The Sopranos: Road to Respect (PlayStation 2)

The Sopranos: Road to Respect is a third person action-adventure game based on the popular HBO series “The Sopranos”.

In the game, the player portrays Joey LaRocca, a young enforcer working in the organization of Tony Soprano. Joey is the illegitimate son of Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, who was revealed to be an informant and was killed by Tony at the end of season 2 of the television show. The storyline of the game, taking place after season 5 of the series, involves Joey attempting to rise up in Tony’s organization and come out from under the shadow of his father.

The game is linear mission-based. Most missions are given at one of the signature Sopranos locations, such as the Bada Bing or Satriale’s. Each of these locations is modeled to look identical to the location from the television show. The player is given low-level tasks such as money collection and body dumping at first, but the story quickly ramps up to draw the player into a mob war between Tony Soprano’s New Jersey crew and the the crew of Angelo Buscetta in Philadelphia.

Gameplay is primarily brawler-based, with melee combos available and numerous weapons of opportunity, such as baseball bats, lamps, barbells, and whatever can be found at hand. The player can also use the environment as a weapon, slamming the enemy’s head into a filing cabinet or even pushing his face into a table saw.

There is some firearm combat in the game, which uses a typical third-person targeting system. However the player is taught early on that opening fire in a public place will cause a loss of respect from his peers. If the respect bar drops to zero, the player is killed by his own crew.

At various points in the game during conversations with an NPC, the player is prompted to have Joey act tough, play it smooth, or go somewhere in between. The decisions made here can determine whether the player ends up in a fight, or is able to talk his way out of the situation.

The game also features a poker mini-game. The player can play Texas Hold ‘Em against Tony, Christopher and Paulie. Once unlocked early in the campaign, the mini-game becomes available at the Bada Bing or directly from the main menu.

Voice acting for The Sopranos characters is handled by the actors who perform the role on the television program, including James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano.