"Don Corleone called. He wants his PSP back, capiche?"

It's not often a big free-roaming action console title makes an appearance on a handheld. Unfortunately for fans of the console version of The Godfather, Mob Wars is not a handheld sandbox action game based on the legendary film. That doesn't mean Mob Wars is a poor game; in fact the game is actually quite fun to play and offers some nifty features by itself.

The setting of New York City in the early 20th century is the same as the console game, as are the characters and most of the missions. In the PSP version, players are not able to customise their character, instead using a generic mobster character model that becomes more lavish as you progress through the ranks. The player is an outsider working for the Corleone family, and the story mode carries the player through the rigors of mob life, including merchant exhortation, assassinations and retaliations.

Before going further, it is essential to keep in mind what Mob Wars isn't. It's not a sandbox game. You don't get to drive around New York City like you own the place, partly because you don't own the place yet, but mainly because you can't even drive in the PSP version. No free-roaming means the inability to access side missions and other hidden goodies like you would do in Grand Theft Auto. You can't pull off drive-bys or coordinated hits at whim, and you don't control anything. Players seeking a handheld version of The Godfather: The Game might miss these features sorely; Mob Wars just isn't that sort of game.

Moving over to what Mob Wars can do, the game is actually divided into two sections, with the ultimate goal being to become Don of New York City. The initial mode is the Story mode, which is a series of standalone missions taken from the console version of The Godfather. In these story missions, players are introduced to the characters of The Godfather and influence the sequence of events. Selecting a mission plonks the player at the location of the mission (remember, no free-roam), followed by the player completing the assigned objectives, such as interrogating a mobster, whacking a target or throwing him off a building.

The second mode is Mob Wars, a turn-based strategy twist to The Godfather and played out similar to Risk. Here, the player goes through three phases. At the beginning of each round, players accumulate their earnings based on how many territories they own. The first phase allows players to recruit different types of mobsters, from Outsider to Soldier, which differ in how strong they are. In the Negotiation phase, players literally “play cards”. The game deals out a hand of action cards for the player, each card performing a certain function. Cards can allow the player to steal money from other mob families, bribe law enforcement to reduce the player's heat, reduce enemy mobster levels, steal cards from other families or form and break alliances. In the third phase, Intimidation, the player can capture neutral territories by exhorting businesses and take over enemy territories, both done through real-time missions like story mode, except played by controlling the recruited mobster assigned to the job. As recruited mobsters succeed in missions and gain more respect, they can be promoted to stronger levels.

After each story mission or Mob Wars round, players are taken to a game summary screen, which shows their progress through both modes and allows them to purchase weapon upgrades and ammunition as well as assign skill points through a menu interface. The game is designed so that players go through a mixture of story missions and Mob Wars to obtain more skill points, money and weapon upgrades which would in turn benefit the other mode, and so on. In practice, there is very little linkage between the two modes, and it is easy to go through either mode without touching the other until completion. What you do in Mob Wars mode doesn't affect the Story mode and vice versa. It's a shame, because it ultimately feels like Mob Wars mode is the main game with Story mode being an offshoot.

The control scheme is similar to the intuitive “Blackhand” control system used in the other versions of The Godfather, which is remarkable for a handheld. Players lock onto a target by holding the L button, after which they can attack or shoot using the face buttons. Holding both L and R can grab an opponent in close range in order to beat them up further or throw them around; or manually aim a firearm, allowing for headshots, gut shots, disarming shots and kneecaps. However, the prevalence of firearms in the game makes hand-to-hand fighting redundant; no one really wants to fight with their fists when everyone else has Tommy Guns and shotguns. The guns are also too accurate and easy to use: locking on and bringing up the crosshair is instinctive and can score fatal headshots 9 times out of 10 even with the starting revolver.

On the other hand, the camera angle makes it rather difficult to make use of handy controls. While it is hard to implement a perfect camera angle for a handheld, Mob Wars limitations are almost insulting. The game is played from a behind-the-back third-person view, with the camera naturally following the direction of movement, and players can snap the camera to face the same direction as the character by tapping R. While good in theory, the game's execution is poor and often fatal. The very small environments need faster camera changes to see the mobster around the corner before he guts you with a shotgun. Players can use walls as cover and peek around them, but this is awkward and doesn't flip the camera properly. Enemies can also glitch when running near walls with a crazy camera angle, resulting in enemies with limbs sticking through solid objects, shooting while stuck in walls or even above doorways.

The game also seems to forget to code some rather simple necessities. Locking onto targets is more awkward than first thought. Apparently you can only lock onto a target directly in front of the character. This means you can't turn and fire to take out enemies around the corner, which is bad because you can't turn the camera quickly enough to do it manually. It also means that despite being able to see a target both on your screen and on your minimap, you can't target him.

Even worse, and something I cannot figure out, is that the game doesn't allow you to fire from the hip. Come on, you press the attack button in Grand Theft Auto and your character will automatically shoot whatever's in front of him. In Mob Wars, pressing the attack button is equivalent to literally pulling a trigger. As your character holds his weapon in a rest position while not firing, pressing the attack button makes your guy shoot into ground. What the hell? You know a programmer's taken too many sick days when you see a game forget to point the gun at the enemy.

The rest of the game is fairly well put together, with decent generic sound effects and good visuals resembling the console counterparts and impressive for a handheld game set in a 3D environment. The Godfather: Mob Wars overall is an enjoyable game, though the lack of free-roam is a sore blow. Mob Wars mode is repetitive and can be completed far too quickly while not allowing you to manually defend against opponents, making it frustrating to lose territories so easily. The story missions are too short and linear and can be rushed through once more powerful weapons are unlocked. Mob Wars would be a far better game if it had fleshed out either of its two halves, but instead it's an incomplete experience that leaves far too much to be desired.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 3/10
Replay: 2/10
Overall: 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/07