"Good fun, just till it's done."

Although there are complaints in this review, this is a good game.

Graphics: The graphics in this game aren't bad, but they aren't anything special, basically, if you have played grand theft auto, It similar to that, but in a darker area, It seems to never be a sunny day. Blood is a mist, looks alright, but not great as it seems to have no real general direction (spurting, etc.). Buildings look nice, but they essentially are all of the same few varieties, i.e., out of 25 safe houses, probably 15 look exactly the same. On the other hand, your created character looks great, especially during cutscenes, the models always work.
8/10

Sound: Yes, the song from "The Godfather" is a lovely piece of music. Until you have heard it for over 30 solid hours. Not great. Speech is great though, and people will say things to each other, or even just to themselves. Expect to hear things like, "Where did I park my car?", or "He's the new Don of New York? Please."
Music: 7/10
Speech:9/10

Controls: Shooting works well with a great lock on system, that lets you target specific parts of the body. Sadly, by the end, many of your guns kill in 1-2 shots anyway, but if you need to conserve your Tommygun/Dillenger ammo, a headshot does the trick. Free aim mode seems pretty sketchy. Otherwise, no real problems.
7/10

Story: Totally depends on if you have seen the Godfather. If you have, you will probably like the story a whole lot better, although events are rearranged (Horse's head scene moved from beginning of movie to middle of game, Don in hospital from middle of movie to near the beginning of game. Strange.).
8/10

Gameplay Mechanics: Absolute best thing about this game. In New York things happen. There are other gangs, and they do things without you there. It is very possible to run into a shootout between police and a gang, or even a bank robbery. In my experience playing the game, I witness a rival gang, the Cuneo's (I think), have one guy run into the bank to get the money, while two other's guarded the doors to the bank. I walked inside to see what was going on (and to take the money) and found the other Cuneo dead, killed by guards. I took the money and left the bank, to find the two gang members still fighting off cops, not knowing their friend was dead inside, but they soon perished, turning the police officers' attention over to me. Really, really well done.
However, sometimes negative things happen just due to the game's design. Pedestrians, when about to be run over, jump, and sometimes right in front of the car, leading to A.I. innocents occasionally hitting A.I. innocents. The system is not foolproof.
9/10

Replay: Here is the real complaint about this game. Its long, around 30-40 hours, which seems like a good thing, but this time will fly by. As soon as you beat the game (90-100 %, Don of NY), you run out of things to do. No more missions, all there is left is search the city for collectables. Yeah right. 100 film reels over the entire city. No thanks. Maybe start a new game? Not likely, as after all this time you have explored literally every building in the game world and there is really not much interest of restarting, maybe there would be if the city had variety, but it really does not.
6/10

Bottom Line: Although the gameplay, design, and missions are all pretty great, if you have played GTA or Scarface, or most sandbox games before and are expecting a city with variety, you will be disappointed. Where other games, like San Andreas, have several distinct areas, Godfather has one (the entire city looks the same), and it's a pretty ugly one at that. Its great for the first 30-40 hours, but at the end is nothing but a brick wall, with not much hope of continuing. Overall, the Wii controls add to an otherwise semi decent game.

Take note, through all the complaints in this review, it really is a fairly good game, and I am not discouraging purchasing this game, just noting: If you buy this game, you will get 30-40 hours out of it, but there really is no reason to continue after beating the missions and business takeovers.

Overall: Rent or buy: Buy, but be warned.
Spot on my favorite games ever list: around 20th.
Final Score, Not an average: 7/10.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/07