The Godfather

It was 1972 when the first part of the legendary trilogy was released, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Mario Puzo, having Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as top actors. The movie was nominated for 8 oscars, winning 3 of them, including oscar for best movie and 1st actor by Brando. Part II was released in 1974 getting 6 oscars, while Part III was released in 1990. The trilogy is one of the best of all times in cinema’s history, so Paramount and EA risked a lot of their reputation releasing this game, let's see if they finally made it.

 

SCENARIO The game starts when the mother of our hero asks Don Corleone to protect her son from bad companies. Don Corleone accepts and sends Luca Brasi to protect the young guy. In the prologue we get to know that our hero is the son of a person working for the Corleone family and that his father was assassinated by Barzini (mafia family in New York), in front of his eyes. Our gang hero, which we have to handle, is getting into the Corleone family and must get revenge for his father’s death and also manages to rise and become the most powerful Don in New York. We will have the chance to come across with some of the most legendary moments of the movie, including the famous scene with the horse’s head in the bed of Jack Woltz, the assassination of Sonny and the murder attempt against Corleone (in fact we must drive the ambulance to the hospital). Sounds challenging isn't it ?

 

GAMEPLAY At the start, we have to choose how our hero is gonna look like, as well as his clothes. Apart from the missions, we can walk around the city, blackmail shop owners, but mostly start gang war with other families. It's pretty obvious that the game has many similarities with GTA, actually it's more like a GTA clone I'd say. Our rank in the family rises when we complete missions. We start as an Outsider, paying a visit to shop owners, in order to get money for the family, but don't overdo it lads, cause possibly they will become angry and won't cooperate. Next rank is Associate, Soldier, Capo and Underboss which is one step before becoming a Don. We will gain respects points by killing members of from the other gangs and completing missions makes us level-up and add experience to our skills (fighting, shooting, health, speed, street smarts). If we want a car, we simply stand next to it, get the driver out and voila, we have ourselves wondering around the streets of New York (the Brooklyn Bridge is fantastic). We can pay some money to the police too, but don't think that it's gonna be enough for a murder cover-up. Apart from Tommy Gun we have also 3 kinds of pistols in our dispute, a shotgun, dynamite, molotov and my favourite baseball bat. Don't forget to upgrade them too.

 

GRAPHICS They are pretty good but not perfect, very good set of the old New York City, from the architect of the buildings, to the vehicles in the streets, even our clothes and other people on the streets.

 

SOUND It's just perfect. I loved the film soundtrack from the first time and it's exactly the same in the game too. You have the illusion that you are watching a movie related to Godfather and not that you are playing a game. The sound effects add more depth in gameplay. The big issue here are the speeches. EA cooperated with the main actors from the cast of the original film, such as Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, James Caan and Abe Vigota. Don't search for Al Pacino, because he has already given his voice for Scarface.

In conclusion : Do not forget to watch the trilogy too (if you hadn't already). Enjoy !!!