The Godfather on PS2 (2006)

Very very nearly brilliant

Paul Kirkpatrick from Slough, England , 02/04/2006

Having been a fan of the Godfather trilogy of films for years, I had been waiting for this game for a very long time with a mixture of eager anticipation that it would be brilliant and dread that it would betray the films.

In fact, the game was both a delight and, later on, a bit of a let down.

The game starts off by placing you as a background character to the Corleone family and shows a little back story to place you within the framework of the film. It dows this very well with appearances from Robert Duval as Tom Hagen, James Caan as Sonny Corleone and, of course, the late, great Marlon Brando as the Don himself. Many of the significant characters from the film are there, including Luca Brasi who leads you through the first couple of missions where you are introduced to the controls of the game.

As things progress, you carry out various missions which earn favour with the family and respect to the rest of the New York criminal world. Your promotion through the family eanrs you increasingly harder missions to take on. Most missions revolve around carrying out a 'hit' on an opposing hood or chasing someone in cars. However, there is also the side-plot of extorting the various businesses to take control of them and earn a cut of the profits.

Some of the missions are related to important scenes from the film and place you as an important and trusted member of the Corleone 'family' - For example, you are one of the people responsible for taping the gun behind the restaurant's toilet cistern, for placing the horse's head in the bed, for the hits on the other families etc.

Eventually, the links to the film seem to wane completely and the gameplay becomes a repetitive mix of driving here, extorting this business, driving there and 'hitting' this person etc.

The start of the game is excellent and follows the plot of the film well, using the acting talents of Duval, Caan and Brando to great effect, as well as the haunting music from the film. However, as the links to the film become ever-more tenuous, the game's shortcomings become increasingly obvious.

Whilst, on first inspection, the recreated New York of the late '30s is beautiful, the interior of the buildings becomes all too familiar - There are only a handful of layouts for the interior of all the buildings and, once you get to know them, it becomes very repetitive.

The driving engine is very simple, but it makes the cars (again, there's a very limited variety) very twitchy to drive.

When you do eventually become the Don, there is a rather strange reward - You are given unlimited ammo for all your guns - Fine, except there's no enemies left for you to take out, so the reward is totally hollow.

All in all, the game feels slightly unfinished, which is a pity. The actors involved do a fine job but were underused and the plot needs more added to the end to make sense.

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A 1930s' GTA

William Hayes from Sevenoaks, Kent , 25/05/2006

For those who love GTA, this is very much like it. You can do almost all the same things, but in the 1930s! The cars are surprisingly fast!!!! The missions are very good on this game and the ability to extort businesses makes it really fun. You can go into shops and smash them around until the shopkeeper gives into you. The physical abuse you can do to people is fun like throwing them around or banging their heads into objects! Anyone who likes action games, such as GTA, or is a fan of the film should get this as it closely links in with the first in the trilogy.

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oh my god! father

A customer from england , 06/06/2006

when you first put this disc in your ps2 and you hear the strings from the classic movie you immediately think this could be something special until you start playing that is. it starts of good enough extorting local businesses for money gaining experience to make you customised gangster more efficient but it slowly becomes a case of doing the same old things over and over again.. it look s good it sounds good and has a good story but plays the same over and over again

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A Great 'Rental' Title

A customer from uk , 11/05/2006

I had loads of fun playing this... it gave me about 30hrs of gameplay which is pretty good! it could have been made much better i think, again EA being a bit lazy. I wouldn't buy it cos after completion there's nowt to do!! BUT made great gaming!!

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A 1930s' GTA

William Hayes from Sevenoaks, Kent , 25/05/2006

For those who love GTA, this is very much like it. You can do almost all the same things, but in the 1930s! The cars are surprisingly fast!!!! The missions are very good on this game and the ability to extort businesses makes it really fun. You can go into shops and smash them around until the shopkeeper gives into you. The physical abuse you can do to people is fun like throwing them around or banging their heads into objects! Anyone who likes action games, such as GTA, or is a fan of the film should get this as it closely links in with the first in the trilogy.

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oh my god! father

A customer from england , 06/06/2006

when you first put this disc in your ps2 and you hear the strings from the classic movie you immediately think this could be something special until you start playing that is. it starts of good enough extorting local businesses for money gaining experience to make you customised gangster more efficient but it slowly becomes a case of doing the same old things over and over again.. it look s good it sounds good and has a good story but plays the same over and over again

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