The Godfather

All new wise guys

The threat of being chucked out of a window is always a good negotiation tactic.

Wisely, EA has chosen to avoid putting gamers in the shoes of any of the characters from the movie or the original Mario Puzo novel, therefore giving much more flexibility by avoiding having to strictly adhere to the plot. Kicking off with a short-lived flashback sequence, you enjoy a brief chance to punch out a few thugs before you get shot down by a rival family.

At that point you're given the chance to seek vengeance and create your own hood (the son of the guy who just got taken out) in a manner reminiscent of the Tiger Woods GameFace or The Sims 2 system. In typical EA style you're given an enormous range of physical features to tweak and customise, encompassing hairstyles, clothes, right down to specific facial characteristics such as eyebrow length, fullness of lips, and even how dark the circles are under your eyes. In our midnight-oil-burning case, that's quite a lot, then. Unlike many previous create-a-player attempts, you really do get a sense that you're building something potentially unique, as opposed to selecting from basic stock models, and all the way through the game the fruits of your labour become evermore apparent in cut scenes and other subtle ways.

And so onto the game itself, The Godfather wears its influences on its sleeve from the word go, unashamedly lifting practically every decent trick in the GTA repertoire, but in a style that's far removed from the modern day world of Tommy Vercetti and Carl Johnson. After the basic melee combat introduction at the beginning (where punches are fluidly delivered by the right analogue stick), your pal Luca teaches you the ropes with a few standard missions where you get to learn how to extort local businesses as well as rough up college punks, act as a getaway driver and take out assassins. All in a day's work.

Safe as houses

Things just love to explode in this game.

In familiar fashion, you've got your own safehouse which works in precisely the same way as GTA, giving you an opportunity to save your progress, top up your health and even grab a baseball bat. Main story missions and the various side missions appear on your mini map in the corner of the screen, and practically any car you see can be quickly hijacked. However, EA has gone a little further than Rockstar in terms of making it a more user friendly game, ironing out some of the most obvious annoyances that blight many GTA players' experiences. Chief of these is an in-mission checkpointing system that doesn't force players to start the whole thing from the beginning if they happen to get iced along the way, while dying during general sorties around the city won't result in the loss of all your weapons. Even better, the purchase of certain safe houses grants you access to a stash of weapons, saving those unnecessary visits to Ammunation, and allowing you to just get on with the business of playing missions and making progress.

Another definite improvement over GTA is the control system. While it feels initially similar to Rockstar's efforts, the main enhancement is a far more fluid combat system that allows players a much greater degree of reliability and flexibility than usual. The system works on two levels; the default operates on a useful auto targeting method which selects the nearest enemy when you press the left shoulder button. If they're behind cover it maintains the lock-on, allowing you to quickly pop a cap in them when they re-appear.

Sometimes, though, that basic method leaves you exposed, and you can either quickly switch to another nearby target with the right stick, or make small adjustments to your auto-aim, allowing you to pull off head shots, shoot the weapon out of their hand, or shoot their arm and render them unable to fire back.

Gangs of New York

One of the many unique execution styles you can pull off during the game.

If you're really confident, you can also switch to manual aiming by tapping the white button. This makes the camera control deliberately 'stiff' but basically makes it exceptionally easy to make minor adjustments to your aim, and therefore easy to shoot your target exactly where you want. In open cover, this isn't an especially good idea, as you'll soon discover that a few well-placed shots are enough to finish you off, but by ducking down, or hiding behind walls you can pull off precision shots without being easy cannon fodder. In fact, by far one of the most effective combat manoeuvres in the entire game is hiding behind a wall, shuffling to the edge, targeting an enemy and hitting the right trigger when they're exposed. In one swift motion you can take out a locked-on target and release the trigger to duck back to safety, and - once mastered - it's an enjoyable and slick way of taking out entire gangs of thugs.

Of course, health is a big issue during combat, and The Godfather takes the well-worn approach of offering occasional health vial pick-ups, which appear to be bottle of hard liquor. Although it's easy to die during careless encounters, there's always a chance to replenish supplies - and with the knowledge that the checkpoints offer respite, there's not quite the same sense of 'all or nothing' frustration when things go wrong, and we like that about The Godfather.

Weapons wise, expect a fairly standard selection for the majority of the game, including a baseball bat, lead pipe, Molotovs, pistol, snub nosed pistol, magnum, shotgun and Tommy gun. Later you might find that it's advisable to source the various three star upgrades to turn a previously vanilla selection into an arsenal of death, such as the Saturday Night Special, the Street Sweeper or the ultimate, the $500,000 Dillinger.

