As any gamer can tell you, games based on movies are hardly ever a decent affair. Not to say that all games made from movies are terrible, but it’s safe to say that the majority of them are just down right dreadful. EA Games has decided to take a different route and instead of creating a game based on a new blockbuster movie release, they chose to make a game based on a movie that has been out for over thirty years, and in that time, has become a classic of American cinema. Making a game based on the Godfather is a risky endeavor and fans of the movie would be up in arms if it marred the memory of the film in any way. Luckily, it’s safe to say that EA pulled a rabbit out of their hat and came away with what a game based on everyone’s favorite crime family should be.

The game follows the life of a Corleone family acquaintance whose father died serving the Don years previously. Being that you were a child when your father was killed, growing up on the mean streets of New York has led you down some wrong paths and into some tough crowds. Your mother asks Don Vito for a favor and requests that he looks over you and allows you to help the family in its business. Once you meet up with Luca Brasi, the family enforcer, the game starts to play out and your life of organized crime begins. As you work your way up the ranks in the family, from outsider to associate, enforcer and eventually the under boss of the Corleone’s, you will be able to upgrade your skills as you level up, however you don’t get there by sitting around on your hands. Aside from the main missions that drive the story forward, there are plenty of side missions to get your hands dirty with.

Extorting money from business owners can involve breaking items in their shops, threatening them and even slapping them around a little. Once a shop keeper is intimated enough, you will provide “protection” for them and earn money each week from them. Additionally you are able to take over racketeering rings in the back rooms of shops to earn even more money as well as warehouses and truck rackets. If you want to switch things up, you can visit Tessio and Clemenza around the city and they will send you out on hits which will require you to take out a mark. You will receive a bonus payday if you perform it in the special way that they specify. Each hit is different and require certain finesse to complete properly. Some call for a simple beating with a baseball bat, where as some get more intricate like needing to toss someone off a rooftop. Each time you whack someone, you can unlock execution moves to perform later on in the game. There is a massive list of moves to unlock and each of them is accessible with different weapons and environments.

The city map, that is open for you to explore, is split up into five areas that each family has control of. The Corleones are smack dab in the middle of the city, in Little Italy, and you will spend most of your time there. When you do need to visit other areas such as Brooklyn, Midtown, Hell’s Kitchen or New Jersey, you can hijack a driver a la Grand Theft Auto and take his or her car, or just take one parked on the side of the street. Sadly there really is a slim selection of cars to choose from. All the fast cars look the same, albeit different colors, and that’s about how diverse the other 4 or 5 cars are as well. Many games these days are unjustly compared to Grand Theft Auto but it’s a pretty fair comparison in this case. There are many similarities between the two games, from the free roaming cityscape, the numerous missions and side missions as well as the heat meter, noted by badges around the navigation map, which tells you how active the cops are towards your crimes.

Graphically, the Godfather is well done. It’s nothing overwhelming, but the city and atmosphere reflects the time period excellently. Set in the 40’s and 50’s, the clothing, cars and dialogue are all top notch and immerse you into the game almost as well as the movie did. To help bring the film to game, several actors from the movie reprise their roles for the game, both in voice and likenesses. Robert Duval, James Caan and the late Marlon Brando lend their voices to the game but unfortunately some notable actors are missing. The game plays through the life of a made man quite well and adds little bits here and there that weren’t included in the movie as well as removes some that were. Playing through missions, such as planting the infamous horse head in the bed and taking out traitors to the family, add diversity to the missions in the game and is fun to actually play some of the best parts of the movie.

If you haven’t seen the movie before or if it has been awhile since you sat down with it, you may find yourself a little confused at times during the many cut scenes. Not everything is explained as well as it should have been, but if you are Godfather aficionado, you’ll understand every thing with a knowing nod. With the extra side missions making the game last longer than with just the not-so lengthy mission mode, the plenty of film clips that can be unlocked by finding film reels around the city, The Godfather is a pretty complete package although it does fall short in some aspects. If you have been itching to play a game that lets you delve into the classic gangster life in a GTA playing style, the Godfather is worth checking out, whether you have seen the movie a hundred times or not at all.