The Godfather

EA's GTA-style mobster game tries to recreate the epic mobster film, and does it quite well.

	Version PC, PS2, Xb, PSP, X360	Developer EA	Publisher EA	Genre Adventure

By Kikizo Staff

Making good games out of movie licences is not something the games industry is known for doing too well. But with nations of hardcore The Godfather fans that won't stand for a shoddy videogame tarnishing the epic standards of their beloved films, this is one licence EA could not afford to mess up.

For the most part, the game sticks fairly rigidly to the plot of the movie, with your newly-created mobster cleverly slotted into place, keeping you firmly involved in the proceedings without altering the key storyline. The game uses the typical create-a-character mode, which EA seem to try desperately to insert into every game they produce, to make your mobster in the game. If you've toyed with the similar features in games such as Tiger Woods, you'll be immediately familiar with the tool, with the only difference being your restriction to making an Italian American male. Once you're happy tweaking your gangster, you're let off the leash in the game's open city.

You can head straight for the objective marker and progress through the story pretty quickly if you want (between 10 and 15 hours). But you have a full city to roam and, in similar levels to GTA, you are free to do as you please, which is great for players who want to truly immerse themselves in the mobster lifestyle. It's hard not to spend the first few hours of play venting some anger on a few virtual innocents. It's a city roamer so surely everybody does the same thing first - stand in the road, yank some dude out of his car, and then burn around causing havoc in the 1950's New York City environment.

Run over some people - as you do - and pick a fight with the nearest copper just to see how much you can get away with before being executed. It has to be done. Why not stop off at a few shops and smack the owner about a bit and maybe rob the joint. Then drop by the bakery and throw the baker into his own oven. Apart from being a great laugh, there are actual gameplay benefits to be gained from your ruthless gangster activities. You can build up your own crime empire by moving from shop to shop and extorting the owners for 'protection' money and running illegal rackets for extra cash. As you take over more and more businesses around the city, you will start to see your respect levels increase, and even get more attention from the ladies (although there's no Hot Coffee action in here, sorry lads).

Giving you further opportunities to play the gangster, the game even lets you bribe cops, and buy illegal guns on the street, which you'll need because, being a mobster and all that, you'll be getting into more than your fair share of punch-ups.

Combat can be handled in two ways: throwing punches by moving the mouse (in an attempt to recreate the analogue stick-fighting system of the console versions for PC), or by simply mapping your melee attacks to keyboard buttons. The mouse thing is a nice idea but feel clumsy and imprecise, so we opted for the more conventional keyboard system. Either way, this is gangster-style fighting so, as well as the sweet punch combos, you've got some brutal head-butts and bone-snapping techniques at your disposal. Ah, sweet sweet violence.

If fists aren't your thing, then you'll always be packing plenty of steel. Shooting uses a lock-on system, which targets enemies and vehicles nearby. But if you find this enemy-only targeting system too restrictive you can always go manual and point your shooters at any target you wish, like a random granny, for example, which is nice. Unlike the messy shooting mechanics of GTA, you can make your mobster press up against walls and lean round corners to pop shots at foes whilst maintaining a decent amount of cover, Metal Gear-style. And clever damage mechanics mean you can cap a guy in the knees to immobilise him, then stroll over and satisfy your violent tendencies with a few brutal melee attacks.

Put the decent combat system together with solid car handling, a large city and the legendary story of The Godfather movie, and you have one highly entertaining game. There will always be hardcore Godfather geek that'll complain at the smallest of plotlines missed out, or scenes not looking/sounding exactly as they do in the film, but that's because it's a VIDEO GAME.

When it comes down to it, Godfather is a solid city-roaming affair, with enough of the film's panache to make fans smile, and enough quality gaming in there to entertain those who've never even seen the film. It plays intuitively, looks decent enough and if you make the effort to explore the city, it'll last you a fair while too. Whether you're a Godfather fan or not, you should check this out.