===============================================================================
= =
= THE GODFATHER: MOB WARS =
= ------------------- =
= FAQ/Walkthrough =
= ~ =
= Written by Scottie_theNerd (
[email protected]) =
= Copyright (c) 2007 David Nguyen =
= Version 1.00 =
= - February 20th 2007 - =
===============================================================================
*******************************************************************************
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
*******************************************************************************
This guide is written by David "Scott Lee" Nguyen, also known as
Scottie_theNerd. Should this FAQ be hosted on any site other than
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Distributing this guide without prior permission is a direct violation of
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- SuperCheats (www.supercheats.com)
To gain permission, ask nicely via an email to
[email protected]. This
email should also be used if there are any specific questions related to this
guide. To ensure a response, please specify this guide in your email subject.
Anything resembling spam will be promptly removed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
To use the index codes for quick navigation, open the search function in your
browser (CTRL + F) and copy/paste the index code. This will take you directly
to the desired section.
1.0 - Introduction......................[INT000]
2.0 - Gameplay..........................[GMP000]
2.1 - Game Mode Overview..............[GMP001]
2.2 - Control Overview................[GMP002]
2.3 - Combat..........................[GMP003]
2.4 - Enemies.........................[GMP004]
2.5 - Skills..........................[GMP005]
3.0 - Story Mode........................[STR000]
3.1 - The Alley......................[STR001]
3.2 - The Enforcer...................[STR002]
3.3 - A Grave Situation..............[STR003]
3.4 - Sleeping with the Fishes.......[STR004]
3.5 - The Don is Dead................[STR005]
3.6 - Intensive Care.................[STR006]
3.7 - Fireworks......................[STR007]
3.8 - Death to the Traitor...........[STR008]
3.9 - Horseplay......................[STR009]
3.10 - A Recipe for Revenge...........[STR010]
3.11 - Now It's Personal..............[STR011]
3.12 - The Silent Witness.............[STR012]
3.13 - Sonny's War....................[STR013]
3.14 - Change of Plans................[STR014]
3.15 - Order to Kill..................[STR015]
3.16 - It's Just Business.............[STR016]
3.17 - Baptism by Fire................[STR017]
4.0 - Mob Wars Mode.....................[MBW000]
4.1 - Essentials.....................[MBW001]
4.2 - Payday.........................[MBW002]
4.3 - Draw Cards.....................[MBW003]
4.4 - Recruitment....................[MBW004]
4.5 - Negotiation....................[MBW005]
4.6 - Intimidation...................[MBW006]
4.7 - Tips...........................[MBW007]
4.8 - Early-Game Strategy............[MBW008]
4.9 - Mid-Game Strategy..............[MBW009]
4.10 - End-Game Strategy..............[MBW010]
5.0 - Weapons...........................[WPN000]
6.0 - Game-Movie Comparison.............[GMC000]
6.1 - Characters......................[GMC001]
6.2 - Events..........................[GMC002]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1.0 - INTRODUCTION [INT000]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Don Corleone called. He wants his PSP back, capiche?"
As of the writing of this guide, I have not played the console versions of The
Godfather: The Game. Maybe one day I will, but I just happen to have a copy of
the PSP version, The Godfather: Mob Wars. Frankly, I'm impressed, yet sorely
disappointed at some of the half-baked ideas.
Gripes aside, I would've liked to roam around New York in the GTA-inspired
style, but that's been scrapped entirely in the PSP game, along with the bulk
of career mode, reducing it to a sequential story-based set of missions which
are ridiculously short and easy.
Then there's the more interesting idea of Mob Wars - the turn-based strategy
game based on the classic board game Risk, involving interesting tactical cards
and real time missions to wage war against the four rival families to the
Corleones, combined with overlapping skills and stats from the story missions,
to create a handheld alternative to the extensive console versions.
In all fairness, I would like to say that Aldo Trapini's PSP outing was a fair
attempt at a handheld action game. Unfortunately, I can't say it's a great
game, and I can barely say it's a good game. Nonetheless, the fun is there, but
as a very short dose. And I would have liked to see Mob Wars developed into
something with far more depth. But, I digress. Maybe I should play the console
versions.
This guide is a full FAQ outlining the essential information needed to play the
game; a full walkthrough for every story mission and a strategy guide for the
turn-based Mob Wars component. As the PSP version (titled The Godfather: Mob
Wars) is different to all other versions, this guide is applicable only to the
PSP version. While some story missions overlap with the consoles, they are
extremely watered down, so don't use a console guide to complete Mob Wars and
vice versa.
Enjoy the game, and maybe you won't be sleeping with the fishes tonight.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
2.0 - GAMEPLAY [GMP000]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Godfather has a tendency to be drastically different for each platform the
game was dweveloped for. The PSP follows the same trend, doing away with the
free roam style of gameplay in the console versions and instead creating a
hybid set-piece mission/turn-based strategy game, introducing the Mob Wars mode
to complement the main Story mode. The PSP also retains the intuitive Blackhand
control system, making clever use of the available buttons to unleash effective
attacks against hapless enemies.
This section will go through the essential workings of the game. For
information on progressing through Story mode or Mob Wars, refer to the
respective sections.
===============================================================================
2.1 - Game Mode Overview [GMP001]
===============================================================================
The Godfather: Mob Wars is divided into two sections: Story mode and Mob Wars.
In order to complete the game, players are required to finish both modes.
Players are free to decide which mode to play through, and can switch any time
between missions.
The premise of free-switching is to allow players to unlock more weapon
upgrades and earn more money to benefit performance in the other mode. Players
cannot unlock everything by playing one mode exclusively, and as missions get
harder it becomes more important to play the modes evenly. This isn't to say
that they must be played evenly though; it's quite likely that players will
develop enough momentum to blitz through a mode before going back to the other.
This section gives a brief overview of the two game modes. For more information
regarding mission walkthroughs and strategies, see the respective sections.
------------
Story Mode
------------
Though supposedly the meat of the game, Mob War's Story mode is merely a
watered down version of the console version. Before anyone says anything, let's
make one thing clear:
**The PSP version of The Godfather is **NOT** a free-roam game**
You don't drive around New York acting like a mobster. There is no free roam
option. You don't get to explore anything. There's no way to go beyond the
areas you are alloted for your missions. Everything is generated on the spot.
That's pretty much what Story mode is about, sadly. You create character (no,
you can't customise him) and name him ("Aldo" by default). You are immediately
taken through some tutorial missions to get you familiar with the game. After
learning how to use guns, you are given the option to play the Mob Wars mode.
After completing the first Mob Wars mission, you can return to Story mode any
time you want.
Each time you select a mission from Story mode, you are placed near the mission
objective, which can vary heavily. Usually, missions involve killing a certain
enemy. Missions are separated by cutscenes, which unfold most of the story.
The ultimate goal of Story mode is to become the Underboss of the Corleone
family, starting as an Outsider and rising through the ranks. Promotion is done
automatically based on your progress through Story mode. Story mode is arguably
more difficult than Mob Wars, as the later missions contain more strong enemies
and having access to upgraded weapons is a big help.
----------
Mob Wars
----------
Mob Wars is the Risk-like turn-based element of the game. It becomes unlocked
after the firearm training mission "Sleeping with the Fishes" in Story mode. In
Mob Wars, players are given the ultimate goal of eliminating the four rival
families and thereby becoming the undisputed leader in New York City.
Mob Wars is divided into three phases:
- Recruitment: Recruit mobsters to use in missions
- Negotiation: Play strategic cards to gain advantages over opponents
- Intimindation: Capture more territory
For each turn, each family goes through all three phases. The player will
always get the first turn, but the gains they make in territory, money and
cards can be lost in the same turn to opponents.
Initially, Mob Wars starts slowly due to lack of steady income. Most of the
player's money will be coming from the first few missions in Story mode. Once
the player accumulates enough money to buy better weapons and recruit better
mobsters, it becomes easier to go through Mob Wars. Eventually, Mob Wars alone
will generate enough money to keep the mob machine going.
Progress through Mob Wars is measured by how many families have been defeated.
Families can be defeated in any order, but all four enemy families must be
defeated to complete the game.
Mob Wars is arguably the easier of the two modes. While Mob Wars missions may
get more difficult as you attack stronger territories, your mobster can
essentially eliminate everything with a handgun. The territory missions are
randomly selected from a limited number of maps and typically involve killing
one person, killing many enemies or bombing a shop, all of which can be
achieved with your basic starting weapons. Money is harder to come by
initially, and you will need money to play cards in the Negotiation phase, so
going through a few Story missions will give you enough cash to last the whole
game.
------------------------
Recommended Play Order
------------------------
Yes, you can play through any order you want, and ultimately anything can work.
This is a short section outlining the most efficient method of completing the
game based on my experience.
1. Complete the required Story missions.
2. Complete required Mob Wars mission.
3. Complete 5-7 Story missions to accumulate money. More or less depending on
player preference.
4. Complete ALL of Mob Wars. Play some Story missions if more money is
required.
5. Complete ALL remaining Story missions.
Remember that money, stats and weapons are shared between the two modes. Story
mode offers a fair bit of money, but once you get enough territories in Mob
Wars you can support yourself for the remainder of the game.
===============================================================================
2.2 - Control Overview
===============================================================================
The Godfather: Mob Wars boasts a similar Blackhand control system to the
console versions. Combat is executed by using the analog stick along with the
face buttons, with various context-sensitive techniques. This section will
provide an overview of the controls of the game. This section will list all the
controls in the game.
For this guide, I will be using the following terms to describe buttons:
[Up/Down/Left/Right] : Analog Directional buttons
[D-pad]: Directional pad buttons
[S]: Square
[T]: Triangle
[X]: X
[O]: Circle
[L]: Left Shoulder button
[R]: Right Shoulder button
----------------------------
Blackhand Control Overview
----------------------------
This lists the controls for the game at a glance. For more information on what
they do, please see the respective combat sections.
During Mission:
[Analog Dierctions]..................Movement
[D-Pad Up]...........................Draw Weapon
[D-Pad Up] (with Weapon).............Reload
[D-Pad Down].........................Conceal Weapon
[D-Pad Left/Right]...................Change Weapon
[T]..................................Talk/Interact
[T] (tap repeatedly).................Sprint
[S]..................................Crouch/Sneak
[O]..................................Wall cover
[L] (hold) ..........................Lock-On*
[L] (tap)............................Change Target
[R] (hold) ..........................Free Look/Aim
[R] (tap)............................Camera behind player
[Select].............................Mission Objectives
[Start]..............................Pause Menu
* Lock-On requires direct line of sight to an enemy in front of the player.
The game will not allow you to lock onto a target your character has not
seen, even if you can see it yourself on-screen or on the minimap. To lock
onto a target not registered by the player, you will need to manually
change the camera angle to "spot" him.
While Locked-On (L) (With Firearm):
[X]..................................Fire Weapon*
[R] (hold)...........................Manual Aim
While Locked-On (L) (No Firearm):
[X]..................................Quick Attack (press repeatedly for combo)
[O] (hold) > [X].....................Power Attack
[S]..................................Execute*
[R] (hold, while near enemy).........Grab
* Execute requires an execution prompt. This is displayed during combat,
usually against a weakened enemy or an enemy. Executions instantly dispatch
enemies and gains bonus respect.
While Grabbing (L + R):
[X]..................................Quick Attack (repeat for combo)
[O] (hold) > [X].....................Power Attack
[S] (hold) + Analog..................Swing*
Swing + Release [R]..................Throw
[S] (hold) + Analog Down/Up..........Raise opponent (while opponent is down)
[S] + [D-Pad Right]..................Choke
[R] (release)........................Release opponent
* Swinging to the side while near a short object (eg. table, counter) or
shoving forwards against a wall will initiate a slam attack.
===============================================================================
2.3 - Combat [GMP003]
===============================================================================
Combat in The Godfather: Mob Wars, consisting of the Story missions and the
Retaliation/Extortion actions from Mob Wars, takes place in a 3D real-time
environment. The player controls an on-screen character with fists and firearms
to engage other mobsters in a fight to the death.
Most missions are solo scenarios, so the player must do most of the work.
Occassional Story missions will provide the player with an AI-controlled
partner in crime, but the player has no control over them and often they do
frustrating things, such as block doors with no way of telling them to get out
of the way.
This section will provide an extensive amount of information regarding fighting
in The Godfather and what players must face as they progress through the game.
----------------
The Essentials
----------------
Otherwise known as "****, they're shooting at us! What the hell do we do?!"
The Godfather provides a limited number of actions for a mission. These are the
basics:
- Use the Analog Stick to move around. Movement is controlled by pushing the
stick in the desired direction. Note that you *don't* steer your character,
he moves exactly in the direction you tell him to.
- The camera with automatically swing around behind the character. This is a
bit slow and ofteh deadly in indoor environments. Tap R to get the camera to
snap behind the player towards the direction he is looking at. This is also
hard to get right, but there's little you can do about it.
- Holding a direction and tapping Triangle will make your character sprint. The
speed and duration of the sprint depends on your Speed stat.
- Press Square to crouch. Crouching reduces your speed but makes it more
difficult to detect you. Sneaking is actually ineffective: you can run until
a few metres away from an enemy and they won't see you unless they're
specifically standing guard.
- While crouched, you can position yourself behind low objects like trash
cans, benches, counters and tables to protect yourself from enemy
bullets. Note that certain objects can be destroyed after being hit
numerous times, and that can apply to your enemy as well.
- You can control movement and aim while crouched behind objects. Note that
you cannot pop up and fire while crouched; your aim is restricted to what
your character can see for himself.
- Press Square again to toggle crouch off.
- While standing near a wall, press Circle to lean against it and the Analog
Stick to move left or right against the wall. If you move to the edge of the
wall, you can peek around corners.
- While peeking, you can aim using the lock-on and manual aim functions as
if you weren't against the wall. This allows you to make lethal shots
while being impervious to counter-fire.
- When firing from behind cover, your character will temporarily step off
the wall to shoot. Your character is vulnerable to damage at this point.
The character will remain exposed as long as you are firing. Reduce
exposure by firing a few shots, then letting your character return to
cover and aim at the next target.
- Using the wall as cover is a great way to spot enemies in indoor
environments. Howeever, be careful of enemies running around the corner,
as there is no way to quickly unstick yourself from the wall and shoot.
- Press Circle again to leave cover. Note that if you don't, you'll find
yourself walking to and fro along the wall for no particular reason.
--------
Health
--------
Health is actually straightforward: your health bar is located in the top left-
hand corner of the screen, and enemy health bars are displayed on the right.
Enemy health bars are also accompanied by the enemy's name and their family
affiliation.
Obviously, health drops when hit by attacks or gunfire. Different weaopns do
different amounts of damage, so getting hit by a punch isn't as damaging as
getting hit by a shotgun at point blank range. The latter is important to keep
in mind: getting hit by powerful weapons means you have less time to take
preventative measures before dying.
