Made Man: Confessions of the Family Blood is a third person action crime game created by SilverBack Studios about a war veteran turned mafioso named Joey Verola (voiced by Rick Pasqualone, aka Vito from Mafia 2) as he engages in criminal activities, Vietnam flashbacks, and rumored caskets of stolen gold. It was written as a collaboration between crime author David Fisher as well as Salvatore Bonnano, the son of the infamous mafia boss Joseph Bonnano of the Bonnano Mafia Family in New York. This game is a game that honestly, despite its very apparent flaws, I really enjoy despite it? I mean for fucks sakes I'm weak to crime games, especially one about the "AYYYY I LOVEADEGABAGOOL" kind of gangsters. I first played this during my "Mid 2000s crime game addiction" phase when I was younger and after giving this game (along with Sopranos: Road to Respect and a few others) to a buddy of mine (after I got stuck on Mission 13 and couldn’t figure out to shoot the tower wires), I repurchased it for my PS2 (of which there's also a PC Port) and decided to give it another spin in the last year or so, and here are my thoughts:

The story is...strange. I personally enjoy it for its back and forth noir styled time jumps but it can also be kind of confusing depending? I'll give a brief overview of each mission as well as when it takes place. Joey first runs out of Calvary Cemetery in New York City, talking to his nephew about his life in the family business as well as musings on his past and present circumstances while driving around new York. He first goes into his first job in the mafia in North Carolina.

Mission 1: A Little Business (North Carolina, June 7th, 1971)- Joey Verola’s old vietnam buddy Johnny “Eggs” Biando takes him along to unveil some “big plans”, and they go to Little Italy to meet up with Johnny Egg’s adoptive father: Philly “Pies” Lombardi. Philly thanks Joey for protecting Eggs in ‘Nam and hires Joey to “take care of some business” in North Carolina. He asks Joey to go down to North Carolina, buy a bunch of cigarettes and bring them back to New York to sell them at a better price, explaining that what most mobsters do to get money is “mundane stuff”. Obviously it doesn’t work out however, as a bunch of rednecks who work for “Weasel Walt” rob him of his truck and Joey goes through the back and fights through rednecks through junkyards and swamps, before he sees an attack helicopter and is transported in his mind back to Vietnam.

Mission 2: Johnny Eggs (Vietnam, July 11th, 1968)- This mission is mostly just a vietnam flashback where Joey goes through tunnels while shooting Vietcong while narrating about Joey’s backstory as someone who joined the war to get some sort of internal revenge for his brother Petey dying in Vietnam. He also runs into Johnny Eggs and snaps him out of him cowering, while protecting him and saving his life. They get rescued by a Huey chopper before fading back to real life.

Mission 3: A Little More Business (North Carolina, June 7th, 1971)- Joey fights back through more swamps against Weasel Walt’s boys before finally ending the mission on a sniper trying to shoot Joey from the helicopter. Joey asks why anyone would wanna kill a nobody like him before he shoots at the helicopter enough to make them fly away. Someone then takes Joey’s truck, AGAIN.

Mission 4: The Print Job (The Flower District, New York; July 15th, 1971)- Joey is spared after North Carolina, and after the feds surveillance on the Don’s counterfeit money operation is out and about, the Don closes the printing press down to get rid of the heat. Philly sends in Joey to grab the plates and bring them elsewhere for safekeeping when the “Feds” go berserk and start shooting at Joey and the other mobsters. Joey shoots his way through the factory and figures out that these “Feds” are working with the rival Corelli Mafia Family. Finally Joey gets out and Johnny Eggs conveniently shows up to drive him away from the factory before it’s hinted that Philly’s gonna usurp the don and take control of the family.

Mission 5: Calvary Cemetery (Calvary Cemetery, July 21st, 1989)- Joey goes back to Philly with the counterfeit plates and Philly gives him a verbal pat on the back. Joey relates to his nephew that he figured out the previous day that the gold from Vietnam was in Calvary Cemetery. His nephew asks what happened and Joey tells him that a bunch of mobsters ambushed him and his mafia cohorts at the cemetery in an attempt to take the gold away from them. He recognized some of them as having used to work with Philly and Joey gets to the hearse and tells the driver to go back to the coffin before more mob guys show up.

Mission 6: Family Matters (The Flower District, New York; August 16th, 1974)- It’s explained that the mob guys in the last level were working with the Triads before explaining that power struggles were always a thing in the mafia. He then talks of the time when Philly brought him along to take down the Don in a coup de at along with Johnny Eggs. Philly asks Joey to leave the don for him before Eggs sends Joey to stealth kill his way through the factory and open the bay doors on the other side. They shoot through more guys and get to the Don’s office, where Philly shoots him out of a window and then takes control of the family.

