Have you ever grown curious as to what is the best Hollywood movie series of all times? Well, you shouldn’t be. If a poll is taken, there is hardly any doubt that we would be hearing ‘The Godfather’ more frequently than any of the big movies.
Have you ever grown curious as to what is the best video game series of all times? Well, it is a sin if you’ve grown curious about that and it is a far worse sin if you pick out any title other than the grand, awesome, filthy, rocking and rollicking GTA series. Should the latter happen, it is better if you are not seen skulking around Vice City or Liberty City to relish the pleasure secretly, the most horrendous crime which should be punished by law.
‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘The Godfather’, with each series being invincible in its own playground, we cannot abstain ourselves from drawing out the parallels between these big names. But why has there been no mention of ‘The Godfather’ game yet, particularly while it was received well by the gamers.
Hang on, we’ve got reasons:
Number one: Though it is successful and good, it is not the best game.
Number two: Any entity that can be compared with ‘The Godfather’ movie series has to be the best in its respective industry, which the GTA series is.
Number three: ‘The Godfather’ game heavily borrows from the GTA games and is merely a washed out version of the GTA games. (In fact, playing through ‘The Godfather’ game was the primary reason why I went back to play GTA: San Andreas again).
So, apart from being the best, what is common between ‘The Godfather’ movies and GTA games? Seemingly, they all deal with main characters seeking power, money and occasionally taking revenge when double crossed. While the motives of these characters remain the same, it is the road they choose that distinguishes them.
While Don Vito Corleone, as the Godfather is a good and composed guy with drawn out voice and calculated blows to his enemies, Michael does not live up to his father’s much respected image (though he is more successful through his aggressiveness).
Both the dons are sort of protectors of the people and take up arms only when they get pissed off. Their crimes are almost always justified and the plot always maintains a positive balance in the good/evil pie charts of the dons.
On the other side, let it be Tommy Vercetti or CJ or Niko Bellic, GTA games have never bothered to be burdened with money and power hungry, ruthless and cheap men in the lead roles. The gameplay itself has been designed to make the killing of innocent people look like a walk in the park.
As against the Godfather movies, rivals are not the only victims in GTA games, as whoever is walking in the vicinity of the lead character’s location has a 10% probability of being shot in the head for target practice, 30% probability of getting killed by a baseball bat for money and 50% probability of being run down by a stolen car just for the pure fun of it.
And from whence comes the punishment in the GTA world? Two minute chases by a couple of cop cars and if you shoot an officer in the process, the police chopper joins the pursuit force. If you don’t get lucky, you get a hot lead death, only to be respawned in a moment or two at a local hospital. At this point in the game, it’s the natural tendency of any gamer to shoot at a fat cop for revenge and rush to a safe spot (attempting to escape without messing up).
It is often boasted that GTA games can be played the way the player chooses them. While not in a mission, you may opt to obey the city rules, stopping by the red signals, keeping your car scratch-free, eating as many burgers as you like, helping out the cops nail the crooks or even earn crumbs of money by providing a taxi service to the city residents. But the question is “Will you?” As even a thumb sucking kid will prefer running down a resident and steal money from him to drive him around the city in a dirty yellow cab.
However, the likes of car-nicking Niko Bellic and the good natured Dons pursue something common throughout their bloody journey, the American dream. Most of them are immigrants and their lives can be typecast as rags-to-riches stories. Don Vito Corleone has to flee to America for a better future after having suffered severe losses in Sicily.
Our Niko from GTA IV, the recent gaming world celebrity, suffers the same fate. Chased by a brutal past, he lands on the American soil with the objective of leading a better and a peaceful life. But little does he know that a far more grueling war awaits him in the land of promises.
Though the player does not have the option to choose at will whether or not to go to the war with rivals, he does have the occasional option to kill rivals or let them live. Both of them achieve the American dream only after having experienced brutal showdowns, dreadful losses and of course, betrayal.