Some of the damage you take is absorbed as temporary damage, which can be
recovered over time. This is shown on your health bar as a light green section
that slowly fills up. Taking more damage will nullify the recovery. The higher
your Health stat, the less damage you take and the more damage that is
recovered.
Health is recovered between missions, so you wil always start a mission with
full health. During a mission, however, the only method to regain health is to
pick up health items. They're very hard to make out: the Health recovery item
is a bluish bottle that looks like a Molotov cocktail (and presumably
represents alcohol). In most cases, you'll pick it up without realising it.
Health drops will fill your health completely, but are rare to find. Certain
enemies in various missions will always drop them, and some can be found lying
around.
As you have no other way to recover health during a mission, consider it a
priority not to get hit too many times. Dying will restart the mission, causing
you to lose all progress up to that point.
Unlike you, enemies cannot recover health. All damage they take is permanent.
---------------------
Hand-to-Hand Combat
---------------------
More like "hand-to-gun" combat, since practically everyone in the game uses a
gun apart from around three specific scenarios. In short, avoid hand-to-hand
combat. You've got plenty of guns and ammo that do far more damage than your
fists ever could. For the rest, here's a rundown on how melee combat works:
- Use the L trigger to lock onto an enemy. You can only lock onto targets your
character has seen. Releasing the L trigger will remove the lock; tapping it
will switch to the next target. This isn't as important in melee combat.
- Use the Analog Stick to move toward, away or around your target.
- Mash the X button to unleash a quick, weak combo. You can keep mashing this
as long sa you want. Enemies are too stupid to stop you.
- Hold the O button for a second followed by an X-attack to deliver a powerful
blow. This does silghtly more damage, but as you are open for attack during
the charge time, it's quite pointless by itself.
- When close to a target, hold the L and R buttons to grab your enemy. You will
always succeed in grabbing your enemy, with the exception of more powerful
enemies, who must be weakened through regular damage first.
- You can hold onto an enemy for a long period of time. You can extend the
grab time by improving your Fighting stat, although the default grab time
is ridiculously long as it is. Grab enemies to stop them from attacking
and to allow yourself to unleash unstoppable combos, or have some fun
with them.
- If you want to grab an armed enemy (required for several missions), try
shooting them in the shoulder or (preferably) the kneecap to bring them
down.
- While grabbing, press X for a quick infinite combo, and O -> X for a
rather pointless power attack.
- Drag the enemy around using the analog stick.
- Hold Square while moving the analog stick to swing the enemy in order to
change direction. Release the R button in mid-swing to throw the enemy.
This can be done to the left or right for a throw, and forwards for a
powerful push.
- If the thrown enemy collides with a low object, such as a window
ledge or rooftop, they will trip over it and fall through. You can
hurl enemies through windows and off roofs this way.
- Swinging an enemy while they are standing with their back to a wall or
beside a low object will initiate a moderately powerful slam attack.
It's fun to watch, but it's slow to connect and won't kill enemies any
faster than beating them up regularly.
- Once enemies take enough of a beating, they will collapse onto their
knees. If nothing is done, they will slowly get up again. You can Execute
them in this state or finish them off any way you want.
- While knelt, enemies are pretty worthless. If you need to move them
around, you can get them back on their feet by grabbing them (L + R)
and flicking the analog stick in a quick down/up move.
- Controls are the same when using melee weapons, such as lead pipes and
baseball bats.
- As noted earlier, fighting unarmed is one of the worst things you can do in
the game. However, killing an enemy in unarmed combat gives you more Respect.
This is moot, however, as you get just as much from a Thompson Execution, and
you can simply kneecap an enemy and execute them barehanded for the bonus if
you really wanted the Respect. In general, it's too slow and too dangerous
when faced with multiple enemies.
----------
Firearms
----------
The bread and butter of Mob Wars, your character can pick up and use a small
variety of guns, including several handguns, a shotgun and the venerable Tommy
Gun. For more information on individual weapons, see the respective Weapons
section.
- Cycle through available weapons using left/right on the D-Pad.
- Pull out a weapon using Up on the D-Pad. Conceal by pressing Down on the
D-Pad.
- While the weapon is drawn, press Up again to reload the weapon.
- Press X to fire a weapon. Note that there is no quick-fire: firing without
being locked onto a target will send a bullet into the ground. Not the most
useful of things to do.
- Lock onto a target using the L button. Hold to maintain lock, tap to change
targets, release to resume normal movement.
- Targets that have a clean line of sight (i.e. can be hit) will turn the
targeting reticule white. Obscured targets turn it black, and key hit
locations turn it red.
- Note that the reticule isn't always accurate. You can sometimes hit
enemies despite having a black reticule.
- Apart from the Tommy Gun, the reticule is dead accurate.
- Locking onto a target will automatically aim the gun at the enemy's
torso. This will do a moderate amount of damage depending on the gun.
- Hold R button to manually aim while locked on. This will allow you to
shoot key locations. These are: head, shoulder, gut and kneecap. Apart
from the head, these locations will turn your reticule red.
Headshots: Do lethal damage. Always kills in one hit, even from
weakest handgun.
Shoulder: Shooting the right shoulder gives a chance at
removing an enemy's weapon.
Gut: Does lethal damage, usually kills in one hit.
Kneecap: Instead drops your enemy to the ground. They will get
up after some time.
- As lock-on always aims at the same spot and your aim is retained for as
long as you hold the L button, you can easily score headshots using this
control scheme. Simply lock onto a target, press R and pull the reticule
slightly up. When the target is exposed, fire. This will kill enemies
instantly 9 times out of 10, and you can do this even with the weak
.38 revolver.
- You can aim around corners while behind cover (press Circle against a
wall). This will allow you to take time to aim for headshots and kill
instantly when they pop out. Using this technique makes it very easy to
go through the game.
- You can aim manually using the R button without locking on. There's not much
point in doing this; it's much faster to lock onto an enemy and shoot. You
could use it to aim in front of an approaching, untargetable enemy, but it's
too slow and you're still better off locking on.
- Enemies do a constant amount of damage to you, varied only by their firearm.
They will never do headshots, kneecaps or shoulder shots.
- An enemy that is disarmed (shot through the shoulder successfully) cannot
pick up another weapon. Theoretically, they should attack in melee combat,
but instead they will run away from your gun. They're essentially helpless.
- However, even with a high Shooting stat, the chances of successfully
disarming an enemy are very low. You're better off killing them with a
headshot. If you need to neutralise them without killing them, shoot
them in the kneecap instead.
- Note that you cannot grab enemies with a firearm drawn.
- Firing at an enemy at point blank range will automatically perform an
Execution.
- Damage is primarily determined by your weapon, though the Shooting stat will
have a small and usually unnoticeable effect. Reload speed is affected by the
Speed stat.
- As mentioned above, gunfights are the way to go. Every enemy drops ammo, so
you will never have a shortage of ammunition. Use bullets as you need to and
pick up everything that is dropped; it saves you from spending money to buy
ammo. You'll need to master the tactics of using guns in order to progress
steadily through the game; melee combat means jack-all.
----------------
Thrown Weapons
----------------
Don't use them.
In more serious terms, thrown weapons (encompassing Dynamite and Molotovs)
provide a hell of a bang. They can clear a room with one explosion and vaporise
enemies in close proximity. There's one big problem though: the aiming system
sucks. You'll be lucky if you don't blow yourself up.
- Select Dynamite or Molotovs using the D-Pad.
- Hold the R button to bring up the aiming reticule. You are restricted to
how far up or down you can aim.
- Be VERY careful with the aiming reticule; it's woefully misleading. The
reticule is slightly off-centre, which means that your precision
through will likely clip the door frame or the wall next to you.
- This is of course a bad thing. For Dynamite, you can run away before it
explodes. For Molotovs, they'll blow up in your face.
- Hold the X button to determine the strength of the throw. The stronger you
throw it, the further it goes.
- Enemies will run away from the Dynamite before the fuse burns out. Molotovs
are more effective, as they explode on impact, but are more dangerous to use
for that very reason.
-----------------------
Tactics in a Nutshell
-----------------------
Earlier in this section, the question asked was "They're shooting at us. What
the hell do we do?" After a strong dose of how combat in the game works and how
to perform a wide range of techniques, it's time to put all that in a variety
of practical scenarios.
*RULES OF THUMB:
- Avoid melee combat. Everyone has guns. Don't pull off Matrix-like stunts.
- Avoid using thrown weapons. You don't need them; they do more harm than good.
- Avoid engaging enemies in a gun battle while standing in the middle of the
street. Find cover as soon as possible and work from there.
- Focus on killing one enemy before switching to another.
- Always lock on first: you can't fight without locking on.
*OUTDOOR BATTLES
1. If possible, see how many enemies there are before starting the battle.
If assaulting a compound or shop, find the nearest cover and determine your
approach. Remember that you can run over short distances without taking
serious damage.
2. Move to cover before enemies fire on you. Crouch behind objects.
3. Select the closest enemy and attempt to kill him with a headshot.
Otherwise, kill him using any means possible.
4. Switch to next closest target. Repeat until all targets are dead.
5. If your cover is destroyed during combat, relocate to another position.
Do not expose yourself unless you are certain you can eliminate remaining
enemies before they do substantial damage to you.
*INDOOR BATTLES:
- Note: These suck. Period.
1. If possible, take out as many enemies as you can before entering the room.
This can be done from the doorway of a previous room or from the windows at
the front.
2. Run into the room, centre the camera by tapping the R button, and find the
nearest cover. Crouch or lean against it.
3. Eliminate targets in the following order of priority: Tommy Gun, Shotgun,
nearest enemy. The first two will rip you very quickly if you let them
loose. Alternatively, you can simply cycle through enemies at your leisure
and eliminate them accordingly.
===============================================================================
2.4 - Enemies [GMP004]
===============================================================================
As you go through the game, you will encounter basically one type of enemy:
mobsters. There, clean and simple.
----------
Mobtsers
----------
There's a bit more to it. Each mobster will come from one of four enemy
families. Since the game has no free-roam, you'll never run into them randomly,
so you'll only really encounter mobsters from one enemy family per mission.
Mobsters wear certain colours to show which family they are affiliated with,
which is also shown next to their health bar.
Red: Cuneo
Green: Barzini
Blue: Stracci*
Beige: Tattaglia
*NOTE: The Stracci blue suits are similar to the blue worn by cops. You can
tell the difference as cops have English names instead of Italian.
The police also wear a lighter blue than the Straccis.
*NOTE: To save the embarrassment of shooting your own men, allies to your
Corleone family wear black. This mainly applies to faceless individuals
who appear during missions. Story characters will wear clothing that
will stand out more, and they can't be damaged.
The Tattaglias are the weakest family, being the easiest to knock out in Mob
Wars but dominating most of the early Story missions. All mobsters look and
behave the same way, with an exception:
- Mobsters in short coats are weaker "grunt" type enemies. They are usually
armed with handguns.
- Mobsters in long coats are higher ranked, having more health and usually
equipped with shotguns and tommy guns.
The difference in rank, apart from their coats, is indicated by the number of
white stripes next to their health bar. The more stripes on the health bar, the
more damage they can take (same applies to you, to an extent). However, if
you're the sort who kills with headshots all the time, it doesn't really
matter.
--------
Police
--------
Police have two faces. One is the behind-the-scenes facet in between Mob Wars
turns, raiding territories and accepting bribes. This is the side you can't do
anything about.
The other side consists of the men in royal blue armed with .38 Snub Nose
pistols. These guys can be friends and enemies. They appear mainly in Mob Wars
missions, especially if your Heat is high. The higher your heat, the more
police presence in your missions, and the increased likelhood that they will
call in backup.
This is the killer thing about police. One or two of them aren't a threat.
Their weapons won't do much to you and you can dispatch them before they know
what hit them. The backup, however, consists of many police cars driving in and
flooding the street with blue uniforms. This can be a bad thing, especially if
you're preoccupied with completing your mission. Basically, you'll want to get
off the street as soon as you can and get the mission over and done with, and
sprint through the cops back to your car to end the level. You don't want to
stick around and shoot cops; that'll raise your Heat and make things worse.
However, the street cops take no sides. If they encounter mobsters from a rival
family, they'll open fire on them. Most of the time, they'll fire on who they
see first, and they will usually spot mobster sentries before you enter the
vicinity. This is quite a good thing, as mobsters suck at killing cops. Two
policemen can rip through the mobster sentries and, if the building has front
windows, take out most of your enemies in the first room. Eventually you'll
have to kill those friendly cops yourself, but they can save you some effort.
Not that it seems police AI retains something from the console versions: if you
have low Heat and a police officer spots you attacking, he'll run towards you
and attack you using a baton, which is rather pointless. At higher Heat levels,
police will swarm you with police cars and perform drive-bys.
-----------
Merchants
-----------
These guys aren't enemies and don't pick a fight, but if you push them too far
or they have a bone to pick with you, they'll fight back. They never have
weapons, and the best they can do is throw a few half-hearted punches. Some
merchants have a fair amount of health, but don't get carried away. Beat them
up too much and you'll fail your mission.
===============================================================================
2.5 - Skills [GMP005]
===============================================================================
As part of Mob Wars' role-playing component, your character has a set of stats
that can be improved as you progress through the game. Stat points are gained
by gaining Respect levels, and can be distributed between missions. The stats
are as follows:
*Fighting: Increases physical attack damage, increases grab time,
increases negotiation pressure.
*Shooting: Increases aiming speed, precision and chance to disarm.
*Health: Increases health and health recovery.
*Speed: Improves sprint duration, attack/movement speed and
weapon reload/conceal speed.
*Street Smarts: Improves negotiation, reduces Heat earned, improves
carry limit.
While it would seem obvious that a balanced build, in practice most of the
skills are rather useless. The following is a brief rundown on how much each
skill is worth:
* Fighting:
This one is straightforward. You should never be using physical attacks, and
therefore the action this skill improves are redundant. Don't carry a stick to
a gunfight, or whatever that proverb is. There are very few sections that
require hand-to-hand combat, and your base fighting ability is more than enough
to throw someone off a building or into an oven. A weakened enemy won't resist,
so grab time isn't a factor. Negotiation can be handy, but all it does is
accelerate the pressuring process. The only benefit to melee combat is that you
get more Respect from killing enemies, but it really isn't worth running into a
shotgun for. Don't put any points into Fighting.
* Shooting:
90% of the time, you will be shooting. Forget using your hands, the point of
the game is to use guns and outshoot your enemies. To do that, you'll need to
pump this skill to maximum. The main benefit is that you can move your reticule
faster and it will focus quicker. Disarming isn't that important, but the other
two make this skill a must to max out.
* Health:
The obvious benefit is that you gain more health, which means you can take more
damage. At high Health levels, your health recovery allows you to absorb weak
gunshots. You probably won't need a large amount of health to start off with,
especially considering that good cover tactics will prevent most damage in the
first place. Raise this alongside Shooting and max out as soon as you can.
