The Godfather II

There's some good stuff here if you dig in for a while, but even if you do, don't expect to be blown away.

This is a game that does not have the depth of other gangster-themed titles, but still manages to present the world of the movies in a solid way. Fans of the film may enjoy this ride while those looking for something a bit more substantial may find this game not as deep as they would like.

Repetition is the biggest flaw in the game, but it doesn’t ruin the experience, by any means. As mentioned earlier the graphics are a lot crisper, the gunplay is a lot tighter, and the managerial side of the game isn’t without the odd moment of satisfaction. The Godfather ii is a decent enough sequel of a decent enough game, diehard fans of the movie should hit it up, to everyone else: this is an offer you can refuse, if you’d like to.

Decent ideas married to some questionable execution. In short doses Godfather II can be an absolute hoot, but sadly its shortcomings become more and more obvious the longer you spend with it.

Far more enjoyable than its predecessor, The Godfather II presents a sufficiently different take on the open world formula to make it worthwhile - just forget the fact its based around Coppola's classic.

A solid sequel, but it doesn't add a lot that's substantially new.

The Godfather II is a technically flawed game. Glitches, pop up, framerate drops are quite frequent and the soulless sandbox world isn’t too appealing either. The upside is the strategic element of the game. It’s fun to coordinate attacks on rival families and to take over businesses by using excessive force. All in all it’s great fun if you’re not turned of by the technical issues.

The Godfather II may be an offer you'll refuse, but there's enough here to interest someone who would like a sophisticated twist on the sandbox formula.

The film truly is a millstone around the game's neck. If this game was called Cosa Nostra or Organised Crime 101 (or something similar) it would feel like a far stronger title altogether. Its open-world game template may be well worn but The Godfather II contains some excellent ideas, and the way it integrates them through a smooth control system is admirable.

The bottom line is that its disparate parts don't combine to make a better whole. [June 2009, p.76]

The Godfather II was meant to be big competitor to the dominating GTA series, but it feels like a lousy rip-off. You got to be doing more than that, EA!

The Godfather II brings mob strategy and action together, and does neither thing great. It is still, however, a game you cannot leave that easily – with an interesting gaming concept around made men, intimidation strategies and other mob oriented modes of play.

Somehow manages to be slightly fun despite its patchy quality. [May 2009, p.66]

The Godfather II entices players with a few fun hours of empire-building, but it breaks up the flow with a weird distortion of the original film’s story, then comes to an abrupt end.

Disappointing yet addictive, The Godfather II blends strategy and violence with mixed results and technical inefficiency.

All in all, The Godfather II goes on the same path of its predecessor: funny gameplay, but repetitive, cool design, but graphics look old. You can squeeze the best out of it while managing your rackets, but the fun won’t last long, and won’t leave much behind when it’s over.

Despite some serious gameplay issues, The Godfather II is actually quite fun, in a morbid kind of way. Unfortunately, repetition and poor AI routines damage gameplay and ultimately sap the life out of what should have been a tremendous sequel.

The Godfather 2 is a great game in a lousy shell. If EA turned around and made the third entry in this series into a competent sandbox shooter and improved on the Don’s View mode, making it more useful and adding more depth to it, dropping the Godfather movie tie-ins, it would be a lot easier to recommend. As it stands now, you can find games that do what this game tries to do a lot better.

Coupling this mostly successful strategic management to a realtime 3D world is unconvincing. More than that, the places where the RTS bits meet the shooting bits exist on some weird fringe of reality, where the symbolic shorthand of tactical games clashes absurdly with the pavement-pounding veracity we've learnt to expect from open-world crime. [May 2009, p.91]

The Godfather II is an offer that you probably should refuse.

A likeable, albeit unpolished, blend of action and strategy that hasn't been done before. [May 2009, p.94]

The Godfather II starts off as a robust crime caper, but it alienates fans of the film and confuses those who haven't seen it. [June 2009, p.67]

There are scattered elements throughout the game that come across as shockingly unfinished, or at least dismayingly unpolished.

Most of this game’s content is in betrayal of the license, and it’s not all smut, either. In one mission, you are tasked with assassinating Fidel Castro, an act that ends up being just as comedic as The Naked Gun’s assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II. Unfortunately, the intent of this sequence isn’t to make ­players laugh.

Godfather II suffers from a lack of design foresight. Instead of delivering a movie-quality narrative, it presents a frustrating, accidentally comic world.

A good idea that turned into a bad game. The Don's View has potential, but with a very low difficulty you can take over where and whenever you like. The action itself is pretty mediocre, the graphic style even worse. The Don's View can form a good starting point for a new game, but pretty please with sugar on top, don't mess with the Don.