The Godfather – Hands on with The Godfather Video Game

By now you may have seen the TV ads for The Godfather game by EA. Each spot shows Vito (Marlon Brando) sitting at a table talking to you as if you were in the room. As impressive as the teaser ads are, they can’t compare to the real game footage. How would I know this? Well, Xbox Solution was invited to the Godfather Community Day event held at EA’s Redwood Campus.

The event was a 2 day whirlwind tour including an introduction of the game and the production team plus hands-on time with the final build of the game. So on March 9th I flew out for the event and after being picked up by a Black stretched Lincoln I arrived at the hotel, which happened to be less then a block from EA.

After getting my bags checked and my room key, I went up and threw my luggage in the room and headed down to find Beth Anne, our EA contact and host for the event. I was taken to a private banquet room and handed a little gift bag which had my press badge and a few snacks before dinner. I was then handed a PS2 memory card. Of course, since we are an Xbox site, I asked to play the Xbox version and was given my own unit for the event. I started to play the game and right from the intro it was crystal clear that the three and half years of development time were not wasted. I started by watching the opening intro and then created my character that looked almost like me, except for my 1980’s hairstyle. I was ready to really get into the story.

Unlike most movie based games, Godfather places you in the 1972 blockbuster hit but with a twist. You don’t play as any of the main characters. Instead, you play as a young man wanting to work his way in the Corleone family. You will meet all the members of the family, but the way the game plays out you first need to prove yourself. Here is where anyone that has compared the game to a GTA clone needs to be swimming with the fishes! If you are not familiar with that term, either you’re a bit young or have not watched the movie. It means they should be dead and probably do not understand what David DeMartini “Executive Producer” and the rest of the team were trying to give gamers.

It has a GTA look to a point and that is where the similarities end. Your goal at first is to build up your reputation by getting businesses to pay you a weekly protection fee. Push them too hard and you may kill them and lose a pay day or worse tick off the other crime families. There are plenty of missions that act as tutorials without being boring and there is a point to playing each of them, unlike some other titles out there. You will learn the fighting moves which control like a mix of Tiger Woods and Fight Night.

Learning the fighting system is fairly easy and after a few accidental mishaps, I got the hang of when to push a bit hard and when to let up. Overall, the controls are great and very smooth. You then learn how to shoot and target key areas of the body. As the story unfolds, you see every key scene from the movie but you need to help or carry them out instead of just watching the action unfold. In a short period of playing, you feel like you are in New York in the 1940’s. The weapons are dead on (no pun intended) and the vehicles react like they were made back then. Driving missions are perhaps the hardest to learn but after a few tries it seems natural.

Once you get enough rep points, you will be invited to the Corleone compound for a meeting if you can find it. I had to laugh as I was driving around; they really added some twists and finding the compound at first is not as simple as the map makes it look. You think you’re meeting with Vito himself but soon you meet with another member of the family who tells you Vito requests a favor from you. You’re in too deep and to turn down the request is not an option. For those who know the story or have seen the movie, you know that saying no would end the game right there. I don’t want to ruin the whole story or surprises in the game. I will say that the Godfather allows you to play it any way you want. Yes, you have to carry out Black Hand missions and continue to build up your rep and attributes.

The Back Hand system is set up in a way to avoid button mashing as we were told and it works rather well. I was extremely impressed by the look of New York and how the buildings seemed to appear naturally. The draw distance of the game is remarkable as well as the amount of people in the streets and traffic. Hurt or kill a bystander with a car and it raises your heat level. Kill a cop and you may find out later he was on the take already and a price will be paid. If it sounds complicated, it’s not. It’s just huge and the amount of freedom players will experience will blow anyone away. You may go into a local shop and get the pay off and then find out the store is a front for a gambling parlor in the back and you will need to take over that operation as well. There are so many possibilities that even the game guide is about 190 pages and reads more like a script than any strategy guide I have ever seen.

