I remember playing this game when it was released and it was alright, something that stuck with me was the shake downs and how you could extort stores of their money as a mafioso. Now that I revisited the game 15 years later I must say this game is quite a let down and if it wasn't an adaptation of Mario Puzo's greatest work, you wouldn't give a chance to this game either.
The game follow most events of the films and have you, The Player (aka Aldo Trapani, but I don't recall being called that at all in-game), as a new character seeking revenge over Don Barzini, this vendetta is mentioned in the first mission and the last one, so this personal quest of revenge doesn't seem really revengeful. Also, the Player is put on spots that aren't necessarily shown in the film so, for instance: ever wonder who told the Corleone family about a specific event? The Player was there watching it first hand. How did a character escape after being in enemy territory? The Player lifted that character in their car.
To be honest, most of those moments where The Player was introduced don't seem far-fetched, it is just that The Player end up doing a bunch of things and still he is a low level member in the Mafia.
There are some new additions to the story too, but they are too rushed and you both don't get enough time to bond with new characters, nor the game tried to make them more present in The Player's life, even by doing mundane missions, so those new additions feel bland and unnecessary.
As for the game it self, extortion was something that stuck with me, but it gets old real quick and there are A LOT of stores there to be extorted, do you have to extort them all? Not if you don't want 100% or don't care about money that has the following purpose, to buy: clothes (there isn't a clothing store, you have to buy it in the load menu), weapons (both ammo and 3 levels of weaponry), safe houses and buying out rackets (you can extort them if you don't have money, but buying them out guarantees you will get the maximum money they have to offer).
Then there is the insufferable driving, the game has 5 horribly looking cars: a truck, a pickup, a sedan, a sports car and a compact, other cars are variations of skin of those types. The manoeuvrability of the car is bad, somehow cars chasing you will always be faster than you so it doesn't matter if you bother taking the fastest car in the game, the NPCs can easily get to you. Also, you can be going as fast as possible, you won't ever take damage if you bump your car, is a bit annoying. Cars don't have "radio", we mostly hear instrumental music when driving, but weirdly some rackets do have real life music in it, so why can't I hear those in the car?
There was this movement issue with the character that really annoyed me, you can only move in one of the four directions: forward, left, backwards, right. Want to go forward left? Nope, if you were walking forward you will keep walking forward, if you were walking left you will keep walking left, it is a bit annoying, specially when enemies appear ouf of nowhere.
In the end, I know this is a The Godfather game, but if you took all the famous characters, you will be left with a shallow game that is a bit repetitive, have you go back and forth to do simple missions and end up being boring.