* Speed:
Since you're teleported straight to your mission locations, there's no reason
to run faster. It might help with Bombing missions and saves some time, but
it's not worth investing points into. Reload speed is mildly useful; you reload
fast enough as it is. Increase this stat if you've already maxed out Shooting
and Health. Speed does have one interesting effect: it makes your melee combat
attacks blistering quick.
* Street Smarts:
Just as useless as Fighting. Increasing this skill simply increases the
starting pressure for Negotiations, including Extortion and Story missions.
This is counterproductive, as having a low Street Smarts skill makes it easier
for you to get money out of Extortion instead of getting nothing (or worse,
paying for a racket). Heat reducton isn't significant - a bomb is a big hit no
matter how much Street Smarts you have. Carry limit isn't an issue when enemies
constantly drop ammunition and weapon upgrades also improve carry limit.
Basically, as you accumulate Respect levels and distribute your skill points,
keep the following in mind:
- Upgrade Shooting and Health as you feel necessary.
- Get Speed after you max Shooting and Health.
- Avoid Fighting and Street Smarts entirely. They're useless.
---------
Respect
---------
In order to gain skill points, you will need to gain Respect levels. Respect is
gained by killing enemy mobsters using a variety of methods and successfully
completing missions. These will add Respect points, and once enough are
accumulated you will gain Respect levels, with each level providing one skill
point which you can then use to upgrade a skill.
Initially, you'll be scraping a few Respect levels over several missions, but
as missions get more rewarding, you'll gain several levels after one mission.
Also keep in mind that you can also gain Respect levels in Mob Wars, and while
each mobster in Mob Wars mode has their own Respect, all the skill points
transfer over to your character, which in turn also applies to Mob Wars
characters.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
3.0 - STORY MODE [STR000]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Unless you spend an eternity going through Mob Wars mode, the Story missions
form the meat of the game. Unlike the free-roaming console counterparts, the
PSP's Story mode consists of a series of missions taken from the console
storyline. I'll note this very clearly: **THERE IS NO FREE-ROAM IN THE PSP
VERSION**. That means no running around New York, and certainly no driving.
Instead, the story is explained through cutscenes, during which the player is
automatically driven to the mission location.
Basically, you have no freedom. You're taken to the mission, walk through the
location shooting whoever you need to shoot, then return to the car for another
cutscene. Unsurprisingly, it's not open-ended and while straightforward, it'll
leave you with a lot to desire.
Story missions generally involve killing a specific target or beating up some
important mobster to obtain information to kill aforementioned target. The
missions themselves are based off scenes from the movie, either directly, as
part of the background story or a game-exclusive variation of the movie's
events.
Completing Story missions will provide a good amount of cash, which is of
utmost importance for Mob Wars mode; Respect, which can be used to upgrade
skills; and movie clips that can be viewed in the Extras menu. Once a Story
mission is complete, you cannot play that mission again.
===============================================================================
3.1 - The Alley [STR001]
===============================================================================
This is the opening mission of the game, obviously intended to introduce you to
some of the game's mechanics. It's straightforward and walks you through hand-
to-hand combat using the Blackhand system and extorting merchants in
preparation for Mob Wars. While easy and quick to complete, milking these
mission for everything it's worth will give you a massive boost for Mob Wars.
When you start a New Game, a cinematic will play. You will then be asked to
name your character, which remains as "Aldo" by default. You are then taken to
an alley with Luca Brasi adn two unfortunate fellows. The purpose of this
mission is to introduce the player to the Blackhand combat system.
Follow the instructions on screen. You *must* follow the instructions or else
you will not be allowed to kill the first enemy. Each successful step is
followed by a chime sound to indicate that the step was performed correctly,
followed by the next instruction.
The instructions are straightforward and displayed on screen:
1. Lock onto the enemy in front of you by holding L.
2. Punch the enemy using X.
3. Connect with a power attack using O followed by X.
4. Grab the enemy using L+R.
5. Punch the enemy a couple of times using X.
6. Damage the enemy until he drops onto his knees. This step is not displayed,
but is required to perform the next instruction.
7. Raise the enemy off the ground by holding Square and flicking the analog
stick down - up.
After this, the health bars are displayed and you are free to eliminate your
training target any way you want. Before you beat him to a pulp, note the crate
in the corner near Luca Brasi. If you throw one of the two targets into the
crate using a swing technique (L+R to grab, hold Square + analog direction,
release R in mid-swing), the crate will break, revealing a money bag containing
$1000, a much-needed boost to your earnings.
*NOTE: If you forget to break the crate, you can punch it several times to
break it. You can't target the crate itself, but if you target Luca
as he walks by and stand next to the crate, your punches will connect
with the crate instead.
Once you dispatch the first training gentlemen, Luca will throw the next one at
you. As with the first, beat him up in whatever manner you wish. Follow Luca
towards the gate and talk to him using the Triangle button when the Puppeteer
Hands appear over his head. He will provide you with a minimap.
Follow him through the gate to finish the first tutorial mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +500
Money: $250
===============================================================================
3.2 - The Enforcer [STR002]
===============================================================================
Following the combat training, you will be given a shot at extorting a
business. Ironically, this is the only time in Story mode that features
merchant extortion. This is really a training session for capturing neutral
territories in the later Mob Wars mode.
*NOTE: While this may seem like a tedious training section, this is where you
can get a lot of money to begin with. A bare-bones run through will net
you a measly $1000. Expoiting the merchant to the max will net you just
under %5000. Keep this in mind when extorting merchants in Mob Wars: you
can get a LOT of money if you apply enough pressure.
*NOTE: This mission isn't actually displayed on your Story list. This is an
immediate follow-up to the previous mission.
Luca will talk with you over what you need to do. Emilio the butcher needs to
pay his protection fee. Take note of what Luca says, because it runs true with
every person you try to extort: for those who don't agree immediately, you'll
need to apply pressure. Apply too much, and they'll crack and your extortion
fails.
Head south past Luca to the butcher shop indicated by the blue shield icon.
Open the door and talk to Emilio. Emilio will always refuse to pay, so you'll
need to show him why he needs protection in the first place. A couple of
thresholds to remember:
- Emilio's minimum extortion amount is around $400, shown by the green line
under his name. Once you pressure him enough, talking to him again will
allow you to take over his business.
- His maximum is around $1,350, shown by the red section. Going above this
limit and into the red section will fail the mission, forcing you to
restart.
With that in mind, there are a few ways to bump the amount up. Remember that
the more you milk from him, the more money you get for yourself to play with.
Thankfully, the game makes this one easy for you, as Emilio has a weak spot to
everything you do. You can:
- Destroy the items on his counter as well as the display counter. Do this by
targeting them and punching them a couple of times.
- Punch Emilio. This raises pressure by quite a bit, but it also chips off his
health. Don't hurt him too much.
- Grab Emilio using L+R. This will apply steady pressure without hurting him.
- Holding O while grabbing. This will scare him, but don't connect with the
X follow-up punch unless you want to chip off more pressure.
- Slam him into the counter, throw him around or throw him through his shop
window. This adds a big chunk to pressure, so don't do this if it's already
high.
Stop pressuring Emilio when he gets to around $1,200 and talk to him. You'll
get the money, and you'll also unlock the backdoor racket. Head behind the
counter through the door and head upstairs to the casino. Take note of the safe
in the first room upstairs. In the next room, you'll come across the racket
boss and two thugs in beige suits.
If you follow the game's instructions, all you need to do is talk to the racket
boss. If you did everything the game told you to do and nothing more, you'll
only have around $500; the racket boss needs $800 to buy out. However, there's
no real reason to pay HIM to work for you. If you don't have enough, or you
just want to milk him, start off by beating up the two thugs. One will drop a
pistol, and the other will drop a stick of dynamite.
Turn to the racket boss and start applying pressure. Slam him against the
roullette table or slap him around a few times. He's fragile, and his
negotitiation limit is very low. Stop just below $1000.
Head back to the first room with the safe. If you picked up the Dynamite, stand
in front of the safe and plant a stick when prompted to with the X button. Run
back to the next room to stay clear of the blast (some civilians will die).
Head back and pick up the $1,000 bag from the safe as well as another stick of
Dynamite. If you didn't manage to get Dynamite, don't worry about the safe;
you'll just have less spending cash. Head back downstairs, and be sure to pick
up the wad of cash on the backroom table.
Bribe the police sergeant at the front. It will cost you $100, which the wad of
cash will easily cater for in case you don't have enough. Head back to Luca to
complete the mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +750
Money: $500
*NOTE: I went into a lot of detail for this opening mission for a good reason:
if you did everything I said, you would easily be $5000 up in cash. By
the time you start Mob Wars, you'll have around $7000 to spend, much
more than the puny $2000 from doing the minimal amount of work. Also,
by doing all of the above, you should have 3 skill points to spend
instead of one.
*NOTE: In regards to skills, your priority is to get Shooting and Health up as
soon as possible. Put your first point into Shooting as the next mission
is a shooting one. If you have more points, put them into Health and
Shooting at your own discretion.
===============================================================================
3.3 - A Grave Situation [MBW003]
===============================================================================
This mission is an extension to the previous training, introducing you to
several grapple techniques. This one is short and straightforward. This is also
the first mission to begin integrating some of the "behind the story" elements
from the film.
Follow Monk and Paulie down the street. The game will tell you to sneak using
the Square button, but that isn't necessary. You'll come across two college
guys taunting the poor girl outside her home. Run out to fight them using your
fists. You shouldn't have any guns at this stage, but if you picked up a Pistol
from the first mission or you bought a gun before this mission, using it will
fail the mission.
Face the guy in blue and grab him. The game will instruct you to slam him
against the wall. If you're not used to this technique, hold the Square button
while grabbed and swing him so that his back is facing the wall. Then push him
close to the wall, hold the Square button and push the analog stick towards the
wall, initiating the slam. Once this is complete, you can beat him up any way
you want until his health is depleted. Remember that you cannot use guns.
Next, follow the guy in the red sweater into the graveyard, where you need to
complete several more actions.
1. Grab him, hold Square and push left or right to swing him around.
2. Use the analog stick to drag him.
3. Hold Square, swing him, but this time release the grab in mid-swing to throw
him.
4. Finally, move him next to one of the tombstones, hold Square and swing him
into the tombstone in order to do a low-slam attack.
Once these steps are done, you are free to dispatch him.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +2,500
Money: $500
===============================================================================
3.4 - Sleeping with the Fishes [STR004]
===============================================================================
*NOTE: Like Mission 2 - The Enforcer, this doesn't appear on your mission
list. This takes place as an extension to Mission 3.
You'll be placed in the street; you'll need to meet with Luca Brasi straight
ahead. The game will flash several control commands, which you don't have to
actually use. Once you approach Luca, he'll take you to the alley and give you
a .38 Snub Nose. Follow the instructions in order to pass weapon training. Note
that even if you already have a weapon, he'll give you the revolver.
Holding L to lock onto the nearest dummy and press X once to fire a round into
it. While holding L, hold R and move the reticule onto the dummy's right
shoulder and fire again. Finally, aim for the knee and fire. Note that despite
what Luca says about the revolver, it *will* attract attention.
Move to the highlighted wall and press O to lean against it. Peek to the left
and take out both dummies. This is a good chance for you to practice snap
shooting from the corner: use the reticule to aim at the target, and once it's
where you want it to be, press X to pop out and fire.
*NOTE: Luca doesn't explain to other hit locations: the gut, which also turns
the reticule red and deals more damage; and the head, which doesn't
show up on the reticule but is fatal all the time.
For the last stage of the training session, you'll need to shoot the truck.
Hold R to activate free aim and aim towards the truck. Fire three rounds into
it to complete the required action. Press D-Pad Up to reload your weapon, and
D-Pad Down to conceal it. Follow Luca out of the alley to finish the training.
*NOTE: If you're having trouble aiming, try going into options and changing to
Invert Aim.
A cutscene will play, and you'll be by yourself in the alley. One enemy will
run out and hide behind some crates in the distance. Crouch behind the nearest
crate using the Square button. Aim at the enemy, and shoot him as soon as he
pops out. If you're impatient, shoot the crate out and kill him. Take cover by
the corner as two more enemies come out; kill them. Enter the door.
When you enter, center the camera and take cover behind the kitchen table. Take
out the two guys that come in at the same time; if you're new, this is a bit of
a tough reflex battle. One of the enemies will drop a health bottle, so pick it
up before you proceed. Head through the next door and straight down the hall to
the bar room with the double-doors. Don't stand next to the glass pane as
enemies can shoot through it. Open the door and take cover behind the bar, kill
the two targets behind the bar including the assassin. Pick up the health
bottle on the bar if you need it. Continue through the bar and exit through the
front door. If you go back the way you came and go out the front that way,
you'll run into several more enemies. Head to the car to finish the mission.
*NOTE: You can pick up Garrote Wire in the bar room. This allows you to
perform stealth kills, but you probably won't be using it anytime soon.
The stealth mission later on will automatically give you one.
*NOTE: As you may have noticed, the levels in the game are modelled closely
off the movie sets. This level features the garrote wire in the bar
room used by the assassin in the film. Keep in mind that the randomly
generated missions used in Mob Wars also use these buildings.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +3,500
Money: $750
*NOTE: At this stage, you will have unlocked Mob Wars. You must play at least
one turn of Mob Wars in order to continue with Story. You can switch
between the two modes afterwards as you want to. This guide will walk
you through the rest of the missions without regarding Mob Wars. You
don't need to play through Mob Wars between Story missions, but be
aware that you might not be able to access useful weapon upgrades
if you focus too much on Story.
===============================================================================
3.5 - The Don is Dead [MBW005]
===============================================================================
Once the cutscene ends, you will come under fire by Tattaglia thugs from the
outside. Crouch behind the windows, pull out your weapon and shoot the enemies
across the street. A car will drive past and unload one or two more enemies for
you to kill. Frankie's health bar will appear, but don't worry about it; you've
got plenty of time and it won't go down unless you shoot her yourself.
What happens next kind of puzzles me. When you target the mobster holding
Frankie, a pressure meter will appear. This is pointless as far as I know; all
you need to do is kill him to release Frankie. Aim for the head and be
carefully not to hit Frankie.
A cutscene will play and you will be taken to the bridge, with the Don's health
bar displayed and degenerated over time. You need to kill all the enemy
mobsters on the bridge. One of the mobsters will have the Puppeteer symbol over
is head; walk over and talk to him even if he's shooting you. I think you're
also supposed to pressure him, but he'll usually talk to you straight off, or
else accidentally shooting him will do the trick. He'll fill you in on what's
happening. Continue down the bridge and approach the ambulance to end the
mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +5,000, +5,000
Money: $1,000, $750
*NOTE: This mission will promote you to "Enforcer". There's no such rank in
this game, and offers no further benefits, but it does reward you with
more respect and money, hence why there are two figures stated above.
Your rank will continue to be displayed as Outsider until you reach
Associate.
