The Godfather: The Game
The Godfather: The Game
The Godfather: The Game is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second video game in the Godfather series and based upon the 1972 film of the same name. Originally released in March 2006 for thePlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows, The Godfather has since been released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A smaller variant of the game has also been published for the PlayStation Portable.
The game is notable in that it features the return of several original actors from the original film to lend their voice. The participating actors are James Caan as Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, John Martino as Paulie Gatto, and Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio, with the most notable absences being Marlon Brando (because of his ill health and his late death, the audio producers found that the quality of the recordings were not good enough and hired an imitator, although at one point in the game, players can hear the one piece of audio that Brando recorded), John Cazale (due to his death in 1978), Richard Castellano (due to his death in 1988) and Al Pacino (who is in fact absent in image as well as voice, choosing to lend his image exclusively to Scarface: The World Is Yours
Plot and overview
The game starts in 1936 with a cutscene that shows the death of Johnny Trapani, the father of the main character Aldo Trapani(The sequel confirmed that this is the canon name) and the blowing up of his bakery by the Barzini crime family, one of theCorleones' rivals in New York. In the aftermath, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando/Bill Melien) comforts the child, telling him that when he is old enough and the time is right he will have his revenge. The story then fastforwards with the 1945 wedding scene in the opening of the film, wherein Aldo's mother asks Don Corleone to look after him, who has been hanging with the wrong crowd. Luca Brasi (Terry McGovern/Gary Chalk) is sent to recruit Aldo and teach him the ways of the Mafia. From this point forward, Aldo is taken under the Corleone Family's wing and works his way up in the organization.
Essentially, there are two stories in the game that intertwine, the first involving the major events of the film (with the character making central contributions) and a personal story arc. In the former, Aldo witnesses Luca Brasi's murder, plants the gun for Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, helps Rocco Lampone put the horse head in Jack Woltz's bed, guards Don Vito Corleone at the hospital, witnesses the death of Sonny Corleone (James Caan), appears at the meeting of the five families and kills the Dons of the four other families during the baptism scene. In the latter storyline, Aldo befriends and later kills Corleone underman Marty "Monk" Malone, because he turns out to be a traitor, romances his sister Frances "Frankie" Malone and takes revenge for her death, and kills Don Emilio Barzini as revenge for killing his father, as well as assisting in the murder of the heads of the other rival families.
After the story missions have been completed, Aldo becomes an underboss. After he takes out the rival families' compounds he becomes the Don of the Corleone family's operations in New York. Alongside the story missions, Aldo continues to participate in the business of taking over control of New York from the rival families. This includes extorting businesses and buying out rackets, seizing control of warehouses, performing contract hits, and fighting mob wars when the vendetta level between the Corleones and a rival family gets high enough.
Gameplay
Gameplay consists of undertaking and completing eighteen story missions while in the meantime performing various tasks such as taking over rival family holdings and carrying out contract hits. The missions are linear and follow the storyline of the first film, starting out with the player's recruitment by Luca Brasi after Connie Corleone's wedding and ending with the baptism of Michael Corleone's godchild during which the player plays an instrumental role in carrying out the killings of the rival family members. Similarly, the player also must contend with attacks from rival family members that increase in aggressiveness with the player's vendetta level, which is raised as the player attacks rival gang members and their businesses.
Players can increase their character's experience points, represented in the game by a "Respect" level. This level is increased as the player finishes missions or side quests or after interacting with certain non-playable characters. Increasing respect levels allow the player to increase attributes such as health and speed, while skills include fighting, shooting and street smarts.
A central part of the game is gaining control of local businesses, illegal rackets, warehouses, compounds, and transportation hubs. Each family has a controlling interest in the game's locales of Little Italy, Brooklyn, Midtown Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, andNew Jersey. The player accomplishes this by threatening business/racket owners. Racket owners can also be bought out. Each business controlled generates income for the Corleone family and the player's character. Pay outs vary depending on the effectiveness of the player's tactics and is made easier with higher "Street Smart" levels. Later releases of the game allow players to take over businesses by doing favors for business owners.
