The Godfather (18)
Verdict: Let it sleep with the fishes
Platform: PS2, Xbox, PSP, 360, PC.
Rating: 2/5
I had a vague hope that EA might actually turn the tide on the well earned reputation that games based on films are rubbish. Unfortunately The Godfather disappears into the annals of history as yet another generic, licensed cash in. Joy.
Admittedly they’ve made some effort, working the story of your character into the background of the film, allowing you to witness and be part of key events. It has their excellent character creation tool and an in-depth virtual tailor so your gangster can look, er...gangsterish and they’ve spent a lot of time accurately modelling characters from the film.
Seemingly taking their cues from GTA they’ve tried to create sandbox versions of Little Italy, Hell’s Kitchen etc, replete with ‘interactive’ people, cars to hijack and police to annoy. Whilst following the story of the film you can embark on side missions, gaining money for the family and treading on the toes of rival gangs by imposing your own enjoyably brutal ‘protection’ services upon local business’.
Featuring a once promising but ultimately two dimensional method of harassing people (attack them until a gauge fills to a certain level) its analogue controls give you some limited flexibility but it almost always leads to button mashing (or ‘stick mashing’ but lets not go there). The sandbox elements also prove to be pretty empty (and far from pretty) with little to do and very little depth. Look too closely and you’ll lose what vague suspension of disbelief you may have.
It’s this shallow level of immersion that is The Godfather’s biggest crime too (that and what happens to that poor horse) and what sets it so far apart from the original film. From the start it screams ‘game’ at you and doesn’t stop. Floating neon arrows, an out of context radar, icons that hover above people, an out of date HUD, unintentionally comic animations, a lackadaisical camera and cars that drive like supermarket trolleys.
Fair enough it’s a game so what’s the problem? It’s a game based on a classic piece of cinematography, not any old action movie. It’s been handled with little sensitivity or imagination and is full of so much unnecessarily intrusive game information that at no point do I feel like i’m in the film. And isn’t that the point of the game?