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The Godfather: The Game (Xbox) Reviews:
The life of a mobster is so outrageous that it naturally translates into compelling drama in books, movies, and television. With video games becoming an increasingly powerful and popular medium, it only makes sense that the mob life would make it into gaming consoles. Rather than attempt to create a whole new mob world, the developers at Electronic Arts decided to go for the gusto and take one of the greatest movies of all time and turn it into a game. Luckily for them, and for gamers everywhere, they have done a terrific job. The developers brilliantly molded a storyline around most of the famous scenes in the movie, and they've managed to effectively transport gamers back to 1950s-era New York with tremendous realism.

The Godfather: The Game is filled with all the unrefusable offers, ichthyic slumber parties, and suspender-wearing wiseguys that fans of The Godfather movies have come to know and love. Gamers take the role of a young punk whose father was a Corleone soldier killed nine years earlier. The punk's mother goes to Don Vito on his daughter's wedding day, when no Sicilian can refuse a request, and asks Vito to watch over her son. From there the game begins with the main character roughing up local shopkeepers to make sure they are loyal to the Family, in the process gaining money and respect. This concept isn't terribly innovative, but there are numerous specific ways to intimidate people, such as holding a baker over the flames of his oven. There are specific missions to be performed for the Corleone family, hit contracts to be fulfilled, and dozens of businesses, both legitimate and otherwise, to extort.

The gameplay is essentially based on that of the Grand Theft Auto series, so it is only fair to compare The Godfather: The Game to the GTA games. As is the case in the GTA series, players can ignore missions and roam the highly detailed model of, in this case, the New York Metropolitan area in pursuit of various types of mayhem. There isn't nearly as much freedom in this game as there is in the GTA franchise, though that is also the fault of the time period. There are really only about six different types of vehicles to drive, there are no planes or helicopters, no chain saws or flame-throwers, and the building design gets very repetitive. There is no shame, however, in being not quite as good as the GTA games. Though The Godfather: The Game isn't an instant classic like the movie that inspired it, it is an engrossing and atmospheric experience that is very fun to play. Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

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