A life of crime

As you might expect, there's plenty to do in The Godfather in between missions if you fancy taking things at your own pace. While the 25 or so missions follow a resolutely linear path, the map's absolutely chock full of businesses to take over from rival families, not to mention banks to rob, rackets to take over, warehouses to seize and contact hits to perform.

The most obvious pre-mission filler, though, is to try and make sure all the businesses in your area are under your control and earn respect and extra cash in the process. In each of the five neighbourhoods there are dozens of small businesses to approach, from small bakers, through to nightclubs and hotels, but each can be brought under your control with a bit of bravado, strong words, and firepower. In the early stages, all you have to do is threaten them or punch them around a bit to get the business owner to crack, but soon it becomes apparent that most require getting rid of the 'heavies' that hang around the entrance first, or even inside if it's a bigger enterprise. Even then, some of the more stubborn entrepreneurs resist your offer of 'protection' until you've smashed their head against the till a few times; think of it as The Punisher but without the hideous gore. Just like Volition's rather vile game, you can go a little too far with your antics, to the point where they'll not only fight back, but refuse to negotiate. In this case, you have to keep a watchful eye on their health and level of submission - so long as you don't kill them and don't push them over the green line of resistance you can claim another extortion scalp. Fail, and you get nothing at all.

Successful extortions, though, open up the back door of certain establishments, allowing you to investigate and uncover hidden rackets which you can take over by simply gunning down everyone inside bar the guy responsible. With a swift bribe you get to add yet another chunk to your income, as well as even more respect.

A little respect goes a long way

Old cotton wool chops, back to deliver the strangest accent we've ever heard.

And with respect comes skill points. Once you've earned enough respect points to take your character to the next level you then get to choose which stat to upgrade, including fighting, shooting, speed, street smart and health. Needless to say, the more you rank up, the easier it becomes to brawl, the more accurate your aim, the longer you can sprint, the more hits you can take, and the more trouble you can avoid from the cops.

Although the fuzz are a key part of The Godfather, they're not quite as irritating as the GTA lawmen, so running down pedestrians and stealing cars doesn't result in insane chases to quite the same extent. That doesn't mean they won't go after you if you decide to go on a Carmaggeddon-style rampage, but it's certainly apparent that they don't interfere quite so much during missions and the like; especially if you've bribed one of the officers beforehand…

When relationships between the families start to break down, though, there's every chance that a mob war will break out, leaving you with the option to either track down and bribe an FBI agent to take the heat off you, or bomb one of the family's warehouses. It's certainly a game of consequences.

During all this mayhem, successful missions, extortions, bank raids and the like gain you promotions through the ranks, with the overall plan to control the whole of New York City - no small task. Having romped through the relatively easy main missions already, it's by no means a GTA in terms of size (with around a quarter of the missions of, say, San Andreas, and no sub branches of the story to explore), but there's still plenty to do and much to see and enjoy.

Hey, good lookin'

Sometimes it really does rain fire in the Big Apple.

From a technical standpoint, it's arguably one of the best looking of all the GTA-style games we've seen, with impressive character likenesses, fluid animation and hugely detailed cityscapes that appear to have a worrying litter problem (although no weather or day/night cycle, curiously). In terms of style, there's nothing quite like it, with an attention to detail that really captures the atmosphere of the movies, replete with bursts of period music to match. Rather like Illusion's flawed-but-interesting Mafia did back in 2002, there's a real charm to the environment, although EA has wisely chosen to make the cars easy to drive with no silly speeding penalties. If we were being picky, we'd admit the handling's completely unrealistic, and that cars would never have gone that fast or be that hard to damage, but then it'd be far less fun to play. The car types pretty much fall into basic fast/medium/slow categories, and despite the presence of various makes and models handling is similarly slidey on all of them. Certainly don’t expect GTA levels of vehicular variety from The Godfather, and before you ask, no, there aren't any motorbikes!

From a narrative perspective, the game's well-judged, with excellent voice acting throughout, and spot on likenesses that are among the best we've ever seen. Expect to see many of the main movie characters making appearances throughout, including the Corleones (Sonny, Michael, and Don Vito), the family consigliere Tom Hagen, and the supporting cast of Luca Brasi, Monk Malone and Paulie Gatto. As you'll have heard, all of the likenesses bar Al Pacino's Michael Corleone were used, while EA even managed to secure the voiceover talents of James Caan (for Sonny) Robert Duvall (for Tom Hagen), with the late great Marlon Brando adding his talents, albeit briefly for the lead role of the Don himself. If anything, the narrative side of the game feels underplayed, with so much potential there, and so much talent sourced.