The Godfather (Xbox 360)

GameSpot editors' review

The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. So when Electronic Arts announced that it was making a game based on the license, though it made sense as a business venture, it also seemed like a risky move to adapt such a beloved and well-known story to a video game. That risk paid off with the PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox versions of the game, and the game remains mostly untouched for the Xbox 360 release. There are several minor but noticeable enhancements and gameplay tweaks in the 360 version of the game, but, for the most part, this is the same game that was released six months earlier on other platforms. That said, The Godfather on the Xbox 360 is still a satisfying, lengthy action adventure game, and more importantly, it remains faithful to the classic film while also creating a compelling story of its own.

The Godfather remains mostly unchanged from the previous versions of the game, and it's still a lot of fun to play.

The Godfather puts you in the role of a peripheral character that didn't appear in the film, but nevertheless played a critical role in the story. While the character is by no means an official write-in from Mario Puzo or Francis Ford Coppola, he meshes well with the rest of the story, a large part of which is taken directly from the film. When you start the game, you can create a mobster using customization tools similar to those found in EA Sports titles such as the Fight Night and Tiger Woods games. You then begin the game and watch your father get gunned down in the streets by rival mobsters. Flash forward a few years to the wedding scene from the opening of the film, and your mother is asking the Don to take you under his wing and offer you work. As we learned from the film, no Sicilian can refuse a request for a favor on his daughter's wedding day, so the Don sends the imposing Luca Brasi to look after you and teach you how to be a mobster.

You start off as an unofficial enforcer for the Corleone family, which means your job is to muscle merchants into paying you protection money. You do this by simply walking into a store and talking to the owner. Usually the owners won't simply give in, but you can intimidate them by smashing up their stores (or their faces) until they start to see things your way. In a new twist added for the Xbox 360 version of the game, sometimes the business owners will ask you to do a favor for them in exchange for a cut of the business. You might have to off a drug dealer who is scaring customers away from a bakery, or take out a troublemaker who refuses to leave a hotel. These favor missions bring some welcome variety to the extortion game, but they're so simple and easy that they'll hardly have any effect on the way you play the game. Once you take over a business, you get a payout each week, and there are dozens of shops you can shake down all throughout the five boroughs of New York. Some stores are fronts for illegal rackets, such as brothels, gambling dens, and illegitimate importing operations, and you can buy out these rackets to further increase your weekly income.

Extorting businesses and taking over rackets isn't all there is to do, though. There are plenty of story missions that you'll pick up as you play. Some missions are taken directly from the movie. You'll have to drive the Don to the hospital after he's gunned down in the street, travel to Hollywood to reenact the famous horse-head scene, plant the pistol for Michael Corleone to use to off Sallazzo in the diner, and more. Most of the scenes are very faithfully re-created for the game, and it's great to be able to take part in some of the most memorable moments from the film, such as Sonny's ambush at the toll plaza and the assassinations of the Dons intercut with scenes from the baptism of Michael Corleone's niece. In fact, the best part of The Godfather is that it handles the source material respectfully and offers enough new content to feel like more than just a by-the-numbers adaptation of the movie.

Helping to keep the game faithfully tied to the movie are the accurate depictions of the Corleone family members. With the exception of Michael, all of the characters look and sound just like they did in the movie. The voice acting is mostly excellent, with the exception being some of the stock characters that populate the city beyond the Corleone compound. The music is taken from the movie, and while you'll hear the familiar theme a few too many times throughout the game, the music adds a nice touch of authenticity.

You'll see some of the great characters from the movie, such as Sonny, Clemenza, and even The Godfather himself, Vito Corleone.

In addition to the characters, the city of New York has been carefully rendered in detail, and you can spot specific scenes from the film as you travel the streets of Little Italy, Brooklyn, Midtown, Hell's Kitchen, and New Jersey. The city might be a bit too accurate, though, because some of the streets are confusing, making it a hassle to get around town. There are a lot of indoor areas in the game as well, which you can freely enter without any load times. The Xbox 360 version features improved interiors that are more varied than in previous versions of the game. So while you'll still see the same bakery or hotel lobby throughout the city, you'll also see some unique interiors that will help alleviate that sense of déjà vu.

The Godfather Review of The Godfather (Xbox 360)

The Godfather borrows heavily from the Grand Theft Auto series of games, so you can expect the same senseless violence and absurd mayhem those games are known for. You can steal cars, run down pedestrians, shoot people at random, and evade the police. As you commit crimes, your heat gauge increases, and anywhere from one to five badge icons will appear on the screen to indicate how badly the cops want to take you down. It's easy to avoid the police for the most part, and you can bribe them if you don't feel up for a chase. In fact, in the Xbox 360 version of the game you can bribe police to actually fight alongside you. So if you bribe a police officer in a particular neighborhood, for example, and then later find yourself in a shootout with rival mobsters in that area, you'll see the police start gunning down your enemies for you. If you don't bribe police, they'll shoot you or try to run you off the road, but the cars handle so well in the game that you can deftly weave through traffic to avoid being caught. If you are caught, you're simply killed, which isn't such a big deal because you can be revived at the nearest hospital for a small fee.

