Made Man

It seems like nowadays, the only thing you need to do to make yourself look talented as a game studio is pump out a game title that emulates some other game, only making more ?extreme? renditions to it to seem original. A good example of this is the game I reviewed a week ago, Scarface: The World is Yours. Instead of being original, the game simply ripped off Grand Theft Auto and left it crying in a gutter as it sold a million copies for some reason. Wow.

The game ?Made Man? (formerly known as ?Interview with a Made Man?) is probably one of the most interesting but simultaneously most unoriginal game on the planet. To explain it simply, Made Man is a game that follows the (fictional) character Joey Verola, an Italian-American catholic, from his near escape in the jungles of Vietnam to becoming a ?Made Man? in the system of organized crime in America. What is interesting about this is, according to the game developers, the game is based on real life events (written by David Fisher), even going so far as to hire former Bonnano crime family member Bill Bonnano to put his word in on the game.

And this sounds pretty cool. Unlike Grand Theft Auto or something along those lines, the things in this game are based on real life events, and thus have some validity to them. Some things in games similar to this tend to be too fantasy-like- destroying a whole building, for example. With Made Man, everything is given the reality touch, and there is something alluring about that.



The strange thing about Made Man is the strange past it had before hitting shelves this November. The game was originally in development by Acclaim studios, which ended up shutting their doors and leaving the creators in the dust. The creators, virtually sold with the idea of their game, eventually opened their own studio, named silverback studios, to finish the game off. Even stranger is how they used old time publisher Mastertronic, who is now virtually dead to corporate takeover by Sega. That being said, this game flew under the radar for everyone in the gaming scene.

And surprisingly, the game is not totally bad. Joey Verola controls much like Max Payne did before him- third person shooting with similar graphic styles. What makes Joey Verola different from Max Payne is that Max Payne does many flips to achieve his goals, whereas Made Man seems to focus completely on ?real? moves- which basically equate into ?getting behind a box and praying the box won't break?. If you're about to say ?boring?, you're pretty much right.

And here is where I ruin silverback's hopes and dreams in one big sweeping assault on their game. Made Man is not by any means a bad game, but it is so insanely boring and grinding that I felt as if I was being forced to play the game. Instead of tossing in anything revolutionary to spice up the game, Made Man feels quite a bit like some sort of bad arcade-based third person shooter, simply making you lock on to any enemy and duck, popping out and shooting whenever it works, which is usually never. Joey Verola, though his story is not totally bad, reminds me a lot of a character from a old SNES game- the kind that, even if they do talk, should never open his mouth and just act as a medium between the game and the player.

Made Man seems to follow stereotypes like crack as well. Even if I were to generally ignore the fact that the game makes every mafia member out to be the same, silverback still made no effort to make interesting characters. A good example of this is the very start of the game, where Joey must blast his way through toothless overall wearing hicks who stole his truck full of cigarettes. Exciting. And very, very boring.



Oh, and I must mention the Vietnam sequences. Much like any movie made about the time period from the 60s to mid 70s, Made Man decides to rely on Vietnam as some kind of emotional crutch to make everything more human. Just like every other movie, book, game, story, reference, song, or poem, Vietnam is hell, and of course, Joey is just ?another kid? who wants to ?get out? and ?see momma? or something along those lines. And, just like the movies using such a crutch, Made Man expects the gamer to bond with Joey in this way, to expect him to be hard boiled but sensitive, and awesome.

No. All that went through my mind was ?This game is stupid? and ?Why don't the Vietnamese just shoot back?. Guess I should have been there.

I really don't know how to explain Made Man more than I already have. Made Man reminds me of any generic Max Payne ripoff, except it puts any gamer to sleep in about an hour. The game expects an unreal amount of patience from the player, as well as tossing boring ?Vietnam is hell? cut scenes in between to make it more like a really bad movie. If I want to see a bad movie, I would rather see it than play it- that way, I can just walk out of the theater. Three stars.

3 star(s) out of 5

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