Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster -- Reinvented

Well, I’m doing my first playthrough of the old demo and I’m quite liking it. Took a Black Hand member and we’ll see where it goes. Here’s something I’ve been thinking when it comes to the many stats featured in the game:

It’s interesting how quite a few of the newer games feature plenty of stats, and while all the ones in Vendetta feel like enablers of interesting, engaging routes, my advice would be to throw a little explanation like Choice of the Deathless does. That way, the writer can keep the many stats without having them become too confusing. For example, while there were things to like about Empyrean, I thought it often got chained down by its many different skills, which were hard to understand.

1 Like

My main gangster Benny is a businessman who prefers a hands-off approach. He’ll get his hands dirty if he has to, but guile and charm are his modus operandi. Any asshole can run in head first, guns blazing. There’s no art to it. But quietly turning an existing power structure to his advantage? He can get behind that. Plus, Rosie is a useful contact to have.

I like all the other options too, this is just the one I gravitate toward the most.

2 Likes

well for my main MC I usually take the raid because that path give me a nice leadership and reputacion boost and that scene is my MC’s dream: his mini…I mean his allies doing everything while he take all the credit.

pd: now the only inconvenient is that I posibbly own a favor or two to that people…grunt

2 Likes

This is my reason too, pretty much.

2 Likes

I usually lean toward the raid for a number of reasons. On nearly every character I take McGeegan’s money and inform Furio Rossi. I feel like if I’m going to make the Irish my enemies I might as well go all in. It also couldn’t hurt to reconnect with my old friends. Particularly with my Union Organizer characters. I don’t know what you have planned for Legs Lafaso but I’m hoping we can create one big union.

3 Likes

Can the same be said for the revolver? I play as a College Graduate, and his firearms skill is 10. I wouldn’t want the MC to be caught with a jammed gun in a gunfight…

Also, if we kill O’Hara and make a stand, we get to use a sawed-off shotgun. I don’t suppose we can keep it afterwards? I’ve a feeling that my MC might need it when Dino and Emilio inform the MC of another heist…

2 Likes

One reason I usually use Rosie to get revenge is that I plan (read: hope) she can become member of my gang later on. And for that reason I want to ease her into my plans and make her feel like an important member. Does that make sense? :slight_smile:

3 Likes

In the old demo, I go with the lone gun assault, then jump behind the bar option… I accidentally chose this route the first time I played the demo and survived with flying colors … so this is the route I go with now because of that.

The one thing that did not make sense to me is that my MC did not keep the shotgun he stole from the bar. I mean the snubnosed .38 is o.k. but give me the shotty to make into a stubby and you have an awesome beginner weapon for those MCs without gun skill.

3 Likes

There are some shorter leading men, but they’re the exception rather than the rule and seem to need to be even prettier in order to succeed. But you had/have Cruise and we’ve got Efron and outside Hollywood we’ve got the arguable Game of Thrones lead Kit Harrington. They remain relatively rare though.
But though at 173 cm I could just about have become a leading man if every domino had fallen the right way and my celiac’s had been properly diagnosed when I was younger when it comes to escapism I do like to be taller. Again, vicarious is the only way I’ll ever escape my own limited stature, even if only temporarily.

As for O’Hara no surprise there my college kid and political bagman go for the favour from Rosie, whereas Union organizer uses the old street gang.

1 Like

I use Rosie because it’s more fitting to use my bagmans ties to get him thrown back in jail. Then like I said way back I want to let him know it was me that got him put back in. Plus Rosie deserves a part in the revenge she was a Hellion too (at least in my bagmans eyes)

Although I still think it would be cool for ex cops to be able to use their uniform to go into the bar as a cop to thank him for his information…make the others think his snitching is why he got released early then they’ll kill him for the MC lol

2 Likes

Thanks guys, some tremendously useful thoughts & invaluable insight there – completely turning on its head much of what I had previously assumed. Keep it coming. :slight_smile:

At least one – the problem is getting to him! Time to carry some spare ammo…

Excellent. :smiley:

(For anyone not up to speed on their 1920s jargon – shame on you! – ‘Chicago Typewriter’ was one of the most common slang terms for a tommy gun).

