Could've been better.
Now that the game is out, certain doubts surfaced. Does the game live up to its rival, Mafia? Is the game everything EA promised? In my opinion, EA was on the right track (for once), but towards the end, they fouled most things up.
One of the major drawbacks in Godfather are the visuals. Not only do the cars' textures look way too plain, but the environment seems... lacking something, it looks empty: the roads are wide but there are ever so few cars, most of the buildings from afar look as if they were just plain blocks, and their interiors are more or less the same. As soon as you get your second safehouse, you ponder for a second whether you're back in your first safehouse, or you're in your newly found safehouse - apart from a few replaces textured, everything else is the same. Same goes to barbershops, restaurants, shops - if you don't look at the map, chances that you'll recognize a bakery from its interiors are next to zero. And it's hard to believe that a game released in the year of 2006 is graphically inferior to a game from 2002. However, things aren't that slim - character graphics save the visuals in Godfather. The recreation of actors from Godfather (the movie) is astounding, and other characters in the game look good, too. That's why I prefer taking a walk to driving - I'd rather stare at the main character's back than to cringe whilst looking at the horrible looking car.
The sound isn't great either - it uses the soundtrack from the movie, furthermore, you hear the same music-piece from the main menu over and over again. You hear it in the cutscenes, you hear it in the main menu, you hear it in the game... On the other hand, SFX is quite satisfactory, especially voice acting, which features actors from the movie, and they fit into the cutscenes well.
Speaking of cutscenes, I didn't find a way to skip cutscenes. So if you're considering replaying the game, you'd be forced to watch all of the cutscenes again. Even if you decide not to play it through again, everytime you launch Godfather, you have watch the whole "Paramount. Electronic Arts present... The Godfather." intro before the main menu.
The strong aspect of the game is most definitely gameplay. Apart from breathtaking story missions, there are side missions, and the possibility to persuade shop keepers into payinng you weekly, quite an amusing process, I might add. You can smash their heads against the cash register, slam them against the wall, or throw one of their customers out of the window. Finally, you can just shoot down some mobsters who previously owned the shop to convince the owner what threat may pose to his property. You can also rob a bank for money, hit a warehouse to ruin a rival family, bribe policemen to make them look other ways, blow open safes - there's a large variety of things you can do. On top of that, it takes you a while to learn all those things. As soon as you learn a thing or two, you learn another thing!
All in all, Godfather is a good game, if not great, and had the opportunity to become Game Of The Year. Hold on before saying otherwise! Just imagine Godfather with tweaked visuals and a soundtrack of its own. That's right, the game would look nearly flawless. I say it's a worth to buy, especially if you have enjoyed the movie and it left you wanting for more. Even if the game won't take away your breath, it will be lots of fun, I swear it.