The player's ultimate goal is making his way through the ranks and progressing up the ladder through various titles (Outsider, Enforcer, Associate, Soldier, Caporegime, Underboss, Don, and finally Don of New York City).
Families
In the game there are five mafia families that have been adapted from the The Godfather. Each family is distinguished by its members wearing specific color coats as well as a shield bearing the family's first initial in its color with the exception of the Corleones, whose shield bears a rampant lion.
Nicknamed The Five Families, these consist of:
The game is notable in that it features the return of several original actors from the original film to lend their voice. The participating actors are James Caan as Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, John Martino as Paulie Gatto, and Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio, with the most notable absences being Marlon Brando (because of his ill health and his late death, the audio producers found that the quality of the recordings were not good enough and hired an imitator, although at one point in the game, players can hear the one piece of audio that Brando recorded), John Cazale (due to his death in 1978), Richard Castellano (due to his death in 1988) and Al Pacino (who is in fact absent in image as well as voice, choosing to lend his image exclusively to Scarface: The World Is Yours
Plot and overview
The game starts in 1936 with a cutscene that shows the death of Johnny Trapani, the father of the main character Aldo Trapani(The sequel confirmed that this is the canon name) and the blowing up of his bakery by the Barzini crime family, one of theCorleones' rivals in New York. In the aftermath, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando/Bill Melien) comforts the child, telling him that when he is old enough and the time is right he will have his revenge. The story then fastforwards with the 1945 wedding scene in the opening of the film, wherein Aldo's mother asks Don Corleone to look after him, who has been hanging with the wrong crowd. Luca Brasi (Terry McGovern/Gary Chalk) is sent to recruit Aldo and teach him the ways of the Mafia. From this point forward, Aldo is taken under the Corleone Family's wing and works his way up in the organization.
Essentially, there are two stories in the game that intertwine, the first involving the major events of the film (with the character making central contributions) and a personal story arc. In the former, Aldo witnesses Luca Brasi's murder, plants the gun for Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, helps Rocco Lampone put the horse head in Jack Woltz's bed, guards Don Vito Corleone at the hospital, witnesses the death of Sonny Corleone (James Caan), appears at the meeting of the five families and kills the Dons of the four other families during the baptism scene. In the latter storyline, Aldo befriends and later kills Corleone underman Marty "Monk" Malone, because he turns out to be a traitor, romances his sister Frances "Frankie" Malone and takes revenge for her death, and kills Don Emilio Barzini as revenge for killing his father, as well as assisting in the murder of the heads of the other rival families.
After the story missions have been completed, Aldo becomes an underboss. After he takes out the rival families' compounds he becomes the Don of the Corleone family's operations in New York. Alongside the story missions, Aldo continues to participate in the business of taking over control of New York from the rival families. This includes extorting businesses and buying out rackets, seizing control of warehouses, performing contract hits, and fighting mob wars when the vendetta level between the Corleones and a rival family gets high enough.
Gameplay
Gameplay consists of undertaking and completing eighteen story missions while in the meantime performing various tasks such as taking over rival family holdings and carrying out contract hits. The missions are linear and follow the storyline of the first film, starting out with the player's recruitment by Luca Brasi after Connie Corleone's wedding and ending with the baptism of Michael Corleone's godchild during which the player plays an instrumental role in carrying out the killings of the rival family members. Similarly, the player also must contend with attacks from rival family members that increase in aggressiveness with the player's vendetta level, which is raised as the player attacks rival gang members and their businesses.
Players can increase their character's experience points, represented in the game by a "Respect" level. This level is increased as the player finishes missions or side quests or after interacting with certain non-playable characters. Increasing respect levels allow the player to increase attributes such as health and speed, while skills include fighting, shooting and street smarts.
