The Godfather has been out now for over 6 months on the Xbox and PS2, it is now time that we take a look at the escapades of The Godfather and see how the game fares on the Xbox 360. The Godfather, the Game closely follows the plot of the hit inspired movie franchise. The game sort of fills in the blanks from the movie, simply put your father is killed by a rival gang and as in any typical fashion you want bloody revenge – fast forward some years to Connie Corleone’s wedding, at which your mother requests that the Godfather help you as you have fallen in with a bad crowd. From then on the game constantly follows the same plot as the movie with some classic scenes to bring back the memories. You start out doing basic missions and such to get your respect up and then get better jobs which trigger a lot of the events in the movie; basically your character is the result of a scene in the movie, for example planting the bloody horses head in someone’s bed which they find when they wake up – you were involved in that and much more.

Gameplay

During the beginning sequence of the game you get to briefly control the father (Jonny) of your character in the game. This brief tutorial is essential for you to learn the basics of the fighting system quickly and efficiently all before your father meets his gruesome end. Shortly after you get to control your main character, the son of Jonny; in what is another training mission teaching you the essentials to survive on a living breathing New York City. The controls are simple and intuitive enough to pick up fairly quickly. The Left Trigger locks on to a near by enemy whilst moving the Right Stick will swing punches. Holding both Left and Right Triggers will grab your opponent and then moving Right Stick rapidly will deliver some devastating blows to your enemy. When the health of your enemies is nearly depleted you will have the opportunity to execute him – executions are done with Right Bumper and vary from what weapon you have equipped, if no weapon is equipped then a quick bitch slap and foot stomp to the skull should finish the job. When armed with a fire arm holding the Left Trigger will lock onto the nearest enemy as before, if you’re real close to an enemy though you will perform an execution style without the need of depleting their health first. Though taking an enemy’s health nearly all the way down will give you the choice to execute your opponent in a similar fashion as before; with a press of the Right Bumper you will execute your opponent with whatever weapon you have equipped.

There is a lot of people to kill and businesses to make money from in NYC. These range from killing off entire families of a rival gang and their guards to controlling the local bakery and night club etc. You must earn money from these stores for the Corleone family; this is done by approaching the owner in the store and offering them protection from rival gangs and what not. They almost always refuse and some owners are more difficult to break down than others. A baseball bat to the food displays should do the job and a Tommy Gun to the booze in your local bar usually puts them over enough to cough up the dough – failing that then killing some customers in front of the nervous shop keeper will always get the job done. Also, one of the better points about the game is that there are no loading times between areas of the map what so-ever.

The combat and missions in The Godfather are well thought out and fun as hell to play but at times can be very challenging at the same time. The one down fall in my eyes is the driving of the vehicles in the game, it is easy to drive but when your speeding down a straight from a rival gang that’s putting lead into your car then a responsive brake is essential for tight corners, sadly the brakes for all vehicles in the game are very un-responsive, perhaps it’s trying to be realistic, maybe cars were like that in the 1950’s… despite that for the most part it simply means you can not go speeding around the streets as much as you would like to with out crashing – unless of course, you go at a slower pace. One thing can help you as you drive though; you can hire a an armed gun-man and these guys vary in rank but they are certainly useful as he will throw him self in the line of fire for you as they follow you everywhere – he will also shoot from a passengers seat window of your car whilst you drive, which is a big help for when you’re getting chased down.

Graphics

The graphics at times are really nice looking but for the most part for an Xbox 360 game they could be a lot better, the overall surroundings and look of the game just feels bland but then on other occasions it really shines. The most noticeable improvements are in the games in-engine cut scenes and in confined areas like a store or any other building. The games visuals seem to take more of a hit out doors on the streets of New York City, just driving about the cars look not as good as they perhaps should do for an Xbox 360 game; the same can be said for most of the city. All the characters faces from the films do look incredibly accurate, more so Sonny and especially the Godfather himself.

Sound

The sound in the game works extremely well during the cut scenes for the emotional moments. During game play all the weapons and voice acting sound excellent and convincing, though there is a glitch which seems to happen a bit too often - when you talk to someone i.e. a shopkeeper, sometimes you can not hear your character talking but he is making the movements like he is talking and the shopkeeper or whoever responds back normal. The background music during the game is very tiresome and as you are going to be doing a lot of running and driving around from point A to B (perhaps if it just had a faster tempo?) and so on then it’s best for you to play a custom soundtrack of your own from the Xbox 360 Guide, we don’t want you falling to sleep at the wheel now. Capische?

Longevity

There is a lot to do in The Godfather regardless of the main storyline; what with extorting businesses, taking out rival gangs and a hitman like side mission similar to that of Saints Row; where you meet a contact who tells you who needs to be killed and what conditions they need to be killed in. If you kill the mark under the suggested conditions then you get extra money as a bonus. Killing these targets range from beating them to death with a baseball bat or my favourite one throwing someone in the oven to cook and then comes the suicidal death which usually means throwing a target off the top of a roof of a high building. The Godfather should take gamers quite a while to complete fully.

Overall

I have always been interested in The Godfather The Game since its release on Xbox and PS2, but decided to wait to play it until it released on the Xbox 360, as I was perhaps foolishly hoping for a superior spruced up next-gen version of the game. I’m sure there are some improvements in their but it is clear that this game was designed for the last generation of consoles, though at least it is in high-definition and there are some achievements which will add to the overall replay value. I’m not as enthusiastic about the title now I’ve had the time to play it though, but the fact that it is The Godfather means I won’t fully stop playing it until I have got everything I can get out of the game and believe me there is a lot to get done with a total 38 achievements to work at and online leader boards to make sure you’re the top Don in The Godfather gaming universe.

If you are a Godfather faithful then this game is a must buy – just don’t go into it expecting something fantastic, it is not. What it does offer is a compelling in-sight into The Godfather movies as it gives you a different angle on the films. For people who are not familiar with The Godfather films then I would recommend it as a rental, just to see if you ‘get’ it. The game is fun but can be a real drag at some points, having seen The Godfather movies makes playing the game that much more enjoyable for me as it does add to the overall story of the original films and it is great seeing the classic scenes retold in the game. If you like your typical Grand Theft Auto, freedom to go where you want style games then I will certainly recommend this as a rental as it is good but sometimes challenging at the same time.