===============================================================================
3.6 - Intensive Care [STR006]
===============================================================================
Ah, the empty hospital scene. Talk to the guard and he'll remove your weapons,
so you won't be able to draw upon your growing arsenal at this point. The guard
will open the door and leave you to find your way. The location is marked, so
head straight and turn left. You'll see Frankie wearing a red jacket through
the door straight ahead. Go through and talk to her.
After a short conversation, one of the Don's would-be assassins will appear and
shoot through Monk's window. Open the door and attack him with your fists;
don't worry, he's only armed with a pistol and won't do much damage. Kill him
and take his pistol.
You'll meet Michael Corleone during the cutscene. When it ends, you'll need to
lead Frankie to the basement. If you want to listen to a short conversation,
head left to Room 6 to see Michael and Don Vito talk it out. Go forward down
the hall and turn right down the stairs, keep going until you reach the end of
the corridor with the Basement sign and turn left downstairs. You'll see some
more Tattaglia men run by the door; ignore them for now.
Turn around and head through the door. An unarmed enemy will attack, so
dispatch him either with your fists or your pistol. The closest door on the
right also has one enemy with a baseball bat; kill him if you want to. Go back
to the corridor and you'll need to kill one enemy armed with a pistol and one
armed with a baseball bat. Turn the corner and two more pistol-armed enemies
will attack. Remember to pick up their ammo when you kill them. Turn right at
the next corner and three enemies will populate the corridor. Kill them, head
down and kill the mobster in the left room. From this room, kill the two
enemies in the garage by shooting them through the window; shooting the gas
pumps will also eliminate them. Frankie will run in; talk to her and she'll
drive out. Time to find Michael.
From the garage, turn left and head upstairs. Two enemies will charge down the
corridor, so take them out. The room to the left contains a shotgun. Talk to
Michael to end the mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +6,000
Money: $1,000
===============================================================================
3.7 - Fireworks [STR007]
===============================================================================
It's Christmas! Enter the Flower Shop and talk to Rosa, she'll tell you to head
upstairs. Head through the door behind the counter and talk to the mobster.
Head upstairs and talk to Paulie Gatto and Monk Malone. If you want some extra
Respect points, talk to the girls and flirt or make your move with them. Turn
around and head through the door next to the stairs, flirt with the girls and
talk to Sonny. Turn back and head downstairs, and the party gets crashed.
Head downstairs to the front door. Pay $250 to bribe the police officer and
he'll let you out. Turn left and start heading down the alley. You're supposed
to sneak, but you can run as long as you kill the officers before the 25-second
alert timer ends. Make sure you don't use guns either. Continue down to take
out one more policeman. Further down, there will be one ahead and one closer in
an alley to the right; take that one out first, then go back and eliminate the
other one, which has a bit more health. Killing him with unlock the door next
to you. Head through the door and the one next to it and kill the next to cops.
Head through the crates and upstairs to take out one more cop and talk to Rosa.
After talking to Rosa, head down the hall behind her and turn left to take the
elevator to the roof. You'll need to face the police sergeant, but you can't
kill him normally. Instead, you'll need to through him off the roof. First,
you'll need to position him by the roof ledge either by getting him to run
there or by dragging him. There are two ways to throw him off:
1. Throw or shove him towards the ledge; he'll trip and fall over.
2. While grabbing, stand with his back against the ledge, hold Square and press
up. Press down and up against to flip him over.
If you kill him any other way, you'll fail the mission. You'll get promoted to
Associate after you complete the mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +10,000, +7,500
Money: $1,250, $1,250
Weapon Upgrade
===============================================================================
3.8 - Death to the Traitor [STR008]
===============================================================================
Head through the restaurant door on the right and go past the counter through
the door to the back room. You'll see Paulie making a phone call before heading
out. Through the door to your right, two Tattaglia thugs are holding up the
cook. Shoot them, though oddly enough they won't shoot back. Talk to the cook
and he'll take you upstairs. Head up, grab the bomb and take the weapons on the
crate the cook gives. Head downstairs and outside. Talk to Clemenza and he'll
give you your instructions.
Follow him through the alley until you reach the front of the store. Barge
through and kill all the mobsters on the ground floor. Paulie will disappear,
so head upstairs and kill the rest of the mobsters. Plant the bomb behind the
bar indicated by the icon, then run back downstairs and outside. One enemy will
appear with a baseball bat as you escape; either kill him or run past him, he
won't do anything.
A cutscene will play, and you'll need to kill Paulie. Follow him through the
construction site. Don't go too fast; he'll be shooting explosive crates in
your path, and you'll take damage if you're too close, although being a bit
further back will knock you down for no damage. Once you reach the end of the
path, you'll need to take out Paulie in any way you see fit. He's only armed
with a revolver, so he's not a big threat by himself. If you're lucky, you'll
be able to shoot him in the back before he even disappears through the crates.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +10,000
Money: $1,500
*NOTE: If you've seen the movie, you'll know that Paulie's story ends a bit
differently. This is an example of how the game twists some of the
story events around.
===============================================================================
3.9 - Horseplay [STR009]
===============================================================================
Here we are in California with Rocco Lampone. Sneak using the Square button and
follow Rocco through the estate until you reach the stables. Don't attack
anything and don't rush through. When he begins the 'operation' on the horse,
one guard will come down to investigate. Take him out quietly (you have none of
your equipment in this mission apart from a garrote wire) before the alert goes
off. If you need a weapon, there's a lead pipe in the stables.
When he's down, Rocco will be finished with the horse. Head out and upstairs,
but wait at the top of the stairs; a guard will come out. Take him out with the
garrote, but if you're impatient (and the garrote takes ages to strangle
someone), you can beat him up. Go straight up the stairs through the door.
You'll be told not to kill any innocents, so wait until the butler walks past.
Head through the door on the south side (the one he comes out of) then
IMMEDIATELY turn right to see a guard with his back to you. The other doors and
corridors lead to guards, which will fail your mission. Take out the guard,
head upstairs and take out the next guard.
Lean against the wall before going into the next room and wait until the maid
leaves. Follow the wall and lean against the next door; the guard will attempt
to flirt with the maid and fail. When the maid leaves, take out the guard. Head
to the blue icon and wait for Rocco to come to you. A cutscene will play and
end the mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +12,500
Money: $1,500
===============================================================================
3.10 - A Recipe for Revenge [STR010]
===============================================================================
You'll need to plant Michael's pistol in the toilet at the back of the
restaurant. First, you'll need to head through the alley on the left before the
entrance to the restaurant. Take out the mobster guards in the entry quietly.
At the end of the alley, talk to the guy in the white shirt. If you have a
decent Negotiation stat, he'll let you through. Otherwise, you'll need to
pressure him as with an Extortion mission. Push him around until he reaches the
green line, then talk to him to let you through. Note that you don't gain
anything by pushing him to the limit, so just do the minimum necessary. Head
through the kitchen, go through the door and turn right immediately - don't
enter the dining area past the mobster and don't even touch him. Head to the
toilet to plant the gun.
After the cutscene, you'll need to kill the mobsters in the room, then run out
to reach the car with Michael inside. You'll have 3 minutes to reach him. Turn
around when you're done in the restaurant and exit into the street. More
mobsters will come at you. Either kill them or sprint down the street to the
marked car.
You will be promoted to Soldier after this mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +17,500, +15,000
Money: $2,000, $2,000
Weapon Upgrade
===============================================================================
3.11 - Now It's Personal [STR011]
===============================================================================
Frankie gets nabbed during your romantic night. A mobster will take Frankie,
while another will run at you with a baseball bat. Beat him up, then pull out
your weapon and take out a couple more mobsters. Head downstairs (not upstairs)
to the entrance foyer and enter the side office to find the Capo. You'll need
to Negotiate; beat him up a bit if he doesn't talk. Once you find out where she
is, kill him to make you feel better. Head back to the main room and walk to
the marked phone. A cutscene will play and you will be taken to the church.
The front door is barred, so head down the left side of the church and enter
through the side door. Follow the long hallways while shooting out enemies in
your way until you reach a wide room. Monk will most likely catch up with you
here, and he's got a Tommygun to give you support. Take cover by the doorway
and take out all the enemies in the room, then move in and take out the enemies
that spawn ahead. Continue upstairs to end the mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +20,000
Money: $3,000
===============================================================================
3.12 - The Silent Witness [STR012]
===============================================================================
Don't head through the building; head through the alley on the right and talk
to the Corleone guy in black. Head through the doors and upstairs to talk to
Sonny. He'll tell you to interrogate with the Capo, so enter the room and
Negotiate. If he doesn't talk, grab a lead pipe nearby and beat him up until he
does.
After the cutscene, you'll be taken to the next stage. Enter the building ahead
and take out all the enemies outside and inside. Once you kill all them (make
sure you take out the one in the garage as well), the elevator will be
unlocked. Use it, and you'll be down in the furnace. Move forward and Bruno
Tattaglia will give you a good whack and taunt you. Once you get up, take cover
by a wall and shoot the two strong enemies, but don't kill Bruno. Shoot him the
kneecap, drag him to the furnace and either throw him in or flip him through as
with the police sergeant earlier.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +25,000
Money: $3,500
===============================================================================
3.13 - Sonny's War [STR013]
===============================================================================
You'll be with Sonny and his Tommygun on this war. Enter the bar straight
ahead. The stairs are to your immediate left as you enter, but you'll need to
take out some Cuneo mobsters on the ground floor so they don't chase you down.
If you need health, there's a bottle in the back room. Head downstairs. A
couple of mobsters will run at you with bats, so take them out. Two more
mobsters are in the next room, so either shoot them or blow up the explosive
crates in the room. Take whatever weapons you need, then head through the door
and interrogate the Capo. Head back upstairs using either the stairs or the
elevator in the same room and exit the building.
You'll be taken to a train yard. Take out the Cuneos who have the nerve to run
at you in the open and head towards the marked location on the south side.
You'll need to enter the building through the main south door, and a couple of
enemies will be guarding it. Take them out and enter through the door. Go
through the back door, take out two more enemies, then go upstairs for a
cutscene.
You're taken to another location. Go through to the storage yards and take out
the enemies standing around. Proceed further through and take out more. When
you turn right to the warehouse door, a car will crash through the barrels and
an enemy will come out. Kill him and enter the door.
This room contains some very strong enemies, so feel free to use some of your
heavier weapons here. When you take them out, Sonny will tell you to call out
the racket owner. You'll need to pressure him to take his business over. Beat
him up if you have to, take over, a cutscene will play and the mission will
end.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +30,000
Money: $4,000
===============================================================================
3.14 - Change of Plans [STR014]
===============================================================================
Move through the yard and take cover behind the crates while taking out
enemies. These ones are quite tough and are armed with Tommyguns and shotguns,
so don't take them lightly. When you reach the end of the yard, several more
mobsters will spawn ahead of you. Take them out, then enter the building from
any of the doors and head upstairs. Head straight into the office, but don't go
in just yet.
This part here is straightforward, it's easy to stuff up if you're not careful.
There's a strong mobster inside the office standing behind the toll booth
guard, whom you need to interrogate. If you position yourself incorrectly,
you'll either shoot the guard, or the mobster will shoot through him, which is
equally bad. Use a powerful weapon, preferably the Magnum or its upgraded forms
for its one-shot power, run into the room and take out the mobster. Talk to the
guard. Run back out to the car; there aren't any mobsters here.
You'll be taken to a club; the Tattaglia guard outside won't attack you, but
just blast him and any Tattaglia mobster who comes out. If you have the Python
or the Street Sweeper, just let it rip through these nobodies in the club. If
you need health, there's a bottle in the garage on the right door as you enter
the main club room. Go through the door at the end of the main room to access
the stairs down.
Walk about a bit and take cover behind some crates; there are a lot of mobsters
in this room. Don't go too far in because mobsters will spawn on your left as
well, and you don't want to be flanked by guys who want to kill you. Take out
everyone in the room, head left and kill the mobsters there. Continue through
the first door on the right.
You'll need to interrogate the boss here. He probably won't talk to you even
with a high Street Smarts skill, and he's got very high resistance to pressure
and a low threshold to his breaking point. Thankfully, there's an easier way.
Simply speak to the girl in the same room and he'll talk as soon as you get
back to him. The mission ends there, and you'll be promoted to Capo.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +60,000, +40,000
Money: $5,000, $4,500
Weapon Upgrade
===============================================================================
3.15 - Order to Kill [STR015]
===============================================================================
Head around the corner, run straight for a bit and turn right at the designated
alley to meet up with Monk. Monk will tell you to kill the snitch, so follow
him across the road. Go through the door, take cover behind the nearest piece
of furniture and rip through the enemies with some of your new toys if you have
them; otherwise rely on whatever weapon you've got. Monk will be behind you
with a shotgun, so things will be pretty smooth.
The next part is probably the most frustrating section of the game, not because
it's hard, but because it's the most awkward combination of enemy placement and
camera issues. You'll have to fight quite a few enemies while going upstairs,
and there's no real way to go about it properly. Peeking from a wall works
decently, but it doesn't draw them out; whereas running in is often suicidal. A
mixture of both precaution and risk is necessary to smoothly go through this
section.
Detour to the rooms on each side to kill mobsters. The first room you run into
also contains ammo and a health bottle. The next floor contains a few mobsters
supporting each other, so enter one room and blast away. If Monk somehow
manages to trap you inside a room by stupidly standing in the doorway, walk
into the far corner of the room to get him to follow you so you can get out
again. Be careful firing into these rooms; they have nasty angles and these
guys have Tommyguns. A cutscene will play once you reach the top of the stairs.
You'll be taken to another building, and you need to chase Monk and kill him.
Let him run; he's not going anywhere soon. Take out the Cuneo mobsters who come
for you and head upstairs into the bar room. Take cover behind a table and take
out the mobsters who attack using a Magnum or Shotgun. Head through the room to
the stairs on the far side and head down.
If you need some cash, head straight down the hall and turn left to find a safe
you can blow up with dynamite. Otherwise, head straight and take the first door
to the left to find another bar. Turn right immediately and crouch behind the
bar, as there are several Cuneos and Monk in this room. One or two will most
likely try to run to you behind the bar, so take them out quickly before
killing Monk himself. He's heavily armed, but he's mortal like anyone else.
He's to your left just out of sight, but he'll appear with a shotgun once you
take a few steps, so don't get too close. Finish him to end the mission.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +75,000
Money: $6,000
===============================================================================
3.16 - It's Just Business [STR016]
===============================================================================
The setting of this mission and the final mission is the climactic scene in the
movie in which Michael Corleone orders the killing of all the family heads.
Unlike the movie, in which the murders take place at around the same time,
you'll be playing your non-canonical character and assisting in all the murders
in order. Suffice to say, you'll be blowing through mobsters of every coloured
suit.
The first order of business is to eliminate the treacherous Capo from the
Corleone's paylist. Run straight around the corner and meet with Willy Cicci,
and he will tell you to walk behind Tessio, the plan being to open fire on the
enemy family and get Tessio killed. Do as he asks, but obviously it won't work.
