The Godfather The Game
EA makes gamers an offer... well, you know the rest.
Published: April 10, 2006
You could almost hear a collective groan from the gaming masses when EA announced that they’d purchased the rights to The Godfather, one of the most iconic and beloved movie franchises in cinema history. That’s not an overstatement; these are some of the best movies ever committed to film (well, the first two are anyway), and adapting them to a game would mean a herculean effort would have to be undergone to do the films justice.
Two years after the first word of the game hit, we’re finally staring at the finished product, and I’ll be damned it it’s not the best GTA clone I’ve ever seen. That’s not entirely fair, I suppose, as The Godfather handles a couple of things far more deftly than Rockstar North’s darling, but it’s impossible not to link the two games in a couple of very basic levels. But hey, look at the plus side, after Roadkill, True Crime, Simpsons: Hit & Run and Driv3r, it was starting to look like nothing would really duplicate what made GTA fun.
The Godfather does that, aided by plenty of licensed voice acting, the likenesses and detailed recreations of the characters, scenes and events in the movie, and a light sense that you’re playing through post-WWII New York city. It doesn’t exactly capture the feel of a living, breathing city, nor does it especially resemble the tone of the Godfather movies, but it is fun to play through.
You’ll start the game by essentially creating yourself. EA calls it MobFace, but then everything EA does has to be branded and trademarked, and it really means a modestly detailed system for adjusting hairstyles, noses, cheeks, chins, eyes and so on to make something vaguely resembling yourself. You’re then injected into New York as Vito Corleone takes a shining to you in after witnessing your father getting killed in a mob hit.
Now, years later as a strapping young buck, your mother comes to the Don on his daughter’s wedding day, asking him to watch over you since you’re grown into quite the punk. As the first film (and the loading screen for the game) makes clear, no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter’s wedding, and he sends Luca Brasi to clean you up a little. Through Luca, you learn the fine art of negotiation with fists, become an unofficial enforcer for the Corleones and quickly find yourself worked into many of the major scenes from the first movie, starting with Luca’s untimely demise.
The Family likes a little muscle. In fact, they like it a lot, rewarding you repeatedly with higher rankings as you complete the story missions, almost all of which are based directly on sequences in the movie. You’ll drive the Don to the hospital after he’s shot, chase down the guys that whacked Sonny at the toll booth, plant the gun in the restaurant that Michael uses to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, sit in on the meeting of the five families where Vito calls a truce and so on. All of these scenes integrate your character without it ever feeling especially forced.
In fact, a lot of The Godfather was done with the utmost respect to the source material. The story-driven missions replicate some scenes in the movie line-for-line (though there is a large amount of editing for time and unnecessary dialogue) and an obvious attempt to make you feel like you’re playing the movie comes through.
Two years after the first word of the game hit, we’re finally staring at the finished product, and I’ll be damned it it’s not the best GTA clone I’ve ever seen. That’s not entirely fair, I suppose, as The Godfather handles a couple of things far more deftly than Rockstar North’s darling, but it’s impossible not to link the two games in a couple of very basic levels. But hey, look at the plus side, after Roadkill, True Crime, Simpsons: Hit & Run and Driv3r, it was starting to look like nothing would really duplicate what made GTA fun.
The Godfather does that, aided by plenty of licensed voice acting, the likenesses and detailed recreations of the characters, scenes and events in the movie, and a light sense that you’re playing through post-WWII New York city. It doesn’t exactly capture the feel of a living, breathing city, nor does it especially resemble the tone of the Godfather movies, but it is fun to play through.
You’ll start the game by essentially creating yourself. EA calls it MobFace, but then everything EA does has to be branded and trademarked, and it really means a modestly detailed system for adjusting hairstyles, noses, cheeks, chins, eyes and so on to make something vaguely resembling yourself. You’re then injected into New York as Vito Corleone takes a shining to you in after witnessing your father getting killed in a mob hit.
Now, years later as a strapping young buck, your mother comes to the Don on his daughter’s wedding day, asking him to watch over you since you’re grown into quite the punk. As the first film (and the loading screen for the game) makes clear, no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter’s wedding, and he sends Luca Brasi to clean you up a little. Through Luca, you learn the fine art of negotiation with fists, become an unofficial enforcer for the Corleones and quickly find yourself worked into many of the major scenes from the first movie, starting with Luca’s untimely demise.
The Family likes a little muscle. In fact, they like it a lot, rewarding you repeatedly with higher rankings as you complete the story missions, almost all of which are based directly on sequences in the movie. You’ll drive the Don to the hospital after he’s shot, chase down the guys that whacked Sonny at the toll booth, plant the gun in the restaurant that Michael uses to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, sit in on the meeting of the five families where Vito calls a truce and so on. All of these scenes integrate your character without it ever feeling especially forced.
In fact, a lot of The Godfather was done with the utmost respect to the source material. The story-driven missions replicate some scenes in the movie line-for-line (though there is a large amount of editing for time and unnecessary dialogue) and an obvious attempt to make you feel like you’re playing the movie comes through.