Mission 7: FBI (Little Italy, New York; October 23rd, 1974)- Joey explains that he proved himself to Philly and as a result gets trusted to do more and more over time as Eggs is kind of pushed out of the picture. It’s explained that the feds are watching them more and more from across Philly’s apartment and he sends Joey next door to “Send a message”. Joey goes next door to smash up the Fed’s recorder when Egg’s voice is heard on it talking about finding the gold and how “the tracks were hidden a little too well and so it’ll take time”. Joey smashes it up and the feds come back from plowing hookers, before Joey kills them all. It’s learned that the Corelli Family were paying corrupt federal agents to get to Philly, and Joey shoots his way out onto the rooftops and through apartments before walking down into the streets and slipping away unnoticed.

Mission 8: Jade (Chinatown, New York City; February 3rd, 1972)- Joey tells his nephew that Philly was pissed off at Joey for shooting up the feds and tells Joey he needs him to go get 50 grand that night to pay off the feds and make everything right again. He also mentions that Philly was pissed off about the triads, led by Jade Li. It flashes back to years ago as Philly sends Joey to go collect money from Jade that she refuses to pay up. Since her father died, she’s taken over and she ambushes Joey, tells him politely in business terms to fuck off and die and Joey has to shoot his way out of the resteraunt. This marks the beginning of the triads quote “Becoming a huge fuckin problem for the families”.

Mission 9: A Quick Buck (New York Arena, New York City; October 23rd, 1974)- The Nephew brings the story back to the previous point of Joey having to pay off the feds 50,000 dollars worth of cash. Joey tells his nephew about how later that night they decide to rob the arena because it was “on Corelli’s books” and that “some of them were Corelli born and raised” and that since they caused him trouble recently that they should pay up. Joey and his guys dress up in animal masks and start the robbery, getting only 30 grand from the first safe. They decide to go to the other ticket office, with Joey and some guy named Tommy shoot through dudes with Joey calling Tommy a “good guy who's been around the family around the same time he has”. Of course, Tommy catches a bada bing and his body bada booms to the ground later on. Finally finishing off at above 60 grand, Joey shoots through guards above the concert. Joey finally makes it to the garage where the driver, Vinnie, awaits him. Joey has a stand off against the Corellis before making his escape with Vinnie in the van.

Mission 10: Family Rivalry (Little Italy, New York City; May 5th, 1979)- Joey explains that the feds/Corellis were off their backs and that he couldn’t trust Eggs after hearing him on the wiretap to his nephew. He explains that with the rivalry between Philly and the triads that Philly wants to sit down with the other families to discuss a truce at a place called “Cha Cha Charlies” with the hopes that they could ally with each other and take down the triads. It turns into an ambush from the rival families and Joey/Philly make their way through the joint. Throughout the mission Joey describes Philly as a tough guy who did a lot of contract killing and was so fearsome that he wasn’t surprised that “the old Don kept him as close as he did”. It turns out Philly took Johnny and his mother in and raised Johnny as his own son because he couldn’t have kids with his wife. Johnny then picks them up again before praising Joey for his ability to help him survive.

Mission 11: Negotiations (Chinatown, New York City; April 3rd, 1974)- It’s explained that the other families didn’t side with the triads but that they thought Philly was weak for wanting to sit down with them so they figured they could take him out of the picture. Now the situation has escalated to a war with all of all the families as well as the triads. It flashes back to Philly sending Joey and the guys to send Jade Li a message so they don’t “make a monkey out of him any longer”. They go to her business only to engage in ANOTHER shootout with Jade’s men, getting ambushed by dudes in samurai outfits (LOL). To piss her off, Joey destroys Jade’s priceless artifact collection before personally meeting with Jade to discuss her payments. Jade gets pissed and sends him back to Philly with a message: she’s not paying them shit and that if she ever sees them again that it’ll be the last time. Philly doesn’t like that message at all.

Mission 12: Back in ‘Nam (Vietnam; July 21st, 1969)- Over the years the Family and the triads clash more and more over the gold from Vietnam. Joey tells his nephew about how he figured out the location of the gold, the day before he was listening to a radio broadcast of the 1969 Moon Landing and when asked about where he was that day he has a flashback to ‘Nam again. Eggs sneaks Joey into the mortuary to see the military putting gold away into caskets where he overhears “This one’s another Calvary”. The Viet Cong then ambush the area and Joey’s sent out to fight them while Johnny cowers in the corner again. Joey questions why the gold would be buried, before thinking that whatever the original plan was it went badly and something was changed. He describes his loyalty to his current mafia family and says that now “the gold belongs to them” as well; all while for most of the mission it’s just going through the base and shooting more vietnamese soldiers before ending the assault with a turret section. It’s also learned that Johnny Egg’s dad was a small-time mobster in Philly’s shadow and that he disappeared because he bad-mouthed Philly to his face. It ends with the assault repelled and a flash forward to the car ride again.

