THE GODFATHER

The hook of The Godfather is that you’re a background character to the story who works his way up the Corleone crime family. After a brief prologue where your character’s old man gets gunned down in the street, Don Vito himself takes the young player aside and instructs him on the virtues of patience and violence. Flash forward and you get to customize your Italian thug to your own personal tastes. Though the customization is welcome, it is a bit limited (understandable, since there’s only so many ways an Italian gangster is going to look).

After a few brief tutorial missions with Corleone enforcer Luca Brasi, you are free to either follow the game’s storyline missions or raise some havoc throughout the boroughs of New York. Like other crime-based sandbox games your actions range from petty crimes like boosting parked cars to rather serious offenses like bombing entire buildings. Your actions do have consequences, however, and high profile crimes will make you the target of either the police or rival families. Doing jobs and completing missions will earn you respect, think experience points. Raising a level gives you a skill point that you can use to raise your health, allow you to run faster, or provide bonuses to combat.