"A GREAT game by EA. Who'd a thunk it?"

Intro:

The Godfather is widely considered to be one of, if not the greatest film ever made. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Marlon Brando as the titular character, the Godfather has not only garnered mass critical praise, but a great monetary culling as well. The cinema trilogy has earned the attention and respect of many, including Electronic Arts.

Electronic Arts created a video game based on the Godfather, releasing the first edition on the Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, and PC. Half a year later, now, the Wii and PS3 version have been released. The Wii's version is called “Blackhand Edition”, while the PS3's is known as “The Don's Edition”. Due to several key differences, only the Wii's version will be reviewed in here. Moving on.

Story:

The game runs slightly parallel to the movie's story. As a child, you're father, who worked for Don Vito Corleone, is hit by a rival family in front of your juvenile eyes. After this, you are allowed to customize the physical features of yourself, and later buy clothes. Years later, your mother sees the good Don to get you a better place in New York because “No Sicillian can refuse a favor on the day of his daughter's wedding.” Thus, you are inducted into the Corleone family and the life of a 1950's Italian mobster.

As you progress through the missions, you will witness key events from the movie, and take part in several of them as well. Basically, the game's story is you moving up from a mere Associate of the family to the Corleone Underboss and beyond (feels good being called a “boss” for a change, doesn't it?). The story contains many basic elements of love, betrayal, and revenge. While the story isn't anything particularly memorable, it does everything right.

The characters are especially delightful, and sometimes slightly archetypical. There is the respectable figurehead of Don Corleone, the calm and cerebral Tom, his volatile brother, Sonny, and the Don's up-and-coming son, Michael Corleone. All the characters leave an impression on you, with you wanting to spend more time with the Corleones.

Design:

In a nutshell, Godfather is a GTA clone. However, this is not a bad thing. While it operates on the same basic mission-based style of the Grand Theft Auto series, EA throws in some relevant mixes to the stew and successfully spices things up.

Outside of main story missions, you will also be presented with a lot of free time, a position in a mob family, and a city full of small businesses that require your valuable services, lest anything tragic befall their person or property. The Big Apple is divided up into several sections, each one under the territorial premises of the rival families. What you want is a cut from each of these businesses.

Usually, extorting a business requires you to go into a store and talk to the manager or owner. Sometimes, they will be respectful and immediately pledge their loyalty to the Corleones. Other times, they will require a reminder as to why they need protection. Smashing up their store is a good first step. And if they don't break by that point, it's time to get physical. Aiming a gun at them or pinning them up against the wall helps. Sometimes, a quick hint is displayed that tells you what kind of action will break them the fastest. Once you've busted their balls enough, the business is yours. They usually also have a racket going on in the back, overseen by rival family soldiers. Sometimes, you can simply walk in and buy out the racket, but a good portion of it, they will open fire on you before they'll let you just waltz on in. Hotels also usually have a room you can buy, which have save points, telephones for insta-rides, and plenty of stocked up ammunition.

There are also a healthy amount of side missions that usually involve doing a hit on a specified person. Bonus rewards are given if you complete a certain condition, according to each hit. The rewards are always either Money, Respect (i.e. experience points), or both.

The game also throws in the ability to seize warehouses/transport hubs. Semi-secret missions are also obtained by working your wily wit on brothel girls. Finally, there are also upgrade merchants that can be found that give you far superior weaponry, though these can be quite expensive, largely unavailable until near the end-game.

Interactions with NPC's are rather simple, working out pretty much as extortion does. They like/fear you, they will open up to you, otherwise it becomes a clammed up shell. You can bribe police officers, reducing the amount of heat you've brought on yourself and even securing their combat loyalty in immediate encounters.

A word of warning, mob wars are infinitely unpleasant. If you kill enough members of a rival family, they are going to get fed up with you and send out attack squad after attack squad till you're sleeping with the fishes. They are relentless and usually are packing serious heat. The only way to get rid of them is to either bomb one of their businesses or bribe an FBI agent, who are very scarce. You can also wait out the timer on the mob war, but then you technically lose, and no one likes a loser.

All these tasks are by no means easy, which is why there is an experience-based skill system set in place. There are about 80 skills in the game, and they are divided up between the Enforcer route, a combat oriented build, and the Operator route, a more socially and monetarily minded skill set. Once you've earned up enough Respect, you can upgrade one box on the list. The skills you can get include things like the ability to plant car bombs, raise maximum health, or improve your physical strength.

The game is so packed full of things to do, you won't be disappointed. A decent player can complete almost the entire game within 30 hours, the main story taking up about 25 hours. The Godfather certainly gives you the bang for your buck.

Gameplay:

Being on the Wii, The Godfather takes full use of the Wii remote and nunchuck without making it seems gimmicky or pointless. Fist combat plays out how you expect it. After targeting an enemy, you can simply start smashing their face in like you would in real life. The hits are not definitely not stale or static, as it does replicate your moves pretty accurately. Along with simple punching and jabbing, there are a many number of things you can do to your opponents. You can grab them and lift them off the ground, throw them to the side, slam them against the wall, hold them over ledges, or smash their head into a nearby table or crate.

If fists don't get your message across, the mouth of a magnum's barrel certainly will. Gun combat is great, but just a little flawed. You've got a wide range of weaponry to choose from. You've got a Tommy gun, a magnum, a pistol, a shotgun, a .38, and vast expanse of melee weapons like lead pipes or shovels. To add to your violent inventory, you've also got several explosives including Molotov cocktails, dynamite and bombs.

To use a gun, you simply target an enemy, and start shooting. You can also aim at the screen and target specific body parts; the legs for immobilization and stunning, the shoulder for disarmament, or the head for a quick and clean kill. You can also turn the game into an over-the-shoulder and stay in a constant aiming mode by pressing the plus button. At time, however the gun's aiming sensitivity can be a little off, as you really need to make sure the sensor bar is placed right and far enough away. This is a minor flaw, thankfully, as the game's option screen has a function to calibrate the sensitivity.

Driving is simple and easy to do. One button goes, one button stops. You steer with the analog stick, but it would have been nice to be able to try using the Wii-mote and nunchuck as a steering wheel. If you hire a bodyguard, you can also have them shoot from the side. Another missed opportunity is the absent ability to have someone else drive while you gun down any opponents.

Graphics:

The graphics are pretty decent. It doesn't look photo-realistic, but it certainly looks nice, with little things like seeing newspapers swirling in the wind. Explosions and fired effects look very vibrant and beautiful. The characters and NPC's look rather accurate, with quality lip-synching. There is also a slight amount of pop-up, but it's not too noticeable, considering your attentions will usually be directed at any immediate situation you're in.

Music:

The music isn't revolutionary by any means, but it fits the theme of the game perfectly. You'll be treated to a lot of 1950'-remniscient music, either as part of the BGM, or playing softly on a radio inside a building. There is also some scenario-specific music that captures the mood of whatever's happening, whether you're on the run from the fuzz or taking down an enemy warehouse. The music does its job pretty well.

Closing:

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition is a great game. While some more base people would call it just an “EA-made GTA-clone”, it distinguishes itself from the rest of the crowd. While it does work from that model, it improves and adds so many new things that it feels like a game all its own. The characters, Wii-motion controls, and character customization make this game a recommended buy. It is easy to have lots of fun with this title, and a definite must-have for any Godfather fan.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/07