Mission 13: Unfinished Business (Wall Street, New York City; July 21st, 1989)- Discussing again how he found the location of the gold, and that he looked up a GI who died a day or two before the moon landing located in Calvary and that would be the gravestone that the gold is buried in. He then stops outside of a Wall Street firm with the intention of figuring out where Eggs is taking the gold, this place is Li Enterprises and yes they’ve been working with Johnny Eggs. He shoots his way through the lobby before heading up the elevators to try to get to Jade’s apartment. Jade doesn’t take kindly to this and sends more and more goons after him. After confronting her in her apartment, he chases her to the rooftops. Joey snipes out more triads before Jade attempts to escape in a helicopter, which he foils when he shoots out some support wires holding a tower and the tower falls before she’s able to climb up and get to her helicopter. Her last words while hanging on for dear life are to beg for her life and to tell Joey that Eggs is taking the gold to Pier 6 of the Brooklyn Docks. She then falls to her death.

Mission 14: Turf War (Brooklyn Docks, New York City; June 15th, 1979)- He goes all the way back down to the car, which is right in front of her building and somehow no one notices the crazy amount of gunshots or explosions right outside or the fact that Jade fell to her death? Who cares I guess. Joey and his nephew talk about how Eggs has been in bed with the triads for years and that he disappeared a while back after abandoning Joey during a job to pick up a shipment at the docks. It flashes back to this deal, and Joey describes how a lot of people left Philly’s family because they felt he was weak. It’s clearly obvious that Johnny Eggs intends to betray everyone but Joey goes inside to see that everyone has died and there’s ANOTHER ambush. Joey’s guys get shot up and Joey shoots through more mobsters, who turn out to be formerly friendly with Joey as members of Philly’s family. Eggs is gone of course

Mission 15: Calvary Part 2 (Calvary Cemetery, New York City; July 21st, 1989)- Johnny disappeared off the radar, and after Philly and some guys cleaned up the bodies and got the weapons wouldn’t reappear til way later. Discussing how Johnny was in Calvary, it flashes back to the second half of Joey’s shootout in the cemetery next to the hearse. He shoots his way through more mob goons while describing Johnny as someone with a bad temper and never shies away from a fight, and how one day he tried to fight a whole street gang and got sent to the hospital and he got the named Johnny “Scrambled Eggs” Biando (or Eggs for short) is because they thought he probably had his brains scrambled to take on a whole gang and Joey theorizes that after the fight that Johnny changed personality wise and became a coward. He eventually kills a guy who tries shooting him from the top of a building and when he staggers out, Joey recognizes him as the guy who tried to kill him from the helicopter back in North Carolina (called South Carolina here). He sees Johnny Eggs drive off with the hearse full of gold before it flashes to the present.

Mission 16: Chinatown (Chinatown, New York City; March 2nd, 1982)- Joey and his nephew talk about how Johnny wanted him dead in North Carolina but couldn’t pull the trigger himself. He then talks about how Johnny reappeared when Philly and the family were starting to get heavy weapons to go against both the other families AND the triad, turning the tide and winning the war. Representatives from the other families and the triads meet up in Chinatown to discuss how much of a problem the Lombardi Family has become. Setting up an LMG, Joey and the others set up shop right outside the meeting spot when Eggs comes in and tries to ambush Joey. The triads and the other families descend on them, and Joey mows down the representatives of the triads with the LMG before going in and killing the capos from the other families personally. He then heads back to Philly to let him know Eggs sided with the triads, and now Eggs is persona non grata; and that was the last he saw of Johnny before the present day.

Mission 17: Brooklyn Docks (Brooklyn Docks, New York City; July 21st, 1989)- Joey finishes up his talk with his nephew by telling him that he told him all of this stuff because he doesn’t want his nephew walking into the crime life blind and that the money belongs to Philly and the family, before telling his nephew to split if trouble comes around. Joey shoots his way through the docks and numerous goons before tracking down Eggs to a triad ship. Johnny breaks his legs escaping and begs for his life after Joey confronts him. Philly shows up and orders Joey to shoot Eggs. After Eggs dies, they escape before the cops show and the final shot shows Joey walking into a house with his nephew waiting outside in the dead of night; either Joey will get made or he will get wacked.

