The Godfather is a 2006 action-adventure video game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts. It was originally released in March 2006 for Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It was later released for the PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3.
Based upon the 1972 film The Godfather, the game follows a non-canon character, Aldo Trapani (who can be renamed by the player), who is recruited into the Corleone family and works his way up its ranks while seeking revenge against his father's killers. The story of the game intersects with the film on numerous occasions, depicting major events from Aldo's perspective, or showing him perform actions that happened off-screen; for example, he avenges Bonasera's daughter, kills Luca Brasi's assassin, drives Vito Corleone to the hospital after he is shot, plants the gun for Michael Corleone to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, and places the horse's head in Jack Woltz's bed. Although the game was condemned by Francis Ford Coppola, who claimed Paramount never told him about its development or asked for his input, it does feature voice acting from several stars of the film, including James Caan as Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen and Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio. Marlon Brando also recorded dialogue for Vito Corleone, in what would be his final acting job, but his ill health made most of his recordings unusable.
The Godfather received generally positive reviews across most systems, although the PlayStation Portable version was commonly seen as inferior to the others. The game was a commercial success, selling over four million units. A sequel, based on the 1974 film, The Godfather Part II, was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows in 2009, but it received mixed reviews and did not sell as well as the first game, causing EA to scrap plans for an adaptation of the third film.
Gameplay
The Godfather is an open world action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, in which the player controls protagonist Aldo Trapani as he ascends through the ranks of the Corleone family, with his rise intersecting with the narrative of the film on numerous occasions. The basic gameplay and game mechanics are similar to most open world titles as the player can travel across the city freely, commandeer vehicles, do whatever they want in terms of attacking and/or killing innocent civilians, and progress through the storyline at their own leisure, spending as much time traversing the city as they wish.
Combat
250px|thumb|left|Basic gameplay in The Godfather. The [[Head-up display|HUD shows the mini-map on the bottom right, Aldo's currently selected weapon and ammo on the bottom left, his health, experience bar and funds on the top left, and his currently targeted opponent's health and family affiliation on the top right.]]
Much of the game is based around third-person shooting, with the player able to wield a .38 snub nose, a pistol, a magnum, a Tommy gun, and a shotgun, as well as projectiles such as Molotov cocktails and dynamite. The game features both a lock-on system and a manual aiming system. In the manual system, the players have complete freedom to aim wherever they wish. In the lock-on system, when the player locks a target, a targeting reticule appears on-screen. The longer the player is locked on, the smaller the reticule gets, allowing for more precise aiming. Within the lock-on system, the player also has a certain degree of freedom to aim manually; the reticule can be moved around the locked on target, allowing the player to target specific areas. If the reticule turns red, the player has found a weak point. All enemies have five weak points: their two knees and their two shoulders, plus their groin. If the player shoots one of their knees, the enemy will no longer be able to run, but will continue to shoot back. If the player hits a shoulder, the enemy won't be able to fire back or fight. Hitting the groin accomplishes the same effect as a knee shot, also stunning the target.
The other mode of combat in the game is melee combat, for which the game uses a system dubbed "BlackHand", after the Black Hand extortion method. Once the player has locked onto an NPC, either hostile or non-hostile, they use the right analog stick to engage in melee combat. The system allows for light attacks, heavy attacks and directional attacks. It also allows the player to swing the opponent around, drag them, strangle them, lift them to their feet if they fall to their knees, slam them against walls, smash their head against counters, throw them over ledges and out windows, and perform execution maneuvers when the opponent is suitably weakened. Players can also wield numerous melee weapons, such as baseball bats, tire irons, police batons, and wrenches. For the PlayStation 3 Don's Edition and the Wii Blackhand Edition, the BlackHand system has been enhanced, utilizing the motion sensor capabilities of the Sixaxis and the Wii Remote.
Extortion and rival families
thumb|240px|The intimidation mechanic in The Godfather. Note the multicolored bar on the top right. The blue meter represents the current level of intimidation. The green line represents the point at which the shopkeeper will agree to pay protection money. The red area indicates the level of intimidation at which the shopkeeper will fight back.
