The Godfather: The Game

The Good
* Great to watch cutscenes from the original film

• The style of the game perfectly resembles the 'New York' of the movie, from the cars and buildings to the prostitutes and gangsters

• Gain experience ('respect' in this game) by completing missions and building your various skills

• A plethora of ways to kill people (guns, melee weapons, your own bare hands!)

• Plenty of save points spread throughout the game (they're in the hotels)

• Create your own character; great to have your likeness interact with Al Pacino and Robert Duvall!
  
  The Bad
  * The silly part of this game is that even though you advance to become an underboss, etc., you still have to do all the killing yourself. It'd be nice to attack the base of a family with a bodyguard group under your command!!

• You couldn't kill any of the Corleone family members; they all were protected from your attacks. I mean c'mon, everyone plays GTA-type games and goes off on a tangent every once in a while!

• Pretty annoying to drive across town often to do a mission or buy a weapon (the game has five neighborhoods to explore; no shortcuts to get to any of them)

• The purchasing of different clothes for your character just seemed like a waste of money and time; I didn't even bother really.
  
  The Bottom Line
  You take on the role of a low-level operative in the Corleone family. Your goal is to climb the ranks of the family and become the Don of New York, making all the other 4 families (Barzini, Cuneo, Stracci, Tattaglia) subservient to the Corleones. It follows the events in the movie, as well as a totally separate story of how you rise in the family to take it over. All the characters from the movie are worked in here in some manner, and you have plenty of interaction with them.

The gameplay is a Grand Theft Auto ripoff. You go around completing missions, side job assassinations, and taking over bars, nightclubs and hotels (a la Monopoly), building the strength and influence of your character in the process. You also have to take out the bases of the families, which can be extremely difficult, in order to complete the game.

Even though it's not very original, it's still an enjoyable game!! It's classic gangster style gives it an air of legitimacy over the GTA games.