Review: The Godfather (PSP)

When it comes to acquiring recognised licenses, EA are the Don; but why they have waited until recently to unleash the potential of The Godfather on our videogame screens is anyone's guess. Following hot on the heels of the console versions comes the PSP iteration; but where that was a worthwhile addition to the sandbox genre, this comes across as a half-baked waste of time, due to being drastically cut down.

You take on the role of a nameless kid out for revenge, inducted into the Corleone family and cleverly pasted into CGI renditions of scenes from the Godfather film. Your role here is a pivotal background one, doing all the legwork for the key events in the film, which mostly consists of executing rival gang members and threatening shop owners. Unfortunately, any variation, such as driving cars or travelling around the city, is restricted to cutscenes. No freedom to explore the 1950s New York streets is allowed here; leaving the vicinity during any mission results in failure.

Ordinarily, one could forgive this omission if the remaining parts were refined enough to be worthwhile, but they're really not. Controlling your character is unwieldy, in part due to the automatically-adjusting camera (no second stick means no manual control), and partly due to the targeting system which quite often refuses to stick to targets like it's supposed to. Enemies will sometimes ambush you from around the corner, but other times are oblivious to being fired at. Most interior locations of the game look identical, and the exteriors are almost devoid of activity. The Godfather is a very ugly game through and through, even during the pre-rendered cutscenes, which show up blurry textures and a lack of detail, despite the effort gone into recreating the original actors.

Effort has clearly gone somewhere. The method of targeting characters and grabbing them is consistent and well-executed. Using different buttons, you can hit them, swing them around, throw them to the floor, drag them back onto their feet and even strangle them to death. It's spectacularly brutal and violent, earning the game its 18 certificate. These assaults come into play during interrogation-type missions or when attempting to 'persuade' business owners that they need protection, but neither scenario is frequently presented due to to the lack of freedom to roam. Shooting has also had some thought put into it: ducking out from behind walls works well enough and the automatic targeting can be refined with manual control to target specific body parts. Again, however, you'll find this infrequently happens as firefights are over very quickly. With upgradable weapons, most foes take two shots or fewer to send to their graves.

The different methods of dealing out death are more than just aesthetic. A stealthy shot in the back or a molotov thrown into a large group will earn you more 'respect' than messy work, which goes towards upgrading your skills. What isn't so appreciated is when stealth missions are forced upon you (such as when placing the infamous horse's head into Woltz's bedroom); the twitchy controls coupled with the overly dark screen makes these a trial by fire and the least enjoyable type of job.

The story mode is merely an excuse to string together several brief missions, centering around the events of the film. They don't last long and they're not particularly hard. For the PSP release, there is a new mode, which can be played alongside the story, sharing its money and upgrades - this is called Mob Wars. Each of the five rival mafia families have their own turf on the map, which can be fought for by moving your own mobsters onto it. It's not much of a strategy game, because there's very little choice during each turn; you're only allowed one 'extortion' and one 'retaliation', and there's little more you can do after that. The assaults themselves are played out as action sequences, so whether or not you succeed in winning over new turf relies not so much on strategy, but more on getting to grips with the awkward controls and not running into a hail of bullets. In this mode, there are no retries; only laying down cards to strengthen your position before the mission will help you here.

The Godfather is not a total failure, but when the main impetus to play through its missions is to watch the bonus film material, you have to ask what the point is. It's a reasonably clever use of the license, but there are plenty of better action games and plenty more games suited to the format than this, so why bother? It adds nothing to the Godfather legacy other than to say "look, I can be a game too", and the obvious cutbacks for this version will just leave you wanting more bang for your buck. EA need to put more effort into their PSP releases.

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Daniel James