This is set during the years of 1930-38, including during the later part of Prohibition, the supply of liquor runs under the surface. A lucrative business. Protection money, smuggling and public murders are all in a day's work. You star as Tommy(Sorvino, living up to his father's name), a taxi driver who, unwittingly, gets mixed up with Don Salieri(DiCenzo, sympathetic), who takes a liking to you, whilst hating his evil rival, Morello, who has a short fuse and no mercy. You'll work with Paulie(DeMeo, Joe Pesci-ing) and Sam(Servitto, trustworthy). It's all about family, biological or otherwise. With or against. From right away, the violence outrages you. You can't just leave, so you find solutions for the especially egregious murders. How long can that kind of double-life last? And who will come out on top in the war? While your employer is powerful, what goes up must eventually come down. Given that when you start this, they're already well-established, there's a lot of the you being told "bad news, everyone", "we're having bad luck", things go wrong, or the outcome is bad in some way. Yes, I appreciate what they're going for, still, it's repetitive and it flies in the face of the otherwise romantic and nostalgic tone. Something that owns its tragedy is Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, everything is dark, gritty, bleak. That also helps answer the other issue: no, you don't have to just entertain and give us something fun, some wins. As long as it's done right, a destructive story in a can work as well as one where "we did it!". And given that it starts down that road, maybe this should have gone in that direction: even minor victories are unpleasant, such as having to mow down cops by the dozens, betray others, etc. Sure, those happen in this, and while the former is unpleasant and the latter dramatic, it doesn't have anywhere near the same impact. Twists and unexpected events keep this from sticking too close to the stereotypes. In the last third, your guys finally take more of a proactive approach to the plot, and it gets much more interesting. The story is told by the protagonist to a policeman after the fact as a framing device, allowing him to narrate it in past tense. Doing this, he can point out a lot of interesting truths about the lifestyle, much like a work about the subject made by Martin Scorsese. The references to excellent organized crime pictures are too on the nose, and the humor can really be goofy. At one point, the two of them will briefly debate justice by law and justice by their two sides, with their sense of fairness – which is more effective, and harms less. He isn't blind to the flaws and illogical elements of that life, and will openly talk with him about it.
The difficulty is... well: It does know how to do it properly: conserve ammo and check bodies for it, aim before each shot, think about when to reload since it'll toss the clip you discarded, check bodies for ammo, seek out, and use at the right time, healing items, take care not to just run into rooms that may hold foes. It gets old-school gaming tough, to where you only beat it if you approach it very specifically, with some memorizing and using any exploit and the like, *and* getting lucky. Also being fortunate. However, it's worse: that kind was more dependable, since it was often very tightly and sharply set in place: in this, at times strange, random things will happen that make you lose even when you do exactly what you're technically asked. And unlike Aliens Vs Predator, you don't have the tools to deal with these surprises. Instead of purely relying on our skill, constructing compelling yet fair challenges, this cheaply has the enemies, even though they greatly outnumbering you, take a lot of damage before they die, any hit stunlocks, they have a ton of ammo, and recoil, firing speed and the like are ridiculous even if they are accurate. You have to hope you get them. This often needs them to come 1 at a time, or from far away, when they may crowd you instead. This is too realistic, and does well exactly what such pieces of fiction always do: make us appreciate the ones that don't go that far, because too much of it, much like life, is *boring*. Not all of it, of course... let's be honest, the majority of the time you're just passing the time until something fun comes along. That's too true of this. The 3 revolvers, 1911 and melee weapons can be hidden, 5 tops. Bat for knocking out from behind if charged, crowbar, knife and brass knuckles let you beat information out of people, and a lot of the time, your solution involves you interacting with something you wouldn't expect. The sawn-off or other shotgun are not fast or ranged enough to be very useful. Mission design is compelling, albeit ends up samey because of the limitations to the period, location, etc. You may have to take down someone who keeps surviving on chance – the bomb was triggered by someone else, the Tommygun, as it was notorious for doing, jams, etc. Leaving or entering a car might mean the AI, adversary and suicidal ally alike, will do the same. Cut down on a chase by turning and blasting them. Avoid a shootout by getting into a fast, smooth ride, possibly run some of them over.
There is a lot of blood and disturbing content in this. Women are treated as objects to be kept safe. Then other times, targeted just like their husbands who would usually be where the buck stops. This is for drama, but it does fly in the face of the otherwise well-researched and -realized world this creates. I recommend this to anyone more attracted than put off by what I write here. 8/10
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