The Godfather: The Game

The Godfather: The Game is a video game made released in 2006 for several home consoles and for the PC.

The game features the voices of some of the original actors. The story is also expanded from the original by Mike Winegardner. This author was the same who wrote a book about The Godfather, following Mario Puzo's novel. The cutscenes and the places are very much like the game. The 3D models of the actors are very realistic, everybody can recognize them, maybe except for Michael Corleone, who was based on a different actor for rights due to his involvement in the game Scarface. It also has Nino Rota's original soundtrack.

Storyline
The story begins in 1936 with a cutscene. Don Barzini orders and watches the assassination of Johnny Trapani. His son sees his dead body. Don Corleone approaches and helps the child by saying to him: "Save your anger. When you are old enough and the time is right you will have your revenge".

Then the action goes to 1945 to Connie Corleone's wedding. The mother of Aldo meets the Don and asks for protection for his son. The Don sends Luca Brasi to assist him and the game begins.

The game has two stories. One story comes from the original movie. The second story are the new missions created for the game, some related to the story, as the mission for Bonasera, killing Tessio and the others are completely new as the mission to drive the Don to the Hospital, driving Michael to the docks, killing Monk, etc.

Characters

 * Aldo Trapani is the main player. He is introduced in the story as an outsider who seeks revenge for the death of his father. His name can be changed to anything the player wants.
 * Jonny Trapani is the father of Aldo. He is brutally murdered at Don Barzini's orders.
 * Monk Malone is a friend of Aldo and an Associate for the Corleone Family. He betrays the Family and Aldo has to kill him following orders from Michael Corleone.
 * Frances (Frankie) Malone is the sister of Monk and the girlfriend of Aldo. She is murdered by Bruno Tattaglia.

Gameplay
The game has medium difficulty. Anyway, taking warehouses and compounds can be real hard. The Barzini Compound and their warehouses are very hard to take down. Also, the police are very aggressive in level 5 of Heat.

The way to control the players is very intuitive. The stick is sensitive to pressure so if it is hold with force the player will run and he/she will walk slowly otherwise. The way to drive cars is simplified compared to a normal racing game.

Features
The videogame mostly tries to follow the movie but it adds a story within the story. The city of New York in the game is very big. The player has to make a lot of things in the game to complete it. That is, the action is not linear. The player can complete the main missions and extort, take rackets and businesses in no particular order. The mobface is an innovation which lets customize the appearance of the player, which will be treated below. This invention is often seen in some Electronic Arts games. Also the game has the original music from the film and some tridimensional cutscenes from it. The trailer of the film and some videos from it can be unlocked by collecting Film Reels (they are in High Definition).

Controls
The controls herein are from the Xbox 360 version. Other versions do not change much.


 * Left Stick: moves the player
 * LT: locks on a person or Brake (in car)
 * Right Stick: Attacks (must be locked on with LT)
 * Arrows: Reveal, Conceal, Cycle Weapons.
 * LB: Enter or exit Free-Aim Mode
 * RT: Shoot (must be locked on with LT) and Accelerate (in car)
 * RB: Execute person
 * X: Take wall cover and Cover. Brake (in car)
 * A: Sprint and Accelerate (in car)
 * Y: Action. Talk, buyout, open doors, hijack and get into vehicles
 * B: Crouch and hand brake (in car)

Rank
There are six ranks in the Corleone Family.


 * Outsider: the initial state of the player
 * Associate: the Family accepts the player. Earned after Fireworks.
 * Soldier: the player is a made man. Earned after "Recipe for Revenge" when Michael flees to Sicily.
 * Caporegime: earned after the "Change of Plans" mission
 * Underboss: earned after completing all the story missions.
 * Don: earned after bombing all 4 rival families' compounds
 * Don of NYC: earned after completing all missions, taking all businesses and rackets and has completed more than 90% of the game.

Respect
The fastest and better way to finish the game is to make the Main Missions first. That way the player can upgrade his rank in the Corleone Family. This is useful for hiring better crew. Also the player can upgrade his skills. It is suggested to upgrade Health and Street Smarts, so the player will not die so often and he will have a lot of weapons and the ability to steal parked cars heat free. Tips for earning respect:


 * Taking safehouses
 * Heisting banks
 * Winning mob wars
 * Completing bonus condition on Favors
 * Flirting with women
 * Bribing police and chief police officers
 * Taking film reels

Money and Dillinger Weapon
After accomplishing the Main Missions and the Favors, the player can extort easily. When the player has a lot of money (stealing banks and doing the bonus condition on the favors are the best way to earn money fast) he can upgrade the Tommy Gun to Dillinger (it costs 400.000 money). With Dillinger, taking down warehouses and compounds will be easier. A crew member in level 4 will also help.

For all the weapons, it is better to save the money for the Level 3 Upgrade. The player does not need to buy Level 2 Upgrade first. He might save the money for Dillinger and then he can buy the safe houses, if he wants to.

If a criminal attacks a woman, the player can kill him heat free. He throws money and gives respect.

The player can also get money from the Mission Hidden Bags. By extorting, taking rackets and killing criminals and mobsters.

Extortion
The player can extort whenever he can, it is easy. Just he must remember to always get the Weak Spot bonus. Every merchant has a different Weak Spot. These include:


 * Jabs and punches
 * Strangling him
 * Breaking his stuff
 * Menacing with weapon
 * Slamming him
 * Holding him on the edge
 * Threating or killing innocents
 * Physical threats

The player can try all of this but being careful not to pass the merchant Pressure Meter.

Police and Heat
The police is, according to some jokers, the Sixth Family. They are strong when the Heat Level is high. The player should bribe them before committing crimes. They would even help against mobsters. After bribing them the player should not kill any police officer, because their help will stop and they will attack immediately. Bribing a Chief Police Officer will increase the Police Help (not official name) Level up to the maximum.

Mob Wars
When a mob war is declared it is better not to lose it. The player loses temporarily the income from the burned businesses and rackets. It is better to win it by bribing an FBI agent or by bombing a rival family (the family the player is in war with) business. The player can win a lot of respect (more than 1000)

Mobface
Mobface is the ability to custom the player. Electronic Arts made possible to change the face, the skin color, the hair style, the body style. The player can randomize the aspects of his character. There is also the Tailor's Shop where the player can change buy and change the clothes of his character.

Crew
When the player gets to the Associate rank in the Corleone Family he can hire some crew members. The members must be equal or below his own rank. The last rank (rank 4) uses a Tommy Gun. The higher the better the mercenary and his guns. He will assist the player in killing the rival mobsters.

Development
Electronic Arts announced in 2005 that players would create mobsters of their own, customizing their character's physical features, build and clothing in a very in-depth program known as "MobFace". Also, the game would not be the traditional mission-style type but a sandbox]game, in a huge free-roam '40s-'50s style New York City, and non-linear gameplay (similar to games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise). Electronic Arts has also created the "Black Hand" control system as a means of pressuring and extorting business owners. Using the analog sticks on the game controller, players have a wide range of available methods to achieve their goals. These methods include punching, kicking, headbutting, strangling, etc. EA has announced a separate version for the Wii titled The Godfather: Blackhand Edition. There will also be a PlayStation 3 version (titled The Godfather: The Don's Edition) that will include the "Corleone Expansion Pack" (adding new gameplay and missions), an enhanced "Black Hand" control system that makes use of the PlayStation 3's SIXAXIS controller, and added Shipyard and Rail yard transportation hubs for the player to "explore and exploit". 

While the game shares much in common with the Grand Theft Auto series, it also has similarities with the video game Mafia.