The Godfather: The Game is a 2006 release based in the Godfather universe that allows players to live out a life of crime in an open world environment. Leading the Mafia in this action based adventure game players will find a number of references to the Godfather films as they build and maintain their profitable crime empire.
This means that fans of the respective Godfather films will instantly recognise many of the characters from the movie and the game even includes voice acting from a number of the cast to create an authentic Godfather experience from start to finish. Where the game differs though is through the introduction of a non-canon character to the series known as Aldo Trapani who works for the Corleone family on a personal story of rising up the crime ranks to seek revenge for his father.
As a result The Godfather: The Game is essentially split into two separate storylines for the player to follow; one closely mimics the main plot events from the film release while the other is centred on the players personal story. These two often intersect with each other though as Aldo is either involved in or sees key major film events which means fans of the broader media franchise are going to enjoy the experience over others who are yet to see the Godfather films.
Players aren’t limited to following just the story line though and can engage in all types of Mafia inspired side activities during their adventure. This includes extorting businesses, taking control of property, fighting other mobs and performing hits that each have their own difficulty levels and proportional rewards. All of these activities increase your families influence in the game world while reducing that of the four opposing game families that opens up new opportunities in the open world city for your mob to thrive.
These opposing mafia families in the game include the Barzini family, Tattaglia family, Cuneo family and the Stracci family that each begin with their own area of control. In addition to these areas of influence each of these families have their own preferred style and their own colours for players to easily distinguish them in game which greatly helps to prevent unwanted all out war between families when not desired. Alongside this family vendetta mechanic players need to consider their heat from law enforcement that increases when the public witnesses your mob activities.
Where these fights do break out you’ll find familiar third person shooting combat to other titles in this genre with players able to use a range of time era appropriate weapons like the Tommy gun, magnum and Molotov cocktails which can either use a free aim or lock on system based on player preferences. Central to this combat is also utilising the 5 weak points on enemies that encourage you to disable enemies with focused shots rather than a spray and pray approach. Melee combat also has a minor role to play with players able to to distribute light and heavy attacks on enemies or pick up a melee focused weapon from the environment when the situation calls for it.
Summary:
- Based on The Godfather films with a dual storyline that ties to the film plot alongside a new character’s personal storyline of revenge.
- Work your way up the family ranks and become The Don of the Corleone family.
- Battle against four rival families for control over the city which can lead to all out war if the vendetta grows too high.
- Plenty of mafia inspired activities and side quests support the main storyline as you extort businesses in the open world.
- Multiple game versions across several platforms (some minor differences between platforms).
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Review Platform: PC