A central part of the game is gaining control of local businesses, illegal rackets, warehouses, compounds, and transportation hubs. Each family has a controlling interest in the game's locales of Little Italy, Brooklyn, Midtown Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, andNew Jersey. The player accomplishes this by threatening business/racket owners. Racket owners can also be bought out. Each business controlled generates income for the Corleone family and the player's character. Pay outs vary depending on the effectiveness of the player's tactics and is made easier with higher "Street Smart" levels. Later releases of the game allow players to take over businesses by doing favors for business owners.
The player's ultimate goal is making his way through the ranks and progressing up the ladder through various titles (Outsider, Enforcer, Associate, Soldier, Caporegime, Underboss, Don, and finally Don of New York City).
Families
In the game there are five mafia families that have been adapted from the The Godfather. Each family is distinguished by its members wearing specific color coats as well as a shield bearing the family's first initial in its color with the exception of the Corleones, whose shield bears a rampant lion.
Nicknamed The Five Families, these consist of:
- The Corleone family – The once-powerful crime Family is based in central Manhattan, in Little Italy, and are troubled by increasingly daring raids by the Tattaglias based inBrooklyn (even though every family has influence in Little Italy). Little Italy has streets of moderately poor local shops run by well-established Families. Their family color is black. In the game, the player meets many members of the Corleone Family, including Vito Corleone, Sonny Corleone, Tom Hagen, Michael Corleone, Fredo Corleone,Salvatore Tessio, Peter Clemenza, Paulie Gatto, Rocco Lampone, Al Neri, Willie Cicci, Jaggy Jovino, Jimmy DeNunzio, Luca Brasi, and Marty "Monk" Malone.
- The Barzini family – The Barzini family hails from Midtown, the richest community in New York City, making them the richest and most powerful family in New York City. Their family color is green. The Barzinis are headed by the main antagonist, Don Emilio Barzini, who rules with an iron fist. He ordered the murder of the main character's father, and is rumored to be in control of another New York Family (which is later revealed to be the Tattaglia Family). The Barzinis' consigliere is Domenico Mazza, and theirunderboss is Emillio Barzini Jr. Their three caporegimes are Pietro Testa, Giovanni Armanno and Big Bobby Toro.
- The Tattaglia family – The Tattaglia family dominates Brooklyn, owning almost every business and racket on the Brooklyn waterfront. The Tattaglia family has a serious rivalry with the Corleone family because of their business expansion into Little Italy, the Corleone's turf. Their family color is tan. Don Philip Tattaglia heads the Tattaglia Family, and his son Bruno is next in line to become Don of the Tattaglia Family. Bruno has an alliance with Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo. The Tattaglias' consigliere is Freddie Nobile, and their Underbosses are Bruno and Johnny Tattaglia. The Tattaglias' caporegimes are Tony Bianchi, Luigi Fusco and Donnie Marinelli. Under Bianchi are Soldiers Mikey Saleri and Squeegie McNeese. Under Marinelli are Soldiers Luigi Bonetti and Rocky Della Barca.
- The Cuneo family – The Cuneo family hails from Hell's Kitchen. The Cuneo family isn't as rich as the other families, owning few rackets and businesses. Their family color is red. Don Carmine Cuneo heads the Cuneo Family. They are ruthless killers, excellent marksmen, and always appear in large groups largely due to the environment of Hell's Kitchen, which is run down and filled with poor communities. The Cuneos' consigliere is Luciano Fabbri, and their Underboss is Marco Cuneo. Their three caporegimes are Ronnie Tosca, Michael Costa, and Mario DeBellis.
- The Stracci family – The Stracci family is based in New Jersey. Don Victor Stracci heads the Stracci Family. During daytime the neighborhood looks quite peaceful, with fancy houses and well-groomed parks, but at night, it becomes much more dangerous. The Straccis are the most cruel and vicious family. Their family color is blue. The Straccis' consigliere is Jack Fontana, and their Underboss is Salvatore Stracci. Stracci caporegimes include Oscar Zavarelle and Leon Grossi.
