The Godfather

"You come in here, and you ask me to kill a man I do not know...sounds like fun."

I have a little thing I like to do. When I'm reviewing a game, I compare it to the best game in that genre. For example, if I'm reviewing a driving game, I compare it to Burnout Revenge. So, I'm going to compare Godfather to Grand Theft Auto:Vice City, because I have yet to play San Andreas.

GAMEPLAY
Vice City: 10/10
The legend speaks for itself. Free-roaming, uninterrupted bliss.

Godfather:10/10
In the style of GTA, the game is completely free-roam, to the point where you could by the Dilinger and conquer Little Italy before ever doing a mission (excluding the ones to teach you fighting and extortion). As long as you aren't in the middle of a mission or a hit, you can go wherever, kill whoever, extort whatever, and generally do whatever you want. This game also reminds me of Gun in that the game doesn't end after the story missions, you can still finish off the other families and take over all the businesses. Another good addition is a sort of level-up system, where you get respect for commiting various crimes (50,000 for a bank robbery!). Enough respect and you can upgrade your guy to heal faster, punch harder, and so on. If you upgrade street smarts to maximum, you just have to walk in and talk to the store owner and they'll pay up. Driving engine is okay, but the real fun is robbing warehouse trucks with the Street Sweeper (third shotgun).

GRAPHICS
Vice City: 8/10
Have since become a bit outdated, but aren't too bad on the PC version. Not too many glitches.

Godfather: 9/10
Graphics didn't glitch up once while I played the game, and where better than I expected. The most impressive part was the "Create-A-Mobster," which lets you design your guy however you wish. Regardless of his size and look, you don't get any of that "hand-inside-the-shoulder" crap during extortions. You can also buy clothes to increase your respect level, a quick way to get that extra health at the start of the game.

SOUND
Vice City: 8/10
Lots of detail. A few good classic rock songs, and supposedly several tracks from "Scarface" appear in the game.

Godfather: 8/10
Again, good. Music had a good feel to it. Not a major concern for me, but it's nice to see that they didn't slack off.

EXTRAS
Vice City: 9/10
Do some side missions, drive aimlessly, or eneter a gun cheat 60 times and go trigger happy. The world is yours.

Godfather: 10/10
Unlock film clips, get a hit contract, extort the helpless businesses, take over ware houses, customize your character, rob banks, rob transport trucks, create chaos, bomb safes, and if you are a gutsy and crazy man, bomb the rival compounds. I have yet to see the movie, but most everyone is agreeing that the characters look like they've been pulled out of the movie. The exception is Michael Corleone, because Al Pacino is busy working on Scarface: The World Is Yours. Seriously gonna rent that. Anyway, one of the best extras has to be the unlockable film clips, the best of those being "Baptism By Fire," where you finally avenge your fathers murder. Don't cry about spoilers, even the guy you shoot knew it was going to happen-"I knew it would be you. I knew it." That's Don Barzini, by the way. He pretty much ran New York until I forceably removed his face with shotgun. Executions are fun too, my personal fave being the "Faceoff"-kick them to the ground, shove the shotgun in there face, and fire. Also works with tommy guns.

OVERALL
Vice City: 8/10
A legendary game surpassed by three other free-roamers-San Andreas, Gun, and the Godfather.

Godfather: 10/10
For kicks, place several sticks of dynamite in a busy intersection. A truly spectacular lightshow.

Buy or rent-You can probably beat the game in a week (I did), but it's worth it to buy the game. Like Gun, the story missions aren't the end, and 100% completion may take awhile, especially if you accidently kill a business owner or racket owner. They won't be back for a week game time, which is around three hours real time (estimate). But by God is it ever worth it.

Buy this game. Like right now.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/06