Godfather 2 | Xbox 360 | Action-Adventure | April 7th, 2009

The original Godfather game released with interesting expectations set upon it. It took a movie license that was already released and built itself into a Grand Theft Auto look-alike. It suffered through average reception upon release. With The Godfather II, EA looks to fix their mistakes of its predecessor by setting the title on its own path. With new gameplay additions and story, it looks to match the intensity of the film of the same name, which won an amazing 6 Academy Awards in it’s time. It is the same yet different from its predecessor and looks to be its own product.

Set four years after the end of the first, Godfather II finds you in the shoes of the underboss Dominic. Dominic flies with his crew from New York to Cuba to join Michael Corleone as a deal is in the making to give the mafia a stake in the government after coming under investigation by a Senate Committee on Organized Crime. The Corleone Family depends on you to re-establish it’s presence in New York and expand to none other then the city of Miami. After a bit of a run in with the Cuban army, and being introduced to the opening sequence and extracting Fredo and Michael you are granted your own family. This is where the fun begins.

You’ll remember most of the gameplay from the previous game because the same story plays out here. You’ll be looking to find local businesses controlled by rival families and use any means necessary to bring them under your control. You can rough up a shop keeper to make them pay for protection or extort information from known associates to gain an edge on the other families. If you are able to collect a number of the same businesses you can easily establish a Crime Ring. With Crime Rings you’ll be earning enough loot to grant you bullet-proof vests, extra ammo…etc. In the process of taking over these businesses, you’ll need a crew to help with the job.

 

Because you are granted a new family you can use this to your advantage and hire crew members with different special abilities to get the job done. You can bring up to 3 crew members on the job each with their own specialty. Throughout the game you’ll learn about this at various times with a short trailer explaining the effect each character has on the game. You can find people from someone being a demolitions expert, safecracker or even an arsonist. It’s up to you to decide how relevant each member is to your current objective. Each crew member also has the ability to level up and earn upgrades, which brings in interesting RPG elements to the forefront.

Just remember that as you continue to take down businesses and locations from rival families they’ll come back to take back what’s theirs. You had better be prepared to defend your locales. Depending on the amount of cash you have on you, you can load up on guards and order them to take care of anything that goes against you. As you grow your empire, a new addition to the gameplay called Don’s View comes into practice. Don’s View is a large 3d World Map that will help with getting around the map while also showing you where each family holds their business and their compound. After taking down some of their hotspots, the compound opens up and you can rough up the family themselves. The open world sandbox gameplay gives you the ability to take on as many or as few objectives as you like at your pace. In order to get around you’ll always have a car with you and the driving controls are rather generic and pretty standard for a game of this type.

On paper, it may seem like the perfect recipe for a Godfather sequel; however, in practice is where the game ends up looking about as average as its predecessor was. Your crew members are your life and it is highly recommended you hire them because you won’t be able to get far in the game otherwise. You’ll have to pay them of course, so make sure you have the proper amount of funds to support them. With the new features to expand to another city, you can travel between New York and Miami using the airport, and you’ll have a chance to expand your empire. Once this happens, this is where the real challenge begins and you’ll have to make sure you keep yourself updated in Don’s View of everything going on in your city. You’ll be able to travel around the city in whatever car you decide to pick up along the way. Driving is rather wonky and controls are a bit off at times.

 

There isn’t much else to do outside of the single-payer campaign. There is an added 16 player multiplayer section that takes the same kind of strategy in the single-player to the multiplayer. A new mode called Don Control allows you to challenge others with up to 16 players and you can recruit members into your own family and try to control the reaches of New York and Miami. If you lose control online you will also lose control in the single-player, so you’ll have to watch yourself no matter where you go. The new combat controls offer a different twist then normal with various mapped controls. Extorting information is always the best way to get things done and the new hand-combat controls are about the only real exciting thing about the game.

The presentation is about as movie-like as you can get with a Godfather license. The style and feel of the late 1960’s lore is all here. However, beyond that there isn’t much technical muscle to appreciate. The 3D Don’s View map is pretty functional, but other then that everything else is pretty straightforward. Not much technical muscle here as you might’ve seen in something like GTA, for example. While it’s definitely not a graphical powerhouse, it’s the audio that really makes the game shine.

 

From the solidly delivered story monologues to random quotes from your crew members, you get a real sense of a solid script in order. You can feel the power behind the damage weapons cause and the explosions afterwards. Overall, the game has solid audio design that one can appreciate. The musical soundtrack in the background is yet another addition that brings to life the game’s environment and time period. So, if you’re a mobster or have a love for the 1960s in general, you should have no problem enjoying the authenticity the game presents you with.

The multiplayer offers a variety of games to get in touch with. With a 16 player count, you’ll definitely be kept busy for a while. With 6 maps and the ability to control yourself as a Don, you’ll want to wait you’re your turn instead of toughing it out on the battlefield. As a Don, you have the same tasks that you do offline, and everything that happens online transfers back to your single player campaign, so watch you do both online and off. If you lose as the Don, the in-game money that you acquired online will also be taken away from you offline so, it’s possible that you’re entire crime ring and empire could come crashing down. You’ll be able to interact with the Don’s View as well to map out your strategy and plan hits.

 

Godfather 2 is a bit of a mix between a serious attempt at a Godfather story while also trying to be the fun sandbox/open world game that you can enjoy. It does a few things right while also have a few misses here and there. However, with the well delivered script and sound audio, Godfather 2 is respectable in its own right. It’s no where near the power of other sandbox games, but it does set itself apart from the rest. The new strategy elements and gameplay controls should keep you busy and around for a while, Overall, Godfather 2 is a respectable title and while not as high maintenance as the movie of the same name, it still manages to bring enjoyment.