask him a few questions about the game’s development, including its recent delay and its new features and gameplay.

The Godfather II was recently delayed from its February launch to a Q2 late spring/early summer timeframe. What was the reason behind the last minute change?

John Salera: The Godfather II moved its release date to give the game the best chance to reach the largest possible audience and we believe gamers will be excited to be calling the shots this time around as a Don on April 7th. Stay tuned for more news to come shortly about the game.

What was behind the decision to create a sequel to the original Godfather game?

John: As big as Godfather 1 was, the team had a ton of ideas which we couldn’t fit into the first version. We also wanted to more fully explore what it means to be a Don of an organized crime family. While you did rise through the ranks in Godfather 1, the action game continued to be the focus of the experience. We wanted to keep the guns blazing gunplay and the visceral hand-to-hand combat, but we also wanted the player to be making decisions about how to build their family, which rackets they wanted to monopolize, how they wanted to defend and build their empire, and to generally employ strategic thinking as they fought the other crime families for domination of the three cities. And that’s what really sets Godfather 2 apart from other open world games. All the while you’re grabbing a guy by his lapels while hanging him off the roof of a building, you’re thinking “As soon as I break this guy, I’ll get this racket, complete the crime ring, get the bullet proof vest perk, and then be able to go after that big warehouse so I can finish off the Granados.”

The original Godfather game was noted for its slick production values and big name voice talent. What are you guys planning to do for this entry?

John: Thanks. Yes, the team worked very hard on ensuring this version was truly next gen in its visuals. We co-developed the renderer and lighting solution with the Dead Space team. In addition to the technical bells and whistles, we also radically changed how we built the world and the characters in order to give the players more freedom in how they move around and more visual variety overall. In terms of big name voice talent, we were happy to have Robert Duvall return to voice Tom Hagen. He’s great to work with and really brings Tom to life. We would have been happy to work with the other guys we had in Godfather 1, but unfortunately most of their characters didn’t survive to the end of the first game.

What can you tell us about the storyline?

John: As you probably know, the story in Godfather 2 is split between two timelines: one in the early 1900’s and one in the late 1950’s / early 1960’s. Early on, we decided that the first part of the story wouldn’t translate well to our game, and so we focus on that later part of the story – where Michael is starting down the path to legitimize himself and all the while he’s working with Hyman Roth to develop a big mob presence in Cuba. And all that is backdrop for the story in the game. There are key events in the story told in the movie which fans will recognize, but we focus in the player’s character, Dominic, and how his rise to power intertwines with the events in the film. There are also some real-world events – some things which have just recently come to light through declassification of government documents – which we leverage in the story as well. I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but we think players will enjoy the balance between things they expect to happen and things which they probably won’t.

Describe the new Don’s View system in the game.

John: There’s a 3D interactive map of each city called the Don’s View where you can see all of the rackets, fronts, hit target locations you’ve discovered, and enemy compounds. The idea here is that this is how the Don of a crime family thinks about the world: all unnecessary detail is stripped away and only the key business and strategic opportunities are highlighted. It kind of looks like an architect’s model of a city but with certain structures and locations highlighted. In the Don’s View the player can assign guards to locations they control, send made men to attack or bomb a rival location, send made men to defend a location an enemy family is attacking, and also quickly see what the other families control, how well their locations are defended, and where they might be attacking each other.

The original Godfather game utilized the thumbsticks for combat in a pretty unique way. How does the sequel control combat?

John: The Blackhand combat mechanic was received really well on Godfather 1. In particular, the ability to grab an enemy swing them around, throw them to the ground, push them out of windows, and even strangle them was brutal, visceral, and a key part of bringing your targets to their breaking points without killing them. (Dead men can’t pay you.) In Godfather 2, we kept all of the brutality and added even more control. In Godfather 1, you had to target lock an enemy before being able to hit them. In Godfather 2, the punches have been moved to the Left and Right shoulder buttons so that you press the Right button to throw a punch with your right hand. This gives the player more movement freedom (you can even clothesline someone as you run past – a personal favorite). And doing this also allowed us to add a combo system where different patterns of Left and Right punches give you different devastating attacks like an arm break or a punch to the throat. To grab your enemy you hold down both buttons – and it really feels like you’re grabbing them when you do this. Once grabbed, you use the Right Analog Stick to brutalize your enemy with headbutts, knees to the groin, and other attacks. And we absolutely kept one of the hallmarks of the Blackhand system – once you’ve grabbed a guy you press down both analog sticks to strangle. As you’re gripping the controller, you hear the slowing heartbeat and even feel it in your controller’s vibration pulse and then fade out – there’s really nothing like it.

What kind of role do AI controlled allies have in the game?

John: The made men you recruit into your family each start with one of the 6 specialties: Arsonist, Safe Cracker, Demolitions Expert, Bruiser, Engineer, and Medic. (And there are just a couple of guys in the world that start with more than one specialty, but it’ll be up to players to find them.) Throughout the world, there are context-sensitive action (CSA) objects which the crew members can be sent to interact with. For example, there are safes and vaults in the world for the Safe Cracker, or gas mains for the Demo Expert to blow up. The player just has to point the camera at the CSA, and when it highlights, he presses a button and the crew member does the rest. Some CSA’s happen dynamically. Like the Bruiser can be sent to stealth kill an enemy if you target the enemy from behind. And the Medic will automatically resurrect you or other crew members if they fall in combat. In addition, the crew members can be assigned different weapons, and upgraded with RPG stats. When you promote a crew member, you can add another specialty so your top guys will have multiple specialties. And, finally, for the multiplayer game, you don’t play as the main character (Dominic). Instead, you can pick any of your crew members to play as. So, all of the upgrades, additional specialties, and promotions you apply to your crew members takes on a new level of importance.

What do you feel was your biggest challenge when creating The Godfather II?

John: I think explaining the full scope of the game and making sure players fully understand it has been a key challenge. We’re blending genres here and pushing open world games in a different direction than has been done before. When people hear about the Don’s View and the strategic elements they’re inclined to think we have built an RTS. But it’s not really that. It’s a blend of action and strategy and it’s up to the player how much of each he uses. We lay out a lot of different tools and approaches a player can take to be successful depending on their play style or mood. Getting all of those points across in a way that’s clear, that’s entertaining, and that is paced correctly wasn’t easy. We wanted to support various play styles and strategies. For example, I was talking to one of the guys on the team and I always like to have the max of 3 made men with me in the action game. He said he never brought them into combat and instead kept them in reserve to defend his venues or to send them off to attack locations. He’s more of a strategy guy and I’m more of an action guy, but we were both having fun and both able to be successful. (But my way’s better. *smiles*) You can focus on making money, you can focus on buffing up the RPG stats for you and your made men, you can focus on taking out enemy made men, you can focus on taking out enemy families, you can focus on building crime rings, you can stack your venues with guards or keep them lightly defended and rush back to them or send made men if they get attacked. Or you can do a little bit of each. Lots of options. Lots of ways to play. Lots of ways to be the Don.

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