Historically most games based off of movies aren’t exactly the best games in the world. Well with The Godfather: The Game that idea gets whacked, yes I said whacked. The Godfather: The Game is an outstanding game for the Xbox console with great graphics, an excellent storyline and lots of surprises around every corner. However, if you’re looking for a long, drawn out storyline you might want to consider renting this one.

EA Games took a page out of Rockstar Games playbook when they created The Godfather: The Game making it a lot like most of the GTA series. The minute you start this game, though, you’ll notice one major difference, the graphics are by far better in The Godfather then any of the GTA games that EA Games has put out in the last several years. You will recognize the faces and voices of the main characters from the movies in this one as well, including the face of Marlon Brando. You’ll also notice the voice of Robert Duvall reviving his role as Tom Hagen. I give huge props to EA Games for going out and getting the voices of the people who actually played these characters in the movies; it adds a lot to the game.

I won’t ruin the storyline for anyone, but I will tell you about the basic idea of the game. Once you start the game you will be attempting to work your way up from a relative outsider in the Corleone family to a Solider, Caporegime, Underboss or all the way up to the Don of New York. There is a lot of work involved with becoming the Don though, including taking over basically everything on the game map.

One of the important factors in the game is your respect bar. As you progress through the game you’ll slowly build up respect from not only your fellow family members but the local business owners as well. Once you earn enough respect you gain a skill point which you can put to good use by upgrading one of your skills. These range from your shooting ability all the way to your running ability. These will be important later in the game so make sure you constantly upgrade them.

As you work your way through the storyline you’ll learn how to do several of the different things in the game. One of the keys to the game is the ability to extort businesses for protection money. There are lots of businesses to choose from all over the map (which covers Little Italy, Midtown, Brooklyn, Hell’s Kitchen and a small part of New Jersey) but you’ll want to start by extorting the businesses in Little Italy since that is the closest to your home base. In order to extort a business you have to put pressure on the owner of the business, which includes roughing the owner up or destroying property. Once you’ve gained enough respect in the game sometimes all you’ll have to do is simply confront the owner of a business and they will quickly give in.

Once you’ve successfully extorted a business sometimes you’ll get an added bonus. In some businesses there is a back door which will become unlocked once you’ve extorted a business. Behind these doors you’ll find gambling rackets, illegal warehouses or transport hubs that you can take over. Some you’ll have to take over by force (gotta love guns!); while with others you can simply pay off the man in charge to take over.

A feature I really like about this game is if you die during a mission you don’t have to start from scratch. No more almost beating a mission and dieing forcing you to start all over. Instead The Godfather has checkpoints in the missions that allow you to pick up right where you left off with the same amount of ammo that you started with. If you die during a mission you’ll also start with full health when you try again, which makes life much easier.

Most gamers will recognize the game interface in The Godfather as it is extremely similar to that of most of the GTA games. Your map will be down in the lower right hand corner while in the top left hand corner of the screen you’ll have your health, money, and respect levels.

Everything about this game was outstanding with the exception of one thing; if you want a long storyline go find another game. It took me two days of on and off play to beat the main storyline. Now keep in mind that doesn’t include all the side missions and assassinations that you can do, so there is still plenty to do in the game once you’ve beaten the main storyline. I was just disappointed that they didn’t put more work into the main storyline of a game that had a lot of expectations.

All things considered I think The Godfather: The Game for the Xbox is an excellent game, one of the best I’ve played in a long time. The only bad thing I can even think to say about it is that the storyline was disappointingly short. But outside of that, this is a fun game and would be excellent for any fan of The Godfather movie franchise or anyone that is a fan of the GTA video games. Just beware the storyline is short, so if you want an extra long storyline, just rent this one. Otherwise go pick it up for your personal game collection, if you don’t The Family will come looking for you.