It’s called The Godfather because of the movie, and in the movie plot is where you’ll stay.
The Godfather is, disappointingly, a game with a strictly linear story with few to no options along the way. There are RPG elements as you upgrade your character, clothing, and weapons, and can choose in what order you do so, but none of those choices bear impact on the main storyline or any side activities. The problem is, you can’t stray from the main story. You can’t leave the Corleone’s to go work for one of the four rival factions. You kill their men to take their business and warehouses, but you can’t negotiate with them, play one off the other, or do anything outside of work for the Corleones. The Godfather is frequently compared to the latter Grand Theft Auto games, but unlike GTA you can’t hijack a cab and run taxi missions, take a police car and run 911 calls, or take part in any kind of fun “mini-games”. The game, therefore, is not open-ended, but so long as you understand that going into it, you’ll find it hard to be disappointed.
The Godfather is beautiful to look at. The city streets are gorgeously packed with detailed buildings and people and the game area flows seamlessly from one burg to the next. There is no teleporting in this game so you have to get used to driving around. The longest trip is getting to New Jersey and back, but the wonderfully rendered tunnel is a cinch to zip through. The cars are modeled quite well, with about four or five different vehicle types that handle differently. The maneuverability is surprisingly simple with a keyboard and the high level of detail in the city allows you to navigate by landmarks and familiar vistas. You may actually learn a bit about navigating in New York if you play this game enough as, as far as I can tell, it’s almost as detailed for that era as Midtown Madness would be for New York today. The car chases can be nerve-wracking as you try to shake badguys who are not only ramming you, but also shooting at you. Too many impacts on your auto, and the engine bursts into flames, leaving you seconds to bail out while you’re still being fired upon.
People’s faces are highly detailed and, if you look closely, you can see their eyes focus on you as you bribe a cop or pull your gun out. People’s clothing, as well as their cars, change smoothly with the different parts of town, where upper-class areas will have you spotting high-class guys and dames next to nicer cars. The cutscenes are enjoyable to watch with the facial details and shining eyes becoming clearer. Some of the actors loaned their voices to the game, including the late Marlon Brando for a limited number of clips, but the real thrill was listening to Robert Duvall on some of the missions. This is a wonderful way to draw the player into the game as you honestly feel as if Robert Duvall is talking to you with some wonderful voice-acting.
As other’s have complained, the constant recycling of floorplans for each business type does get very repetitive, but you don’t spend much time in any of these businesses unless your fighting. When that happens, and it will, you’re glad you know your way around even if you’ve never been inside that particular building before. Taking over these businesses can get repetitive but I’ve noticed changes in the number of thugs I have to take out as well as how much cover I have approaching the building. Once inside, you harass the owner for a cut of their business by slapping them around, breaking stuff in their shop, or just holding a gun to their head. Fun stuff if you have some aggression you need to get out.
The best action, by far, is the street fighting, whether it’s part of a mission, an initial approach to taking over a business, or you accidentally run over a rival gang member while driving somewhere else (oops). Then, all Hell breaks loose. Pedestrians will run through the crossfire, badguys dive under cars, and a pickup truck with too many holes in the gas tank suddenly explodes, setting off a chain reaction on the two cars next to it. Straight out of the movies. The five firearms types, three pistols, a shotgun, and a Tommy-gun, have different strengths and rates of fire, and each have their separate uses for range and damage. Aiming can be done the RPG way by selecting a target with auto-aim, or you can move the crosshairs freely on your own. When you get close enough, execution moves like kicking them to the floor then blasting them to the face (or throwing them off a roof, or throwing them in a furnace or…oh…sorry), remind you that this is a game based on a brutal chapter of American history.
I’m running it on an AMD Athalon 3200+ 2.4ghz with 2gig RAM on a GeForce 6600 card and it runs smooth as silk with medium graphics. When there is a lot of smoke or flame, there will be a frame rate drop but it only lasts a second or two and I have yet to have it interfere with gameplay. I ran my graphics options to the max and did experience a little bit of a frame rate drop just driving around, but my rig is over a year old so that’s to be expected. What’s funny is I couldn’t tell the difference between medium and high graphics other than a lower amount of “jaggies” on some of the surfaces, so keeping the graphics on medium is hardly a penalty.
Intense gunfights, nail-biting pursuits through crowded streets, pulse-pounding missions, and, by far, some of the best graphics I’ve seen for an adventure game in a long time made my trip to the store worth it. I keep wanting to take over just one more shop or run one more mission before bed; the mark of a solid, engrossing, game. The Godfather is a great buy, especially since the price has dropped almost $20 after it came out six months ago, and it’s a lot of game for the money. I recommend it, but with the caution that it’s called The Godfather because of the movie, and in the movie plot is where you’ll stay.