A to Z Challenge: The Godfather

 Someone at Electronic Arts or whatever thought it would be a really good idea to take the popular open-world game Grand Theft Auto and set it in the 40s with characters and missions based on The Godfather, one of the most respected movies of all time.  And while Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino and others hated the idea, I found it to be a really fun game both for the missions and the open-world play.

Like a lot of these games you don't play as a character from the movies.  Instead you make your own guy, choosing different facial features, body type, and clothes from a menu that was sort of like a trimmed-down version of The Sims.  Then you start as an "outsider" who joins the Corleone family and works his way up to becoming the Don of Dons, or head of all the crime families in New York/New Jersey.

There are two main components to the game.  The first are missions that are mostly taken from the first movie.  You have to protect Don Corleone as he's taken to the hospital after being shot, help Michael protect him in the hospital, help put the horse's head in the movie producer's bed, and take down the heads of the other families while Michael is at the baptism.  You can choose to do some right away, though some you can't really do at first, or you can wait until later.  I think you have to do a few just to open up the map a little.

The open-world part of the game lets you go to the territories of the five families.  You start in Little Italy, which is under siege from other families.  You have to take over various shops by bribing or coercing the owner with violence until he agrees to pay protection to you.  The more places under your protection, the more money you get.  Sometimes another family will then take the place over again and you have to go back.  There's also a warehouse and/or train yard for each of the other families that if you take it over, you get a lot more money flowing into your coffers.  The obvious goal then is to take over everything in Little Italy, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, and New Jersey.

Each family has a compound that you have to storm to wipe them out.  It can be really difficult so it's not something you do straight off.  But once you take that family compound down, they won't be able to take over your businesses anymore.  The Corleone compound near Little Italy has health, ammo, and cars you can use and a save point.  Sometimes you can talk to characters like Michael (made to look not like Pacino), Tom Hagen, Fredo, other members of the Family, and even Mama Corleone, who doesn't really have anything interesting to say.

Besides the Corleone compound, you can go into various hotels to take them over and then use them as save points.  That's crucial as you expand your territory, because nothing is more annoying than doing a bunch of stuff and then getting killed (or having the game freeze or power go out or something) before you can find a save point.  The hotels usually also have ammo and health and phones you can use to get messages telling you where you need to go for missions.

Some of the hotels have gambling rackets that you can take over to add money to your coffers.  A lot of places have safes that you can blow up with dynamite to get some extra money.  Scattered around the map are doctor's offices where you can get healed.  You can blow up their safe or punch the doctor or nurse but then the cops will come after you.  You can also go to a couple of police stations and steal a police car and then turn on the lights and siren to make people get out of your way.  You can steal taxis too if you want. 

The other families will also have trucks you can rob.  First you have to stop them by ramming them with a car or shooting them.  The trick is as soon as you shoot it, the truck will floor it, so it's best to hit it with something high-powered in heavy traffic if you can.  Once the truck stops, you have to kill a couple of goons and then you get money and maybe some ammo or something.

To get around, you drive cars.  There are cars owned by the family that you can take or if you wreck that--or just want something faster--you can steal a car, though if a cop is nearby he might try to stop you.  Some cops walking the beat you can bribe to be on your payroll, which helps to take heat off you when you want to take stuff over.  There are also banks you can rob periodically for some money; the banks in Manhattan are the best-guarded but have the richest takes.  You have to get the money back to a save point before it'll count as being yours and the heat will die down.

It can take days to do all the stuff in the game.  Sometimes it can be frustrating, especially the compounds, docks, and railyards that are heavily guarded.  You get a variety of weapons like brass knuckles, a baseball bat, a pipe, a revolver, a pistol, a shotgun, and a machine gun.  Then there are upgrades to each weapon to make them carry more ammo and do more damage.  Like Wolfenstein or Doom, some weapons are better than others for different situations.  The pistols are better close-up or for precision shots (a shot to the head will instantly kill someone) while the shotgun does more damage but doesn't hold as much ammo and the machine gun does damage quickly but can run out pretty fast if you're not careful.

As you get more money, you can also change your character to reflect his new station.  You can buy fancier clothes and sunglasses and stuff like that.  And no you can't have a female character.

Even after you've done all the missions and taken over everything, with the open-world you can still screw around endlessly robbing banks, stealing cars, or just beating up random people.  Then you can get the cops to chase you and try to ditch them or really piss them off until you finally get caught.  It's not as much fun, but you can do it.

Anyway, while some would criticize the game for being a cheesy cash grab based on a beloved movie/book, I thought it was a lot of fun to play on the PS2 though I'm sure it was also made for XBox too.  I still have my copy that I could play if I hook up the PS2.