A major part of The Godfathers gameplay is extorting businesses. The player must extort business to earn enough respect to level up, to complete certain missions, and to earn money. When the player is attempting to intimidate a business owner into paying protection money, a meter appears on screen with a green bar and a red bar. To get the owner to agree to pay, the player must intimidate them until the meter fills up to the green bar. After this point, the more intimidation the player can achieve, the more money the owner will pay out. However, if the meter passes the red bar, the owner will begin to fight back and will refuse to pay anything. Every business owner has a weak point, something they particularly fear, and if the player finds it, the amount of money paid out will rise faster than the meter fills, allowing the player to extort more money before the meter reaches the red zone. Intimidation methods include beating the owner up, throwing them around, smashing their shop, attacking customers, or pointing firearms at them. In the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, the player will occasionally have the option of carrying out a favor for a business owner rather than intimidating them. This can involve carrying out a hit on someone, scaring someone, or going to a particular location at a particular time. If the player chooses to perform the favor, the amount of protection money paid by the owner will be maximized.
There are five main geographical regions in the game; Little Italy (controlled by the Corleone family), Brooklyn (controlled by the Tattaglia family), New Jersey (controlled by the Stracci family), Hell's Kitchen (controlled by the Cuneo family) and Midtown (controlled by the Barzini family). At the start of the game, the entire map is available for the player to explore, but the game encourages the player to remain in Little Italy, as it is the easiest area of which to gain control. To completely control an area, the player must extort all business and rackets owned by the other families, and take over their warehouses and hubs.
The player can also gain control of warehouses and hubs. Warehouses supply rackets, and hubs supply warehouses. Both warehouses and hubs are heavily guarded, and the player must fight their way inside, and find the boss, who they can then intimidate as with business owners and racket bosses. Warehouses pay out more than rackets and hubs pay out more than warehouses. Ultimately, the player must tackle the enemies' strongest holdout - their compound. Once the compound is destroyed, that family has been defeated. To destroy a compound, the player must fight their way inside and then plant a bomb. All compounds have two buildings, both of which must be bombed, and are heavily guarded by soldiers and enforcers aligned with the controlling family.
Vendetta and heat
As the player takes over rival families' businesses and kills their men, their vendetta level will rise. If it gets too high, a mob war will break out. This results in members of the opposing family attacking the player on sight, and going after Corleone-owned businesses, rackets, warehouses and hubs. The ways to win a mob war are to either bomb a rival family business in retaliation or bribe an FBI agent to distract the opposing family until the vendetta level has lowered.
As well as vendetta levels, the player must also be aware of "heat" during the game. Shooting rival family members in public, killing civilians and innocent people, or attacking police officers will all raise heat levels. If the level gets too high, police will fire upon the player on sight. To avoid this, the player can bribe police to ignore them for a while. Alternatively, bribing a police captain will earn the player a specific amount of time during which the police will turn a blind eye to illegal actions. In the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3 versions, bribed police will fight on the player's side in shootouts with rival families. Also in the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3 versions, the player can blackmail rather than bribe the captain, but only if certain information has been learned from an NPC about the captain's activities.
Rank
In addition to extorting businesses and attempting to destroy rival families, the player must also engage in story missions. Completing story missions is the only way for the player to advance in rank in the Corleone family, moving from Outsider through the ranks of Enforcer, Associate, Soldier, Capo, Underboss, Don and, finally, Don of NYC. However, completing all of the storyline missions will only take the player to the level of Underboss. To achieve the Don of NYC level, the player must take over all rival businesses, rackets, warehouses, and hubs, destroy all compounds, and own every safehouse.
Apart from progressing in rank in the Corleone family, the other method of progression in the game involves "Respect". Earning respect allows the player to level up, which awards skill points to spend on various attributes. Respect can be earned by numerous means, such as completing missions, extorting businesses, taking over rackets, blowing up safes, bribing police officers, robbing banks, successfully flirting with women, entering new areas, carrying out execution maneuvers, or performing hits and favors.
Plot
In Little Italy in 1936, a young Aldo Trapani (voiced by Andrew Pifko) witnesses his father Johnny (Adam Harrington), a soldato in the Corleone family, being killed by the rival Barzini family. Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando/Doug Abrahams) comforts Aldo, telling him that when he is old enough and the time is right, he will have his revenge. Years later, his mother Sarafina (Sirenetta Leoni) visits Vito during his daughter's wedding, telling him that Aldo has fallen in with a disreputable group of young thieves and requests his help to get him out as a favor for her late husband's loyalty. Vito sends Luca Brasi (Garry Chalk) to find Aldo and recruit him into the family.
