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Another game based off a movie, yeah great.  When are those ever any good?  You’d be hard pressed to find one.  But this is different.  It’s an old movie, a classic movie.  this can’t just be a shameless plug for the latest blockbuster.  Sure, you CAN go buy the movie at your local retailer… but this is far from the typical movie game made to be a piece in the media blitz puzzle.  Though the game obviously has roots in the movie, it doesn’t try to integrate itself to it.  Instead it creates it’s own universe.  The the cool part is, then it tosses you the keys and says “Go ahead, have some fun… be home before dawn”.

When one looks up this game on the EA site they see it classified under the “Action/Adventure” genre.  Ok, there’s action in it, and I would say there’s a bit of adventure… though i don’t see a fedora or a bull whip anywhere.  But if you stop and think about it, doesn’t EVERY game qualify as such?  I mean really, what else is there?  The Boredom/Monotonous genre went out of vogue in the late 90′s.  So, in the quest to better describe this game i hereby offer a new genre.  Hence forth, this type of game shall be referred to as a Sandbox game.  A sandbox game is one where a world is given to you with several vague objectives and you can do whatever the heck you want.  If you want to follow the objective, more power to ya.  If you want to drive around as fast as you can running over as many people as you can… go for it.  Examples of this sort of game are game such as CrackdownGrand Theft Auto, and yes… The Godfather 2.

So now that we have that ironed out, what about the game?  You start out in Cuba, the day that Castro takes power.  When the dust settles from the revolution the family is forced to change their plans… which is where you come in.  The whole point of the game is to take over rival family’s business, then take out the rival family completely.  The game provides some guidance along the way, but how you do it is decided entirely by you.  You can bomb business, perform hostile take overs, or just go rob banks all day.  Whatever floats your boat.

You also get some partners in crime.  That’s right, you get your own family.  How that works with the movie logic?  Haven’t figured that out yet.  You’re a Corleone, he’s a Corleone, wouldn’t you like to be a Corleone too?  Regardless, you’ll get to recruit and promote 7 “made men” that you will then use to attack and defend territories in 3 different cities.  These men will have varying skills.  There are safecrackers, engineers, medics, demolitionist, arsonsists, and bruisers.  You’ll need to make sure you have the right men for the right job.  You can also upgrade your character as well as your family members… increasing accuracy, amount of health, and so on.  These men will prove vital in helping you secure every possible business and defending again rival families that are coming after you.  Treat them well.

I found my 10 or 13 hours of game play to be interesting and slightly addictive.  I found the need to completely stomp out all competition to be strangely compelling, which disturbs me a little.  The combat was fairly smooth, if not a touch on the arcade side.  Driving physics were HORRIBLE, but most sandbox games suffer the same affliction.  Graphics were quite good making for some inspiring fire balls, and surprisingly realistic animation.  Be VERY aware, this game is rated M for a reason.  There is nothing pleasant about shooting your way in to a rival family’s strip club, beating the owner in to submission, and then accidentally shoving your shotgun in his mouth and making a mess on the wall behind him.   If you’re sitting in your dorm room causing mayhem, that’s one thing.  Don’t buy this game for your kids, play it around  kids, or discuss it with kids.  Unless, of course, you want them to grow up to be a Don.

- David Hayes

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