Much like the first Godfather game, The Godfather II is based on the film – in this case, Francis Ford Copolla’s 1974 masterpiece of the same name. But unlike the first game which had you playing a character who bore witness to the film’s events while playing a part behind the scenes, in Godfather II, you play a guy with ambition. While you could own and manage properties while rising in the ranks of the Corleone family, the story and setting prevented you from becoming Don yourself. But that’s changed now thanks to the game’s alternate storyline which sees your character playing a ‘supporting’ role to the Corleone family, with you being tasked with eliminating all of Michael’s enemies. So you’ve now got your own family (not in the traditional sense of the word), your own properties and a whole bunch of gun-crazy hooligans to do your bidding. Well, for the most part at least.
The story begins in Cuba and stays true to the plot of the film. The heads of the various families are gathered in Havana to discuss the impending military coup against the Cuban government. You play Dominic, an underboss to Aldo Trapani, who is a revered member of the Corleone family. But in typical video gaming fashion, Aldo is almost immediately killed off (by a sniper, nonetheless), turning underboss Dom into Don Dom (yes, you better believe it). Once said elevation in rank is complete, the Godfather II unleashes its new gameplay elements upon you. You will immediately notice a billion new menus previously unseen in any Godfather game (not even in the side-scroller) with a variety of new options. There’s an HR screen where you can screen candidates based on skills such as safe-cracking, arson, demolition, muscle and more! So once you’ve got a bunch of thugs with an exceptional variety of skills that can only be described as ‘counter-social’, you can be on your way to acquiring businesses, extortion, bribery and everyone’s favourite, mass murder. The game’s map will also detail various businesses and rackets that can be extorted and bought. The funds from this can be used to upgrade your goons’ abilities.
The Economics of Godfather II are pretty interesting, and the way you deal with your businesses and rackets changes as you progress in the game. Like in real life (one can only speculate), you’ll find yourself highly involved in shootouts early on in the game when you’re looking to take over key businesses. But once you’re managing dozens of them, you’ll find yourself playing a mini-RTS of sorts, sending crews to attack, defend and sabotage your rivals’ businesses. The change in the degree of your direct involvement in encounters seems quite realistic, but it doesn’t make the game more fun at any point. You can choose to be a part of any skirmish in the game, but that will result in you neglecting another business. Auto-resolution is often the best option later in the game, and that makes it less fun.
The sandbox setting served the first Godfather game really well, so the logical step for EA Redwood would be to increase the scope and expand the scale of the sandbox element, and they’ve done exactly that. However, with three separate cities: New York, Havana and Miami, Redwood bit off a little more than they could chew. A lot of sacrifices needed to be made for all of these cities to be accommodated, so the sandbox elements feel very limited. The game almost wilfully blocks out several areas in the map at times and the driving mechanics are absolute rubbish (the first game had a nice arcade-y feel to it). The combat mechanics are very similar to the first game, with the fun melee combat system making a comeback. You still take over businesses the same way: by pummelling the crap out of the owner till he/she breaks. You’ve also got some overpowered AI to help you during skirmishes with other families. They’re great at combat, but utter rubbish when it comes to path-finding. Enemy AI is mostly weak and will lose most of the encounters.
The game’s graphics look a little dated. While the character models look good, the animation is pretty unrealistic. There are moments when you’ll be 400% sure of the fact that you’re playing a video game. This is a shame
because some of the elements are pretty well done. Some of the film actors have lent their voices to the game, while some have not. This results in instant recognition of some characters, but at times you’ll just go “who the hell is that guy?”. The Godfather theme is in the game, so I won’t complain about the music for fear of getting shot at.
Verdict
The Godfather II has its moments, but they’re few and far between. The
empire building is fun, but the
repetitive nature of gameplay is a big let-down. The Godfather II is virtually impossible to recommend when there are games like GTA IV and Saint’s Row 2 around. You’re better off playing either of those a second or third time around.
— videep@gmail.com