After teaching Aldo how to fight and earn protection money, Brasi sends him to meet Paulie Gatto (Tony Alcantar). Aldo helps Gatto and Corleone associate Marty "Monk" Malone (Jason Schombing) take revenge on two men who attacked the daughter of the local undertaker Bonasera, a friend of Vito's. He later goes with Brasi to meet Virgil Sollozzo (Richard Newman), a Tattaglia family-backed drug baron who seeks revenge against Vito for refusing to enter the cocaine trade. Vito has sent Brasi to pretend he is unhappy working for the Corleones and wishes to join the Tattaglia family in order to spy on them. However, Sollozo and Bruno Tattaglia (Joe Paulino) see through Brasi's deception and assist a hired assassin in killing him. After killing Brasi's assassin, Aldo escapes to tell Monk what happened, just as an attempted hit on Vito happens nearby. After being taken to the hospital by Aldo and his son Fredo (Andrew Moxham), Vito appoints his eldest son, Sonny Corleone (James Caan), as acting Don.
At the Corleone compound, Aldo meets caporegimes Peter Clemenza (Doug Abrahams) and Salvatore Tessio (Abe Vigoda) and consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall). Impressed with Aldo's bravery, Tom promotes him to Enforcer, and Clemenza sends him to guard Vito in the hospital. Whilst there, Aldo meets Monk's sister Frankie (Jennifer Copping), with whom he soon starts a relationship, and Michael Corleone (Joseph May). A Tattaglia hit squad attempts to kill Vito, but Michael gets him to safety while Aldo defends Frankie and kills the assassins. Aldo and Michael are then threatened by corrupt police officers led by Captain Marc McCluskey (Doug Abrahams), who is on Sollozzo's payroll, but Tom arrives and claims that they are private detectives legally employed to guard Vito.
After being promoted to Associate, Aldo kills Gatto for selling Vito out to Sollozzo, and travels to Hollywood to help Corleone soldato Rocco Lampone (Michael Dobson) persuade ill-tempered studio executive Jack Woltz (Doug Abrahams) to give Vito's godson Johnny Fontane the starring role in a new film. Aldo and Rocco decapitate Woltz' prized stallion, and place the head in his bed as he sleeps, terrifying him into giving Fontane the role. After Aldo returns to New York, the Corleones purchase an apartment in Midtown for him and Frankie. Meanwhile, Michael plans to assassinate Sollozzo and McClusky, and arranges a meeting with them, feigning a desire to settle the dispute peacefully. Aldo plants a gun for Michael to use during the assassination, and then drives him to the docks so that he can leave for Sicily. After Vito is released from the hospital, he promotes Aldo to Soldato, making him a made man of the Corleone family.
After Frankie is killed by Tattaglia assassins on Bruno Tattaglia's orders, an enraged Aldo hunts Bruno down with Sonny's help, and eventually murders him. Later, Aldo witnesses Sonny speeding off in his car and follows him, arriving at a highway toll booth where he was ambushed and killed by a Tattaglia hit squad. Aldo kills the hitmen and interrogates their leader, who reveals that the hit was ordered by Don Emilio Barzini (Michael Kopsa). Devastated by Sonny's death and realizing Barzini is controlling most of the other families, Vito meets with the Five Families' heads to secure a peaceful resolution to their feud. In exchange for Michael's safe return to America, Vito promises to withdraw his opposition to their drug business and forgo avenging Sonny's murder.
Vito retires and eventually dies, while Michael becomes the new Don and promotes Aldo to Caporegime. Learning the FBI are investigating the Corleones and have an informant among them, Michael sends Aldo and Monk to a hotel where the informant is meeting with his FBI contact. Monk flees after killing the contact, while Aldo realizes that Monk himself is the informant and notifies Michael. Aldo is subsequently ordered to kill Monk, who, before dying, admits that he blamed the Corleones for Frankie's death and allied with the Cuneo family. Aldo also kills Tessio for setting Michael up to be killed by the Barzini family.
On the day of his nephew's baptism, Michael asks Aldo to assassinate the heads of the four families—Victor Stracci, Carmine Cuneo, Philip Tattaglia, and Emilio Barzini. While Michael attends the ceremony, Aldo carries out each hit with the help of Clemenza, Rocco, Willi Cicci (Gavin Hammon), and Al Neri (Terence McGovern), finally avenging his father's death at Barzini's hands. Michael then promotes Aldo to Underboss. If the player keeps playing at this point, and Aldo bombs all four rival family compounds, he becomes the Don of New York.