You can now hire a crew to follow you around and lend a hand--or a gun--when you find yourself in a tough situation.

You might as well get used to hospitals, though, because you'll die often in The Godfather. Some of the missions are quite difficult, usually because you have to face dozens of mobsters all by yourself. However, unlike in previous versions of the game, you can now recruit lower-ranking mobsters to be part of your crew. For a price, these men will follow you around and provide backup in gunfights or act as triggermen while you drive. As you ascend in rank within the Corleone family, you'll be able to recruit better and better men to fill out your crew. The artificial intelligence of your allies is relatively good, and you'll definitely notice a difference having a crew around. It still doesn't take much to get your crew--or yourself--killed. A single round from a shotgun can take you down in an instant, and if you get caught in the crossfire of a couple of tommy gun-wielding wiseguys, you'll get cut down immediately. You can find health tonics from time to time, but you'll need to take cover and plan your attack wisely if you want to live.

The gunplay in The Godfather is simple but fun. You can lock on to enemies with the press of a button, and you can duck or back up against a wall for cover. If you want, you can switch to free aim mode, which controls a lot like your standard first-person shooter, where one stick controls your movement and the other controls your aim. The guns in the game range from a .38 special revolver to a tommy gun to a snub-nosed shotgun. There's also a variety of other weapons, including Molotov cocktails, sticks of dynamite, garrote wires, and lead pipes. All of the guns can be upgraded at back-alley arms dealers. You can carry all of these weapons at the same time, too, effectively turning you into a one-mobster army. There are more than 40 scripted execution moves as well, and you're rewarded for your brutality in the form of respect.

If you prefer to get your hands dirty, you can simply beat the life out of anyone you encounter. You lock on with the left trigger, and then use the right analog stick to throw punches, slam opponents into walls, or even toss them off rooftops. You can also strangle your enemies and perform neck-breaking execution moves.

Combat is fun overall, especially because you're given a healthy set of options when it comes to executing people. The AI is fairly good for most of the enemies. They'll often run for cover, team up on you, and duck behind objects. Occasionally, though, you'll run into some glitchy or just plain dumb enemies. Sometimes an enemy won't be facing you, but somehow he'll be pelting you with lead. Other times enemies will just run up to you as if they can't wait to get blasted in the face with a shotgun. Despite the infrequent AI oddities, the combat in The Godfather is a bloody good time.

As you indiscriminately waste people, extort businesses, and complete missions, you'll earn respect points. When you earn enough respect, you level up so to speak, and you can distribute skill points to learn new abilities and improve your stats. You can level up fighting, shooting, street smarts, speed, and health. These bonuses, along with the upgraded weapons, help tremendously later in the game as the missions become more difficult.

The Xbox 360 version of The Godfather looks underwhelming in standard definition, but it's slightly better in high definition. There are some fantastic fire and explosion effects, and the city of New York looks and feels alive with activity; but you'll still see some blurry surfaces and jerky animations from time to time. When driving around town you'll also notice some of the larger skyscrapers popping into view a little late, which looks awkward. The frame rate isn't exactly smooth throughout, but it keeps pace fairly well and never drops to critical levels. Overall, the game is nice to look at mostly because of the way it authentically re-creates the look and feel of the film, but there are few technically impressive moments in the game.

This is still an offer you can't refuse...unless you've already played it on other consoles.

The Godfather also comes complete with a few accoutrements of Xbox Live, but don't get your hopes up too much--for all intents and purposes this is still an offline, single-player game. You can unlock almost 40 achievements to boost your gamer score. Some of these are as simple as purchasing a safe house or extorting 10 businesses. Other achievements require more time and effort, such as becoming Don of New York City. There's also an online leaderboard where you can upload your stats to see how you compare to other mobsters around the world. On top of all that, there's an available option for Xbox Live Marketplace in the in-game menu, so it's not much of a stretch to suggest that Electronic Arts will be releasing some sort of additional premium content after the game is released.

With the sheer number of businesses to extort and missions to complete, you can easily spend 20 hours working your way up through the ranks and eliminating other families before finally becoming the Don of New York City. If you're a fan of the film, you'll appreciate the way the game pays tribute to the movie. Even if you've never seen the film, the satisfying combat and challenging missions make this game worth playing. However, if you've already played other versions of The Godfather, there's no compelling reason to once again spend full price for what is essentially the exact same game. If you haven't played the game before, though, this is definitely the best version to get.