Look what they done to ma boy..

WHILE CHARACTERS and events in the game of the film may have been borrowed from Francis Ford Coppola's classic, the gameplay in EA's The Godfather is straight out of another blockbuster franchise, namely the Grand Theft Auto series writes Jonathan Parkyn.

GTA Vice City proved that it was possible to design a mobster-themed, free-roaming action adventure and make it a huge hit.

Since then, gamers have been force-fed a steady stream of weak GTA clones, which is why crowbarring the Grand Theft Auto formula into The Godfather smells initially like a recipe for disaster.

It's clear, however, that EA has spent a lot of time - not to mention money - trying to get it right, even to the extent of persuading Don Corleone himself, Marlon Brando, to reprise his role as the mafia boss from the movie.

Anyone who has seen the game's TV ad campaign will attest to how eerily effective the late Mr Brando's involvement is, although it ?s perhaps ironic that this turned out to be the great actor's final performance.

Story-wise, you find yourself filling the spats of an up-and-coming hood in the Corleone family.

Taken under the wing of the big boss himself and eager to avenge the murder of your father, your character is put into the care of Luca Brasi who sets you on a path that will eventually lead you to take over the gang and ultimately become the don of New York City.

This translates into a series of story-based missions in which you carry out orders from your bosses and start to assert your grip on the city.

The mixture of vehicle and on-foot action will be familiar to anyone who has played Grand Theft Auto - an assassination here, a driving job (what sort of job? News Ed.) there, for example.

On top of this, you get to build your own empire by extorting protection money from businesses in your neighbourhood whilst enjoying a similarly varied set of side missions and mini games as those offered in the GTA titles.

Many of the characters you meet are instantly recognisable from the films. Actors Robert Duvall and James Caan have been recreated in pixel format for the characters of Tom Hagen and Sonny Corleone but Michael Corleone ducked out. Al Pacino allegedly refused to be involved in the game.

Nino Rota's Godfather theme music, meanwhile, fleshes out the soundtrack, adding yet another layer of authenticity.

The game is not perfect by any means. The vehicles feel pretty clunky, for example, while the missions vary wildly in their difficulty levels and can occasionally be a bit repetitive. That said, the game is huge and there is masses of fun to be had, whether you're a fan of the Godfather movies themselves or GTA-style gaming. ?

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