Development
Early news
The Godfather was first announced by Electronic Arts on March 10, 2004. Speaking at the Bear Stearns Media, Entertainment & Information Conference in Palm Beach, Florida, EA's CFO Warren Jensen confirmed rumors that EA were working on a The Godfather game. No other details were revealed except for the fact that it would "likely be an M-rated game", making it EA's first ever M-rated title. The game was first shown at the 2004 Spike Video Game Awards on December 14. Slated for a third quarter release in 2005 on as yet unspecified current generation systems, EA showed a pre-rendered cutscene depicting Vito Corleone drinking wine, scratching his cheek, and then looking into the camera and saying "Some day, and that day may never come, I may call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this, as a gift."
Gameplay details remained unknown until January 2005, when Famitsu published an interview with producer Hunter Smith. He revealed the game would be an open world title in the vein of the Grand Theft Auto games, and that, at present, developers EA Redwood Shores had one-hundred-and-twenty staff working full-time on the game, with that number expected to increase to two-hundred in the coming months. He stated that although the game itself was only 15% complete, the narrative was finalized; players would control an original character who begins as a small-time member of the Corleone family, and must work his way up through the ranks. He stated that EA had wanted to make an open-world game for some time; "We wanted to make a title with the same style of open world, but with a strong background, one where you build human relationships while creating your own story." He also explained that the player's progression path through the game could be determined by the player, but would intersect with the plot of the film at certain points, and the player would get to participate in famous scenes from the movie; "It's constructed so that players will appear in the scene and will feel as if they are alive within it."
On February 1, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Marlon Brando, James Caan and Robert Duvall had been hired to reprise their roles as Vito Corleone, Sonny Corleone and Tom Hagen, respectively. All three had also allowed EA to use their likenesses in the game, with both Caan and Duvall doing facial motion capture work. Although Brando had died in July of the previous year, he had recorded dialogue for the game prior to his death, in what was his last acting job. It was also revealed that EA had acquired the rights to Nino Rota's score for the film. Later that same day, EA released its first official statement regarding the game, announcing it was being released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows and PlayStation Portable. Executive producer David De Martini stated "We are incredibly excited and honored to have the opportunity to bring the fiction of The Godfather to life in a video game. The Godfather movies raised the standard for cinematic achievement with their high level of drama and intense storytelling, and in fall 2005 gamers will be able to experience that dangerous and living world of The Godfather for themselves."
The game officially premiered on February 10, in a red carpet event held in Little Italy, with James Caan, Robert Duvall and Johnny Martino (who played Paulie Gatto in the film) in attendance. At the event, it was announced that a playable demo would not be available until the E3 event in May. David De Martini explained the game had already been in development for two years, including a full year of preproduction and research. He revealed the developers had worked closely with Mark Winegardner, author of The Godfather Returns, to ensure the storyline stayed within the canon of the narrative, and maintained the correct tone. De Martini also stated that as well as Rota's score, Bill Conti and Ashley Irwin had composed one-hundred minutes of new music for the game.
Open world
In the build-up to E3 in May, EA announced the game would also be released for a next-generation platform; the Xbox 360. At the event itself, a playable demo was made available to journalists, but not to the public. The demo debuted the "BlackHand" control system,
Speaking to GameSpot in June, David De Martini stated the original idea for the project was Paramount's, who first approached EA about a game adaptation of the film in early 2003. After numerous meetings, the concept was decided upon; a "dual-story" game that would feature a character moving through an open world and rising through the ranks of the Corleone family, whilst at the same time, following the plot of the film. De Martini explained
The game was first shown at an EA press event on July 13, 2006. Designer Mike Olsen explained the 360 version "is 100% of the game on the Xbox, plus some." Graphically, the game features dynamic weather and diurnal cycles, and an enhanced particle system. All of the rackets feature new textures and geographical layouts, so they no longer all look the same, and each of the rival family compounds is completely different, with bomb locations different from compound to compound. In terms of gameplay, the game adds a favor system whereby rather than intimidating shop owners, the player can carry out favors for them. The player can also carry out favors for family members, in much the same way as they can carry out hits. A major addition to the game is the ability for the player to hire Corleone soldiers to join Aldo in combat. This can involve individually hiring a single family member, or hiring a crew of four men who accompany the player everywhere until they are dismissed or killed. Individual crew members cost different amounts, but the more expensive they are, the better they fight. A full crew can only be hired periodically; when a meter on the HUD is full. The game also features new story missions, such as rescuing Tom Hagen from Sollozzo, bombing Sollozzo's drug factories, and assassinating Moe Greene. The aiming system has also been tweaked, and the melee combat system has had additional combat moves added. Twenty-six new execution styles have also been added to the twenty-two existing ones.
