The Godfather: The Game [PS2]

Here's an offer that might easily be refused: a faithful if flawed translation of Mario Puzo's novel turned Hollywood classic for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC.

Fans of the Godfather movies will rejoice to know Electronic Arts has stayed as true as possible to the material and to its characters. When Don Vito Corleone appears on screen, he sports Marlon Brando's swollen mug, and speaks with Brando's voice. James Caan as Sonny Corleone and Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen also appear liberally throughout. Scenes from the Godfather films play out, too, and players can expect digital interpretations of, say, a famous tollbooth scene with certain unfortunate happenings. Caveat emptor: Liberties have, of course, been taken. For one thing, Al Pacino is nowhere to be found. Neither is Talia Shire. Those expecting a complete and untouched experience taken straight from the Godfather films will be sorely out of luck.

The game itself is an uneven mishmash of fighting, driving, and shooting. Call it Grand Theft Goodfellas; if someone took Rockstar Games' popular Grand Theft Auto series, moved its setting to New York, and then sent it via the Wayback machine to post-World War II New York, the result would be The Godfather. As an up-and-comer in the Corleone family, players can shake down businesses, rob banks, steal cars, engage in gunfights, perform assassinations, buy out illegal rackets, and perform specific tasks for La Famiglia.

Extortion bits are extremely well done. Players must muscle a series of shopkeepers into paying protection monies; recalcitrant merchants must be "persuaded." Here, it's necessary to find a compromise between naked force and intimidation to get the job done. A meter tracks how close a person is to giving up the loot, and certain tactics (beatings, the destruction of property) are more effective in certain circumstances. It's tremendous fun to find a target's Achilles' Heel -- say, threatening a baker with stuffing him in his own ovens, thus collecting a weak spot bonus which results in both an increase in respect earned and dollars won. Force excessively applied will backfire, and a target will refuse to pay regardless of the threat. Finding that happy medium becomes one of the game's great challenges.