  Take that, you dirty rat! |
I will state this right upfront; I am not a ‘Grand Theft Auto’ fan. I had some guilty fun when the series turned a corner and revolutionized gaming with ‘GTA III’. Somewhere though in the middle of my ‘Vice City’ journey, I became so bored I found myself deliberately initiating suicidal standoffs with the cops just to stay awake. That’s when I knew it would be best to uninstall it and move on to something else.
If the ‘GTA’ series changes radically then it might draw me back into the fold, otherwise, I really can’t be bothered. Rock Star would have to do something like Electronic Arts did with ‘The Godfather’ and that’s use the ‘GTA’ concept as the launch pad for a bigger and better adventure. In many ways, I got more out of ‘The Godfather’ than any of the ‘GTA’ installments as it has the benefit of being tied to one of greatest movie sagas ever.
Don't get your hopes up though. You don't play the Corleone family; you are a part of it. As a supporting character written into the epic storyline, you begin your criminal career as a low level thug who's given the chance to work with the family as a favour to your dead dad. Your pa sacrificed his miserable life for the Corleones and as a kid, you saw him get plugged full of holes right before your very eyes. Trust me. It is all very tragic. The Don owes you and your mom so it is off to work you go to gain respect and revenge starting out with your own little patch of hell in Little Italy.
Getting down to business is fairly simple. There is no one set way to gain respect and move up the mob food chain. You can do tasks for the Corleones which range from assassinating rivals, bombing businesses and protecting family members to covertly planting a dead horse's head in a movie producers' bed as a warning from the Corleones not to mess with them.
You can also improve your status (and your strengths or abilities) by extorting neighbourhood businesses thereby increasing the Corleone's turf, performing contract hits and bribing police officers. As you grow in stature, your options expand. Before you know it, you will be engaged in bank heists, robbing racket trucks, taking control of huge warehouses and even hotels. If paid off, the police will look the other way when it comes to minor crimes like assault. Go beyond that and they will show no mercy no matter how much cash you've put in their pockets.
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As you would expect, most people won't hand over their businesses with a smile and a handshake. It takes some "convincing" on your part. That includes smashing up the premises and roughing up the proprietors. Rival gangs won't appreciate you moving in on their turf either and have a habit of barging in when the "negotiations" are going on. Bullets will fly. Brains will splatter. Seizing control of a legit business is only the first part in securing the location. Many of them are fronts for illegal activities that must be taken over too. It is like killing two birds with one stone but you better be come prepared and not bring a knife to a gun fight or you will be sleeping with the fishes in no time.
The hand-to-hand combat system lets you throw your muscle around in brutal ways. There is the standard punch, kicks and head butts but you can also slam people into walls or other objects, throw them off buildings and choke the life out of them with a garrotte. The barehanded strangle option is a bit unnerving. By pressing the L and R triggers together you begin your chokehold. As the victims' health ebbs away, you will hear their heartbeat pounding and at the same time feel it through the rumble of the controller. This feature may be a bit excessive but it offers a heavy dose of reality in the sense that these are horrific acts you are committing. Shooting people with machine guns or beating them with bats is one thing. Actually feeling their heartbeat slow in your hands via a controller is something else entirely. It will make you think twice about what you are doing and why.
Even though nothing beats the strangle feature in granting the game a conscience, there are other little touches that pound the message home. Some of the citizens will blame you and your pals for what has happened to their beloved city. Some characters will encourage you to leave the mob and go straight such as when you enter a church and the people there wonder what a person like you is doing in a house of God. All of these combine to do what 'Grand Theft Auto' has never done and that is remind the player in clever ways that even though you are having a hell of a time, you are not anyone who should be looked up to as a shining example of humanity.
Being based on a celebrated motion picture series pushes 'The Godfather' well beyond 'Grand Theft Auto'. That in itself gives the game a deep and rich background and foundation to build itself upon. Rather than little snippets that act as an excuse for a story, all of the memorable scenes are made into gameplay scenarios which film buffs like myself mark out for. The voice work of screen legends James Caan, Robert Duvall and last but definitely not least Marlon Brando, lend an air of authenticity, as do all of the trappings of forties.
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Home renovations were never like this. |
If you were to knock anything about the game it would be that you are basically on your own most of the time operating as a one-man gang and the ammo is severely limited. Without back-up, you will die and die often. That isn't a problem though as for a small fee, you will be resurrected to carry on with your seedy, underworld life.
Unlike other games in the free roaming genre, 'The Godfather" is not some cheap 'GTA' knockoff. In many ways, 'The Godfather' is much better than 'GTA'. The producers have taken the 'GTA' gameplay concept as a starting point and then made it their own by surrounding it with a well-established storyline that gives everything purpose and charm. It is an example of how do to a movie tie-in the right way by respecting the source material enough to not just using it as a hollow hook.
WHAM! Rating: |
9 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature) |
Official Web Site: |
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