I did ask for impressions on this whole sequence, and that’s obviously the strongest one it left you with, so please don’t feel sorry for speaking your mind. Even though I haven’t (yet) found a better way of wording things to our mutual satisfaction, it doesn’t mean I’ve entirely given up… Moreover, your main point has definitely hit home and will help to guide narrative edits and future new scenes throughout the game, so it was certainly not a waste of either your time or mine. Thank you. :slight_smile:

Ah, I understand now, sorry. I had misunderstood what you originally meant by your delicate phrasing of Carina being “imposing” – you meant eye-catchingly beautiful, of course. :slight_smile:

Yes, Angel most definitely feels very threatened by Carina for that very reason (hence being sulky and generally hostile toward her), as she’s still trying to win you for herself… in her own naively innocent way. Problem is, she doesn’t really understand what true love is, or what a relationship should be. It’s all still a bit twisted in her mind.

If you’re asking if any of the existing ROs have substantially changed in any way in the new version, either in appearance or character, then the answer is most emphatically No. What we do have now are more scenes involving your chosen lover(s), with – in most cases – a rather more-gradual development of romantic relationships. This has also given me more opportunity to expand and develop each of their characters, but fundamentally they have not actually changed, just grown.

Hardly subtle, but no doubt highly effective!

That is the main route for the most part, yes (even our female protagonist has cause to visit the bathhouse, although subsequent interactions are mostly quite different). The one real exception is Lucinda – Gina’s best friend – as you will likely encounter her later, regardless.

The MC has very recently graduated, and at the start of the story is doing voluntary work for the charitable foundation which put him through college – until contacted by Nick Morello to officially identify Gina’s body…

Thanks, I’m glad you like what you’ve seen so far. :slight_smile:

No worries – I rather suspect that the new version of Vendetta probably has one of the most detailed “Game System Information” sections we’re likely to see for quite a while… (including Attribute descriptions). In the new version, it’s accessible at any point during the game via the Modus Operandi (Show Stats) screen, under the Word on the Street section – which means you can just hit the Return to the Game button when you’ve found the precise information / description / expanded explanation you were looking for.

Revolvers are generally much more reliable in the game. Your problem will be your own inability to hit what you’re aiming at… which is arguably where all those extra bullets for the ‘twin pack’ come in handy! In either case, practice, practice, practice… :wink:

The ‘logic’ I applied at the time of writing the scene is that the empty shotgun had been discarded behind the bar, the MC is now in the middle of the room (deciding whether or not to shoot that last, young enemy gunman), and cars can be heard squealing to a halt outside… The MC has to make his getaway quickly out the back and down an alley, so would he really take the time / risk of going for the shotgun. More to the point, does he really want to risk being seen / caught fleeing with a highly visible weapon, or risk it impeding his escape if he has to climb walls (or whatever) to avoid being stopped by beat cops?

After all my deliberations, I decided that it would be far smarter just to leave – quickly!

As a direct result of which (excellent suggestion btw!) If you and Rosie get O’Hara locked up again, early in Chapter Two you have the opportunity – with Nick Morello’s help – to visit O’Hara in prison and make sure it’ll be a living hell for him… in more ways than one.

I like that. As I have already added yet another, equally sneaky way to deal with O’Hara (for particular backgrounds), it wouldn’t be too much trouble to add this as well. Thanks. :slight_smile:

10 Likes

quick question if you don’t mind. are protection rackets possible business opportunity’s and if so can we do it in a more gentler way like helping them out when it comes to rival gangs, city officials, etc. i’m asking because i have a strong urge to model my character after Declan (from the show bad blood).

