Long, involving, fun, and classy
Outside of the main missions, your character gets to build the Corleone family's empire. You can walk into businesses controlled by the other families and extort the owners into paying the Corleones instead. This is incredibly fun, for you have to beat up and threaten the owner until they give in (well, until your respect level gets high enough). You can buy out racket owners, warehouse owners, and anything else owned by other families. You can start mob wars and consequently bomb another family's business to win it. You can heist banks and bribe cops. New York is yours to enjoy. The combat in the game is also much better than that of the GTA games. The targeting system for using guns is really well done, hardly ever causing those frustruating deaths because you were targeting the wrong guy. But what is really improved upon over other GTA-like games is the hand to hand combat. You hold down the Left trigger to target a person, and you use the right analog stick to punch. Flick it up, and a punch is thrown. Hold it back and then flick it up, and a stronger punch is thrown. You can grab your opponent by holding both triggers, and you can proceed to give them a larger beating, you can strangle them by pressing in the analog sticks, and more. I classified this game as guilty pleasure because there is just something unexplainably fun about throwing somebody off a roof, into an oven, beating them with a lead pipe, stepping on and breaking their neck, and the countless other ways to kill somebody. The graphics in the game are also very well done. However, many things are re-used. There are only a handful of car models, character models, and building interior models. However, this is a small problem in a game that is as fun and involving as the Godfather is. If you've ever wanted to feel a part of a Mob family, now is your chance. This is an incredibly good game that will attract fans of the film as well as gamers. New York is yours to take over.