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Only fans of the show should buy this game.

User Rating: 5.5 | The Sopranos: Road to Respect PS2

By Natrass | Review Date: June 30, 2007

I love the series on tv so I had to get this game despite all the bad press. General stuff: You play as Big **** son, Joey LaRocca. Tony takes you in to do assorted jobs and the goal of the game is to get made. Fighting takes up about 85% of the game. You have a heavy attack, a light/quick attack and a grapple move where you can trigger combos that you unlock during the course of the game. On rare occasions you have a gun (pistol or shotgun). When in fighting mode objects glow indicating that you can use them to strike with (crowbar, 2x4, lamp, hacksaw, six pack, fishing pole, etc). During the game you'll come across "loot" such as cash, cell phones, PDAs, drugs, etc. which automatically add cash to your "account". You have a Respect meter which mustn't run out or you'll get wacked. Occasionally during conversations you can choose to be tough or smooth (or neutral if you don't act) and this will impact the outcome a little. You'll be visiting the Bada Bing, Satriale's and Nuovo Vesuvio as well as a generic gym, hospital, dockyard, garage and rave club. Good points: Use of actual cast voices gives the game great personality and is really the only strong point of this game. Without it the game gets a 3.5/10 rating. The dialog can be pretty funny at times(esp. Paulie) and the voice work done for the lead character Joey is good. It's nice to see/hear Big Pussy in the game considering he's no longer a living character (Joey imagines conversations with his pop from time to time). The fighting is workable as is the general gameplay. Not as atrociously bad as some have said unless you go in thinking it will be similar to GTA - they're in different leagues entirely.
Now the bad: It's repetitive as all heck. Most missions are of the "find ___"...run around a location...talk to somebody...fight someone...run to next area...fight some more guys, etc. The game is very short (6-8hrs). Maybe that's a blessing to some. Graphics are kind of dull. There's this one particular pointing gesture that Joey (and many of his adversaries) use all the time - you just have to laugh at stuff like that. And there seems to be a table saw sitting around every level. I know this is the PS2 and you can't expect too much but the main characters look just enough "off" that it didn't seem anything like "being a part of a Sopranos episode" despite what others have said. Although the main characters are here you won't find any of the female cast members or Uncle Junior, etc. You're never at Tony's house either. Getting Gandolfini and company was great but these guys aren't about to spend more than an hour laying voicework. This is one of the reasons why the game is so short. It's also why A.J is so prominant - if you took out all his "missions" the game wouldn't have lasted a whole Sopranos episode. The gunplay is very poor and maybe that's why they limited it to 2-3 missions. There is no driving in this game, everything is very linear (no freeroam). The loot you pick up is almost completely worthless. As is the Respect meter. I think once I got below 80%. Gave some money to Paulie and I was back at 100. Then I forgot all about it. I
The instruction manual used just 2 pages to explain the game. I'm serious. Even "Credits" ran 3 pages! Summary: I love the show so I did get some enjoyment out of the game. I play a ton of games but I wouldn't call myself an expert gamer or anything. If you love the show you'll want to at least rent this - If only to somewhat interact with Tony, Paulie, Christopher, etc. It's obviously not as good as any of the GTA titles but furthermore it doesn't rate with Getaway, Scarface, Godfather, Mafia or even True Crime.

The Sopranos: Road to Respect

Only fans of the show should buy this game.

The REAL review. Read on...

this game is so underrated