1 Like

Erm… You first have opportunity to take over a Navy Street protection racket in the vicinity of the pool hall in Chapter Two, upon the death of a local hoodlum, Joey De Grazio (he’s the one your pool hall is paying for protection when you first take ownership there in Chapter One). This effectively establishes your own starting ‘territory’, and you do get to choose… sort of… how you intend to run that racket.

Previously your decision had a direct affect on some people / ROs, but in this version it impacts your Mentality stat instead – see Dev Blog #5 – and that in turn affects the opinions and feelings of those people. Sometimes to the same end result, but sometimes not… For those of you who remember the old playtest, yes, this means for instance that such as Angel won’t automatically leave you just because you decide to play Mr. Nice Guy in running the protection racket.

3 Likes

Huh, thought I read all the dev blogs. Must of missed that one. Regardless I appreciate having your MC’s actual personality separate from their image, especially as someone who fully intends to play as as a volatile, terrifying and violent thug in private and a charitable, kind and legitimate businessman in public.

5 Likes

Quick thing, is it ever specified what the college graduate has his degree in?

1 Like

Reading again the dev blogs and old comments it’s seem we could buy a “smelly” fish market in the game so it could be buy up in the first chapter or it will be in the next installements?

1 Like

It’s easily overlooked, being a single (and apparently minor) new bit amidst a host of new stuff, but in many ways it’s one of the most important changes / additions, as it directly impacts those characters who are the most important to your MC – your lover(s), close associates, and early (or later, main) gang members. In the old version some of these were making decisions based on a very narrow point of view (such as the example with Angel / the Protection racket mentioned above, but there were quite a few similar instances) and on reflection I felt that things shouldn’t always be quite so cut-and-dried as that. Decisions with such profound effects should really be more of a “last straw” thing, which your new Mentality stat now properly enables.

But you also touch on the other, perhaps even more important impact of having a personal Mentality separate to what the wider world may perceive, which is the intended ability of your MC to privately be completely different to how he / she is generally perceived. You mention one such approach, but the opposite is also entirely possible… in theory. :smiley: Mentality will naturally be one of the things we need to focus on during the final beta test…

Not to date, no. When we get around to elevating the College Graduate from a Secondary to Primary role, it will very likely be one of the subjects of a poll and quite some discussion, as it would be great if it could be something able to have a direct impact in his actual story in various ways, rather than just suggest intellectual superiority overall.

It results from a main story event at the very beginning of Chapter Two (the fish market is ripped apart by a Black Hand bomb just as you happen to be passing nearby, and the owner – whose entire family works there – later tries to sell you the business as a means of… discouraging further such attention, as he assumes it’s less likely La Mano Nera would trouble a rising local gangster such as yourself). As such, it’s not something possible in Chapter One.

The way the story is written, the entire First Chapter (the Public Demo) is devoted to just the first week since learning of Gina’s brutal murder, and ends with her funeral and your resolve to (maybe!) hunt down her killer(s) and avenge her. All subsequent Chapters however cover four weeks each, although the number of weeks covered in Chapter Six (the final one) will vary based on which Game Endings are actually still achievable on that particular playthrough. In effect, if you survive that long, Rise of a Gangster tells your story over a total of 18-21 weeks.

8 Likes

“INFAMOUS GANGLAND PSYCHOPATH CAUGHT RISKING LIFE TO SAVE PUPPIES IN RIVER”

Mr Terranova comments “Those mutts owed me dough, I ain’t goin’ soft!” Witnesses report seeing the vicious crimelord giving first aid to the infant pups, going as far as to skywardly scream “WHY GOD? WHY NOT ME?!” when one died cradled in his arms.

28 Likes

… I kind of want to see that scene with my own eyes. Just out of morbid curiosity.

9 Likes

Totally Mara … POISONER BURLESQUE SAVE KITTENS THROUGHOUT THE CITY. IF YOU DON’T FEED YOUR KITTY BEWARE

3 Likes