You'll get attacked and Tessio will run off. Don't worry, he won't leave the
building and will be waiting for you when you find him.
The Barzinis will open fire from down the hall. You can't kill Tessio yet, so
ignore him and the five minute timer. Take cover behind one of the columns and
kill the mobsters. Clear the floor of mobsters (there's one in the bar and one
at the end of the hall) and enter the elevator behind the bar room.
As you go forward, there will be a mobster in the room ahead and one behind the
desk on your right. If you're not careful, these mobsters will blow off chunks
of health, but one will drop a health bottle.Continue into the next room and
take out the mobsters there, again being wary of the shotgun-wielding maniacs.
Shoot the crate by the wall for a $10,000 moneybag. Follow Tessio upstairs,
take out the mobsters by the bar, and talk to Tessio. When the conversation
ends, kill him.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +125,000
Money: $7,500
===============================================================================
3.17 - Baptism by Fire [STR017]
===============================================================================
Here we go, the final story mission. Not surprisingly, it's also the longest
mission and in a sense it is challenging, though thankfully nowhere near as
frustrating as the previous mission. Before starting this mission, I recommend
you stock up on ammo for Magnum and Thompson. If you have the Street Sweeper,
this mission is a breeze. If you don't, you can still complete it, but it'll
take a bit more effort.
*NOTE: As with missions that take you to different locations, each section
will automatically replenish your health, so there isn't a need to be
stingy over losing health.
Due to the nature of this mission, I will break the sections up for easier
navigation.
-------------
Don Stracci
-------------
Follow Clemenza into the building, but don't pull out any guns. The aim here is
to reach Stracci with the intent of peace, so don't blow your cover. Clemenza
will walk to the right of the lobby and tell you to find Stracci. Head past
Clemenza and go upstairs. Talk to the mobster with the Puppeteer icon to open
the door.
Head through the halls and turn left to reach Stracci's office. Talk to the
mobster outside the door and he'll open it, and talk to Don Stracci himself.
After the conversation, he will begin to head to the lobby. There are two
things you can do:
1. Kill him now. This is probably safer, as you only need to talk out the
mobsters in the room and use the office as cover to kill the remaining
enemies. Stracci will usually get stuck or hide in some corner, so you can
take your time killing him. There's a Tommygun and a health bottle in the
Don's office if you need it.
2. Escort him downstairs, where Clemenza will blow his head off and you'll need
to fight in the lobby. This is probably harder, since you need to kill all
the mobsters before you can talk to Clemenza to end this section.
Once you clear the building of enemies, talk to Clemenza and leave to access
the next phase. Note that if you don't kill all the enemies, Clemenza will move
around to find them, and you can't talk to him until he's done.
-----------
Don Cuneo
-----------
Follow Willy to the Cuneo office. Unlike the previous phase, you don't need to
be undercover. Kill the two guards and go in with all guns blazing. If you can,
get Willy to go in first to absorb the fire. The office layout is identical to
Stracci's, but there are a lot of enemies in the lobby. Take them all out and
head to the stairs. Don Cuneo will be hiding in the corner as you go in. Shoot
him, talk to Willy and head out.
---------------
Don Tattaglia
---------------
Talk to Rocco. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where Tattaglia is. Wait a few
seconds and a prostitute will walk around the corner near you. Talk to her, and
you'll find the location of the brothel. Get your guns ready, barge in and take
out anyone in your way. Begin heading upstairs, and be careful of running into
shotgun mobsters.
When you reach the second set of doors upstairs, open the door on the left.
Clear out the room, head to the room on the right and kill the mobster there.
The Don is in the last room holding a prostitute hostage. Shoot him out and
talk to Rocco and go back outside.
-------------
Don Barzini
-------------
Take out the mobsters in the open area in front of you and head to Al Neri, who
is dressed like a police officer and is highlighted by the shield icon. You'll
be taken to the next area. Al Neri tells you to wait until he fires, but
shooting immediately achieves the same thing. Dozens of enemies will spawn to
the left and right, and Barzini will run to the right. If you have the Street
Sweeper, this is where the beast shines. If you don't, use a Magnum.
When all the enemies are dead, run to the right (Al will be doing the same) and
find Barzini. Walk up to him to initiate a short cutscene, then kill him.
---------
Rewards
---------
Respect: +170,000
Money: $10,000
Congratulations, you've finished story mode. If you've already finished Mob
Wars, you'll have completed the entire game. There's no way you can go back to
play old story missions, so this is your last look unless you play through the
game again.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
4.0 - MOB WARS MODE [MBW000]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mob Wars: the strategic side to the PSP Godfather game. In a sense, you could
say this is where most of the gameplay is, and it provides a decent dose of
turn-based fun, albeit with quite a bit of repetitiveness. Mob Wars is not
initially available, being unlocked after the "Sleeping with the Fishes" story
mission. You will be forced to play one turn of Mob Wars before proceeding with
story, but can access the mode any time you want afterwards.
The objective of Mob Wars is to eliminate all rival families in order to become
Don of New York. Note that you DO NOT need to capture every territory; you only
need to knock out each opponent's compound. This section will cover the basics
of how to play through Mob Wars and cover advanced strategies for effective
success.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
4.1 - Essentials [MBW001]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Being a turn-based game, Mob Wars has a completely different interface to the
Story missions, although the Mob Wars missions are played in real-time in the
same way. This section will outline the basics of what you need to go through
each turn.
----------------
Rival Families
----------------
As the Corleone family, you have four rivals:
*Tattaglia: The weakest family; wears beige suits. Located directly east
of your starting position in Little Italy; the Tattaglias are
the only family that can attack you in the first turn. Their
home neighbourhood is isolated, so they should be the first
family to eliminate, as no rival family can steal their
territories from you.
*Stracci: Located west of Little Italy; wears blue. Their starting
neighbourhood is not fully claimed, so they have to take over
some neutral territories before they can take a shot at you.
The Straccis will usually be occupied with the Cuneos and won't
see you as a priority threat, but will invade Little Italy if
you expose your bottleneck to them.
*Barzini: Located directly north of your starting location; wears green.
The Barzinis are pretty tough, but they'll be distracted by the
Cuneos on their flank. They are as accessible as the Straccis,
and also have to cross several neutral territories before they
can attack you directly. The Barzinis are easier to hold off,
as there are two bottleneck territories between you and them.
*Cuneo: Located north-west between the Straccis and the Barzinis; wear
red suits. These guys are probably the toughest, and they'll
have the most time to beef themselves up before you get to
them. Despite their potential power, it's likely that you'll
take them out third instead of the Straccis or Barzinis.
----------------
Neighbourhoods
----------------
There are five neighbourhoods in the area of New York, each neighbourhood
acting as the starting area for each of the five families.
Capturing all territories in a neighbourhood will give you a significant bonus
in income per turn. When capturing enemy compounds, make sure you capture all
theneutral territories in order to get the neighbourhoodal bonus as well as
individual territory bonuses.
*Little Italy: Located in the bottom middle of the map. This is where
the Corleones (that's you) are based. Little Italy has
quite a few neutral territories to capture before
being able to attack the other neighbourhoods. Little
Italy is surrounded by the other neighbourhoods, making
it risky to sit back while the others get stronger.
*Brooklyn: East of Little Italy and home to the Tattaglias. This
neighbourhood is isolated, being accessible only from
Little Italy, making it your most secure neighbourhood.
While this may be easy to defend, you can't afford to
lose your compound in Little Italy. Get this
neighbourhood for the income, but don't leave mobsters
here.
*Midtown: North of Little Italy. Can only be reached by
crossing two choke points: one in Little Italy and one
across the bridge in Midtown, making it easy to defend
against the resident Barzinis. Midtown shares the same
"super-neighbourhood" as Hell's Kitchen.
*Hell's Kitchen: The other half to mainland New York City. Hell's
Kitchen is occupied by the Cuneos and is the furthest
neighbourhood from Little Italy. Connects with New
Jersey.
*New Jersey: West of Little Italy and owned by the Straccis. A bit
difficult to hold against the Cuneos due to the lack
of choke points.
--------------
Enemy Status
--------------
Each family has their own set of stats that players should be aware of. These
can be seen in Tom's Report (by pressing Triangle on the menu) or by selecting
a family while using a card. The stats are as such:
Cards: The number of cards the family has. They will get more once
their turn begins. The more cards a family has in hand, the
more havoc they could potentially wreak if conditions are met.
Aim to keep this figure as low as possible by stealing their
cards by using Favor cards.
Money: Obviously how much money the family has. Enemy families don't
higher mobsters the same way as you do, so money isn't directly
useful, which means they'll accumulate money quite easily. Keep
enemy money as low as you can to prevent them from using high
value cards against you.
Vendetta: How much of a feud you have with a family. The higher the
vendetta for each family, the more defense they have against
you, and therefore the harder it becomes to attack them.
Vendetta doesn't hold much definitive value, but you can make
things easier by using Bribe cards to lower vendetta. Vendetta
is increased by performing retaliation missions on them.
Fortification: How much defense you have against the family. The higher your
defense against an individual family, the harder it is for
them to successfully attack your territories, and you'll gain
more respect from killing them.. Fortificaton can only be
raised using cards. Fortification also goes up after an enemy
family attacks you.
Heat: How much attention you draw from the cops. The higher your
heat, the more likely it is for cops to raid you between turns
and therefore cutting your income. High heat also means a
higher police presence during your missions, which makes it
quite difficult to avoid getting shot by the boys in blue.
Heat is gained by killing people, especially innocents and
cops, and especially gained after blowing a building up. Bribe
cards can lower heat.
-----------------------
Eliminating Opponents
-----------------------
In order to remove opponents from the mob scene, you only need to do one thing
to each family:
* Capture their compound territory *
You don't need to capture every single enemy territory. The fastest and
simplest method is simply to make a beeline to the enemy compound, complete the
bombing mission and all enemy-held territories revert to neutral territories.
If you have a transport card, you can do a long-range surgical strike on the
compound and save yourself time and effort.
Capturing enemy territories will obviously weaken them by draining their funds,
but opponents can just as easily take back your territories. The best thing to
do is to simply remove them from the picture.
To actually capture the compound territory, you will need to plant bombs in the
basements of both compound houses. The houses are identical for each family,
being positioned in the same manner and having the exact same layout. The only
difference is that the compounds have different entrances. Compound missions
aren't that hard, but are the most frustrating due to heavily-armed mobsters in
tight corners, which means you'll often get killed while struggling with your
camera control.
===============================================================================
4.2 - Payday [MBW002]
===============================================================================
When you select Mob Wars from the mission menu and hence begin a new turn, you
will be greeted with a turn overview, indicating how many territories you own,
what rackets you have, your turn's income and how many cards you can receive,
as well as some other information.
You will recieve income from the following sources:
----------------------------
Rackets and Neighbourhoods
----------------------------
Rackets are businesses available in each territory that are owned by you. Each
territory has one racket, and there are several types of rackets, each bringing
different bonuses, although they are otherwise used the same. Income from
rackets is done automatically before each turn, as the PSP version has no real-
time roaming.
You get the following for each racket you own:
Brothels: $250
Gambling: $275
Liquor and Cigars: $300
Guns: $325
Diamonds and Gold: $350
You also get a bonus for having multiple rackets of the same type:
1 racket: No Money Bonus
2 rackets: 5% bonus
3 rackets: 10% bonus
4 rackets: 25% bonus
5 rackets: 50% bonus
Additionally, you get bonus income for each complete neighbourhood you own. In
order to receive the neighbourhood bonus, you must own every territory within
it. That means no other families in your neighbourhood, and no neutral
territories. Everything must be yours. The neighbourhood bonuses are as
follows:
Brooklyn: $300
Hell's Kitchen: $400
New Jersey: $400
Little Italy: $600
Midtown: $600
You'll get all of Little Italy pretty soon, so that will form the backbone of
your income unless you somehow manage to lose a territory. Brooklyn is next, so
you can look forward for a solid $1500 per turn after you get things rolling.
--------------
Police Raids
--------------
Between each turn, the police have three markers to play, which they will use
to raid three random territories. These territories will produce no income for
the owning family. This is pretty bad for you if you get raided near the start,
as you lose a much greater proportion of your income. As you gain more
territories, being raided isn't such a huge problem. You receive no other
penalty if you get raided, and you still gain the neighbourhood bonus since you
still own the territory. Losses due to raids are displayed on the Payday
summary.
Raids are mostly random. Families with high Heat will attract more police
attention, resulting in a high chance of being raided. Certain cards can
increase enemy Heat, block your territories from being raided or even gain the
revenue taken by police raiding other territories.
===============================================================================
4.3 - Draw Cards [MBW003]
===============================================================================
After going through the Payday report, you will be taken to the Draw Cards
screen. This isn't a real phase in itself. You have a hand containing a maximum
of 7 cards. You receive one card for each unique racket type you own.
You cannot have more than 7 cards at any one time. If you want to remove a card
before drawing your hand, select the card with the Square button and it will be
replaced when you draw your hand. The number of extra cards you have to draw is
displayed under your hand. You cannot draw from them once you have taken your
hand, so make sure you get rid of the cards you don't intend on using. The
cards you have in your hand will be available for use in the Negotiation phase.
For more information on what the cards actually do, see the Negotiation
section.
===============================================================================
4.4 - Recruitment [MBW004]
===============================================================================
The first actual phase of the Mob Wars mode, Recruitment actually sticks out
oddly. It seems to be the prelude phase, since you don't do anything other than
recruit mobsters, which y9u won't be doing half the time.
In order to recruit, you will need a certain amount of money depending on what
type of mobster you want to hire. You can only hire mobsters in the territories
containing and surrounding your compound. This essentially means that you can
only produce mobsters in Little Italy, requiring you to move mobsters to
further locations turn-by-turn, or by using a Transport card.
*NOTE: Enemy families do not recruit mobsters in the same way you do. Your
mobsters are individual characters you can control in real-time
during missions. Enemies don't have real-time missions; instead their
Recruitment phase involves boosting the "mobster level" of a territory,
essentially increasing the number of mobsters you have to face in the
area. Attacks done on your territory are automatically calculated
based on your fortification and the strength of your mobster, if there
are any in the area.
---------------
Mobster Types
---------------
Mobsters operate on a rank system. You can recruit mobsters of various ranks,
and gaining respect (i.e. experience) from missions will increase their rank.
You can also use cards to give bonus respect to a mobster or even automatically
promote a mobster to the next level. Failing missions will decrease respect and
possibly demote your mobster, although you don't actually get your mobster
killed.
The rank of a mobster determines how expensive they are to recruit, how much
health they have when you control them, and how well they defend against enemy
attacks.
*NOTE: While the mobsters you recruit have different ranks, names and
appearances when you recruit them through the menu, they all share the
stats and appearance of your Story character. The only aspect that
is unique is their Respect level.
This is important, since a character will high stats can be used with
a normally weak Outsider and still perform very well.
