EA took an offer they just couldn’t refuse. When Paramount agreed - on the day of their daughter’s wedding, no doubt – to sell EA the rights to The Godfather, EA jumped all over it. While most games based on movie licenses ultimately end up sleeping with the fishes, EA has done a very good job capturing the atmosphere of The Godfather. Believe it or not, this game was more than just business for EA as they tried a few new things during the development of The Godfather. For example, this is EA’s first open-world title. So for anyone who was up and arms about EA ruining a great movie license, you should drop the gun, take the canolie, and rest assured that EA did a good job with this one.

And I got all of the puns out of my system, so don’t worry about reading any more of them.

Features:

Open world environment. Go anywhere in New York anytime you would like.

Powerful character created. Create a mobster in your image.

Many of the original cast members from The Godfather returned for voice acting

Reenact scenes from The Godfather from the POV of the common Corleone thug

Mission based storyline and many, many side missions

Work for the family, earn for the family, and gain respect

Your method of dispatching enemies is up to you. Hand to hand combat? Guns? Bribes? Whatever suits your style.

The Official Game of the Movie
While some may be expecting to play through the exact storyline of the movie, that’s not quite the case here. Instead, the plot of The Godfather game runs alongside that of the movie. You will see many familiar scenes, but you never play them out entirely. Instead, you play from the point of view of a common thug, Corleone, working his way up through the family. For example, there’s a scene in the movie where Michael Corleone retrieves a gun from behind a toilet in order to dispatch an enemy. In the game, you play as the thug who put the gun back there in the first place. EA was given some creative freedom to fill in some of the plot holes and openings from the movie, and they did so very well. The story missions in the game are very well done and fun to follow, even if you haven’t seen the movie before. And, considering that this is a mostly open-ended game, having a great story is a major advantage over similar titles that don’t really have one.

Your character isn’t completely random. Through a cut scene, you find out that when you were a child, he witnessed the murder of his own father. Vito Corleone was there as well and was a friend of your mother. Later in life, your mother fears that you are in a rough spot, and she asks Vito to look out for you on the day of his daughter’s wedding. Obviously, Vito cannot turn her down, so he sends Lucca Brassi to pick you up, harden your fists, and welcome you into the family. After a brief training session in which you beat up a couple thugs, you’re off to the races, but not quite done with training. People who shy away from instruction manuals can rest assured that they can jump right into the game without doing any reading because the tutorials will cover just about everything you need to know.

The Black Hand of Death
The controls themselves are not hard to grasp, anyway. Combat (called the Black Hand system) occurs with the triggers and the right stick. By pulling in the left trigger, you lock onto your nearest foe and can then strafe around him with the left stick. By pushing the right stick forward, you throw punches, kicks, elbows, and other attacks. By pulling it backwards, you’ll lean and avoid counter attacks (X button blocks, pulling back just leans). If you lean back, and then launch forward, you’ll do a more powerful attack. The system is reminiscent of Fight Night 3. Additionally, after beating on your villain for awhile, you will be prompted to hit the black button to perform an execution which will vary depending on your weapon and their positions. For more variety, you can grab your opponent with the R trigger and once they are in your clutches, you can do a wide variety of things to them. You can drag them around, throw them, hold them while punching with the other hand, force them to kneel down, pull them back up, and even throw them off bridges, into ovens, etc etc. The combat system makes you look like a mobster. There’s no style and grace, there’s just pure, dirty, ass-kicking.


Shhh...I think I hear the mother-in-law coming...

While the combat system is fun, it does ultimately feel a little unbalanced with the AI. With the exception of a couple key players, the enemies do not really put up much of a fight in hand to hand combat. You will rarely use the block button or the lean, and instead just pound forward on the stick and occasionally grab them. It was essentially a transition from button mashing to stick mashing. Even when you’re surrounded by a couple of guys with machine guns, baseball bats, and other assorted tools of death, you can usually dispatch them by tapping the stick enough. Your fists of fury apparently stun your enemies into forgetting they are holding a 12-guage. Every once in awhile, they’ll ice you if you charge them too quickly, but generally they just kind of look at you funny. While not particularly challenging, the hand-to-hand combat is overall engaging and kind of fun.