Friday 29 September 2006
With a plot penned by bestselling US crime novelist David Fisher - who wrote a book with a real-life Mafia hitman - Made Man strains to be the ultimate Mafiosi gaming experience. It's certainly a solid and well-scripted mob adventure but is the action as razor sharp as the dialogue? We sauntered into Made Man's world of crime for a hands-on session to find out.
Made Man's 30-year plotline takes in 17 chapters, telling the story of mobster anti-hero Joey Verola. The chapters spool out Joey's history from his tour of duty in Vietnam - where he saved the life of the son of a Mafia boss - to his first bank robbery and his first Mafia 'hit' - and all with his gravely voice-over narrating the action.
Our first mission kicked in during Joey's first job for the mob, smuggling cigarettes. Joey's swag-filled truck has been stolen and you've got to blast your way through back alleys and a redneck junkyard to get it back. It's vital to keep your head down, though, and a neat move leaps Joey behind cover, from where you can lean out and blast away at your enemies.
Simple controls make for instinctive shootouts and you can lock the view over Joey's shoulder for fine-aiming. Pleasingly, every weapon except the sniper rifle can be twinned up - just grab another piece of the same killing hardware and you can use two at once, which is great with pistols and outrageously effective with a pair of sawn-off shotguns.