Overall, I like the story a lot. There are some points where I can point out some plot holes (like again at the end of mission 15, did no one notice Joey just shoot through an entire tall ass building of security?) to the fact that the hitman from Calvary Part 2 only showed up once before and I only recalled who it was from watching a video helping me recap events. But otherwise, I thought it was actually the main highlight of the game for me, and by the end I was glad to see the game finish decently enough. I figured I would write out the whole plot synopsis in case someone was interested in the story but didn’t want to watch a playthrough or play the game. Shoutout to Willzzy for his videos helping me recap some stuff I wanted to recap to give a full picture.

The Gameplay is the average part of the game, the serviceable part. The main point of this game is to shoot people, and so you have a number of weapons that’ll do the job from the pistol to the .50 cal pistol to Uzis, the shotgun, AK-47’s, M16’s and etc. The weapons honestly to me all feel good and they sound great like they actually pack a punch. I think one of the funnier parts to me gunplay wise is that you can dual wield shotguns and assault rifles like they aren’t gonna destroy your fucking spine if you shoot them both at once. Otherwise the game revolves around shooting people in the head and for the most part that goes along fine. I guess what I don’t like combat wise is that the cover system can be a bit iffy sometimes and everything is usually poking out? Like for example, I disliked Mission 12 the most because the final section you get a couple health kits here and there but an infinite amount of goons just keep spawning and spawning and your health can whittle to nothing in a couple of seconds and then the checkpoint system makes you do it ALL OVER AGAIN and there isn’t much cover at all and I basically got through it with luck. That happens a couple of times in the game, where the combat and the checkpoints to enemy ratio aren’t exactly balanced well but for the most part I got through the game without dying. You get health back via health vials, med kits, and body armor which are all over the place so it doesn’t really matter as well as the “Retort” system (which by the way has hilarious dialogue which yells shit like “TIME TO DIE FUCKO”), which if an enemy is crawling on the ground you can taunt him and shoot him to get your health back. You can also go into a worse version of Bullet time called where you can slow down and shoot people while running at them with infinite bullets. Sometimes you interact with certain objects but other than that all you do is shoot people, and sometimes you can throw grenades and molotovs but I don’t remember getting them enough for it to actually be useful.

The Audio/Visual department is as follows, as usually I don’t have a problem persay with the visuals though the audio is…wow it’s not great. Rick Pasqualone playing Joey does a great job and is the backbone of the game whereas the others…are serviceable to unintentionally hilarious. Whenever I hear Philly the first thing that pops into my mind is a frog, and Johnny Eggs sounds like every weasily mob character ever, and most of them aren’t mixed very well. To me the most infamous example is Mission 5, where two mobsters are bantering and joking over opera music and FOR FUCKS SAKE I CAN’T HEAR THE JOKE OVER THE MUSIC. It’s mixed like dog shit and there are numerous times where conversations won’t be mixed very well, the music will blare over each other, or people will be constantly talking over each other at the same time and I can’t figure out what’s going on. The music selection is decent, with Unkle’s Eye for an Eye playing as the main music theme and Nowhere to Run by Martha and the Vandellas playing in the first mission, as well as a couple other tracks here and there playing. Silverback probably spent their budget on getting music more than mixing the game’s audio well cause to be honest to me it was noticeable.

Final Thoughts are this: It has its VERY noticeable flaws but I actually kind of like it? It’s endearing to me, I love mobster shit too and it’s leagues above The Sopranos: Road to Respect that’s for damn sure. Every now and then I find myself coming back to this game for it’s flaws, it’s jank, and pretty much everything else. I’ve seen a few youtubers cover it but I kind of wish this game had more attention, but I’m not surprised it didn’t. In fact, it took me pestering a youtube buddy of mine to make his own video because he hadn’t heard about it before. I’m gonna plug his video right below here because it’s good and it offers a way more professional explanation than anything I could ever offer, as well as the fact he’s great and deserves more attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CYNy6kRqb8&ab_channel=thesummerofmark

If one wants to play this game, you can download it off MyAbandonware or buy a copy of it off Ebay (for both PC and PS2), but I’m gonna throw my copy down here for those who want it (and will later delete the link if it’s not available anymore.

https://archive.org/details/made-man_202310

This copy should have everything unpacked and ready to go, just keep in mind the highest graphical fidelity is like 1280 I believe? If you do anything higher, all of the next and in game textures WILL NOT show up, and it’ll just be a strange skybox. And if I have anything else to add to this review I will edit it and post stuff later on but for now I’m exhausted and I’m gonna leave this game to that.