*Outsider: The cheapest mobsters to recruit. Outsiders are essentially
$1000 foot soldiers of the family. In real life, outsiders were
people not in the family and could not be trusted with family
business. The only good thing about Outsiders in this game is
that they're cheap. You start off with a couple, and they're
easily promoted to Associate after a couple of Retaliation
missions. You could in theory use an Outsider to complete any
mission with enough attributes and skills, but when you have
money flowing, there's no reason to make things hard for
yourself. Outsiders also suck at defending, and will instantly
lose.
*Associate: An Associate is an Outsider who has gained trust with the
$2000 family and is welcomed to work in the family business.
Associates are more expensive than Outsiders, but have more
health and stand a slightly higher chance of defending a
territory. Associates should be your default recruitment. The
exceptions are when you are stinking rich (get Soldiers), or
stinking poor (survive on Outsiders).
*Soldier: Otherwise known as "Soldati", the Soldiers are the "made" men
$4000 of your family. Soldiers are the strongest mobsters you can
recruit. They have the most health, and can block nearly every
enemy attack. Once you get a steady supply of money, spend cash
entirely on mobsters. You only really need 2-3 to move around,
but if you're lacking in Soldiers, use them to plug
bottlenecks and use Associates to capture low-risk territories.
*Capo: Short for "caporegime", the Capos are the captains of the
family and among the most trusted men. Capos have the highest
amount of health and are virtually unassailable against enemy
attacks. You cannot recruit Capos though. Capos are naturally
obtained from Soldiers gaining enough Respect to be promoted.
Capos can also be obtained by using Promotion cards, especially
the direct Soldier > Capo card. Capos are overkill for regular
missions, so use these solely for defense.
--------------------
Promoting Mobsters
--------------------
Mobsters can increase their rank by gaining Respect, which in turn is gained by
killing enemy mobsters in a variety of methods. Gaining Respect solely from
this is slow and tedious. Bigger chunks of Respect can be gained from capturing
territories, with the ultimate source of Respect being the elimination of a
family, done by capturing their compound. The mobster who successfully pulls
this off is given 10 Respect levels.
The required Respect for promotion is as follows. Note that when you recruit a
mobster, they will have the minimum amount of Respect for that rank:
Outsider: 0 Respect
Associate: 10 Respect
Soldier: 30 Respect
Capo: 50 Respect
*The rank "Enforcer" encountered after a Story mission is not an actual rank
Also note that it is possible to *demote* mobsters. Mobsters who fail missions
will lose Respect, and demoted if they drop below the required Respect level.
This is more of a threat to defending mobsters, who for some reason lose
Respect even if they successfully hold a territory.
There is one more method to promote mobsters: using Promotion cards. When
obtained in a hand, players can use these cards on a chosen mobster to promote
them. There are two main types of Promotion cards:
Increase Respect: Includes Hand Shake and Family Welcome. These cards
give a flat increase to a mobster's Respect level. Can
be used on any mobster except Capos, who already have
max Respect.
Instant Promotion: These cards can promote a mobster from a specific rank
to the next rank (eg. Outsider to Associate). Using
these cards are faster than raising a mobster, but
require specific ranks and is not particularly cost-
effective, as the usage cost is almost as expensive as
recruiting a new mobster.
While you have a fair number of options when it comes to getting mobsters
promoted, realistically speaking, you're not going to do much promoting
throughout Mob Wars. Hopefully you'll be buying at Associates at the very
least, so you shouldn't be concerned with promoting Outsiders. Getting 20
Respect to promote your Associates and Soldiers is straightforward, but takes a
substantial amount of time to achieve. You'll need to use the same mobster for
a lot of missions in order to get him to Capo, and that's assuming he doesn't
lose any Respect from failing missions or defending against enemies.
Basically, try to recruit high-level mobsters instead of promoting them. It's
faster, requires less effort and is more reliable than doing the long-winded
promotion through missions. If you happen to get Promotion cards when you draw
your hand, use them if you can, but don't rely on them.
===============================================================================
4.5 - Negotiation [MBW005]
===============================================================================
The second phase of Mob Wars, after Recruitment, is where you'll be doing most
of the turn-based actions. In the Negotiation phase, you will be using the
cards gained from the beginning of the turn. The Negotiation phase bolsters
your family's status and prepares yourself and your enemies for the
Intimidation phase.
Despite the name of the phase, you don't do any actual negotiating with rival
families. You simply "play cards".
-----------------------
Family Stats Overview
-----------------------
For those who didn't read the Family Stats overview above, here's a briefer
version in order to understand what the cards actually do:
Money: Obviously how much money the family has.
Cards: How many cards they have in hand, therefore how much they can
use against you.
Vendetta: How strong enemy opposition is to your attacks.
Heat: How many cops will be around when you attack, and how likely it
is for cops to raid your territories.
Fortification: Increases the chances of you defending successfully against
that particular family.
Basically, you want to increase your money, cards and Fortification; and reduce
your Heat in order to make things easier for you. With enemies, you will want
to reduce their Vendetta against you, reduce their money, reduce their cards
and increase their Heat in order to draw more police attention to them instead
of you.
-------------
Cards Types
-------------
There are several types of cards you can use in Negotiation. Each category of
cards does something general, with specific cards doing something more...well,
specific. Card types also have levels, with higher level cards having more of
an effect than similar lower level cards.
Favor: Favor cards, despite their name, don't involve favors. Favor
cards involve stealing something from rival families.
- Money cards involve stealing a flat sum from any family.
These include Petty Theft and Heist. Keep in mind that you
need to pay an upfront fee to use the card, but you will
always gain profit, especially with the higher-level cards.
Use these whenever you can, but be careful not to use them
against poor opponents. Be careful though: enemies might
steal these cards and use against you, which will suck.
- The other type of Favor card involves stealing cards from
opponents' hands. They usually involve a condition, such as
a family owning a certain type of racket. You will usually
draw two cards from their hand when used. You can use the
cards immediately, which means you can deliver some very
powerful combinations of cards if you manage to get really
useful ones from your enemies. Keep in mind that enemies can
do the same to you, so use as many cards as you can to
prevent them backfiring on you.
Alliance: Alliance cards, unsurprisingly, involve making or breaking
alliances with rival families.
The thing to keep in mind about Alliances is that the cards are
issued with *specific* families, such as "Form an alliance with
the Straccis". This means you are limited to what alliances you
can form, which isn't as useful as it might first appear. The
second implication, which is actually quite crap, is that you
might get alliance cards for families that have already been
eliminated. Even worse is when you get the "Corleone Alliance"
card. You really don't need an alliance with yourself.
Alliance cards aren't a threat if they get stolen. Use them if
you don't want to be bothered by another family while focusing
on something else.
Transport: Transport cards allow one selected mobster to move more than
one territory in that turn, the actual amount varying with the
card used. The mobster with the Transport bonus is indicated
with a T symbol on the map. The bonus disappears after the
turn.
Transport cards aren't really that useful, as you don't want to
capture territories in the middle of enemy areas. The exception
is when you want to perform a long-range surgical strike on an
enemy compound, which should be the only reason to use these
cards. If you need to free up space in your hand, get rid of
these.
Bribe: Bribe a police officer in order to gain certain favours for
your family. The bonuses vary between cards, and include:
- Lower your Heat
- Increase an enemy family's Heat
- Prevent your territories from being raided
- Gain income from police raids
- Lower Vendetta and enemy defense
Bribes are the most useful cards all-around, especially when
you need to reduce heat so that you can actually walk into a
mission without being harrassed by officers of the law. Use
these whenever you need to.
Hit: These cards reduce enemy mobster strength in a territory. They
can be quite helpful, but unfortunately they have a key
requirement for use: you need to have low Vendetta with the
target family. Reducing enemy mobster strength makes missions
far easier, and if you happen to have low Vendetta (usually
from a Bribe card), this is a great combination. Otherwise,
you'll most likely have high Vendetta with a family you've been
pulverising and won't be able to use it. Get rid of it if you
need space.
===============================================================================
4.6 - Intimidation [MBW006]
===============================================================================
Finally, we get some action. Intimidation is the final phase the player goes
through during their turn, and is when the real-time missions come into play.
You could say that everything you did before this phase was simply preparation,
although that's giving a bit too much credit for playing cards.
The Intimidation phase is when you move your mobsters around the map, thereby
capturing more territories for your family. Capturing territories is the only
way you can win the game.
During the Intimidation phase, you can move any amount of mobsters between your
territories. However, you can only perform one Extortion and one Retaliation
mission for each turn.
-----------------
Moving Mobsters
-----------------
Mobsters can only move to one adjacent territory. They cannot move across
multiple territories, even if owned by you. The exception is when you use a
Transport card, which allows them to move across the specific number of
territories.
To move a mobster, select the territory the mobster is in, then select the
territory you want to move the mobster to. Each territory can only have one
mobster. If you move a mobster into an occupied territory, and the other
mobster has not yet moved, you can swap positions. This can be useful for
pulling a weakened mobster out of the 'front line' and replace him with a
higher ranked mobster.
Moving a mobster to your own territory does nothing. Moving to a neutral
territory executes an Extortion mission, and moving to an enemy-controlled
territory performs a Retaliation mission.
-----------
Extortion
-----------
Extortion is the only method of obtaining neutral territories. The principle of
extorting a business is to convince the merchant to pay you in return for
'protection', and in the process buying out any rackets that may be operated in
the back rooms.
Let's get one thing straight right here: merchants and racket owners SHOULD BE
PAYING YOU. This may seem obvious, but the game does not actually present it as
such. When you launch an Extortion mission, you will be placed outside the
business premises. Note that police will usually not flood you even with a high
Heat level, so you're free to enter the premises.
There are several different businesses that are randomly selected for each
Extortion mission. Each of these has a "front room", where the business is
down. The business owner is identifed by the Puppeteer icon. Walking up the
owner and pressing Triangle will initiate the negotiation.
If your Street Smarts stat is high enough, the merchant will agree to work for
you. In most cases, this is enough to give you the territory. However, some
businesses have back-room rackets which open when you successfully buy out the
business. You must buy out the racket as well in order to gain the territory.
The process is the same, but you will be required to give money in order to
obtain the racket. Not having enough money means you will need to "negotiate".
There's a subtle problem, and you'll probably miss it. Allow me to explain in
short points:
- If the merchant agrees, they pay you nothing and give you no trouble.
- If the racket owner agrees, you pay them a specific amount of cash.
In this scenario, you're PAYING THEM to get the territory. That's NO way to run
a family business. You want businesses to PAY YOU. You're the Don for crying
out loud. You pay no one.
So, to maximise your profits, you should take the following advice every time
you extort a business:
1. Approach the owner. If they respect you enough, they fold without paying you
anything. You don't want that to happen. If they don't respect you, you'll
need to negotiate using more persuasive means. Since there's no way to know
until after you talk to them, you'll need to skip the negotiation part and
go straight for the persuasion.
2. Each merchant has a meter when you talk to them (or beat them up). There are
three things to note about this meter:
- The green line indicates the minimum amount of pressure required to
force the merchant to agree to your terms.
- The blue area filling the gauge indicates current amount of pressure
- The red region indicates the maximum amount of pressure the merchant
can take before snapping and attacking you, thereby failing the
negotiation.
Basically, you need to pressure the merchant past the green mark. You can
end it there by talking to the merchant again, but ideally you should push
the pressure as close as you can to the red area. Doing so will allow you
to gain up to thousands of dollars in payment, compared to the few hundred
from minimum pressure.
3. Target the owner and punch them. This will immediately trigger the pressure
phase of the negotiation, which is where you can milk the merchant for
every penny he's got.
4. Any of the following actions can increase pressure. Some merchants have
more of a weakness to certain types of pressure. Note that performing one
action will only increase pressure to a point before you need to try
something else, although you can perform the same actions after a small
delay for repeated pressure gains.
- Inflict physical harm to the merchant, mainly through punching.
- Grab the merchant and hold him.
- While grabbing, hold the O button to scare him.
- Slam the merchant or throw him around. You can also throw him through
the shop window for a big pressure bonus.
- Smash up shop equipment.
- Point a gun at the merchant.
- Shoot the merchant in a non-lethal area, such as the kneecap.
- Beat up some patrons.
You have to be careful when it comes to using damaging methods. You don't
want to kill the merchant, and giving too much damage will fail the
negotiation automatically. Try to stick with using non-lethal threats. Also
note that you get a bonus for applying weak-spot tactics.
5. Once past the green bar, any more pressure you apply will be translated into
cold hard cash. Try to stay clear of the red area; don't be too greedy or
else you might blow the whole thing.
6. If there's a backroom racket, go to it. When you approach the owner, a
cash figure will appear at the top of the screen indicating how much is
required to buy the racket out. If you don't meet this figure, you'll need
to beat them up too. If you do meet the figure, beat them up anyway.
Remember, you want THEM to pay YOU, not the other way around.
7. Once you get all the cash you can get (remember that gambling rackets tend
to have safes you can blow up with dynamite for more cash), leave the
premises and return to your car in the street.
How much money you receive from a successful Extortion mission depends strongly
on whether or not there was a racket to buy out. The merchant alone can give
you between $500 and $2000, depending on the merchant and how much pressure you
apply. The racket can cost anywhere between $800 to $2000, but as mentioned
above you should be getting them to pay you, so expect around $500 - $1000 from
them. That's quite a tidy bit of money to get from one mission.
If you fail to extort the merchant and, if applicable, buy out the racket, your
mobster will lose Respect and the territory will remain neutral. If you
succeed, your mobster will gain Respect and the territory will belong you,
passing on income, cards and other benefits to you for as long as you hold it.
*NOTE: There are two stats that can come into play when extorting. One is the
Street Smarts stat, which increases the likelihood of businesses
giving in without any fuss, and lowers the price of buying out rackets.
Since you want them to pay you, this is a rather shoddy stat to boost.
It can help during story missions, but disregard them for better stats.
The second attribute is Fighting, which increase the amount of pressure
you generate when using physical threats and attacks. This is handy,
but fighting sucks in the game, and you'll simply take a bit longer
to milk merchants. Disregard this stat as well.
--------------
Retaliation
--------------
When you move a mobster into enemy territory, you'll initiate a Retaliation
mission. In these missions, you are taken to an automatically generated
location and are given one of three objective:
- Kill a specific mobster
- Kill every mobster
- Plant a bomb and escape
Of those three, the assassination objective is the easiest, followed by
sweeping the premises of mobsters. Bombing a regular territory is also quite
easy, but there's the risk of getting stuck on some object on the way out and
blowing yourself up. Bombing also increases your Heat drastically, so you would
generally prefer the other two. You can't pick which to do though, so suck it
in.
Playing a Retaliation mission is identical to playing a Story mission. All your
weapons and stats carry over to your Retaliation mobster, with the only
difference being how much Respect the mobster has. Technically, you're playing
that mobster, but you're using the same "character" throughout the whole game.
