Yeah, youse have heard that the outfit, Electronic Arts, has put together another Godfather game, but dis time, it’s for the PS3. So I personally, Frankie "Four Eyes" Linguini, am gonna clue you in on whether this game, The Godfather: The Don’s Edition, should be a "made" game or whether it gets whacked by the GN crew. Capiche?
Ok, first things first. If any of you wiseguys have played the Xbox 360 or PS2 versions, you’re wondering, "Should I buy this game?" Forgetaboutit.
But waitaminute. I didn’t say the game was a "fugazy" (fake for all you non-mobsters out there). What you need to know is that for all of youse who have played the Godfather game on other consoles, unless you’re a made member of the mob, there is really no reason for you to buy this new edition for the PS3. But like I said, that doesn’t mean the game isn’t good. If you have never had the privilege of playing a Godfather game, then everything changes, see? Everything is new to you, so you’ll enjoy it more than a member of the crew who has already played it. Make sense, pal? Right.
Gameplay is just like what us mobsters do on any typical day…make a little money by threatening the local shops in your area, knock over a few banks, take over some rackets, and try to keep the heat off by bribing the local cops. If you’re a fan of the Godfather movies or love the mob, you’ll really be able to enjoy this game. It’s just like sitting down at the table and enjoyin’ Paulie’s meatballs and spaghetti sauce. The Corleone family will send ya on lots of missions like bombing the rival gang’s warehouses, doing a few contract hits on guys steppin’ out of line, or just your good old fashioned sport of breaking some heads to keep everybody in line, see?
You start out as just an "outsider," and you have no connections and no money. You gotta hustle and do your best to earn for Don Corleone so you try to get the local businesses to buy "protection." What this basically boils down to is a word called extortion. You muscle and "convince" the shop owners by putting a little heat on them. Maybe you gotta trash the place to make ’em see it your way, or if dat doesn’t work, you may have to be a little more physical with them. Get what I mean? But ya can’t push them too far. There’s a point where the poor chump will die on you. You don’t wanna do somethin’ stupid like that because how you gonna collect money from a dead guy? Understand?
Each shop or business you take over will pay you a weekly amount — the more businesses you take over, the bigger your paycheck, get it? But that’s not all. If you wanna supplement your income you can also knock over warehouse trucks, do some "hits," or if the pressure is too much, you can just drive around the five boroughs and see if you can make any money there. The more you do for the family, the bigger chances of you getting’ promoted. You move up the ranks from being an outsider, all the way to an underboss, and finally, if you play your cards right, you become a Don of your own crew.
But youse ain’t all bad. Like Michael Corleone says to you in the game, "Everybody needs a favor sometimes." Ain’t it the truth? So in addition to you hustlin’ all over the five family territories to score cash, you are gonna be asked to help out the less fortunate or those who can’t fight for themselves. Of course, this is really all up to you, but doin’ a few good deeds to help out people never hurt anyone. Besides, you get paid in the end, so that’s always a beautiful thing.
TG: TDE is a wide open territory where youse can follow the storyline or go off on your own to do some explorin’. There’s a truckload of activities to do in this game, and you can spend hours on just makin’ contacts and trying to get your protection racket going, buyin’ and upgrading your weapons, tooling around town to just heist cars or making life terrible for the rival mobs. Speakin’ of rackets, you know those respectable lookin’ businesses in your neighborhood? Forgetaboutit. Sometimes, those are just fronts for illegal gambling or other things not so honest. If you can take over these rackets, they’ll be extra cash comin’ into you from these places too. But one thing, you don’t keep everything you make. You gotta pay tribute to the Don, get it? So if you’re just a nickel and dime tough guy in the beginning, you gotta fork over 70% of your take to the Don. As you move up in the wiseguy rankings, you get to keep more.