Coming to betrayal, both the franchises have made it a mandatory element in almost each of their titles. It is like you can expect to see the hero fall at certain stage in the game or movie after being deceived by someone close. These stages have been implemented so well in the games and movies, that the betrayals slap you hard on your face.
The best instance of betrayal in GTA games is in GTA: San Andreas, where CJ loses everything he has built around himself, his gang, his districts, the weapons and the money and even the safe house where you save the game. The scenario continues in GTA IV too, as Niko Bellic is forced to leave his cousin’s apartment thanks to one double crossing creep.
One more similar aspect is the gang warfare. As everyone is aware, the Godfather movies are all about gang warfare. While the five families shake their hands in public, they violate pacts secretly to get hold of the New York City’s crime network. Soon things go sour and a war is declared against the Corleone family. A worst stage is when it’s all up to the new Don Michael to ensure his family’s victory.
Although most of the missions in GTA are based on gang warfare, it doesn’t strike one evidently, that the player character is dealing with gangs until that particular segment of game play in GTA: San Andreas is witnessed. During that brief (in GTA standards) period, the player can team up with his gang members and capture the districts controlled by enemy gangs.
The sad part is that the player would eventually lose all the districts captured after a cop plays double game. Though we have already ruled out the likely interference of ‘The Godfather’ game, we are forced to make a point here about it. Gang warfare is something which ‘The Godfather’ game does better than any other game out there, even the GTA series.
The gang shootout missions in GTA games are mostly linear and restrict you to the borders of the code. Also, they don’t give you solid reasons to start a war with enemy gangs in GTA games. You meet a new contact for more missions, he says “We clean up the streets, yo!” and in the next second you embark on a new journey with the “street cleaner” to take out targets strutting around public places with sub-machine guns.
Gosh, does the same happen in the Godfather? Who can forget the heated argument between the Corleone consigliore Tom and the stand-in Godfather Sonny during which they almost punch each other? And Don Vito is even ready to forgive the impostors who are responsible for his son Sonny’s death – just to avoid the family war.
But our CJ or Niko have never cared for peace or the white doves – ‘Shoot the dove if there’s anything stupid like that flying in our skies’ has always been GTA’s motto. Honestly, they need to get the game moving with more stunts and gun battles. We gamers would always prefer killers like Tommy Vercetti rather than someone with a peace proposal.
Speaking of Tommy Vercetti, his much-talked-about character in GTA: Vice City reminds us more of the Al Pacino in Scarface than the Al Pacino in The Godfather movies. It could be argued that Vice City ripped off the Tony Montana character from Scarface, labeled him as Tommy Vercetti and introduced him to gamers with a huge city in front of him, beckoning him to unleash mayhem on her streets.
On the other hand, we’ve got movie experts who could spend an entire afternoon arguing that Scarface is actually a negative shadow of The Godfather. Don Vito tries his best not to get involved in making dough out of drugs, which Tony Montana readily accepts and eventually it makes him a drug kingpin.
Wow, it gets as simple as primary school math – i.e., if A is equal to B and if B is equal to the negative of C, then A is equal to the negative of C. Uh-oh, let me get it straight – it can be justified that Tommy Vercetti in Vice City is in fact a negative image of the dons in The Godfather.
In either case, things don’t fail to get messed up and our heroes have no other go than to strap themselves with arms for the showdown. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the unexplained concept that runs deep down the spines of these classic stories. The games and movies, without doubt, were instant hits and classics.
The sheer depth in the plot of the movies and the sheer size of the environment in the games are second to none. The lead characters, either good or bad, have become household names. There is a lot to do and see in the GTA games while there is a lot to see and think in the Godfather movies.
Watching the Godfathers rule the New York City or Las Vegas gives you a glorious feeling of having accomplished something great. And dwelling in Vice City or San Andreas or Liberty City gives you an unforgettable experience that you would remember in the years to come.
Both ‘G’s enthrall, exhilarate, entertain, give us an experience of a lifetime and even educate. No, not the way our schools do.
- By Arun Balasubramaniam