This has one important implication: since all your stats and weapons carry
over, your puny Outsider could turn into a formidable powerhouse equivalent to
an Associate or even a Soldier. Of course, your higher ranked mobsters will be
quite strong. This is one reason why you should balance progress through Story
and Mob Wars, and it allows you to make life easier for both modes.
Retaliation missions are as straightforward as you can get, really.
Nonetheless, here are the objectives and how to complete them:
- Hit: The target you need to kill is identified by a target
above his head. All you need to do is kill him using
whatever means possible. However, it's much easier if
you take out the other enemies around him to make your
mission easier, and there's no need to hurry.
- Elimination: As above, but you need to kill every mobster in the
mission, including the ones outside. If you're stuck,
check for stairs you might have missed and check for
red markers on your minimap.
- Demolition: Eliminate mobsters that get your way and head to the
target room indicated on your map. You'll know you're
in the right place when the Bomb command appears. Press
X (you don't need to have the Bomb itself equipped) to
set the bomb. You have around ten seconds to get out
of the building; if you fail to escape you will die and
the mission is failed. If you use the bomb in the
wrong location, you also fail.
===============================================================================
4.7 - Tips [MBW007]
===============================================================================
This section will provide a brief list of information to keep in mind while
going through Mob Wars.
-------------
Recruitment
-------------
- Rank matters. Outsiders are a guaranteed loss if enemies attack. Try to get
Associates at the very least, and rely on Soldiers and Capos to capture high-
risk territories and guard choke points.
- Once you get steady income, rely on Soldiers instead of Associates. There's
not much point in hoarding money unless you want it all stolen by a lucky
family.
-------------
Negotiation
-------------
- Keep track of which cards you want to save and which ones you can discard.
Favor cards can and should be used immediately to gain easy cash or cards.
Bribe cards are handy to reduce Heat and Transport cards can be saved to
quickly take out an enemy compound. Hit and Alliance cards suck; don't bother
with them unless they happen to come in handy.
- Try to use as many cards as you can each turn to prevent your enemies from
stealing them.
--------------
Intimidation
--------------
- Remember that you can only perform one Extortion and one Retaliation per turn
regardless of success.
- With that in mind, often it's better to take out an enemy compound instead of
of capturing each of their territories. This allows you to sweep through
the released territories while still attacking enemy territories, making it
faster to dominate New York.
- While missions ultimately depend on your skill, bear in mind that stats DO
matter. Heat is the worst; too much Heat and cops will make missions pretty
damn hard. Vendetta you can overcome with smart tactics, but keep in mind
that even a high-ranking max-health character can't take too many shotgun
hits.
---------
General
---------
- While enemies go through the same phases, they don't hire mobsters. All
attacks are simulated, so you can't do anything to prevent an enemy attack
other than planting a good mobster in a good location.
- Be mindful of mobsters losing Respect while defending territories. If one of
your guys is getting battered, swap him out with another high-rank.
- Press Square at any time to view Tom's Report, which is a summary of
everything happening in Mob Wars, including territory and family details.
===============================================================================
4.8 - Early-Game Strategy [MBW008]
===============================================================================
The first stages of Mob Wars will be focused on preparing yourself for all-out
war against all the families, with the first target being the Tattaglias to
your east.
Your objectives for the early game should include:
- Extort all neutral territories in Little Italy
- Recruit Associates or Soldiers to guard territories adjacent to the Straccis
and Barzinis.
- Eliminate the Tattaglias and capture all neutral territories in Brooklyn.
You should avoid invading other neighbourhoods or attacking other families
before finishing the Tattaglias. It'll be hard to fight a war on so many
fronts, and even though you're at war anyway, you'll want to keep your mobsters
fresh to defend against attacks. Focus on beating one family at a time.
Early game will be when your mobsters will be most mobile. Bearing in mind that
you can only perform one Retaliation and one Extortion mission per turn, it
will take you at least two turns to capture the Tattaglia compound. If you
manage to get a Transport card early on, use it against the Tattaglia compound
for a quick victory against your neighbours.
For the very first turn, you'll always draw the same cards: Petty Theft and
Handshake. Use Petty Theft on the Tattaglias, and use Handshake on one of your
mobsters (preferably your Associate on your compound). You'll need to recruit
one mobster to capture the neutrals - buy a Soldier if you got as much money as
you could from the Story missions; otherwise buy Outsiders and Associates while
trying to promote your Associates. Capture West Brooklyn from the Tattaglias
and the neutral territory closest to them. This will be the only offensive
action you can take on the Tattaglias in the first turn. Most of the families
will consolidate their neutrals and will be unlikely to breach your buffer
zones, but if they do make sure you remove them before they attack your
compound.
The Tattaglias should fall very quickly. If you're short on money, go through
more Story missions to quickly accumulate cash and skill points to improve your
mobsters. If you made a beeline for the Tattaglia compound, they'll be out in
two turns, and this will prevent a protracted conflict. You'll still need to
capture all the neutrals before you're ready to take on the next family.
===============================================================================
4.9 - Mid-Game Strategy [MBW009]
===============================================================================
The mid-game involves consolidating your territories from the first defeated
family (most likely the Tattaglias), eliminating the second family (preferably
the Straccis), saving money to recruit Soldiers and promoting them to use
against the Cuneos and the Barzinis in the end-game.
The mid-game is unlikely to go as smoothly as the early-game phase. The
following should be taken into account:
- While you only have to deal with three families, they will be stornger by the
time you go up against them.
- Enemies will likely attempt to capture border territories, forcing you to
recapture them.
- The Cuneos are likely to give the other two families a hard time, as they
have no direct contact with you and tend to overpower the other two families.
The mid-game phase can stretch to a significant length if you are unable to
fend off enemy attacks, which cost your one Retaliation mission per turn by
recapturing territories. Failure to recapture territories will cost you your
neighbourhood bonus as well as put your other territories at risk. Try to place
Soldiers and Capos in your border territories to prevent your enemies from
walking through your front door.
Priority goes to blocking your choke points. Since the Barzinis share the same
region as the Cuneos, attacking the Barzinis carries the risk of the Cuneos
fighting over your newly-gained territories and you'll still need to defend
against the Straccis closer to home. For that reason, it is a much better idea
to knock out the Straccis before sweeping the Cuneos and Barzinis in one go. If
you do atttack the Barzinis, only capture the closest enemy territory across
the bridge; this is a natural bottleneck and planting a Capo or Soldier there
will keep the Barzinis off you for quite a while.
Once your territories and defenses are complete, focus your efforts in breaking
through to the Straccis. If you've got a Transport card, this phase can end
pretty damn quickly. If not, you don't have to travel far to reach the compound
anyway; their compound is convenient connected two moves away from Little
Italy.
After eliminating the Straccis, consolidate Brooklyn and you can pick between
attacking the Barzinis through Little Italy or the Cuneos through Brooklyn.
===============================================================================
4.10 - End-Game Strategy [MBW010]
===============================================================================
Naturally, different players will progress through the game differently. At
this stage of Mob Wars, a couple of scenarios can unfold:
- You've knocked out the Barzinis, resulting in a struggle with the Straccis
and Cuneos.
- You've knocked out the Straccis, leaving the Barzinis and Cuneos.
Of the two, the latter is preferable. Eliminating the Straccis in mid-game
allows you to capture the neutrals in Brooklyn, giving you the cash bonus that
will most likely tip the scales in your favour. The other scenario is also
feasible, but you'll be fighting the Cuneos on a wide front with less money, so
this section will assume you have the two remaining families conveniently boxed
in.
By now, you should be stinking rich, especially if you've done all the Story
missions. You should have Soldiers and Capos in your border territories, and if
you don't, recruit more Soldiers. Capture Brooklyn if you haven't already, and
position mobsters to ward off Cuneo attacks into Brooklyn and Barzini attacks
into Little Italy. Once you've established this line of defense, you've got
options.
Well, two options, and they're more or less the same. You can either take out
the Barzinis first, or the Cuneos. The Barzinis are closer to home, so I
recommend taking them out first unless you have mobsters closer to the Cuneo
compound or you've got a Transport card. Due to the wide border between the
Cuneos and the Barzinis, avoid getting into a protracted war as you'll be
taking territories from each other. Make a beeline to the compound, then strike
into the last family's compound. Don't worry about capping neutral territories
at this stage; money should be abundant and you should be strong enough to
shotgun through the remaining compounds.
Once you have taken the last compound, you will become Don according to Mob
Wars, and can no longer replay Mob Wars mode. If you have completed Story mode,
y9ou will become Don of New York City and thereby finish the game.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
5.0 - WEAPONS [WPN000]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Throughout The Godfather: Mob Wars, players will come across a small variety of
weapons, including handguns and heavier long-arm weapons. As with stats, all
weapons are shared across Story and Mob Wars. Standard weapons are picked up
from enemies, while ammunition is bought from the Black Market menu between
missions. Upgrades are unlocked as players progress through both modes (note:
it isn't possible to unlock everything by playing one more exclusively).
Note that you don't need to purchase a Level 2 upgrade before purchasing the
Level 3 upgrade. You can, and often should, skip the Level 2 upgrade and save
the money for the Level 3 upgrade later on. Some weapons are not worth the
Level 3 investment.
-------------------------
Weapon Control Overview
-------------------------
Draw Weapon..................[D-pad Up]
Reload.......................While weapon drawn - [D-pad Up]
Conceal Weapon...............[D-pad Down]
Change Weapon................[D-pad Left]/[D-pad Right]
Fire Weapon*.................[X]
Lock-On**....................[L]
Manual Aim...................[R]
Lock-on + Manual Aim.........[L] + [R]
Execute***...................[S] (only during on-screen trigger)
Notes:
* The game lacks a quick-fire ability. Pressing the fire button while not
locked onto a target will fire the weapon into the ground or wall. Never fire
a gun without locking onto a target first.
** Lock-on can be activated from behind cover (i.e. crouched behind objects,
leaning around walls). However, lock-on requires direct line of sight from
the character. If the character has not seen the target, even with the
minimap, the target cannot be locked on.
*** Execution pops up while attacking in point-blank range (i.e. touching
distance). Pressing X at this range will also automatically perform an
execution, with the specific execution varying with the enemy's position
and weapon used.
---------------
.38 Snub Nose
---------------
Damage: Weak
Firing Rate: Slow
Capacity: 6 rounds
Upgrades: .38 Special
Saturday Night Special
The .38 revolver is the first weapon obtained in Story mode, given to the
player by Luca after the introductory mission and followed by a brief shooting
training mission. As the starting weapon, the .38 revolver is the weakest
weapon in the game and the least flexible. With only 6 rounds in its magazine,
the weapon cannot be used for sustained combat and requires frequent reloading.
Upgrading the .38 will improve its firing rate and increase the maximum
ammunition. The weapon does not improve in damage noticeably, which makes the
weapon upgrades a waste of money. However, it is the first weapon you can fully
upgrade, so if you have cash to spare and like using the .38, you might want to
invest in upgrades to increase the amount of ammunition carried. Note that
despite having a faster rate of fire, you really don't want to fire recklessly
due to the 6-round limitation.
The .38 is used by all police officers and some mobsters, although most will
use Pistols and Magnums instead, so you'll find yourself out of ammunition
quite quickly. Note that while Luca says the .38 is a quiet weapon, it makes a
bang as much as any other gun, and doesn't do anything to reduce the amount of
heat you get after killing people. Also, as you don't need to go through
specific execution methods using multiple hit locations such as several hits
from the console version, you won't ever need a weak weapon. If you just want a
straightforward handgun, use the Pistol instead.
As the .38 doesn't significantly change, you might want to skip the Level 2
upgrade, or you might want to avoid upgrading entirely.
--------
Pistol
--------
Damage: Medium
Firing Rate: Medium
Capacity: 8 rounds (14 rounds fully upgraded)
Upgrades: Extended Clip Pistol
Assassin's Pistol
The pistol is the M1911 Colt .45 automatic pistol, one of the best handguns
ever created. Unfortunately, its qualities are not made apparent in the game,
although it is one of the better pistols all-around. The M1911 is carried by
many mobsters, so ammunition is rarely low, and the weapon has more bullets
than the two revolvers.
The high magazine capacity is best suited for players who like to shoot targets
from afar with precision headshots, as it allows you to shoot more enemies
before reloading. Upgrading the Pistol is worth it if that is your play-style,
and its power makes it better for fighting indoors than the .38. However, the
Magnum provides much more powerful and is a great alternative, especially the
fully upgraded Python.
Upgrading the weapon will increase its ammunition capacity and max ammo count,
as well as slightly increasing power. If you want the most balanced firearm,
upgrade the Pistol to Level 3.
--------
Magnum
--------
Damage: High
Firing Rate: Slow
Capacity: 6 rounds (8 rounds fully upgraded)
Upgrades: Extended Barrel Magnum
Python
The most powerful of the handguns, the Magnum is arguably one of the best
weapons in the game, over more useful than the Tommy Gun. The Magnum has superb
one-shot accuracy and has excellent stopping power. The disadvantage in using
the Magnum is its slow firing rate and small magazine capacity. While lacking
the magazine size of the Pistol, the Magnum can kill in less shots, especially
if going for torso shots instead of headshots, and great for indoor use, as
point-blank shots will usually kill in one hit.
The Magnum is popular among enemy mobsters, although less frequent than the
Pistol, so ammo can run short, especially if you're using the Magnum for long-
range fighting. Since the ammo costs more, try to save the Magnum for medium
range encounters.
Be sure to upgrade the Magnum to the Python when you can. The Python's 8-round
capacity, extra ammo and improved damage make the Magnum a deadly weapon. This
will most likely be the weapon you rely on most.
---------------------
Pump-Action Shotgun
---------------------
Damage: Very High
Firing Rate: Slow
Capacity: 2 rounds (10 rounds fully upgraded)
Upgrades: Double-barrelled Shotgun
Street Sweeper
Behold, the most powerful firearm in the game. Very few thing can stand up to a
shotgun blast, especially at close range where every shot is lethal. At longer
range, the power of the shotgun fades quickly. This is bad for you if you're
using the shotgun exclusively, but also a good thing because mobsters will do
poor damage from that range and often won't close the distance. However, be
aware that you *don't* want to run around the corner inside a house into the
wrong end of a shotgun. One or two shots will send you sprawling to the ground
instantly.
That said, the shotgun is surprisingly good all-round. The weapon is powerful,
and while slow to fire it reloads quickly. It also has excellent range, and as
headshots multiply damage, scoring a headshot is always fatal, even at longer
distance. The shotgun is less common with mobsters, usually reserved for
higher-level enemies.
The Street Sweeper upgrade is very expensive, but be sure to get it as soon as
you can. The Street Sweeper boasts a 10-round magazine and is fully automatic,
turning it into a super-Magnum. You can blow through entire missions with this
weapon, and it makes later Story missions ridiculously easy. The only downside
to the Street Sweeper is that you will exhaust your ammunition very quickly,
which costs a fair bit to replenish.