In an interview with IGN, art manager Mark Lohff stated
Wii
Originally announced on July 13, 2005, The following day, EA confirmed this title. They also announced the Wii version would feature all of the graphical and gameplay enhancements of the Xbox 360 version. New to the Wii edition would be an enhanced upgrade system which allowed the player to spend their upgrade points on more specific attributes. The game would allow for two upgrade paths - "Enforcer" and "Operator". Enforcer would concentrate on fighting and shooting skills, whilst Operator would feature monetary enhancements, intimidation aids and health upgrades. The Wii version would also feature an enhanced "BlackHand" control system making use of the Wii Remote's unique capabilities. and in Europe on March 23, 2007.
In an interview with IGN, Joel Wade, producer of the Wii and PlayStation 3 versions, stated
The Blackhand Edition uses both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk; if an enemy is on their knees, the player can pull the controllers upwards to lift them off the ground. Similarly, swinging the controllers from side to side swings an enemy around. Melee combat is similar to Wii Sports Boxing - the player throws the type of punch they want Aldo to throw.
PlayStation 3
Released on the same day in March 2007 as the Wii version, and developed alongside it, the PlayStation 3 version was the last version of the game announced, and was not revealed until January 10, 2007, when GameFly listed it under the title The Godfather: The Don's Edition.
The Don's Edition features a more basic form of the gesture-based BlackHand control scheme seen in the Wii version. The game uses the SIXAXIS' motion sensor functionality in interrogations and, to a limited degree, during melee combat. As in the Wii, if the player wishes to lift someone from their knees, they simply pull the controller upwards. Swinging the controller from side to side swings the enemy likewise. Slamming someone against a wall is accomplished by pushing the controller away from the player. Unlike in the Wii version, however, where shooting and driving were handled using the Wii Remote, in The Don's Edition, shooting and driving are controlled using the analog sticks. EA shut down their servers for the game on April 13, 2012, meaning players can no longer upload their scores. However, the mini-games are still playable.
Reception
The Godfather received "generally favorable reviews" on all systems except the PlayStation Portable, which received "mixed or average reviews". The Xbox version holds an aggregate scores of 77 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on fifty-eight reviews; Perry praised the concept of placing a new character in the existing narrative; "Much of the story is carefully untarnished, so when you see pivotal scenes, they will be left relatively untouched. You'll hear and see these key scenes unfolding in front of you, but you'll be in the house, the car, the church, or the hospital as a close associate, rather than a bystander. You'll feel like an insider who's part of a great powerful narrative, and the feeling is eerily remarkable." Although he was critical of the melee combat and the driving portions of the game, he called the extortion system "awesome fun". He concluded, "people looking for a perfect game will be disappointed [but] there are elements that totally stand out from any similar games in this genre, from the extortion system to the business take-over model. Despite obvious areas in need of improvement, I had a blast playing The Godfather." Bozon wrote "it incorporates a ton of great actions with the Wii controller, is one of the better looking games on the system, and actually banks on the system's strong points." Of the controls, he wrote "after playing it on Wii I really can't see people wanting to go back to the traditional controls." During its first three months on release, the game sold over one million units across PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. In the game's first week on release in the UK, it entered the charts at No. 1, knocking The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from the top spot. It remained in the top ten chart for eight weeks. By 2008, the game sold more than 4 million units.
At the 2006 Spike Video Game Awards, the game received three nominations; "Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show", "Best Supporting Male Performance" (James Caan as Sonny Corleone) and "Best Cast". It lost in the first category to Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Caan lost to James Gandolfini for The Sopranos: Road to Respect, and "Best Cast" went to Family Guy Video Game! At the 2007 Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards, composers Ashley Irwin and Bill Conti won the award for "Best Arrangement of a Non-Original Score".