Of course, there’s some violence in this game. Nothin’ personal, it’s just business, see? So when you take down rival gang members, you gotta have the right equipment to do the job, right? So youse get to use shotguns, magnums, dynamite, pistols, bombs, good old fashioned baseball bats, lead pipes, garrotes, and my favorite, the Thomson machine gun or what we refer to as the "Tommy Gun," in the mob. This here game lets you level up your guy by using skill points. These points are handed out to you after a successful mission and you can improve qualities such as using guns better, using less money to bribe officials, increasing your health condition and other things that will make you a valuable member of the Corleone family.
Soon, you’ll be on Easy Street and will be able to buy locations called safe houses. These places are where you can flop and save your game progress. They also give ya the chance to reload your guns and get more explosives. You’ll wanna buy as many of these safe houses as you can because you’ll be able to save a lot of driving time by just callin’ someone else to "take" you to the safe houses you own. The more you own throughout the city, the less hassle it will be for you to actually drive there. Think of this as "warping" from location to location and you’ll see what I mean. Get it?
The game takes a lot of stuff from the Godfather movie and you’ll remember a lot of the scenes that happen during gameplay. Remember when Don Corleone gets shot at the fruit stand? Yeah, that’s there. And how about when Luca Brazi gets whacked? That’s there too. So if youse is a big Godfather movie fan, you’ll be happy as a clam with this game. And even if you’re not, since the whole game plays sort of like an RPG action title, you people will like this game too. But there’s an awful lot of violence and other things like that, so don’t let your little kids play this game. There’s a few things that are different from this game and the other editions on the PS2 and Xbox 360 like new locations, a mini-game section, and a new hit squad feature.
Being able to hire a hit squad is a beautiful thing. Sometimes, when you’re trying to muscle in on a rival gang’s territory, you can hire just one guy, but just one other guy ain’t enough. You need more help, see? So what are you gonna do? You hire a hit squad. Basically, there’s a crest of the Corleone family in the upper left hand corner of the screen. When this goes red, guess what? You can hire a hit team to follow you around to help you do "business." Too hard to rob a bank? Hire a hit squad. Can’t rub out the Barzini hoods at the warehouse? Hire a hit squad. Wanna make more money? Hire a hit squad. But your guys don’t live forever, and they’ll get killed just like anyone else. But as long as you have them, you’ll understand that this will make your mobster days easier.
Ok, now we come to the not so pretty part of this review. If youse were expecting next gen graphics on this game, forgetaboutit. What we have here is The Godfather game with some new gameplay features but some improvement on the graphics. Yeah, the graphics are a little sharper and the explosions look a little better and the smoke from fires look more real, but next gen graphics? Gimmeabreak. But wait, they aren’t terrible or anything, but for a next gen title, the graphics should be a lot better. I’ll say one thing though, pal, the interiors of the buildings, the details you see on the street, and character models are a move up from the other game versions. But buddy, if you’re lookin’ for drop dead gorgeous looks in a game, you’ll probably be in a little bit of a shock to see this game in person. How did I feel about the graphics? Well, they weren’t great, but I guess I can live with them because the game was so much fun. Even if the game isn’t so hot on the graphics, they didn’t cheap out on you about the bonus features. You can unlock different scenes from the real movie and there’s some nice behind the scenes stuff too.
The sound of this game is first class, pal. You’ve got the classic Godfather music runnin’ all over the place in this title. The voice acting is excellent because some of the original guys for the movie; Marlon Brando, James Caan and Robert Duval are in the game. The other actors who portray us hoods are great and nothin’ sounds phony about this part of the game.
The Godfather: The Don’s Edition isn’t so hot for being different from the rest of the games made for the other game consoles, so if youse is lookin’ to get a better experience outta this game, you probably should pass, pal. But if you’re a new guy who has never played a Godfather game before, and youse happen to have a PS3 lyin’ around your hideout, and if youse like mobster movies and RPG sort of games, you wouldn’t be doing too bad by buying this game. As for me, I had a lot of fun with this game because I get to be the hood I always wanted to be; except that I don’t get arrested for doin’ it. Get it?