-----------
Tommy Gun
-----------
Damage: Weak
Firing Rate: Very Fast
Capacity: 25 rounds (75 fully upgraded)
Upgrades: Modified Tommy Gun
Dillinger
The Tommy Gun is the only submachine gun in the game (note that the in-game
description is "machine gun"). As an automatic weapon, the Tommy Gun is the
fastest weapon in the game. However, it is one of the weaker weapons,
presumably for balance purposes. Since the Tommy Gun has poor damage and poor
accuracy, especially if firing in long bursts, players might opt for the
cheaper but more reliable handguns, especially the powerful Magnum.
Most high-ranked mobsters are equipped with the Tommy Gun, and although they
will do little damage to you, being exposed to a lot of Tommy Gun bullets will
take its toll on your health. The Tommy Gun is highly inaccurate, so avoid
using it for long-distance combat, preferably saving it for indoor fighting,
but even then the Shotgun has a better killing ability. Since the Thompson is
the most expensive in regards to ammo and upgrades, it turns out to be a white
elephant: it's a good weapon, but there's no use for it between the Shotgun and
the Magnum, and struggles against even the regular handguns. If you do use it,
make sure you fire in short bursts to maintain the most accuracy, and aim for
the torso, otherwise you will outline the head while doing minimal damage.
Upgrading the Tommy Gun will increase its magazine capacity to 50 and 75 rounds
respectively. The upgrades are woefully expensive, and 50 rounds is more than
enough for the Tommy Gun. Only get the Dillinger if you have a lot of money to
waste.
----------
Dynamite
----------
Damage: Very High
Firing Rate: N/A
Capacity: Maximum 3
Dynamite is a thrown weapon, which means you throw it into an area without
locking onto a target. Dynamite can be aimed using the R button and thrown by
holding down the X button. Dynamite has a short fuse of around 5 seconds.
One of the problems with using Dynamite is that it's very difficult to get an
enemy to actually stay in the area long enough for the dynamite to explode.
Most enemies will clear the area as soon as the stick is thrown, and there is
no way to make the fuse shorter. While it is safer to use than a Molotov,
Dynamite really isn't that useful as a weapon.
As a tool, however, Dynamite is essential. Certain missions contain safes.
Standing next to the safe with dynamite in your inventory will trigger the
ability to blast open the safe using the X button when prompted. Safes usually
contain a $10,000 money bag, making an excellent source of instant cash.
Blowing a safe will also drop another stick of dynamite, so you don't need to
buy another one.
Note that the Dynamite should be be confused with the similar-looking Bomb,
which is used for detonation missions. Also, enemies will never use Dynamite
against you.
---------
Molotov
---------
Damage: Very High
Firing Rate: N/A
Capacity: Maximum 3
The Molotov is a thrown weapon similar to Dynamite. The difference is that the
Molotov explodes on impact, making it a dangerous weapon to use, especially in
indoor environments. The Molotov has a large blast radius, making it essential
to throw the Molotov quite far to prevent severe damage. Despite its danger,
the Molotov is also more effective at clearing rooms than a stick of Dynamite.
As with Dynamite, Molotovs are never used by enemies. Unlike Dynamite, Molotovs
have no secondary use.
------
Bomb
------
The Bomb is an explosive weapon that is automatically placed in the player's
inventory during a demolition mission. The Bomb can be selected, but unlike
Dynamite it is placed on the ground rather than thrown. Bombs are placed
instantaneously. However, you should only place bombs when you are in the
correct position and are prompted to place it. While you can place it anywhere,
placing it outside the target area will fail your mission.
You are issued with one bomb for Retaliation missions and two bombs when
assaulting compounds - one bomb for each compound in the mission. Placing the
bomb in the demolition area will start off a timer, and you will need to run
out of the *whole building* to prevent dying. If you are still within the
building when the bomb goes off, you will instantly die. Note that any enemy
still in the mission area will still die even if they are outside the destroyed
house.
---------------
Melee Weapons
---------------
These can be picked up at verious points in the game, and include the baseball
bat, lead pipe and police baton. These do silghtly more damage than using bare
fists, but the difference isn't huge and there isn't any real reason to use
them other than to beat someone down quicker in stealth missions.
Controls for melee weapons are the same as if you did not have a weapon drawn,
so you can grab enemies and throw them around while holding a melee weapon.
--------------
Garrote Wire
--------------
This weapon allows you to sneak up to enemies and strangle them without
alerting other enemies. To use the Garrote, sneak up to an enemy using the
Square button. When you get into touch range, hold the L and R buttons. The
character will strangle the enemy until they lose all their health steadily or
after a certain amount of time, after which they will drop dead automatically.
Despite being the most silent method of dispatching guards, choking an enemy
with your bare hands is probably faster and carries slightly more risk of
detection, while beating someone up with a melee weapon is much faster but far
noisier.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
6.0 - GAME-MOVIE COMPARISON [GMC000]
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Being based off one of the best films of all time, The Godfather: Mob Wars
inherits much of the same characteristics of the film. Most notable is the way
the game integrates game-exclusive events with plots and sub-plots found in the
film. This section will explore some of the interesting details found in the
game and film.
*** WARNING: This section contains spoilers for both the game and the film.
If you do not wish to have either spoiled, please do not read
beyond this point.
===============================================================================
6.1 - Characters [GMC001]
===============================================================================
The Godfather game features many familiar faces from the film, although with
notable absences such as Al Pacino not working for the game, thereby creating a
new Michael Corleone character. This section will discuss the characters in the
game along with their movie counterparts, where applicable.
--------------
Aldo Trapini
--------------
This is the player's character. Although never specifically named, "Aldo" is
the default name in the character creation screen, and circumstantial evidence
in the console versions imply that "Trapini" is his last name. Aldo has nothing
to do with the film; he is a game-exclusive character introduced to the
Corleone family by Luca Brasi. Aldo has a personal vendetta with Don Barzini
for the murder of his father. According to Luca Brasi, Aldo was formerly a
soldier.
Aldo is a close friend on Monk Malone, another new introduction to the
Corleones, and has feelings for Monk's sister Francisca "Frankie" Malone. As a
non-canonical character, Aldo fills in some of the gaps in the movie and
assumes some tasks that other film characters would have done.
The big anomaly with Aldo Trapini is his rise through the family. It seems far-
fetched that an outsider like Aldo could become the Don of the Corleone family,
especially as the intentions of the actual Don, Michael Corleone, are not
relayed in the game. While the rise of the Sicilian Trapini does fit the
traditional hierarchy instead of the German-Irish Tom Hagen, this plot twist is
somewhat confusing and unexplained.
-------------
Monk Malone
-------------
Marty "Monk" Malone is a close friend of Aldo Trapini. Like Aldo, Monk is not a
character from the film and is also a recent introduction to the Corleone
family. Monk prefers wearing a black suit and hat. His sister, Frankie Malone,
is a potential match for Aldo Trapini.
Monk appears early in the game to beat up the college students who assaulted
Bunosera's daughter, along with Paulie Gatto. He doesn't actually do any
fighting, leaving the dirty work to Aldo. Monk soon appears again, having bee
wounded after being informed of Luca Brasi's murder and placed in the same
hospital as Vito Corleone. After his recovery, Monk is a frequent partner in
the Story missions.
Monk surprisingly lacks much story involvement; the most significant being his
betrayal of Aldo towards the end. With the death of his sister and the distrust
the Corleones have with him, Monk feels that he has no future with the
Corleones.
Monk is killed by Aldo Trapini during his escape from Monk's trap.
-------------------
Don Vito Corleone
-------------------
The original Godfather, Vito Corleone is the head of the Corleone family. Vito
Corleone has very little presence in the game itself. He is encountered as a
bit of an easter egg during the hospital mission after his assassination
attempt, since the focus of the mission is on protecting Monk Malone rather
than Vito Corleone. In the film, his son Michael Corleone moves him to a
different room in the hospital when he has a gut feeling that Vito is being set
up for another assassination attempt; in the game, the assassin meant for Vito
attacks Monk Malone, who apparently occupies Vito's original room.
Vito makes no other significant appearances in the story missions, apart from
being driven to hospital by Aldo when his ambulance is ambushed after his
assassination attempt.
------------------
Michael Corleone
------------------
Vito Corleone's second son and the new head of the family (assuming he remains
Don in the game; apparently Aldo "becomes" the Don for an unexplained reason).
A decorated Marine in the Second World War, Michael is treated as a civilian
until he murders Sollozzo after the attempt on his father's life. Michael only
has one appearance as a game character: Aldo has to meet with Michael in the
hospital to protect his father, in essence replacing Enzo from the film.
The main curiosity is Michael's status as Don, since the objective of the whole
game is for the player to become Don.
----------------
Sonny Corleone
----------------
Santiano 'Sonny' Corleone is the eldest son of Vito Corleone and assumes the
position of Don during Vito's recovery. Sonny is aggressive and seeks open war
against the other families in retaliation for the assassination attempt on his
father. In the game, Sonny appears during some of the missions, and accompanies
Aldo in a couple of scenarios.
After Sonny's assassination, Aldo performs a retaliation by himself.
------------
Luca Brasi
------------
While his role in the film was severely reduced from the novel, Luca Brasi's
main purpose in the game is to introduce Aldo Trapini to the Corleones and
instruct him in fighting techniques and the use of firearms.
Luca's lucrative story appearance ends there. Under orders from Don Corleone to
fake a defection to Sollozzo, he takes the young Aldo with him. Luca is
assassinated, leaving Aldo to take vengeance on his killers alone.
-------------------
The Five Families
-------------------
The Corleones, Cuneos, Tattaglias, Straccis and Barzinis are all represented in
this game. Unlike the film, the mobsters are colour-coded to make it easier for
players to recognise specific enemies. You'll only ever encounter enemies from
one family at a time, and they're practically identical anyway. The families
are coded as follows:
Corleone: Black
Tattaglia: Beige/Grey
Stracci: Blue
Barzini: Green
Cuneo: Red
The families themselve aren't specifically referred to in the game often,
especially the influential heads of the families, who make their only notable
appearance at the end of the game.
===============================================================================
6.2 - Events [GMC002]
===============================================================================
While the game closely follows the events in the movie, there are many notable
differences or variations to the movie's events. This section will list some of
the notable details.
-------------------------------
Mission 03: A Grave Situation
-------------------------------
This mission is a follow-up of Mr. Bunosera's request to Don Corleone at the
beginning of the film. Bunosera's daughter was beaten up by a couple of college
students, and after pledging his friendship to the Godfather, Bunosera is
granted his request. Don Corleone orders "two reliable men" to teach these
college kids a lesson.
While the event is not covered in the film, the novels reveal one of the two
men to be Vito's own bodyguard, Paulie Gatto. In the game, the second man is
Monk Malone. Aldo Trapini is brought along to prove himself, making it a three-
man team.
--------------------------------------
Mission 04: Sleeping with the Fishes
--------------------------------------
The mission follows the film's events, only with Aldo killing the assassins. As
an easter egg, the bar room contains a garrote wire in the same position as the
assassin in the film.
-----------------------------
Mission 05: The Don is Dead
-----------------------------
The mission acts as a filler between the film's events, with Aldo driving the
Don in the ambulance. No such ambush is hinted at in the film.
----------------------------
Mission 06: Intensive Care
----------------------------
In the film, Michael Corleone arrives at the hospital and discovers that no one
is around apart from a nurse. In the game, Aldo meets with one security guard,
who takes his weapons while he visits the wounded Monk Malone, who is
supposedly placed in Vito's old room. The assassin meant for Vito shoots
through Monk's window instead.
The film character Enzo, the baker's son, does not appear to visit Vito in the
game. In the film, Enzo pretends to stand guard at the front of the hospital
with Michael Corleone to dissuade Vito's would-be assassins. In the game, Aldo
essentially fulfills this role, although the availability of firearms in the
hospital itself changes things somewhat, and it is Aldo who holds off a handful
of Tattaglia mobsters from reaching Monk and Vito.
----------------------------------
Mission 08: Death to the Traitor
----------------------------------
In the film, Pete Clemenza and an accomplice go on a drive with Vito's
bodyguard, Paulie Gatto. When Clemenza stops the car to take a leak, Paulie
Gatto is shot dead in the car.
The game changes the fate of Paulie significantly. While on a mission with
Clemenza and Aldo Trapini, Paulie disappears, presumably to tip off the enemy.
He escapes to a storage yard where he is killed by Aldo.
-----------------------
Mission 09: Horseplay
-----------------------
The game's placement of this mission is surprisingly late. In the film, Johnny
Fontane appears at the beginning during Connie's wedding, and Vito Corleone
orders his consigliere Tom Hagen to convince the stubborn director to cast
Fontane. This variation from the film's timeline is most likely done to develop
the character of Aldo in New York before taking him to Hollywood.
In the game, Aldo and Rocco Lampone cut off Khartoum's head as intimidation,
explaining the film's events.
----------------------------------
Mission 10: A Recipe for Revenge
----------------------------------
Before Michael meets with Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, the Corleones plot to
plant a handgun in the toilet at the back of restaurant. In the game, it is
Aldo who plants the revolver. The mission deviates from the film in that
Tattaglia reinforcements attack the restaurant, forcing Aldo to shoot them out
and escape in the car with Michael.
--------------------------------
Mission 12: The Silent Witness
--------------------------------
In the film, the assassination of Bruno Tattaglia is only mentioned in the
film, with the indirect sign being the increase in security at the Corleone
compound. In the game, Aldo is the one who carries out the hit, throwing Bruno
into the furnace, which is tied to Bruno's order to kill Frankie Malone, making
it a personal vendetta between Aldo and Bruno.
--------------------------------
Mission 16: It's Just Business
--------------------------------
In the film, the traitor Tessio is apprehended by the Corleones after the
murder of all the family heads under the orders of Michael Corleone. The game
alters events, with Aldo acting as Tessio's escort to the arranged meeting with
Don Barzini, the plan being to get Tessio caught in the crossfire between the
Barzinis and Corleones. The plan fails, and Aldo has to pursue Tessio and kill
him personally.
-----------------------------
Mission 17: Baptism of Fire
-----------------------------
The climax of the film is altered for the purpose of gameplay, with Aldo doing
most of the killing instead of the film characters.
Don Stracci: Aldo can either kill Stracci in his own office, or he
can escort him downstairs where Clemenza shoots him as
he does in the film.
Don Cuneo: Instead of being trapped in the revolving door, he is
simply shot by Aldo.
Don Tattaglia: He holds a prostitute hostage and fires on Aldo, who
kill him. In the film, he is unaware of the hit and is
shot in bed along with the prostitute.
Don Barzini: Instead of the disguised Al Neri shooting Barzini and
his bodyguards, it is Aldo who shoots out the mobsters
and faces Barzini alongside Al Neri.
The hits are done in sequential order rather than simultaneously in order to
transport Aldo from location to location.
===============================================================================
END OF FILE
Copyright (c) 2007 David "Scottie_theNerd" Nguyen
===============================================================================
