The Godfather movie is considered by many as one of the all time gangster greats and featured a star studded cast including Al Pachino and the late Marlon Brando who really brought to life the character as head of the Corleone family Don Corleone. The Godfather video game follows the script of the movie quite well but incorporates another aspiring gangster who didn’t appear in the film but remains your character throughout the game, as your aim is to rise up the ranks of the Corleone family. The film is filled with a whole plethora of emotions such as fear, anger, love and hate and the game also conjures up similar feelings. However are these feelings for the right reasons and is The Godfather the game any good or just another attempt at the GTA style free roaming game?

Gameplay

Starting The Godfather, players are prompted to create the look of their gaming character with a create a gangster style interface. Here players can tweak their characters physical appearance such as eyes, nose, complexion, head, hair style, jaw, eyebrows etc. Players can also choose what clothing their character can wear from a variety of outfits from the period. At any time players can return here and change the look of their character to suit their mood. This is quite extensive if you want to spend a lot of time here tweaking your gangster’s look; however for those less inclined to spend ages fiddling with sliders they can auto generate a character with a few simple button presses.

Getting into The Godfather proper you are thrust into events that featured in the film as well as your own sub plot for your character. As in other similar free roaming third person action adventure games, there are points of interest to check out on the map of New York City such as marker for your next story based mission or places of interest such as safe houses and Corleone owned businesses. After the game’s tutorial missions, which teach you everything you need to know about life on the mean streets such as unarmed and weapons based combat to interrogating people for info and such like you are then free to do pretty much as you please.

New York is a large city filled with a number of businesses (of which you can enter these premises) which also double up as fronts for illegal operations. Ownership of these businesses is vital to the success of a family as they are a healthy source of income (the businesses pay the family weekly and you get your cut of which the amount is determined by your status within the family). Well life would be easy for the Corleone family if there were no rivals but here that is not the case as there are several other families all vying for control of the city’s businesses. Each family is colour coded which means it’s easy to spot who owns what by simply looking at the coloured suits of the henchmen that usually guard the businesses or by looking at the map. Taking over a business owned by a rival family isn’t easy, as you will often have to take out the henchmen before beating down the owner and intimidating him or her into paying you protection money each week. This process is handled quite well as players are given a choice in how they make the owners see things there way whether that be smashing up the business with a baseball bat or punching the owner until they give in. What is also neat is the fact that players can go over the edge and accidentally kill the owner or push them too hard so that they fight back to the death; this usually means running away because in The Godfather business owners are the least of your worries when it comes to danger.

As you progress further into gaining more control of New York, naturally you will have stepped on a few rival families toes to get there. This means that your relations with the various families can become friendly or hostile depending on your actions. Bad relations means that rival families will attack you on sight which is not handy if you are trying to do other things at the time.

The Godfather features a lot of other things to mess around with aside from the story based missions with things like finding film reels scattered about the city or finding weapons dealers who can provide black market arms. Then there are fun but dangerous things to attempt such as robbing banks which causes the police to hunt you like you were public enemy number one. Accumulating cash is fairly simple as you acquire more businesses and complete missions the cash comes rolling in. However the game’s monetary value on goods such as new clothes is rather expensive.

The Godfather features a cool respect system which is not a first in games of this nature but works well as your respect or notoriety can help you in certain situations. What is neat is how the many named citizens of the city address you if you bump into or talk to them. The citizens also have their own random conversations which are useful in determining If you wish to mug or kill someone or not just because you can- maybe they looked at you funny and this displeased you? Players can actually level up certain skills of their character which in turn makes them better fighters, shooters etc. This adds a little more depth to what could have just been a simple character living out gangster life.

The Godfather features quite a comprehensive combat system whereby players can use hand to hand fighting which includes grabs and throwing. Players can also perform execution moves as well when their opponent is in the right dazed state. The actual weapons based combat is very solid with a mixture of free roaming aiming and lock on aiming possible depending on the situation. There are also some neat reaction animations from those who have been shot which is great for a game of this scale. There are a few stealth moves thrown in for good measure which is great when you are able to sneak up on someone and strangle them to death from behind.

New York has several districts to explore which means being on foot isn’t always the quickest way to get around. Luckily your character is able to hijack or steal any car that he pleases this perhaps sounds like fun but actually isn’t, because in my opinion the driving is probably the weakest part of the game. Vehicle choice in the game is lacking and the handling is poor to say the least. The camera angles used for driving also feel a little off to me as well especially as no bumper view is included. Navigation is also a little difficult as many roads lead to dead ends, so a constant pause to look at the map is often required which does break up the game play.

Graphics

The Godfather features some rather impressive likenesses of the movie’s characters that are probably some of the best seen in a game of this nature. Even the wandering city citizens look far more detailed than some of the other games in the genre; although as with all games of the free roaming type there are a lot of repeated models used. The city itself is recreated quite well although it and the interiors you can visit are a little plain looking. Naturally you will encounter the odd graphical glitches such as drops in frame rate or clipping issues but these don’t detract from the experience too much. A general gripe of the recreated city is the fact that there are simply a lot of repeated textures and locations which for some reason is more noticeable in this game.

Sound

The sound is excellent with some of the cast of the film reprising their roles for the game giving much character to their digital re-creations. The general ambience of NYC is good although the rest of the sound effects are a little generic. The music compliments the game play and as far as I’m aware features samples from the movie. Overall the sound for the story telling portion of the game is first class and does a grand job of capturing the feel of the movie.

Longevity

For players who wish to run through the game’s story based missions then I guess The Godfather can be completed quite quickly. However, getting 100% in the game will take far longer. There are loads of side missions and general distractions to undertake such as dancing with a singer of a club or grabbing a quick smooch with a lady of the night. In this respect The Godfather offers your moneys worth despite the absence of any sort of multiplayer inclusion.

Overall

The Godfather introduces some rather cool elements to the free roaming action game genre and some excellent story telling on top of that. Fans of the film will thoroughly enjoy playing out key moments from the movie and newcomers will enjoy the missions anyways regardless of the fact that they are probably missions that you will find in every other game of this nature. Despite the driving, which I couldn’t stand and the odd glitch here and there I found The Godfather to be a compelling and entertaining title. Yes it does look rather dull in places but in general has enough character and polish to keep you hooked. The Godfather is a solid title that introduces some neat additions to the genre and is well worth a look.