Despite a few quirks EA delivers a surprisingly excellent title that should have had them 'swimming with the fishes'.
Many 'paesans' would emphatically profess that to create a game based on Mario Puzo and Francesco Coppola’s timeless classic would be an inconsolable disregard of the ‘respect’ due this remarkable film. So, when EA announced it had secured the rights to The Godfather and were developing a multi-platform release, many gamers were preparing for the inevitable assassination of this most coveted licence. Did EA truly dare emulate the Godfather of mafia flicks and place themselves in the firing line of a fan-wielded 'sawn-off' if they failed to deliver?
They certainly did, and fortunately remembered to bring the 'cannoli' too!
The impressive integration of the protagonist, a character created for the purpose of this game, into the myriad of memorable events of the film offers a fresh, inventive perspective that is a pleasure to reveal in The Godfather. From the very onset, it sports all the charm (cold-blooded murder, frequent cussing and family betrayal) you’d expect from a faithful rendition of the film. The main menu screen excels at transitioning the player into the world of the Corleones by way of its featured haunting melody, "Parlo Più Piano" (known to many only as The Godfather theme-song). The character creation screen allows extensive customisation of your own Italian mobster-to-be, initially sporting the basic attire of a hard-working Italian kid growing up in the big city, but which can later be used to select a wide-range of unlockable Sicilian silks. A short prologue serves to introduce the back-story to The Godfather, which throughout the entirety of the game, manages to provide many a pleasant surprise.
The singular experience to be extracted from The Godfather is what really sets this title apart from its predecessors. Much of The Godfather’s conflict is focused around the tender alliance between the five families, and as such any action you undertake against them will shift alliances and raise your ‘heat’ with particular groups, potentially resulting in a full-scale mob war. Even taking this into account though, there is still nothing that quite compares to experiencing first-hand the film’s classic scenes; the shocking murder of Luca Brasi; the desperate car chase to get Don Corleone to the hospital after his near-fatal shooting; the merciless killing of Paulie Gatto; or the final eradication of the heads of the five families. These central events provide the foundation from which the mission-based system and the plot in The Godfather is derived; and serve to give character and soul to what would ordinarily be described as a spiced-up Mafia-clone.
The spicing employed in The Godfather comes by the way of an entertaining fighting and firing system. The fighting system is designed around one of the game’s staple objectives- to extort as many businesses and racketeers as possible to accumulate your family’s wealth. As such, it is based on a target-confrontation system, whereby you ‘lock-on’ to your target and can proceed to barrage them with a plethora of various punching and strangling attacks until eventually they succumb to your will, or die praying they had written one. If the latter option is the pre-conceived outcome, an immensely satisfying means of dispatching your adversary is by way of an ‘execution’, an automated but thrilling twist of limbs and a swift, killing blow. In a stroke of ingenuity, EA has included a large stockpile of these execution moves to ‘complete’ towards your final score. These are varied based on the context in which it was activated- there are even separate moves for different weapons equipped when activated. For some unfathomable reason the shotgun to the face after dropping the adversary to his knees never fails to woo the sadist-within.
The lock-on system employed for hand-to-hand fighting also extends to the gun-slinging experienced in The Godfather, an often-found but rarely appreciated symptom of console porting. In The Godfather though, this style of shooting works splendidly, allowing the easy target switching necessary when confronted by a hotel loaded with angry Tommy-gun wielding 'Mafiosi'. In fact, The Godfather utilises a system vaguely reminiscent of the popular Time Crisis series, whereby you hide behind cover and only expose yourself when the time is right to shoot, all in one fluid control action. This is thanks to an intuitive context-sensitive ‘cover’ ability that sticks you to nearby walls and doorways, and allows you to pick your targets before exposing your cranium to the lead-lottery. And in The Godfather, this is truly unforgiving. It can be hard to remember that whilst the character is employed by the formidable Don Corleone, it can’t be expected that all gangsters can endure the bullet-riddling he did. Being on the receiving end of a point-blank shot or two will very quickly alert you to this. Bodily swiss-cheese aside, all is not well however in Little Italy.
As a result of some obviously console-intentioned thought process, when it comes to the controller setup, one may be forced to make a few ‘offers that can’t be refused’. The default setup provides such a frustrating and irritating key combination due to the sheer volume of keys that are (needlessly) utilised. This proves to be a serious setback to the initial Godfather learning experience, and one which can only be overcome after extensive practice and time spent sorting out unused actions that were better left on the console. Another unwanted side-effect of the multi-platform utopian-release, is that the draw-distance is quite terrible. Regularly, when careening around the streets of Brooklyn at kamikaze speeds, an oncoming car will just materialise in front; not having been in sight moments before and providing an unavoidable steel-clad obstacle built as solid as only the 1940s could (at the detriment of your choice of wheels).
Fortunately however, this only occurs when speeding, and does become manageable. One aspect of The Godfather that may irritate some is that indoor textures and floor-plans are noticeably re-used throughout the storyline, though slight modifications to the layouts do help disperse this monotony. Similarly, there are only select-few vehicle models available- the focus on vehicles from Mafia is evidently not of consequence here. Thankfully, this does not overshadow the fine graphics otherwise enjoyed in The Godfather. Though not ground-breaking or jaw-dropping, the graphics engine used here is certainly not dated and provides smooth, stutter-free fighting regardless of how many goons are on-screen. Likewise, the building models and variety of structures themselves are breathtaking to uphold- one can instantly recognise their location based on the dwellings and shopfronts around them. The player animations are of an outstanding quality, particularly the above-mentioned execution moves which really show-case the animator’s flair for their work.
Another appreciable feature of The Godfather is that all the characters in the film that make an appearance in-game are instantly recognisable, due to brilliantly-implemented photorealistic textures (sans Michael Corleone, as unfortunately Al Pacino would not extend permission for his likeness in-game). To compliment this, EA was able to obtain an outstanding, wide-range of dialogue from the actors themselves, including the late Marlon Brando, who does an inspiring job reviving Don Vito Corleone one last time. Together with distinguishable weapon sounds and satisfying explosions, the sound department has pieced together a fantastic tribute to likeness of the films. The only factor to mar this would be the tireless use of the theme-song, Parlo Più Piano. Granted; it’s an outstanding, authentic Italian composition that sets the pace and ambience for The Godfather; but after 40 hours of listening to the same track whenever you’re behind the wheel, your sanity will assuredly be put to the test. Why EA didn’t make use of the many other Italian-folk songs heard throughout the Godfather is a recurring question at the lips of many gamers.
The Godfather promises to offer gamers an experience that won’t soon be forgotten. The question of what madness provoked EA to take on this licence will soon be muted after experiencing what The Godfather has to offer- after all, how could one concern themselves with trivialities when the five families are at large, vying for your protected interests in a ceaseless mob war? If that doesn’t entirely whet your bloody appetite, then you can rest assured once the storyline is complete you have free reign to terrorise the city and claim supreme dominance over all the families once enough blood has been spilled.
Where The Godfather truly shines though, is in its incredible ability to deliver the grisly world of the Corleones, complete with all the intricacies, backstabbing and calculated murder that has been the bedrock of mafia literature and film for over thirty years. Coupled with a truly enjoyable fighting system, over 30 hours of content, immersive and believable characters, and a true-to-its-roots plot and mission-line, The Godfather is highly recommended even to those hermits among you who haven’t before experienced Mario Puzo's compelling story of murder, deception and Sicilian justice. And to those who have, a small message…
…I hope that your first child, will be a masculine child.