Xbox

The Godfather: The Game

The Godfather: The Game is one of those games that will unfortunately live under a lot of pressure and criticism due to its similarities to Rockstar's open world behemoth, but those of you who accept it for its own feats will get to the core of the game and enjoy every second of it. Fans of the movie or novel should consider this an offer they absolutely can't refuse.

So how do I rate a game I knew I was going to love? It’s like knowing you’re going to see Elizabeth Hurley and Franka Potente get naked and get it on and then someone asking how it was. It was great, you dolt! Great I say! That’s it; I’m spent.

Was Filmumsetzungen bei Spielen angeht, sind diese ja in vielen Fällen nicht das Gelbe vom Ei. Wie es bei der Umsetzung des 30 Jahre alten Filmklassikers „Der Pate“ aussieht, ob der Titel quasi nur ein simples Nachspielen des Filmes ist oder ob EA mehr daraus gemacht hat, lest ihr in unserem Review.

Much like someone who pays their respects to the Don, Electronic Arts has paid its respects to director Francis Ford Coppola by preserving the look of his classic film, The Godfather. The camerawork and performances that the actors deliver makes you believe that Coppola was behind the lens yelling “action” through the entire development process. The game also delves heavily into director’s cut territory by lacing new content beautifully with classic scenes. For instance, you’ll now see how the gun was planted in the bathroom for Michael Corleone and who was behind the delivery of the horse head.

All of this might be fine if the core gameplay were better, but the all-analog fighting is shallow and the gunplay is mostly just frustrating. It just doesn't have the sense of discovery and fun that marks the best of this genre.

Even though EA spent a ton of money and plenty of time making The Godfather, the business-extortion gameplay, which is initially interesting, gets stale within a couple of hours and the game just doesn't connect with the movie very well. I love the free-roaming, no-loading New York as well as the brutal executions, but when we're talking about licensing one of the best movies ever made, I am not going to be as forgiving about issues like major characters that are all but missing, bad end-game design decisions, or the overall bland and repetitive art style. While The Godfather tries a few new things and winds up being a decent game in its own right, EA just didn't put the amount of effort in to do the film any real justice.

Malgré le désintérêt de Francis Ford Coppola, ce Parrain de pixels est loin d'être mauvais. D'une utilisation plus ou moins habile du scénario à une variété de missions plutôt surprenante en passant par un gameplay qui ne souffre pas de gros problèmes, Electronic Arts nous offre un jeu réussi qui se montre parfois bancal et décevant. L'ambition affichée n'est pas toujours à la hauteur mais la délicieuse ambiance du New York des années 50 couplée à quelques bonnes idées suffiront à vous convaincre du bien-fondé de cette adaptation. On attend donc de voir si EA réitérera l'expérience mais pour un premier essai dans l'univers du GTA-like, la réalisation est soignée et le plaisir de la découverte est au rendez-vous. Ne reste plus qu'à épingler une rose à votre smoking et à faire un peu de business. La Famille vous le rendra au centuple.

The adage plays itself true in this game, where the anticipation is much better than the actual receiving. For the first couple of hours (naturally, being a game of such open-ended size, you can make it last as long as you like), you're promised and described the perks of being a made man. And when you finally achieve it, you realize how much fun you had just trying to get there. As the game progresses further, the missions become a bit redundant, most consist of leaving your crappy and violent neighborhood to go to another crappy, violent neighborhood and take over their warehouses. It becomes less hands-on and more weapons assault, lacking the nitty-gritty of the being a thug, when you were in touch with the common man and driving him through a storefront window.

Often movie-to-game conversions have turned out to be pretty poor; however, EA decided to convert one of the most beloved movies of all time, The Godfather, into a game. Thankfully the game turns out to be one of the better conversions, but does not escape its fair share of issues. Though this game is flawed, it does many things right it stays true to the source, adds relevant new story elements, has a fairly large amount of content and most importantly is generally fun to play. Too bad EA didn't choose a less constricting source because future iterations could easily improve on this start.

Le constat est simple : le gameplay est trop monotone. Les décors sont pauvres et se ressemblent tous. De ce fait, on a vite l’impression de faire toujours les mêmes actions dans les mêmes lieux. De même, le concept ne va pas au bout de ses idées et reste un brin trop simpliste. Le Parrain déçoit également par son manque de punch et de variété, en deçà de ce qu’on pouvait espérer. Très vite lassant, le soft perd donc vite de son intérêt. La Mafia n’est décidément plus ce qu’elle était.