Die-Hard fans of the movie or gamers in general may have heard that Al Pacino refused to be in the game or allow his likeness to be used. This is true and to be frank I think Mr. Pacino made a big mistake since Mike could be altered and not affect the story or the game. They were able to track down the key cast members and apparently a few were hard to find. The question of whether Abe Vigoda is still alive was the running joke. Well, he is and he along with James Caan, Robert Duvall and even Marlon Brando were thrilled to lend their voices to the project. As many of you know, Brando passed away but part of the voice work you will hear is really him and the rest is a voice over actor who is remarkable. The acting and real voices really helped me get into the game. The weapons all are from the 1940’s and if you go to the gallery we just added some new The Godfather screenshots.

We played the game on the first day for about 4-5 hours then it was off to EA to watch the Godfather movie in EA’s own movie theater. It helped refresh the story and also set the mood of the event. We then had food brought in and went back to the hotel for more playing time. My main job was to bring back as much info on the game as possible for the site. However, I watched as the rest of the group played the game some on the PS2 and some on the Xbox. One player even found a hidden area before they could show it off to us. About 1:00 AM I looked up and the room was pretty empty, so I started talking with a few of the team members and then it was time to get ready for a full day of meeting with the rest of the team and more hands-on time with the game.

Friday Morning arrived and after a shower and shave, I went down to meet up with the rest of the group. We headed over to EA for breakfast and soon after Dave Rosen (Product Manager) and Gary Treangen (Community Manager) greeted us and we were in a quick Q&A session. Dave showed us part of the studio session with Caan and Duval which will be included in the special edition package for both the Xbox and PS2.

It was great to see two pros get back into their characters after 30 years and have fun. Of course, neither claimed nor pretended to know a thing about video games but really went right back to their now famous roles. We toured the main campus, the production and rendering artists areas. No cameras were allowed for security reasons. We saw how they created a living, breathing world and brought it to the next level. The highlight of the meetings was when David DeMartini spoke. This is the man who woke up every day and watched the movie for inspiration. He has a strong feeling of what he wanted and is the kind of person that others feel his energy. I will have an exclusive interview with him posted very soon. We then saw a few more of the extras on the DVD from the limited edition set. Then it was off to the EA store for some shopping and then more meetings and tours.

We then returned to the game room they moved from the hotel to EA and I returned to my Xbox and started to play. Then they asked me to come with Brent and Dave for an interview which caught me a little off guard but was very cool. Jon Long, our EA contact, stopped in to say hello and get a sneak peek at the game himself. I then went over to play the PC version and I have to admit it looks and plays as good as the Xbox version. I also got a special tour of the Audio department and thanks goes out to Rawson Stovall, the PC Producer, and Joel Wade for allowing me to see what few others outside of EA employees get a chance to. Every team member all had the same thing to say about the project. It is going to be huge! See The Godfather Community Day pics.

The game is bloody and not something people would think EA would release. The difference is this is not killing just for the hell of it. You have times when it is needed and times when all you need to do is scare someone. In real life every action has a reaction the Godfather has the same rules. It is the largest single disc game ever made by EA and the harshest in content. I think those old enough to play the game will be amazed and shocked in a good way.

I only scratched the surface and with the game coming out on the 21st I wanted to get as much about the trip out to you as soon as possible. Take time and look in the gallery for a ton of candid shots. I will try and name each person so you can read this and then put a face with the name. Our event wrapped up with an authentic Italian meal. After dinner we were given a surprise thank you gift, a framed rendering of the cast signed by the entire team. Check the gallery for the pictures of that.

In closing, the game is not trying to be a GTA, when you do something stupid or risky and wind up dying. There is a price to pay. Family owned shops may be hit or even a family war may break out. David said that no two games will play out the same and no two gamers will play the game the same way. It has so much freedom but yet manages to pull you back when it needs to. I predict a huge hit!

Next week watch for more exclusive interviews and coverage of The Godfather the game. My thanks to everyone at EA for a great time and giving us almost everything we asked to see or wanted. A great event and it was well worth the time. Beth Anne and the rest of the team really did a great job. Watch for another article just on the combat and family tree and how it works in the game prior to the release date of March 21st. You may find this last bit of info very interesting the targeted group for this and most video games is now 29-49 both male and female gamers. Be sure to check out our follow up article and the exclusive XBS interview with David DeMartini which will be posted soon.

Article by Rich Reed, XBS Head Writer.