Video Game Review: The Godfather (PS2)

 

If you are into Retro-gaming I am going to take you back to the days where EA (Electronic Arts) was a worthwhile company that produced quality games.  Introducing the Godfather for the Playstation 2.  This has to be one of the best games ever for the PS2. It is similar in functionality to Grand Theft Auto 3 in that it is a closed Sandbox game that you can do almost anything in. But the real fun in the game is creating events that match the movie, the Godfather.

The game begins with a cinematic of a dapper Corleone thug named John Trapani.  His wife's bakery gets blown up and he gets executed by the Barzinis in an alley next door.  His young son Aldo Trapani witnesses the after math as Don Corleone holds him and tells him to be patient, when he get old enough he will get his revenge.

The game then proceeds to take you through a timeline that matches the movie.  The assassination of Luca Brassi, The protection of Vito Corleone in the hospital, helping Michael assassinate Solazzo and McClusky at Louis diner, Sonny Corleone's assassination at the causeway...it's all in there.

The fun of the game is that you earn money by extorting businesses on the maps that cover Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.  You take businesses away from the five families and you grow in both rank and money.  With the money you purchase safehouses and upgrade your weapons.  You will spend hours having fun defeating the five families until you are able to become the Don of Dons of New York City.

The mechanics of the game is pretty simple and dependent of your environment.  Different button combos will take effect if you are driving versus if you are on foot.  You have your choices of weapons as well that you can use.  The game gives you jobs that you must accomplish to get the best ending to the game.  And depending on your level of gameplay you can do certain things and ignore other things.  For example, for me, I find that robbing trucks is very difficult.  So I ignore it.  I can still get to the good ending if I don't rob any trucks.

The replay value of this game is high.  This is because it is so versatile in how you can accomplish the goals you need to accomplish.  The game walks you through the Godfather story where you are a soldier in the Corleone family and have to get certain things done to see how you reach certain scenes in the movie.  For example, you and an NPC called Rocco are the ones that leaves the horse's head in the bed of Jack Walz, the Hollywood director that refuses to give Johnny Fontaine the part in the upcoming movie.  You don't see that in the actual movie.  So what the video game does is it fills in the blanks.

I would recommend you watch the movie first if you have not seen it.  Then play the video game.  Things will be very familiar.  

The only negative I have about the game is that it tries to rush you through the story and does not allow you to effectively do all the tasks you need to do to get to the good ending.  But otherwise, it's a great video game and this Joker highly recommends it.

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